People Dancing

The People Dancing international event 2014 opened with a welcome from the Chair of People Dancing, Dr Sara Houston.

Following Sarah, Peter Stark OBE provides the first keynote address of the event, offering perspectives from his extensive career in arts management and policy, setting the tone and raising some questions for an inspiring and challenging three days.

Finally, Ken Skates, AM, Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism, Welsh Assembly offers a warm welcome to Wales.

Related Content

Peter Stark's report, co-written with Christopher Gordon and David Powell is available to view and download here.

The second day of the People Dancing International Event 2014 opened with a welcome from the Vice Chair of People Dancing, Ruth Till MBE. Following Ruth, Nick Capaldi OBE, Chief Executive, Arts Council of Wales offers a perspective on participatory dance in Wales.

Introducing the morning's presentations, Lady Andrews, Baroness of Southover (Baroness Kay Andrews OBE), gives a keynote address on the value of dance and the arts in developing communities, reflecting on her 2014 Tackling Poverty Through Culture report commissioned by the Welsh Government and her own personal interests.

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Arts Council of Wales website Baroness Kay Andrews' Tackling Poverty Through Culture report is available to view or download below.

People Dancing International Event 2014: Transforming Lives from People Dancing on Vimeo.

The second day of the People Dancing International Event 2014 offered this extraordinary session of perspectives from artists about their work. In this series of outstanding keynote speeches, we heard from:

Nadine Patel, Head of Theatre and Dance, British Council
Sangeeta Isvaran, Founder and Managing Trustee, Wind Dancers Initiative
Ines Sanguinetti, Latin American Network of Arts for Social Transformation
Addisu Demisse and Junaid Jemal Sendhi, Destino Dance.

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British Council Website
Sangeeta Isvaran Wind Dancers Trust and Katradi
Destino Dance

Pauline Tambling, Joint Chief Executive, Creative and Cultural Skills, UK
Linda Jasper, Director, Youth Dance England, UK

Pauline Tambling CBE, analyses trends and statistics and models the future of working in dance. Linda Jasper MBE reflects on the recent economic crises and how the landscape for children and young people’s dance has changed.

Followed by questions and discussion from delegates with Pauline and Linda.

Related Content

Pauline Tambling's What are the future employment opportunities for dance article for Animated and Creative and Cultural Skills website
Linda Jasper's Current state of Children and Young People's Dance and what's next article for Animated and Youth Dance England website

Dance artist Tim Casson performs The Dance WE Made, created by delegates dancing with him throughout the morning. The complete film of Tim's morning and performance outside Wales Millennium Centre can be seen on our performance films page

Donald Hutera, acclaimed and experienced arts journalist will reflect upon the three days of the International Event presentations, workshops, performances and networking events.

Chris Stenton, Executive Director, People Dancing and Dr Sara Houston, Chair, People Dancing, offer some final thoughts to close the event.

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The Dance WE Made website
Donald Hutera's Pioneers, Pragmatists, Mobilisers, Catalysts, People! article for Animated

Chaired by Chris Stenton, Executive Director, People Dancing, UK
Anita Clark, Creative Scotland / Get Scotland Dancing, Scotland
Luca Silvestrini, Protein Dance and David Massingham, DanceXchange, UK
Karen Gallagher MBE, Merseyside Dance Initiative, UK
Cath James, South East Dance

This panel of producers, leaders and artists reflect on their experience of large-scale participatory projects and the contexts for which they are commissioned. Each panel member discusses one or more of their projects, followed by discussion and questions from the delegate audience. 

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Get Scotland Dancing website including film and evaluation report
Protein Dance website
MDI website
South East Dance website

Chaired by Lucy Frazer, Board Member, People Dancing
Hannah Robertshaw, Yorkshire Dance, UK
Anna Kenrick and Carolyn Lappin, YDance, UK
Polly Risbridger and Cherilyn Albert, East London Dance, UK
Luke Pell, Independent Consultant

This range of organisations and individuals present projects and discuss different perspectives and contexts on their work with children and young people's dance.

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Dancing with Your Neighbours webpage and film on the Yorkshire Dance website
YDance Active webpage on the YDance website
Future Innovators (FiELD) webpage on East London Dance website

Chaired by Donald Hutera, Writer, Editor and Journalist, UK
Rosemary Lee, Artist, UK
Cai Tomos, Artist, Wales
Luca Silvestrini, Protein Dance, UK

Responding to the notion of artistic quality in participatory dance work, each of these internationally renowned artists discuss their own work, artistic viewpoints and provide insight into their creative processes when working with participants. Chaired and presented as an informal, conversational session, delegates are invited to contribute and ask questions. 

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More information on Rosemary Lee's extensive archive on work can be viewed on the Artsadmin website.
Cai Tomos is the recipient of a People Dancing - Wales Commission. More information and a feature length documentary of his work is available here.
Luca Silvestrini's Protein Dance website features information and films on previous and current works.

Chaired by Dr Sara Houston, National Teaching Fellow and Principal Lecturer, Roehampton University
David Leventhal, Mark Morris Dance Group, USA
Dave Iverson, Journalist and Film Maker of Capturing Grace, USA

Dance for people with Parkinson’s has developed significantly in recent years, with more demand for programmes, many new practitioners training to deliver the work and networks emerging locally, nationally and internationally.

Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Dave Iverson joins dancer and programme innovator David Leventhal (Program Director, Dance for PD at Mark Morris Dance Group, New York) to explore the transformative effects of dance on people with Parkinson's. With selected excerpts from Iverson's remarkable new film, this session uses compelling personal narratives to suggest a bold vision for the role of community dance in the 21st century. Making the case for dance as a vital partner in both ageing and community-building - particularly for those living with chronic illness - this session provides clear approaches for shaping your own professional work along with life-affirming inspiration.

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Capturing Grace website for more information on Dave Iverson's film
Dance for PD website for the original New York group at Mark Morris Dance Group
Dance for Parkinson's page on the People Dancing website, including information on our Online Learning Programme.
You can also find various articles from past editions of Animated by searching the Library here.

People Dancing International Event 2014 - TAN Dance Performance from People Dancing on Vimeo.

TAN Dance, Neath, Wales present a new commission performed by young people with Downs Syndrome, working with Onil Vizcaino, Spain

As a People Dancing – Wales Commission for the International Event 2014, TAN Dance, based in Neath, Port Talbot has had three of its artists - TAN Dance Director, Carol Brown and associate artists, Leila Bebb and Catherine Coombs - work with Onil Vizcaino from Spain to develop their work with young people with learning disabilities. Onil works within a residential centre for young people with learning disabilities in Murcia, Spain, leading Asi Somos, a dance performance company which focuses on choreographic and performance quality. 

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Find out more about their creative process behind the commission on our dedicated webpage. Commissioned with support and produced in partnership with Arts Council of Wales.

Reminiscence Dance Theatre has set itself up as a charitable social enterprise working in the Voluntary Arts Sector in Wales - under the artistic direction of Julie Evans, who is a freelance community dance practitioner.

The performers involve older adults in their 70’s, 80’s and 90’s living in the Valleys communities of Rhondda Fach who attend weekly workshops based at Teify House Day Centre in Maerdy. Using reminiscence as the starting point, a variety of creative processes are utilised to explore the living histories of participants both personal and common to each other – through creative/expressive dance movement, music, song, drama, creative writing, storytelling and digital imaging.

Cecilia Macfarlane of Crossover Intergenerational Dance Projects and Manizia of WaleWorks, come together for the third time in Oxford for Wings 3.

Twenty-two dancers from Japan join twenty-two dancers from England to create Time Flies for the People Dancing international event. Using dance as their common language, and music composed specially for the event, they devised a new dance piece together, inspired by flight, distance and trust, and looking at how time flies when you are having fun! Performance supported with funding from The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation.

Related Content

Cecilia Macfarlane's article on this project for Participate magazine.
Cecilia Macfarlane has made a number of contributions to Animated magazine, all available by searching the Library.

Epic Arts and Destino Dance - performances at People Dancing International Event 2014 from People Dancing on Vimeo.

DESTINO Dance, Ethiopia present Ene Man Negn in a double bill with Epic Arts, Cambodia who present Come Back Brighter.

Ene Man Negn
The journey of two people in search of their life mission. Faced with choices and decisions to make, they will find out that finally everything is about the chances we get, the responsibilities we accept and the fate we are given. The music and lyrics are by Seleshi Demissie. He sings about the return to home of their Ethiopian children. The dancers go back to their country to carry out the mission set out by their destiny.

Come Back Brighter
A performance about the effect of the Khmer Rouge Regime on the artists of Cambodia and the current explosion of creativity sweeping the country. In the 1960s, Cambodia was called the “Pearl of Asia” and was full of music, fashion and creativity. But this all came to an end on the 7th April 1975 when the Khmer Rouge took over the cities and killed teachers, intellectuals and artists. Cambodia’s vibrant arts scene was destroyed in an instant and only now is it starting to emerge from the ashes. This piece explores the effects of the regime on the arts in Cambodia, by looking at events before, during and after the Khmer Rouge.

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DESTINO Dance's keynote presentation at the People Dancing International Event 2014 is available to view here. More information is available on the DESTINO Dance website.
Epic Arts projects and general information on their website and in this article for Participate newspaper.

Lisa Spaull, Wales, presents a new commission with participants of children and their parents from Gwynedd and the surrounding area in North Wales following her work with Bronja Novak Lindblad, Sweden.

Lisa Spaull, a freelance choreographer and performer from Llandudno, North Wales is created this performance work with children and their parents as a recipient of a People Dancing – Wales Commission. Using her experience of creating professional work and leading sessions for the community, particularly children’s dance at Venue Cymru where she is a Creu Cymru Dance Buddy, Lisa worked with a visual artist and musician to create the piece for 12 participants, children aged 4-8 and their parents.

Venue Cymru supported the creation of the work offering rehearsal space in support of Lisa as a Dance Buddy, and with a first performance for the local community in advance of People Dancing.

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Cai Tomos, a freelance choreographer and performer from Dolgellau, North Wales and based in London built upon his previous learning under the mentorship of Anna Halprin, the founder of the Tamalpa Method and deepened his understanding of the Tamalpa methodology through further training and mentoring.

Cai applied this learning during regular monthly workshops with CAIN, the older people’s dance group he leads at Galeri, Caernarfon, during and beyond this 2014 Wales Commission. Galeri is supporting Cai’s work with CAIN in his capacity as a Creu Cymru Dance Buddy with the venue.

The first part of Cai’s commission activity was a residential programme in France in August 2014, with G. Hoffman Soto, a Senior Associate of the Tamalpa Institute, California who has been teaching in the training programs at Tamalpa Institute since its inception in 1978. As a collaborator at the Institute, he has contributed to the evolving nature of the Tamalpa Life/Art Process. Soto teaches Somatics and Experiential Anatomy at New College of California and has taught internationally since 1979. He also leads a yearly training program in Germany called Awareness in Movement, and has been a regular teacher at the Institute Gestalt Wurzburg since 1981.

Following this residential programme and in his sessions with CAIN, Cai received mentoring support from Lian Wilson, Creative Director with Tamalpa UK and a certified Movement Therapist RSMT and Movement Educator RSME with ISMETA (International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association). Lian is a Tamalpa Practitioner, Dancer and Associate of the Sidney De Haan Research Centre for Arts and Health, and is a respected and internationally established Tamalpa teacher. She visited Cai and the CAIN group in Caernarfon in October 2014.

Cai shared his learning and spoke about his broad experience of working with older people at People Dancing in the session, But is it art? which is also available to view on our Panel Discussions page.

Related Content

Find out more about the creative process behind this and the other 3 Wales Commissions, on our dedicated webpage. Commissioned with support and produced in partnership with Arts Council of Wales and find out more about Cai’s work here. 

Dance artist Tim Casson created a special edition of his project The Dance WE Made, working with People Dancing delegates and members of the public in the Wales Millennium Centre who choreographed and danced with him throughout the morning on Saturday 15 November. This film is Tim's edit of the creative and performance time. 

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Find more information on The Dance WE Made on the project website, see the live performance at the People Dancing International Event 2014 closing session and read Donald Hutera's take on the project in this article for Participate newspaper.