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We are delighted to present to you ‘Let’s SHiNE Together’, our first online flash dance!

Let’s SHiNE Together is our online alternative to the Octagon’s annual community performance platform,, SHiNE. Each year SHiNE is our chance to celebrate and showcase local talent with performances from local dance schools to the Octagon’s very own Choir, offering a platform to people of all ages to perform on our regional stage.

This year is slightly different.

This year SHiNE will be taking place in households across the county as we encourage you to get involved and feature on our first online flash dance! We want you to join in and share your talent with the world.

Let’s show the world what Somerset’s been up to whilst in lockdown, and Let’s SHiNE Together!

How can you get involved?

Whether you’re a dancer or a singer we want you to get involved. This year we have commissioned, Katey Leader, a local choreographer and Octagon Academy Teacher, to teach our community a dance to ‘Symphony’ by Clean Bandit (feat. Zara Larsson). And our talented Octagon Choir, led by Adam Burgan, will be providing the vocals.

This dance is for EVERYBODY so please encourage everyone in your household, friends and family to take part. To take part, take the time to learn the routines until you’re confident with the moves and then - once your performance ready - film yourself performing each routine.

You don’t need any previous dance experience, the dance has been broken down into 3 sections, each at different levels of difficulty. We want you to send in your dance clips to the choreographed routines as then, with the help of our friends at Somerset Film, we will put all the clips together in a final film. Let’s SHiNE Together will be a product of our time in isolation, and how we all came together as a community.

1 - Learn the Chorus (Difficulty – Easy)

This dance is perfect for EVERYONE to have a go!

2 – Learn Verse 2 (Difficulty – Medium)

This dance is ideal for those who have some dance experience, who have previously attended a community dance class.

3 – Learn Verse 1 (Difficulty – Hard)

This dance is for those who take regular technique dance classes.

To get as many people dancing as possible we would ask ALL taking part to start by learning the Chorus and film it, if you are confident with the Chorus then try Verse 2, once you’ve mastered Verse 2 have a go and film yourselves performing Verse 1.

To run through all three dance routines in full:

Don’t forget once you’ve learnt the routine to each section to send us a video clip of you performing in your living room, kitchen or garden, or out on location e.g. your nearest park. You can send your home videos to us by WeTransfer to octagontheatre@southsomerset.gov.uk and in the message tell us who’s performing and which section of the dance you are sending us.

To learn the dance routine to ‘Symphony’ by Clean Bandit in full watch our live Octagon Academy Dance Together class on Thursday 25th June at 6pm.

If you love singing and want your voice to be heard on the ‘Let’s SHiNE Together’ soundtrack, join our online Octagon Choir. The ability to read music is an advantage but is not essential, first and foremost we want people who love to sing. Drop us an email at Octagonyeovilchoir@gmail.com and we'll get back to you with more details.

Top Tips for filming:

1)   You can film yourself using a camera or camera apps on a range of devices: mobile phone, tablet, DSLR or even on a laptop via Zoom or similar.

2)   When choosing a place to film, avoid having a window or the sun directly behind you but otherwise it doesn’t matter what is in the background provided you are a) happy for people to see it b) don’t inadvertently have anything that appears to be sticking out of your head c) don’t have a big poster (or similar) with a copyrighted image behind you d) it doesn’t have people who might not want to be filmed in the shot.

3)   Try to place the camera/device far enough away from you that we see your arms, head and feet in the shot (image) throughout the routine. Ideally position yourself in the centre of the shot as though you were centre stage.

4)   Avoid shaky footage by either placing the device on a book shelf or windowsill if you’ve got no-one to hold it or ideally on a tripod. The device will likely be at about chest height. A selfie stick head on a tripod is really useful if using a mobile phone.

5)   Once you press record get yourself into position, smile and then start dancing - hold your final position for at least three seconds before moving to turn the recording off. We’ll remove the start and end in the edit.

Deadline for video submissions: Monday 13th July

Send via WeTransfer to octagontheatre@southsomerset.gov.uk and in the message tell us who’s performing and which section of the dance you are sending us.

Please note, by sending us your video for inclusion within the ‘Let’s SHiNE Together’ film, you are agreeing for the given content to be used exclusively for the creation of the Octagon Theatre’s ‘Let’s SHiNE Together’ video, which will be distributed on any medium for marketing purposes, from this time onwards.

 

Supported by Arts Council England & South Somerset District Council.