Packed lunches and applause

_PRT7504Well, the last week of the New Ground summer holiday dance clubs is about to commence – probably to be the most challenging week for all involved, as the duration of the workshops will be at least doubled. With this increase in time we are looking to combine all of the skills and techniques learned and practised over the past few weeks with the children’s creativity, and arrange this so that it can be presented and shared with the onlooking proud parents/carers/friends/family.

And so they should be proud! These children have achieved so much, through being so responsive and willing to give things a go – rising to every challenge.
I hope that further opportunities like this will be available in the community soon. I believe there is a dancer inside each and everyone of us – some big, some small, some confident, some shy – but having the opportunities and freedom to exercise and nurture those dancers is so important because of the positive effects it brings to mental, physical, social and emotional well-being. You only need to look at the smiling, wide-eyed faces of those children involved to see this.

Good luck for the week ahead all! Last leg… Lots of energy, lots of creativity, lots of packed lunches and lots of applause!

Krystal Campbell
Dance Teacher for the ffin dance faktry

Week 4

_PRT7130We have just finished our third week of New Ground summer holiday dance clubs, which have been full of fun and great dancing. I have thoroughly enjoyed being a volunteer as it has given me new skills and knowledge which will be great value to me in the future.

Just in this short time it is great to see all the children improving so much, developing their confidence and dance technique; it is extremely rewarding and satisfying to see all the hard work of volunteers, teachers and children pay off. It is also lovely to hear some of the children ask about other classes. Hopefully we will see some new starters in all our weekly classes in September.
Today, we are doing a full day session 10-3pm, this is one of three we are doing in the upcoming week. I’m really looking forward to this as I think the children will really enjoy a full day of dancing. It will also be lovely for the children’s parents to see the work they have done in a small viewing at the end of the day, it gives the children something to work towards which is great!!

Gemma Aubrey
New Ground

 

End of the week

_PRT7262So we have just finished our third week of our free holiday dance classes and the volunteers and the children attending are all enjoying learning new skills, from new dance techniques to how to work with children. It’s amazing to see the same children attending each session because they are enjoying it so much and a few children are even asking about joining our weekly classes that will be starting back in September. It’s wonderful to think that we will be gaining some great new dancers all because of these free classes that have been provided.

Being the senior volunteer for this project has really opened my eyes to all the admin work that has to be done to ensure that the project is run as smoothly as possible. This project has really inspired me to run my own classes for the community in the future and I’m so glad that I have been given the opportunity to see first-hand what steps need to be taken to achieve the same success as this project.

During this experience there has been many times where we have all found ourselves laughing due to the quirkiness of some of our children that are attending. My personal highlight so far is seeing all of the children that have attended more than one session improve in a range of different techniques and skills that are definitely going to help them if they decide to join our weekly classes.

I am very much looking forward to sharing our work next week with the children’s family and friends so that they get to see how much their child has improved since starting the classes. I’m sure that we will get great feedback from these sharing sessions.  Maybe you can come along?

Cariad Williams
New Ground

Summer fun

_PRT6991We are now into the third week of our summer holiday dance clubs, and having some great response from the community. The children and young people with whom we are working have been absolutely fantastic.

The holiday clubs provide free dance classes for children in Blaenau Gwent in Wales, aged from 3 – 11 years old (we have a few unofficial teenagers too!) and we are running them at community spaces within easy walking distance of their homes.  As part of our ongoing commitment to providing high quality dance provision to the community, company dancer Catrin Lewis and ffin dance faktry teacher Krystal Campbell are both working with our youth volunteers to create a package of opportunity.

New Ground, our volunteers project, goes from strength to strength with past members progressing on to professional dance training, primary school teacher training and community welfare.  We have enthused children to enquire about regular dance activities that we run in term time and also sign-posted some young people to youth dance activities within the County, with whom we have very strong links as a partner organisation.

Sadly, next week will be our last week of holiday clubs and we will be sharing our work with parents and friends as follows:

Monday 11th August 2014 2.45pm at The Met, Mitre Street in Abertillery
Thursday 14th August 2014 2.45pm at St Mary’s Church Hall, Somerset Road, Brynmawr

It would be great if you could join us …

sue lewis

Summer sizzles

IMG_1941Some of you may remember our online Sponsume appeal for our summer holiday dance clubs for children in Blaenau Gwent; well happy to say that we reached our target of £400, due to your really generous donations.  Together with financial assistance from Tai Calon Community Housing and the Archbishop of Wales Children’s Fund we will be running our free holiday clubs for children.

Our New Ground team will be running a series of holiday dance clubs around the county starting in July and continuing through the school summer holidays.  The volunteers will be led by company dancer Catrin and our professional practitioner Krystal.  They have already received some training leading groups and in customer care and are very keen to get going.  Please see our what’s on page for details (you will need to turn the page for August)

Motus Dance Festival

Motus Dance Festival

Before we start, we have just one more performance of our Still Standing Tour 2014 at Motus Dance Festival at Milton Keynes this weekend.  We will be performing our triple bill at the Festival at The Venue MK.  Theo Clinkard also performing, so we’re in good company!

It would be great to see you there, here’s the booking details

 

In all, a great way to end our 2014 season, a quick break for me late August and then back to it all in September – hope you’ll join me (not for the break in Spain that is!)

sue lewis

Last leg

Fractal Image Paul Trask

Fractal
Image Paul Trask

And so we are on to the last stretch of our 2014 tour, Still Standing.

It’s been a great tour and we have received some great audience feedback: some venues enjoying some of the pieces more than others and then conversely other places getting more from the diversity of the programme.

With our last 2 performances coming up, we travel to London tomorrow to perform Stand Up Straight by Catrin Lewis at Greenwich Dance.  Next week sees our first (and hopefully not last) visit to The Venue at Milton Keynes, where we perform our triple bill as part of the Milton Keynes Dance Festival Motus.

As a company we are very much looking forward to making new friends at these 2 venues as well as seeing familiar faces too.

In addition to these 2 performances I have also been planning the New Ground summer holiday dance club programme with our youth volunteers.  Joining our teaching team will be Krystal Dawn Campbell who has been working with me this term in the dance faktry gaining valuable hands-on experience with class management and working with children and young people.  These classes will be free for children in Blaenau Gwent: the scheme has been awarded financial assistance by Tai Calon, the Archbishop of Wales Children’s Fund, Sport Relief and very generous donations via our online giving scheme.

So an early night for me and off to London in the morning.  Hoping to see you at Greenwich tomorrow and at MK next Sunday.

sue lewis