This half-term, Young people from the Seacroft area of Leeds are developing their filmmaking skills as they take part in a three-day film challenge at Yorkshire Dance and produce a short movie about hip-hop dancing.

The teenagers are all members of East Feast, an initiative set up in east Leeds which enables ‘hard-to-reach’ young people to participate fully in arts and cultural activity and help shape local decision making about creative provision. The project is run by Space2, a local charity which uses the arts to promote positive change.

The half term project is one of many cultural activities the youngsters have been taking part in over the past few years. They are filming members of Yorkshire Dance Youth and Yorkshire Dance Youth Juniors – two urban dance companies mainly made up of young people from the Seacroft and Richmond Hill area of Leeds.

Space2’s Young People’s Project Co-Ordinator Emma Hopkinson says: “The aim is to give these young people the confidence, knowledge and skills to access arts provision locally and across the City, to have their own opinions and a means of influencing local decision makers.”

In some cases the project has enabled individuals to take big steps in their personal development, including returning to school, applying for college and volunteering on local programmes. The project particularly targets hard-to-reach young people and those already interested in arts and culture.

The biggest achievement of the project was the selection, 18 months ago, of four members of the group to represent England on a cultural exchange trip to France, where they presented their art work to HRH the Prince of Wales.

Several participants have pursued further training in media and one has overcome exclusion from school to return and complete her education. Many of the group now access other arts provision both locally and in the city centre, including guitar lessons, East Leeds Youth Theatre, Carriageworks Theatre Group, Breeze Arts Foundation, school productions and the Seacroft Voices of the Day community choir. All the participants have received Bronze Arts Awards and are now working towards their Silver Awards. Four of the young people’s achievements have also been recognised at city level with three bronze PAYP (Positive Activities for Young People) Awards being won and one Gold PAYP Award.

The film challenge project is funded by Jimbos Fund and the finished film will be shown at Hyde Park Picture House in April.

Yorkshire Dance is proud to announce a new association with Luca Silvestrini’s Protein. As a Yorkshire Dance Partner, Protein will be developing a series of exciting new performance projects in Leeds and the county of Yorkshire over the next few years.

The partnership is the culmination of a decade long relationship with Protein which began with the commission of Publife in 2001 and has continued with a series of highly successful participatory and professional development projects. Most notably, the Yorkshire Dance commission of Protein’s inter-generational work Alfresco has been hugely influential, leading Luca Silvestrini to produce a series of such projects internationally, most recently with Greenwich Dance in London and Mercat de las Flors in Barcelona.

Luca Silvestrini released a statement saying: “This partnership strengthens Protein’s relationship with the county of Yorkshire and Leeds which has always been very important to the company. Our shared commitment to dance work grounded in the everyday experience of participants is the main focus, and we believe that, with this joint ethos, we will create work for Yorkshire which is accessible, relevant and defines innovative contexts in which to enrich the dance experience of participants and audiences. The partnership complements Protein’s continued associations with other key dance agencies, The Place, Greenwich Dance and DanceXchange.”

In the run up to the formal start date for the partnership in April 2012, Protein is in Yorkshire with performances of its critically acclaimed work, LOL (lots of love) at Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield (2 February) and Sheffield Lyceum (3 April).

Protein: www.proteindance.co.uk

The Big Dance 2012 Handbook is out now!

Join us and get involved in the UK’s biggest ever celebration of dance. Yorkshire Dance is part of the Big Dance Hub for Yorkshire, planning events between 18th May – 9th September 2012 to give everyone the opportunity to get dancing.

Yorkshire Dance is currently recruiting volunteers for Fresh 2012, a showcase of the best youth dance from across Yorkshire.

Fresh 2012 will take place on 17th March at West Yorkshire Playhouse.

For more information log on to: www.yorkshiredance.com/youth/fresh-2012/

We are looking for motivated and enthusiastic volunteers aged 18+ to help us with a variety of responsibilities on the day.

Whether you are interested in dance, theatre, performance, event/stage management or you are just good-natured we want to hear from you!

Call us on 0113 243 9867

or email

fresh2012@yorkshiredance.com

Join us for a weekend with Candoco Dance Company and Yorkshire Dance
for GCSE dance teachers and all dance practitioners and students

Sat 5 Nov, 11.00am – 5.00pm
INSET day for GCSE dance teachers

Sun 6 Nov
Artist Development Day, 11.00am – 5.00pm
& Celebration of the 3-year Yorkshire Dance / Candoco Moving Bodies project, 5.30pm – 7.30pm

Includes a free ticket to see Candoco’s Turning 20 – Anniversary Programme
at The Riley Theatre, Leeds, Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Sat 5 Nov, 7.30pm

www.yorkshiredance.com/candoco

Responsive Residencies at Yorkshire Dance

Yorkshire Dance offers residencies to artists and companies throughout the year, with flexible access to the studio, together with use of equipment, support and feedback. Yorkshire Dance are currently looking for artists to be in residence during Spring 2012 (Jan – Apr). Application forms and more information can now be downloaded. The deadline for all applications is Friday 18 November 2011. Please return by post or email to warrenhudson@yorkshiredance.com.

Last chance for young dancers to apply for first UK-wide youth dance company

The U.Dance Ensemble is the first youth dance company of its kind with young dancers from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland between the ages of 16 and 21 years.

Applications to be part of the Ensemble are closing on Fri 30 Sep, and the final company will be directed by internationally acclaimed choreographer Hofesh Shechter.

U.Dance is looking for up to 30 dancers from across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales who are passionate about dance and committed to working with each other and Hofesh Shechter to create a new dance piece for a premiere performance on Friday 13th July at Southbank Centre, London.

Find out more here

Yorkshire Dance is delighted to announce the latest in its new Friday Firsts performance programme:

Bish Bash Bosh

Fri 7 Oct from 6.00pm

Momentary Distractions

Saturday 15 October
Between 11.00am and 4.30pm at Yorkshire Dance
and later 7.30-9.30pm at stage@leeds, School of Performance and Cultural Industries, University of Leeds

To book your walk, contact Vanessa Grasse
vanessagrasse@yahoo.com / 07925 648029
Tickets: donations can be given at the event

An Austrian, a German, an Italian; a red chair, a camera, and a Victorian dress. Three dance artists, each on a different journey, explore their relationship to Leeds through sounds, film and movement, finding correlations between their explorations of the city they now call home. They stood still in public places, picked cherries on Belle Vue Road and left echoes of red wooden chairs in small side streets. This interactive performance installation weaves together snapshots of moments as they journey and invite the audience to rediscover and reconnect with what has become familiar.

Between 11am and 4.30pm you are invited to take a walk through the city. Each journey starts at Yorkshire Dance and lasts approximately 30 mins.

You are invited to take a guided walk through the city using headphones, images and texts, witnessing urban rhythms and choreographies through a personal embodied experience.

Momentary Distractions is a result of a commission for new work by independent dance artists awarded to Vanessa Grasse, Daliah Toure and Kathinka Walter. It is part of the DownTownDance project funded by the University of Leeds, directed by Fiona Bannon in School of Performance and Cultural Industries in partnership with Yorkshire Dance.

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