Step In. Step Up. Step Out.

Step In, Step Up, Step Out

Welcome back to the latest Diamondz Dialogue with me, Callum Brazzo, autistic performance poet, peer support group facilitator and extremely proud Director here at Diamondz.

As the headline may suggest, this column is going to be an expert's guide to the hokey cokey. With these steps, adding an extra knee lift for pizzazz, you will become a master at perhaps the most underrated dance of all time.

If you have read beyond the above, I'm sorry to disappoint you because that is not true.

What I want to explore today is deeper than that.

Diamondz has Annual Shows to platform our wonderful talent and invite the community to share in the spotlight of a good time. But for anyone aware of what goes on to make these happen, I can tell you from being involved in both Unify Through Creativity 2023 and Inferno 2024, it is a lot of hard work. Rehearsing and producing a polished performance for everyone to enjoy is tough in many ways...but that's if a polished performance is the goal.

What happens when things 'go wrong?' You trip on stage. You bump into your friend and something that should have appeared seamless now feels uncoordinated and it throws everything off.

Now, my apologies to any of the fabulous students reading this who may be getting second-hand anxiety but trust me, it's okay. Because sometimes when things go a different way, it's when magic happens. It's when people truly grasp the spotlight.

Building on from last month's piece Life Is Improv, things can and do happen that we don't expect. People who are meant to be perform a poem in the middle of a group of absolute pros fumble a line. Check out AN AUTISTIC MOVEMENT DIARY: UNIFY THROUGH CREATIVITY 2023 for more on that!

But in those moments, isn't that where our first guiding principle comes in? Step In.

The importance of community-building is never brighter than when someone forgets a line...but because of someone else being along for the same dance journey as you, happens to know the line too and can step in to remind you. Students may be proactive in learning others' lines and movements but it can also be subconscious. However the crucial part of all of this is that there is a safe, empowering community to express yourself through. What The Cost Of Community is can be explored in the link!

Diamondz has beacons of knowledge that the students get to know and connect with but ultimately when it's on a stage or in a public space? It becomes about the practice put in by the students, enriched by those behind the scenes. And yes, for our younger dancers or perhaps less confident, the structure may change or persist and that' okay.

But Diamondz believes in the potential of people and working with you to bring out that potential.

So, once someone has stepped in, what does it look like to Step Up?

Understandably, it could be seen to mean the same as we've just explored.

But stepping up is about taking ownership. Ownership of mistakes.

Ownership of a project piece. This is where the Youth Panel sashays into the situation.

Established only last year, Diamondz endeavours to put young people in meaningful roles within the company and this can be seen in the many teachers who have been former students.

But if we imagine what that kind of mirroring effect does for someone on the edges of life's dancefloor? Wanting to step in but having 2 left feet, too scared or unknowing about what their future can be. The Youth Panel is a glowing example of what stepping up can be.

Of course, if you're anything like I was as a child or young person, you can stay on the edges for as long as you need or if that's where you actually prefer to be, that's fantastic too. Diamondz is a team and everyone plays their part.

Finally, we Step Out. This one is simple. We walk to where we will be perform and we do what we do. But foundationally, a lot has happened before the curtain rises and we greet our audiences. Yes, there may have been blood, sweat and tears because dance is a physical discipline in the same way it is a crazy art form. But information has been absorbed that we don't necessarily recognise until it's showtime. Community has been built. Comfort zones were expanded long ago just getting through the door, never mind being anywhere near a crowd.

So whether we step in, step up or step out, we are all learning the choreography of community that keeps us all moving at our own pace with passion, potential and purpose.

Thanks for reading and do share the news about Diamondz Dialogue :D

(Hokey cokey guide pending)

QUESTION TIME: When have you stepped in, stepped up or stepped out?

Until next month, check out these blogs in the meantime!

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