Work under the Access and Inclusion umbrella comes in various shapes and sizes and is always designed to meet the needs of the group it is engaging with. DanceXchange’s experience in this field of work has supported the development of a considered and active approach that has included a focus on the following areas:

• disabled young people
• pupil referral units (young people who have been excluded from school)
• young people looked after by the local council
• access to DanceXchange’s Class Programme
• areas of the West Midlands that have less dance activity than others
• Birmingham City Council’s Arts Champions initiative.

Here are some examples of the bespoke projects that have been delivered through DanceXchange’s Access and Inclusion work.

One Night Only

Over the week of 12th October 2009, integrated dance company Foot in Hand was in residence in DanceXchange’s studios. Foot in Hand spent their mornings developing their own performance material and their afternoons working with students from Queen Alexandra College and Selly Oak Trust School, two local Special Education Needs schools, to prepare them as guest artists for their piece One Night Only.

On Friday, 16th October 2009, One Night Only was performed alongside A State of Becoming, Foot in Hand’s Place Prize piece, and Nightshade, by BRB’s Freefall. The evening was a real celebration of dance for all different shapes, sizes and abilities.

To read the Evaluation Report click here

High Achievers

Students at five Birmingham Special Educational Needs (SEN) schools worked with renowned inclusive dance practitioner Louise Katerega over six weeks to develop their dance technique and gain insight into DanceXchange Associate Artist Rosie Kay’s new piece, ‘Supernova’. After visiting The Patrick Centre to watch the piece being performed, each of the school groups had a dance session with Rosie Kay herself. Following on from this, students from each school were selected to work over three intensive days with Louise and Rosie to create a powerful new piece based on ‘Supernova’.

To read the Evaluation Report click here 

Real Life, Real Dances

Young people who had been excluded from school spent three full-time weeks in residence at DanceXchange working with two West Midlands-based artists, a dancer from Protein Dance, and Artistic Director of Protein Dance and DanceXchange Associate Artist Luca Silvestrini. The group’s ability to communicate positively and their confidence grew tremendously as they worked toward and then performed an enthusiastically received full-scale production in The Patrick Centre. All of the performers earned a Bronze Arts Award during the project. This project was funded by The Monument Trust and Birmingham City Council.

To read the Evaluation Report click here  

Get in There!

Through work on several projects with the Looked After Children’s Education Service (LACES), our Dance Artist in Residence was well known to a group of young people who are looked after by the local council. We wanted the group to start attending DanceXchange’s Class Programme so that they could keep dancing once our project with them had finished. When the group told us they didn’t feel confident about attending classes on their own, our Dance Artist in Residence showed them the ropes and attended classes with them until they felt sure of themselves. At the end of this piece of work, each of the participants was given a pass for one free class a week for a year. This work was funded by Birmingham City Council.

Access to the Class Programme

in2 Dance is DanceXchange’s weekly inclusive dance class for people of all ages and all abilities – actually, all of our classes are inclusive, but this is the only one that has that aim as its first priority. in2 Dance meets every Saturday during term-time from 2.30pm-3.45pm and costs £4 – new members are always welcome!

We also run annual Feedback Days in order to find out what our class participants think about DanceXchange – what they love and what they might like to change. We use the information our participants give us to guide the direction of what we offer.

Resolve

Funded by the Clore Duffield Foundation through its Clore Performing Arts Awards and Youth Dance England, this project saw two groups of young people – one in Cannock working with the Youth Service and the other in Walsall working with Walsall Youth Arts – undertaking training in conflict resolution and working with a professional dance artist to create a new dance piece based on that training. In Walsall, the young people also worked with a visual artist and a musician and in Cannock, the young people took their performance on a short tour of local schools and delivered an accompanying workshop to their audiences. All of the performers earned a Bronze Arts Award.

To read the Evaluation Report click here 

Arts Champions

Working with partners Town Hall & Symphony Hall, we deliver an annual arts project in the Edgbaston Constituency that is funded by Birmingham City Council. Our most recent work has had an intergenerational focus, with artists in film, music and dance working with participants aged 0-90 to create an new work of screen dance with an original soundtrack.

To read the Evaluation Report click here