Academy of Dance production explores confidence and self-belief

The Gibraltar Academy of Dance will stage its original production ‘Luna’, the story of a young girl themed on self-confidence and friendship, at the John Mackintosh Hall next week.
Performances will be held on May 26, 27 and 28 at 7.30pm.

The production follows the journey of a young girl finding her purpose and confidence, guided by the changing phases of the moon as she faces challenges and discovers her strengths.

Principal of the Gibraltar Academy of Dance, Paulette Finlayson, said the idea for the production developed from a duet performed by the dance academy to ‘Song to the Moon’ from the opera Rusalka.

“That brought up the idea of maybe doing something to do with the moon,” Ms Finlayson said.

“It evolved into the journey of a young girl trying to get her confidence or self-belief influenced by the phases of the changing moon.”

The changing phases influences the girl to recognise her strengths and weaknesses. Luna grows and matures through the production.

“In my perspective everybody can be Luna, we can all be Luna,” Ms Finlayson said.

The performance features around 60 dancers aged from four to 18, with a mix of classical ballet, jazz, contemporary and tribal-inspired choreography.

The production includes ensemble pieces, solos and duets, with themes centred on friendship, empowerment, gratitude and resilience.

The youngest dancers aged four to five will perform to twinkle twinkle little star, and the following performances will see older students dance to classical pieces, jazz numbers, and a tribal piece themed on the blood moon

A large moon structure created by John Napoli forms part of the set design, with projections planned to be displayed onto the sphere during the show.

Ms Finlayson said the moon acts as a symbolic guide throughout the performance, with spoken quotes between pieces helping to move the story forward.

“The moon is always telling her, build your confidence or we are not all the same,” she said.

“There are different ideas throughout the production that make people think.”

The soundtrack includes music ranging from Chopin and opera to Dean Martin’s ‘Sitting on Top of the World’ and Frank Sinatra’s ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ performed by a young singer.

“We're all in different journeys in our lives so we have younger people, older people, and its symbolic that we're all in this world trying it through our daily lives hoping that things go our way or sometimes not so,” Ms Finlayson said.

“It's really the journey but the moon is significant because the moon is very influential in terms of the tides.”

“We have our young primaries as well doing an underwater scene because the moon also influences the water and how the tides change.”

Ms Finlayson said the production was also designed as an educational journey for the dancers through different musical styles.

She added that bringing together dancers of different ages had created a strong sense of support within the academy.

“The older ones want to impress the younger ones and the younger ones look up to the older ones,” she said.

“It’s also symbolic of helping each other and how age is not significant but your relationship with people is.”

Ms Finlayson and the dancers at the Academy have been preparing for the show over the past few months. She has also been helped by Chelsey Celecia and Jolene Gomez choreographed a couple pieces.

Tickets for ‘Luna’ are available online via buytickets.