I am finishing the last few weeks as the creative intern here at Dance in Devon, and really enjoying the process of reflection. The highlights for me have included working to support artists teaching classes in the community, schools and here, at Dartington. Because of this weekly experience, and being exposed to so many new and exciting teaching methods, I feel that my teaching practice has developed into something much more interesting and exciting. I am much more relaxed and use a lot more improvisation and choreographic tasks in my weekly dance classes.

A huge part of my internship is helping with marketing and social media. From learning how to post up on the Dance in Devon website to scheduling a week’s worth of Facebook posts, this constant engagement with the dance community, has really shown me how ‘on the ball’ you have to be when it comes to freelancing as a professional dance artist and I feel that I didn’t have this level of engagement before this internship started.

Working on DANNI, (Dance in Devon’s monthly newsletter) has been a project each month that I have been really proud of. Each month I have enjoyed researching community opportunities, performances and collating them into the newsletter. My writing has definitely improved because of the awareness that my writing is reaching a much larger audience, so I am a lot more precise and clear. When I first started this internship, I was really insecure about the team in the office reading and checking my work, because I felt shy and embarrassed, however now, I am more than happy to have the team read over and edit my work and I understand that it’s best practice.

Looking towards the future, I am continuing with my work as a support worker but I am hoping to find more freelance work as a dance artist. I feel that my new and developed skills will enable me to be much more pro-active and confident in my ability to choreograph, and to lead dance sessions or create or review performances for a variety of different community settings. A massive thank you to all of the team here, who have taught me so much and have made me smile every day.