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Community and Learning |
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Destino
In spring 2009 South East dance was delighted to support the South East leg of the Destino project in partnership with Dance United, The Point, Hampshire County Council Arts Unit. Destino was a national touring project with performances by young offenders and past Dance United project performers.
For the South East, Destino was a four week intensive training programme held in February and March 2009, engaging youth offenders in Eastleigh, Hampshire. They were offered the opportunity to train with Dance United over this period. The project concluded in 2 performances at The Point, Eastleigh which featured an inspirational new work choreographed by Tara-Jane Herbert and Susannah Broughton for this specially created ensemble of dancers drawn from Eastleigh’s communities.
In the South East the project formed a pilot for a Wessex branch of The Academy, Dance United’s groundbreaking dance-based alternative education programmein Bradford. The Academy offers a challenging experience for young people who have failed to achieve in conventional educational settings and who may be offenders or at serious risk of offending. It aims to help them to discover their real potential and their innate capacity to succeed.
Following a long track record of working with disadvantaged young people South East Dance was keen to develop the capacity in the South East for artists to deliver dance in challenging contexts. Within Destino South East Dance indentified two experienced artists and supported them to undertake a unique and intensive period of professional development with the Dance United lead artists on the scheme. This opportunity offered the two selected artists the chance to increase their skills and knowledge ‘on the job’ as well as having a dedicated mentor to support their progress and help them to reflect on their learning journey.
The two artists selected for the opportunity were Kate Scott, an experienced freelance dance artist from Kent whose current work involves teaching in Pupil Referral Units (PRU’s) and working with Loop Dance Company, and Chris Reynolds, a recent graduate from the University of Chichester and an Artistic Director of Udify Dance Company based in Chichester.
Kate and Chris were able to take on this long term intensive placement with travel, accommodation and bursary support from South East Dance whilst not compromising their income.
Taking on supportive rather than leading roles in the project Kate and Chris were able to experience first hand Dance United’s effective methods of engaging these young people in dance. Both felt that the key thing they learned during the process was the patience required to help young people achieve in challenging contexts; witnessing the lengthy process of getting the young people to do class each morning helped in their understanding of the importance of patience and clear communication.
‘Dance United have a clever system where everything is structured…even if it is painstaking…(each morning) we had to wait until every single person had found (their) parallel, this could take up to 20 minutes…’ Chris
Key methods included beginning and finishing each day in a circle giving a sense of unity to the group as well as giving the participants constant praise for their work. Both Kate and Chris have employed these methods in their own work since the project.
Both felt that the best part of the experience was seeing the performance come together on the last day, to see everyone pull together and work as a team despite all the problems and set backs that had occurred during the project.
‘The best thing was the day of the show…seeing them perform…particularly one guy that we’d had a lot of ups and downs with…seeing him come off stage with the buzz of performing…something had changed in him…that was the highlight.’ Kate
Being a partner in this project was an exciting opportunity for South East Dance as it links to our own ethos of working creatively with young people ‘at risk’ and using dance as a tool for social inclusion. In addition it has provided a professional development opportunity for two regional artists who are now concluding their experience with a series of mentoring session with Dance United.
‘I felt privileged to be (on the project) and to be getting funded to do this…’ Kate
The next step is for the successful fundraising for the Wessex Academy to provide long term opportunities for some of the most vulnerable young people to realise their potential. South East Dance continues to support the development of this project with advice and a special interest in the development of an excellent team of artists to deliver this work.
November 2009 Long term impact update: Katie Scott has now been invited to join the Steering Group for a branch of Dance United’s The Academy to be established in Wessex. It is anticipated that Katie will be involved in the Wessex Academy as a practitioner.
Fore more information on Dance United please visit http://www.dance-united.com/company.html
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