Three years ago, a colleague, Lucy Haighton (Artistic Director at Third Bite Dance, Sheffield) and myself were on the phone to each other as we received the news of a double rejection of our screen dance work submitted to a dance festival focussed on older dancers. Mine for More Than Sedentary by Movement for All and hers for This Is How Gorgeous It Feels. Both, we felt, were beautiful, moving and interesting works. Now, having been shown at other dance festivals, across the UK we feel the accolades are worthy, however, at the time these rejections, as with most in a dance artist's life, were felt very deeply.
We were very sure, as already experienced community and participatory dance practitioners, that we had created beautiful, moving and interesting works that deserved the spotlight.
Lucy, I think somewhat jokingly (but probably also knowingly), quipped “we should run our own festival!” at which point a lightbulb moment struck, and I replied with “yes we should!”
From there the idea for the Generate Festival was born, at that point nameless with no potential participants and no venue! Recovery from COVID lockdowns then meant our work sent us in lots of different directions, and it wasn’t until the start of last year that I had the time, capacity and inclination to set the wheels in motion.
Becky Bailey, Director of Engagement at FABRIC, Nottingham picked up on a stray email that I’d sent to one of her colleagues at the end of 2022 with vague ideas of the festival happening at some point. We met and discussed how this would happen with Becky championing this idea from the very beginning. With a generous offer of in-kind support from FABRIC I applied to a small trust who were funding activity with older people at the time. This, unfortunately, was unsuccessful, but with a glance at the Arts Council England’s Developing Your Creative Practice (DYCP) deadline, which was in a week’s time, I went into full bid writing mode determined to programme the festival in 2024!
I was thrilled in November last year when my funding bid was successful. I’m a firm believer that dance and dancers - underdogs even in the already squeezed creatives industries as. a whole - can eek out every bit of worth from every penny they’re given so that’s what I set out to do! An ambitious three-part project starting with a festival five weeks after the funding was confirmed, the making of a screen dance, a multitude of connections being made through sharing practice and training and creating a legacy in the form of an online network.
The project completed in June 2025 , so I wanted to take the time to reflect on the progress and process so far. With encouragement from People Dancing, who noticed the work on my Instagram, I decided to write this blog to share information about the project in the hope that it may galvanise the current workforce as well as inspire future practitioners.
Working with older adults is a joyful, fulfilling and fascinating endeavour that has always been a part of my practice, and I hope to continue to champion this work. I am heartened by the multitude of opportunities now on offer for older adults in Nottingham and beyond. The establishment of a regular practice and community performance group Sky Mirrror Dance has been an ambition of the older adult dancers I’ve worked with since I started offering sessions in 2011. To see this group now flourishing is a joyous.
As well as participant numbers increasing, my DYCP experience has revealed many wonderful practitioners currently working in silo around the country who are all desperate to connect with each other. Maybe you are reading this as one of those people or have an interest in this area of work or may be interested in working in older person’s contexts in the future. If this sounds like you please join the Generate Network mailing list here we also have a Facebook page that you can follow here.
Networks are powerful. I owe a huge thank you to the Derbyshire Dance Artist’s Network that existed when I was a recent graduate who offered initial training with Diane Amans and sparked my love for working in this context and for those of you from around the country seeking in-person connection about Generate I attended her training day at this year’s People Dancing Summer Intensive.
Remaining as ambitious as ever, I’d love for older person’s dance to have a network and profile akin to that of Youth and Early Years dance and would love to hear from any individuals or organisations who’d like to partner with or support me in that.
I am delighted to announce that the date of this year’s Generate Festival is Thursday 27th November 2025 again being hosted at FABRIC, Nottingham. I will be premiering the screen dance we made - An I away from Science - at the festival. I am also actively seeking festivals/events to showcase the film at the end of this year and into 2026. Please keep an eye on my website and Instagram for further information.
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