Dance Workshop with Mylena

Stretching during dance training with Mylena at Phare Circus

Dance Workshop with Mylena Leclercq

The primary missions of Phare Circus are to provide well-paying jobs in the arts and to fund Phare Ponleu Selpak non-profit school. Continual skills training are part of our commitment to social responsibility achieved through sustainable tourism.

The artists from Chills, Influence and Eclipse are taking part in a three-week dance workshop with Belgian dancer/model Mylena Leclercq. She is working with them to incorporate different movements into each show, improve their individual performances and introduce some new techniques to their repertoire.


Dance training with Mylena

Part of the daily warm ups.

Each night, Mylena watches the show and takes extensive notes. She creates exercises and stretches for the next day based on her observations and also shares her notes with the artists each day. “I see the artists experimenting with the new exercises and techniques on stage each night and it makes a big difference in their performance. I see them growing a lot,” she says. “I incorporate hip hop, contemporary dance and jazz into the warms ups and the artists are learning them quickly.”

As a performer and choreographer, Mylena has worked with circuses and dance companies around the world, including Cirque du Soleil and Franco Dragone. And she’s worked with Phare before.  In 2014 she spent six months helping the artists from ‘Eclipse’ develop mini-acts to perform at private events, incorporate different types of movement into their performances and become more aware of their bodies. She also co-created the show ‘Proniap’ (Panic). She is familiar with many of the artist and it’s obvious they are also very comfortable with her. They have no trouble following her intricate warm-ups each morning.

In today’s session, Mylena has the artists write down fifteen words and then dance them. It’s an improvisation exercise that helps the artists with creativity and incorporating new techniques into their movements.

The workshop is fluid depending on which group of artists is attending, but Mylena is working to introduce several concepts and techniques including: hip-hop dancing, contemporary dancing, street jazz dancing, targeted warm-up exercises which prepare the body for specific aspects of performance and deep stretching to protect the body from injuries and muscle pain, musicality, quality of movement, development of creativity and originality, and improvisation. We’re excited to see how Mylena’s influence transforms our shows!


Read more about the shows Influence, Chills and Eclipse here.

Read more about other skills personal development workshops that Phare artists and staff take part in here.

 

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