Animated Edition - Winter 2024
Focus on: We dance to create art that is meaningful
Our typically eclectic set of articles bring you insights and practices ranging geographically from Indonesia to New York, stylistically from hiphop to Early Years dance and range through populations from elders, to Gypsy Roma Travellers and people living with Parkinson’s.
An underlying theme for us this issue has been the disruption of stereotypes – that dance is a narrow and short career, that elders are not interested in demanding and contemporary dance opportunities, that dance has no power to intervene anywhere from prison to parliament. Read on for the busting of these myths and more.
Lastly, this is also the issue where we launch our latest adventure – the People Dancing Professional Qualifcations, our answer to the undeniably difficult times we find ourselves in to study dance in a
way which is acknowledged and respected by the wider world – when that world has, arguably, never needed dance more for the hope, health and well- being of communities everywhere.
Chris Stenton
Chief Executive
Louise Katerega
Head of Professional Development
Esmé Sensibar
People Dancing Publishing Coordinator
In this issue
Read and download the complete Winter 2024 digital edition of Animated magazine online in a flipbook.
Home From Home was a large-scale participatory project which led to a performance, In the End we Begin, directed by Protein’s Luca Silvestrini. Characterised by ambition, innovation and collaboration, it was produced by EncoreEast, a company of older dancers in the East of England and brought together three venues, six dance- makers and 50 performers aged 56 to 82. Jeanette Siddall CBE, a member of EncoreEast and one of the UK’s most respected dance leaders, offers us the joy and passion of her perspective as a participant.
Sara Dos Santos is a London-based artist, cultural producer and policy advisor passionate about raising the profile of underrepresented voices in the UK and beyond. Here, she contemplates the nature of professional and community dance alongside the results of a first foray into dance she led with Clean Break, an acclaimed women’s theatre company, who change minds and lives in performance, prison and the community.
As she reveals a powerful new report making the case for investing in dance and movement for all, Tracy Levy, former Chair of the Movement and Dance Division of the Sport and Recreation Alliance 2015-2021, talks the importance of translating the joy it brings to those involved into a language that speaks to the heart of government.
In this article, Anthony Evans, Co-Director of We Are Epic, describes the collaborative journey undertaken with Indonesian partners, Nalitari Dance Company in Jogja and Ballet ID in Jakarta, to reveal the rich tapestry of talent among the nation’s disabled dancers.
Jayne Devlin and Caroline Schanche, Co-Directors of Inner Ground Dance Company, based in Cornwall, invite us into a project where many mature movers met very contemporary practice.
Where do you turn when the time comes for a career change within or beyond dance? For an ever-broadening demographic of British-based dance professionals across half a century, it has been to Dancers Career Development, the charity founded to ensure that, from training (and re-training) to retirement age, no-one need navigate that sometimes complex path alone. Vanessa Lefrançois, its incoming Executive Director, interweaves the voices of those it supports, shedding light on past, present and future.
Dancing with honesty and truth inside Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities, Keira Martin, a most independent of dance artists, tell us like it is from a treasured position of trust among Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities in Yorkshire in a conversation with Louise Katerega.
Taking a long and occasionally winding journey of development, via some unexpected bumps in the road, the new People Dancing Professional Qualifications were recently released into the world. Executive Director of Qualifications Anna Leatherdale and CEO Chris Stenton explain more about where the idea came from, how
it all works and what the qualifications can offer the profession now and in the future.
Here, the first UK Professor of Dance Education, Dr Angela Pickard from Sidney De Haan Research Centre for Arts and Health at Canterbury Christ Church University, discusses how the Mosaic approach provides a useful tool for developing and evaluating dance work with early years children as co-creators.
In a heartfelt blend of fact and
feeling, Rachael Lines, Artistic Director of FRONTLINEdance lets us in on the struggles and satisfactions of over 21-years providing creativity, care, access and connection for their local and the national community of disabled dancers, makers and leaders.
Independent Dance Artists, Michael Joseph (MJ), Lindsay Moffatt and Louise White joined forces to create a fresh-thinking, disco based workshop for people with Young Onset Parkinson’s in their home county of Hertfordshire, eastern England. Here, they continue the collaboration, telling how their roads met and merged and offering insight into what it takes to make a first move in your Parkinson’s dance career.
For Romanian-born, West Midlands-based hip hop dancer, teacher and event organiser, Andrei Roman Breakin’ opened up the world. Here, he interweaves his personal journey with background and insights into the dance form’s debut at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Creative Health and Community Dance practitioner, Stella Rousham calls urgently for the embedding of dance as a resource of care and shares her holistic approach to dance for health with groups at Trinity Laban and The Blair Academy.
Creative Producer/Facilitator, Darcy Kitchener on a recent dance and digital art residency with young disabled people in Bedford, sharing its
mission, methods and results – including deeper awareness about her own practice.
Kamara Gray, Artistic Director of Artistry Youth Dance, looks back on a decade of developing and empowering young dancers of African and Caribbean heritage. Here, on the page, as in the studio, she creates the space for self-expression as two company members, Eloise Badu and Sarima Chukundah, recount how the company propelled them to the world-renowned Ailey School’s Summer Intensive in New York, for a taste of the professional dance performance industry.