Applications now open to local dance schools and groups

Dance Woking is delighted to be back at Rhoda McGaw Theatre, hosting our 12th SLAM platform for local groups.

SLAM is a community led dance platform that showcases performances using urban dance styles such as street, hip hop, breaking and popping.

Featuring some of the best groups in Woking and Surrey this platform highlights the depth and breadth of this movement style.

We welcome applications from local dance and community groups of all ages and abilities who would like the opportunity to perform in a friendly and supportive platform that celebrates these dance styles!

When: Saturday 2nd April 2022, 7.00pm 
(Technical/Dress rehearsals will run from 9am)

Where: Rhoda McGaw Theatre, The Ambassadors, Peacock Centre, Woking, GU21 6GQ

We are once again looking for local dance groups who are keen to showcase their skills at our Woking SLAM platform.

Groups must be working mainly in Urban styles pf dance and all ages and abilities are welcome. Please note that there is a registration fee of £35.00 per group.

For your chance to take part, please complete the apply here. The deadline to apply is Tuesday 1st February 2022.

Dance Woking is now actively recruiting for new teachers to join our Outreach Teaching Team. If you have just graduated from a dance course or are an experienced freelance dance teacher we would love to hear from you!

We are now delivering in person dance sessions and are looking to expand our teaching team. A well-established network of freelancers support Dance Woking’s small-dedicated staff team.

To apply please email Ellie Dowling via our contact us page.

Dance Woking are seeking a choreographer to deliver their Half Term Evolve Youth Dance Intensive this February 2022, using a contemporary and urban dance genre.

We are looking for prospective applicants to apply with a C.V. and covering letter detailing creative ideas and concept for the final piece. Dance Woking is continuing to focus on climate change and the environment along with mental health and well-being; we are keen that these issues are included in the concept and there is room for the young people attending to add in their own ideas too.

Applicants should have experience working with young people aged 12-17 years and be available to work 5 hours per day (breaks included times TBC) on 14th – 16th February 2022. They will be required to produce a piece that is 3-5 minutes long to be performed at a performance platform.

Artist fee, inclusive of planning, expenses, delivery, and evaluation: £600

Deadline to apply – Friday 14th January 2022

To apply, or for any more information, please email Ellie Dowling

We held our first face to face outreach teacher training session of 2022 last week and we were joined by the wonderful Carly Allen from Vital Signz Dance Company.

The workshop focused on working with street and urban dance styles within school settings. The aim was to give those teachers who are more contemporary, or ballet based, some extra confidence in working with this genre and for those who are already competent, the training day gave them some really useful tools and tips for working with different age groups/ mixed ability levels in one group/how to bring creativity and themes into the genre and it was a really brilliant session!

It was also a fantastic opportunity to meet the rest of the Outreach team at the start of the year and we can’t wait to see how the training helps those who are taking part in the Surrey Schools Slam in March 2022.

Thank you so much to Carly for bringing such an enthusiastic session to our team.

Be part of a connected dance community.

Dance Surrey Pro provides professional development opportunities to support, sustain and inspire dancers, artists, teachers and makers. The programme runs annually and includes a variety of opportunities to network and be part of a thriving dance community, with access to Continuous Professional Development (CPD) throughout the year, discounts to classes, workshops and dance performances, platforms and sharing’s.  This membership is designed to help Surrey’s Professional Dance Community stay connected.

This January we will be offering all NEW members a 5% discount as an incentive to join our thriving dance community, making yearly membership under £25 per year.

So why join Dance Surrey PRO?

As well as a listing on our fabulous website, members will also be entitled to lots of benefits including:

• Exclusive access to monthly Creative Industry Insights
• 50% discounts on CPD throughout the year
• Access to our members area on the website to connect with other members (coming soon)
• Discounts to network, theatre performances and so much more!

We would love to welcome you to our thriving local dance community. Click the link below to sign up and use the code DSPJan to receive your discount

Terms & Conditions Apply. Code valid until 31st January 2022. Discount will be automatically applied.

It’s been a challenging year but as an organisiation, Dance Woking have remained resilient, relevant and diverse throughout. We’ve continued to inpsire learning, communities, performances and talent growth in the most unsteady of times. We are thrilled to present to you our highlights video, showing some of the amazing projects we have produced throughout 2021.

We can’t wait to explore and build on future projects in 2022.

Excitement and innovation with local impact

Dance Woking provides high quality opportunities to watch, perform and take part in dance providing new experiences that we hope inspire artists, audiences, participants and communities. This year has seen us adapt how we put these performances on, with safety of our audiences and performers being the top priority we established some dynamic ways of bringing inspired performances to the local community.

August saw us collaborate with Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures and tour 18 venues across Woking with their new work of Doorstep Duets. Care homes, Assisted living, children’s homes, HAF4 Free School Meal Children venues were included in the tour, reaching 372 residents who had been isolated during the pandemic.

As well as outdoor performances of James Wilton’s I Robot at Kingsmoor Park, a pop up performance from Amina Khayyam Dance Company in Woking Shopping Centre and visits from Applause rural Touring and Justice in Motion we also FINALLY got back into the theatre with out performance platform week at Rhoda McGaw Theatre in November.

Our sold out Young Dancemaker performances and Innovate saw us collaborate with 11 schools and higher education institutions and 14 community dance groups. It saw 399 dancers come together and established many lines of community and peer to peer support. We were thrilled to get back into the theatre!

Dance Woking would like to thank our Dance Partners for 2021:

Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, James Wilton Dance, Tavaziva Dance, Amina Khayyam Dance Company, Justice in Motion and Applause Rural Touring.

Dance Woking would like to thank our Community Dance Companies and Dance School Partners in 2021:

Cremona School of Dance, Zambesi Dance Company, First Dance Studios, Ryde Academy, Shift Youth Company, Illume Performance Company, Flipside Dance School, Vital Signz Dance School. Scatter Dance Company, Shuffle Dance Company and Betty Bloom Dance

Supporting the next generation of dance

The support of artists and aspiring professional dancers is a vital part of dance development locally, regionally and nationally. We recognise the importance of fostering talent and the important part that artists can play as role models.

Supporting the next generation of dance creatives through a variety of pathways including two membership schemes that are designed to provide professional development opportunities to support, sustain and inspire dancers, artists, teachers and makers has been an amazing highlight for 2021 talent growth.

2021 saw us launch our Dance Surrey Directory and Dance Surrey PRO programme, the Supported and Associate Artist programme and continue to offer Creative Industry Insights and CPD workshops whilst creating clear career pathways for our members.

The choreographer’s vision was so inspiring

Participation comment

36 artists have engaged on our new programme dedicating 295 hours to skills development and learning. This has been a blended delivery with online and in person provision.

We would like to thank our industry professionals who have helped facilitate some of our CPD sessions – Zoie Golding – Zoielogic Dance Theatre, Rob Macpherson, Bawren Tavaziva – Tavaziva Dance, Fern Potter, Tom Beetham, Kate Finegan, Lucy McCrudden -Dance Mama,

Participation, Engagement, Inspiration

Dance Woking seeks to engage with the diverse and unique communities that make up Woking in innovative and creative ways.

We do this by working with Community leaders to create a series of engagement activities such as Imagine Kantha a Visual Art and Dance Project in partnership with Liaise Women’s Centre, Woking and Amina Khayyam Dance with funding support from Big Lottery – Awards For All, Arts Council England and Woking Borough Council.

Imagine Kantha saw 9 groups and 125 participants have a hybrid of online and face to face sessions to produce d movement and art project. Experienced choreographer and dancer, Amina Khayyam lead the movement element of this project where the stories created through the visual art were brought to life using hand gestures and Kathak, one of the main traditional Indian forms of classical dance-drama. This culminated in a pop up performance gallery in Woking’s Peacock Centre.

Just like the Southbank – love it!

Audience Comment

Summer 2021 also saw our Kingsmoor Park Residency which saw us facilitate street/urban dance sessions, Parkour and live performances for over 50 participants over 3 weeks.

Dance Woking would like to thank our partners for collaborating with us this year: Women’s Liaise Centre, Woking Women’s Centre, Woking Borough Council Youth Team, Maybury Primary School., St Cuthbert Mayne Catholic School, Woking Borough Council, Peacocks Shopping Centre, Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing

Creative Learning with Outstanding Professionals

Dance Woking’s Inspired Learning Programme is dynamic and responsive to the changing environment, it is delivered in a flexible way to provide opportunities for participants to take part, perform and watch. The different elements of the Inspire programme are linked to enable bring young people and adults get access to outstanding professional dancers and dance companies. We offer both curriculum, extra-curriculum and non-curriculum-based activity.

2021 has seen Dance Woking increase it’s provision within schools with us working and facilitating at 11 primary schools, 4 secondary schools and 2 colleges throughout 2021.

Our programmes this year saw us tackle health and wellbeing in our Hunky Dory Dancer clubs for Primary School level and mental health in our Mind and Movement course for Secondary and Higher Education level and environmental challenges in our Young Dancemaker programme. We also facilitated the HAF2021 holiday clubs throughout the Summer and Christmas holidays ensuring those who receive free school meals throughout term time had both hot lunches and access to a dance and arts and crafts holiday provision.

“Thought provoking – started a great conversation with the kids. Emily’s confidence has soared”

Parents’ Comment

Take a look at some of our highlights below