LIKE Youth Dance Workshop

Last Saturday Misha and I delivered four short workshops as part of an activities day set up by Telford Council. The day was held at Sundorne Sports Village in Shrewsbury. We were assisted by Vinnie a freelance dance artist who works in the Telford Area. We worked with young people from the age of 8 to 15/16 with physical and learning disabilities. We had originally planned to teach a session based on super heroes but very quickly decided to change the plan to something more physically dynamic and shorter as our 45 minute sessions were condenced to 20 minutes. It was lovely for me to see one or two young people I had previously worked with. We had lots of interest from the young people and their familiies about other activities they could do with us. We have taken details from lots of people for our mailing lists and future LIKE activities. Despite being unwell with a raging ear ache on the day I had a wonderful time and feel that I rose to the challenge of changing the original workshop plan at the last minute.

Open Arts Workshop in Londonderry

Last week myself and Miriam delivered a days workshop to a lively group of adults.It was also the first time I had worked with Julia my new support worker.The session was delivered for Open arts, who are an organisation who promote the inclusion of disabled people in arts activities. They are based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Open Arts are starting a project called Luminous Soul- a dance project for disabled people who would like the opportunity to train to be professional dancers/dance teachers over the next 3 years.There have been a number of workshops delivered prior to our session one of which was with Cando Co.

Our role was to deliver the session whilst the senior staff were carrying out an audition to choose the most suitable participants to be involved. We all met to discuss individuals at the end and give our professional opinions about their suitability for this project.

We had planned quite a challenging Technique session for the morning and then delivered tasks for more creative work. We were delighted to see that everyone was able to be actively involved and very comfortable with adapting movememnt to suit their own movement range. We were very quick to offer alternative movements throughout the day but most people were very capable. Prior to us leaving for Belfast I spent some time on my own planning some ideas. When Miriam began to look at my iniial ideas she stressed that I had put together some good suggestions and ideas for us to build upon. I had spent a long time thinking the plan through so was delighted with Miriams feedback.

The entire trip was a complete success and great fun, what with bumping into famous sports stars and drewelling over fast cars...this was all going on at Birmingham Airport before we had even left!! Once we had arrived in Ireland we set off to find a nice quiet place for an evening meal and to my delight we found a resturaunt which was hosting a Kareoke night that evening...I almost squeeled with delight!! Yes it had to be done i was not going to miss this opportunity.

Going back to the work, it was a pleasure meeting such lovely people and very exciting to see that a whole new breed of disabled peolpe are starting their careers in dance and seem as passionate about it as i was in my early years and still am today!!! I'm keeping my fingers crosed we can return to see the group develop in the coming months and years.