From the Royal Academy of Dance to the Royal Mile: Here Dance at the Edinburgh Fringe
In summer 2019, 19 young dancers from Beijing's Here Dance trained at the Royal Academy of Dance in London. They then travelled to Edinburgh to perform their own production at the world's largest arts festival.
Training in London
Here Dance is a Beijing school offering extra-curricular dance classes for students aged 10 to 18. Their summer began at the Royal Academy of Dance headquarters in London. The Academy has almost a century of history and around 14,000 members worldwide. The dancers took a week of taught courses in the Academy’s studios, and every student received a certificate at the end.
Between classes, the group rode the London Eye, watched the Changing of the Guard and explored the British Museum and the Natural History Museum.
Their own show at the Fringe
The group then travelled north to Edinburgh. Their production, The Moment, was a piece of “body and music, light and fiction” inspired by The Catcher in the Rye. It ran at theSpace on the Mile (Venue 39) on 6 and 7 August 2019.
The Fringe is open access: any company with a show and a venue can take part, but that company must also find its own audience. So the dancers spent their mornings on the Royal Mile, handing out flyers and talking to passers-by about the show, in English. They also gave street performances to packed crowds on the Mercat Stage, in the heart of the Royal Mile.
What the critics said
The performances drew an encouraging review from David Mead of SeeingDance. He called the show “a very engaging 35 minutes” and noted the clarity and assurance of the young performers.
Edinburgh beyond the stage
The group toured the Old Town, visited Edinburgh Castle and ended the trip at the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, before flying home from Edinburgh.
What made it work
A Fringe performance starts months before August. Bridges handled the venue search and booking, accommodation, transport and the itinerary, and fitted everything else around the show. That left the dancers and their teachers free to focus on the performance.
