Last week I had the privilege of leading a play-in-a-week workshop for 6-8 year olds for Creation Theatre in Oxford. The participants chose between 3 stories to do and we ended up creating our own version of Treasure Island. Our adaptation included a sea shanty (created by the participants), a dance to 'Wellerman' and a carefully choreographed 'battle scene' (which is fair to say was probably the young people's favourite scene ). Lots of the text was devised by the group and participants were able to contribute to sound design and directing choices.

On the final day, they gave a performance a small audience and we shared what we were proud of achieving during the week. One participant said it was 'meeting new people and making new friends', one said 'creating our own sea shanty' and another said 'learning to work as a team'. ​I had a fantastic week and it was so wonderful to be delivering in-person work with young people again. 

Over the past week and a half I've undertaken one of my biggest / most challenging projects to date - 24 dance workshops across 5 schools, teaching all ages and abilities and sharing my passion for moving with hundreds of children.

I want to share some of the things that were shared with me throughout the sessions and reiterate the amazing power dance has in the community/in education.

"I was having a very bad morning but now I've done your dancing I feel a lot better and am going to go into the rest of the day with a new attitude" - Year 3 Student

"I haven't seen a lot of these students smile so much in a very long time" - Year 6 Teacher

"I've never seen all my students concentrate so much and try so hard" - Year 4 Teacher

"This is the best dance ever!" - Year 5 Student

"I love how accessible it is [...] I am so thrilled with how the last few weeks have gone - everyone has spoken so highly of the workshops and the children are really engaged" - Organiser

"I love dancing!" - Reception Student

And not strictly related to dance but a good one nonetheless...

"If you try your best, and practice and try and do it better each time, you can achieve anything" - Year 4 Student (when asked why we practice and repeat things)

Dance has such an amazing power!

​The work will be premiered at Birmingham International Dance Festival (BIDF) 2021.

Read more about the project - and about the other artists taking part - over on the DanceXchange website.