Razor Sharp Fence

I was trying so hard not to think about the three metre high razor wire fence surrounding the school. I had a lesson plan and a job to do. We were buzzed in and led to the Gymnasium by a guy wearing a black earpiece. All the doors were kept locked, even the toilets. Nearby was an ominous looking structure that looked like a watchtower (it probably wasn’t). The boys looked a bit rough and one had even started to ask us if we could do a back flip for them (I can’t). It was a struggle to get the boys to participate and in the end, there were more teaching staff participating than boys.

But strangely enough, and despite the depressing-looking pictures that I've included because I think they look interesting (there are more positive pictures but I don't want to include them because I haven't asked the people in the picture if they want to appear on this blog), it wasn’t the hardest dance workshop I’ve had to do. We received a warm and enthusiastic welcome from the staff at the detention centre and many of them told us that they really enjoy working there. The boys themselves seemed quite good-spirited, joking around and being quite your average bunch of teenagers. My role in the workshop was to lead a warm up and assist in teaching a repertoire and I had to make quite a few impromptu changes to my lesson plan as I tried to gauge what was working for the group. I even ended up ditching the accompaniment music that I spent all night and all morning trying to sort out. Some decisions proved to be a bit detrimental, for instance we demonstrated the crabbing section of the dance Canoe from Boomerang and, rather than inspire them to learn some more, they seemed to be put off by the effort (yes, dance is hard!) But they were interested, asking JG questions as she worked the CD player and video camera.

At the very least, it was a taste of something different for these boys. Presumably, they may not have had much of a chance to see contemporary dance before and it’s such a shame that the boys that are actually allowed to go on excursions outside the centre have other plans and won’t be coming to the show. We were told that they’ve also had other cultural people to visit, such as poets and classical musicians, and they’ve even done a program of drama workshops. They also have an arts room filled with some quite impressive paintings and drawings. Of course, there’s quite a lot of sports at the centre, too, with a gymnasium, tennis courts, basketball courts and an oval. It would look like any other school except for that razor wire fence.

Tags: Dance, Workshop, Wagga Wagga.