Dance and movement can play a vital part in encouraging children to address health and obesity issues and Creative Partnerships supports many such projects. Anna Jones from Slough outlines some of these and talks to dancers about their involvement in the projects.
Creative Partnerships Slough has worked with a variety of dance organisations and practitioners over the last two years. As well as learning through dance, teachers, parents and educationalists have remarked on how effective this work is in tackling the child obesity issue. In one programme strand, dancers worked with 500 students across 22 primary and secondary schools. This involved a number of different dance styles including South African, Maori, Japanese and Brazilian. The programme took place during summer term 2004 and culminated in public performances as part of Slough?s Big Weekend ?Dance in the Park? (pictured above) with students dancing alongside professional dancers. During the programme, teacher partners acted as action researchers and tracked the impact on five of their pupils. Research based on this programme, looking at whether being involved in dance has impact on other learning will be published in the spring of 2005.
Alan Cunningham works in the Thames Valley region specialising in street dance, break dance, and hip-hop. Alan had done some education work previously, but not in Slough. Through Creative Partnerships he has worked with primary and secondary schools on street dance programmes: ?I wasn?t surprised that the kids were so enthusiastic. They see these styles on TV but don?t know where to start. I worked with them and their teachers on technique and skills. The teachers have been really impressed by the increase in standards and appreciate having an expert working alongside them. The experience has been particularly valuable for the kids who don?t think they can do it and those whose creativity doesn?t come from a paper and pen. The best thing for me is when these kids come out of their shell and everyone can see their confidence increasing.?
Fusion Dance Company has grown from a resident young people?s company at Slough Young People?s Centre to become a workers? co-operative. Emma Carvalho is a founder member of Fusion specialising in street jazz: ?I had taught dance at arts centres and young people?s centres, but hadn?t worked in schools. Fusion?s work is contemporary and issue-based which allows us to tailor work within the curriculum as well as through topics such as conflict resolution and citizenship learning. Being in schools has allowed us to work with a regular group of students ? you don?t get this continuity in non-formal education settings. You see fantastic results in as little as four weeks! We have learnt that boys can excel in dance if you create the right environment: we use movement or physical theatre as a way of getting them involved rather than use the ?D? word. Teachers are amazed at the ability of students that gets revealed through the work ? just because a student isn?t the loudest or the most positive they can still be motivated and determined. When a young person feels they are getting better at something this can affect the way they see school as a whole. Creative Partnerships has enabled us to link with local schools and given us a clearer understanding of partnership working, planning and evaluating work. I have learnt about the different needs of different schools and how to adapt my work accordingly.?
Alan Cunningham, t: 07796 043591
Fusion Dance Company,
e: emma@fusiondancecompany.co.uk
The spectrum of Creative Partnerships dance projects
The following is a brief description of the ways that dance has been used in creative learning initiatives.
Bollywood comes to Sandwell: Six schools in Sandwell, in the Black Country are working together to develop and produce a 30-minute film that fuses the best traditions of Eastern and Western film-making into a vibrant celebration of dance, drama and music. The film?s key themes are identity, friendships and integration.
Africa Week: In October 2003, Lenton Primary school in Nottingham, launched its celebratory Africa Week. As part of a year-long project ? Passport to the World ? visual artists, storytellers, musicians and dancers brought the whole school together to explore this vast and diverse continent.
Safahr ? telling tales of a journey: This 14-month long project sees the entire Birmingham Royal Ballet [BRB] organisation providing an unprecedented opportunity for pupils and teachers to be involved in the actual creative process that is used to develop an artistic performance.
East project: During the summer term of 2003, 150 year 9 students participated in a project exploring Asian artforms. The students worked with a range of creative partners developing puppetry, art, music and dance skills, using their own knowledge as a starting point. The project culminated with a sharing at LSO St Luke?s, London Symphony Orchestra?s new rehearsal and education base in London.
More details of CP project work can be found at http://www.creativepartnerships.com/projects