Dance Woking has been adapting to the current COVID-19 crisis. Like other organisations the health and wellbeing of our staff has been paramount and as such we moved to on-line home working. With our planned summer event programme cancelled we have been processing how best we can manage and like many organisations have decided the best option for us in the immediate short term is to Furlough our staff and pause our programme of activities.

As an agile organisation, with a small in-house team, we are very proud of the support we have through an experienced team of freelance dance artists and professional dance companies we work with who help us deliver our projects, bringing great dance to communities in Woking;

Our work is made possible through our local partnerships with educational institutions and community groups  including the amazing and diverse dance schools and groups in and around Woking and Surrey. This enables us to deliver high quality dance platforms and deliver inspiring, exciting community commissions, including our summer flash mob series and intergenerational projects to create maximum impact. Bringing great dance experience to the heart of our communities.

We are very excited about the future, how we can adapt to new technologies, and be part of the cultural offer helping communities connect and becoming more socially cohesive and economically robust and Improve physical and mental wellbeing through dance.

With a wealth of material of past work on film we have been delving into our archives and have found some interesting footage that we would like to share and revisit with you whilst we are in lock down,

We will be posting material weekly on our Instagram and facebook pages; through three weekly features:

Monday Montage – highlights of Boys Platform & Woking SLAM & Parkour

Thursday throw back – Woking SLAM highlights

Saturday Sharing’s – A mix of our freelance dance team sharing work, previous Intergenerational Projects and Summer Highlights to enjoy.

Please share with your networks and also tag us into your own highlights, we aim to use this time to celebrate past platforms and group performances; the standard of work at our platforms has been amazing and we are proud to share these moments with you. On all platforms our handle is dancewoking:

@dancewoking  #dancewoking  Instagram: dancewoking

We will also be sharing some links from other companies you may find helpful too as there is a wealth of resources and online activity for you to enjoy.

Did you know that over the last 12 months Dance Woking has:

• Engaged with 25,262 people
• 2413 people took part in our dance workshops & platforms
• We created 515 employment days
• We worked with 235 artistes 
• We ran 307 education workshops
• We worked with 21 professional dance companies
• 16 schools and 31 community groups, and we hosted 9 community platforms

Dance Woking is currently on a 2 year programme called Change Creation, featured in Arts Professional last week was an article by Richard Watts Director of ‘people make it work’. Richard is one of the course leaders and with his team help Dance Woking navigate through this crisis. We will be sharing some of the insights and tools that we are using to help steer us in this time of great change.

https://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/magazine/article/how-can-we-best-respond-crisis

March 25 2020

Dance Woking is part of a much larger creative community that are sharing links and resources and as such we would therefore like to pass on ones that we think you may find useful.

Creative Industries Federation has collated advice from across the creative industries

https://www.creativeindustriesfederation.com/news/covid-19-guidance-sector

and Arts Council England has announced plans to support freelance artists.

https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/covid19

We are also holding a weekly online catch-up if you’d like to join us; please email Ellie office@dancewoking.com and we will send you an invite.

March 26 2020

Dance Woking is currently on a two year Change Creation Programme where as part of the programme we receive useful resources and good practise; there are over 60 other Arts Organisations on the programme and on a change journey.  We started the programme in November 2019 in order to help us review Dance Woking’s values, mission and purpose so that we are able to adapt to the changing landscape. So far the programme has been excellent, and it is now helping us react and change to the impact of COVID-19. We would like to share some of the tools and learning which you may find useful. The first is some tips for remote working.

How_To_Embrace_Remote_Work_Trello_Ultimate_Guide

We will also be setting up some chat rooms and groups in the coming weeks, more details to follow.

Friday 21 March 2020

Boys take centre stage

Dance Woking’s Boys Platform took place on Thursday 12 March at Rhoda McGaw Theatre a contemporary led Boys platform that celebrated both male dancers and choreographers. with a focus on sustainability and the environment; some of the groups also took their stimulus from James Wilton Dance Company’s The Storm as part of Dance Woking’s Spring season of dance which provides opportunities to watch, perform and take part in dance.

Groups came from both Woking and across Surrey. Opening the platform were Dance Woking’s Rotate Parkour performing ‘Out of Control’. Oxford based Company Justice in Motion worked over three afternoons in February half term at Sheerwater Youth Centre with some of Dance Woking’s Rotate Parkour group to create this piece; this was the first time the participants worked with the set, gaining news skills, team working and learning how to move around the set safely. Best bit about the project from the leaders: “Seeing everyone’s confidence grow” Best bits from the Rotate group: “Learning to act and dance at the same time for the first time”, “Making friends”, “Working with the boys as a boy myself, I enjoyed dancing and creating with them”This was followed by a Parkour demonstration by Professional Parkour performer George Mayfield who showed what the group had learnt in order to perform. During a short interval the set was cleared ready for the Boys groups to take their turn on stage. The platform showcased boys just starting out on their dance journey with groups from Westfield Primary School and Horsell Juniors to those that has reached World level in their age group. Soloist Harry Cassin, aged 12, from Chertsey based Monarch Studios recently chosen to represent England in the Dance World Cup this year showcased the piece he will perform in the summer. The audience were spellbound by his technical skill and athleticism. Groups form Farnham based Weydon School and closing the platform were Guildford based Christ College who performed ‘Canopy’ about discovering the world beneath the canopy, featuring a blend of natural movement and animal instinct, a territory to uncover.

Dance Woking encourages peer-to-peer support, and with this in mind it was great to see Wesley Bingwa perform his new solo piece, Freedom. Wesley returned to the platform after first taking to the stage here in 2014, at the time he was a student at Woking College taking A Level dance amongst others. Now some years later having just completed a scholarship funded MA in Choreography at Laban, London and before that a BA HONS in Dance at De Montfort University, Leicester. Wesley enthused “Good to be back where dance started for me, when I first performed here in 2014 I was inspired by a group from Christ College where the whole drive to be professional dancer started for me”.

Sam McCaffrey, Artistic Director Dance Woking commented ‘the next steps for Wesley with us is how our organisation can continue to support him on his journey establishing himself in the professional dance world. He is passionate about exploring how dance can help those who have been bullied, including the impact of social media on one’s wellbeing. This fits in with an area of work we are also interested in and we are excited to see how we can support Wesley further”.

Dance Woking is a charity supported by Woking Borough Council, Arts Council England’s Project Grants, Active Surrey and Surrey Community Foundation.

Dance Woking held their 10th Annual Woking SLAM Platform on Saturday 29 February, the event was covered by Woking News and Mail.

Dance Woking hosted its 10^th Annual Woking SLAM Platform on Saturday 29 February at Rhoda McGaw Theatre, Woking; Demand for tickets was high with the event selling out in advance; the atmosphere inside was electric; 15 groups, featuring 196 dancers from across Surrey and the South East performed to rapturous applause.

Sam McCaffrey CEO/Artistic Director enthused ‘this platform is really quite special as we are showcasing a range of different dance troupes from those at World level to dancers who are taking the stage for the first time. We are lucky to be able to show progression routes at a multi-layered platform like this, it’s really inspiring. Woking and Surrey have an amazing, vibrant and diverse dance sector that we should celebrate and showcases like these allow us to do just that’

Opening the show was a 28 strong troupe from Woking based Street Vibes Elite; who gained silver and bronze cup success at The World Dance Championship in Portugal in 2019. Following them was new to dance 18 dancers from Westfield Primary School Dance Club; taking their movement stimulus from James Wilton Dance’s The Storm; some of who had come to see the professional dance company perform at Rhoda on Tuesday 25 February as part of their journey into dance. Following them onstage were 16 dancers from Kingston on Thames based Vital Signz Juniors, and then Woking based BKD Performers Advanced Street Funk;

Next Dance Woking’s Evolve Youth took the stage, this group came together for 3 days during February Half Term to create their piece Turbulence; Choreography from James Wilton Dance professional company dancer Oliver Robertson. The dancers hailing from other dance schools, but taking the opportunity to work with a professional company to challenge and improve their dance skills. Maidenhead based Dance Inspired followed with Urban Dance School (UDS) and Buckinghamshire based Tuffney Performing Arts rounding off the first half.

An amazing 26 strong girls troupe from local school Saint John the Baptiste Dance Club opened the second half; Vital Signz Dance Seniors then BKD Performers Junior Funk followed with Oxfordshire based Betty Bloom Dance attending for the first time; Richmond College performed a highly theatrical piece to Diamonds, Vital Signz Adults followed and highlighted that dance is for all ages! Closing the show professional dance company Ombrascura sharing an exert of their current work The Moon and Me recently shown at Resolutions in London at The Place.

If that wasn’t enough the finale definitely brought the house down with an impromptu ‘Battle’ led by UDS where dancers took to the stage and performed their signature moves to I Like to Move it Move it from film Madagascar

Audience feedback: ‘Wonderfully exuberant, confident young performers’ ‘Amazing’

Dance Woking is a charity supported by Woking Borough Council, Arts Council England’s Project Grants, Active Surrey and Surrey Community Foundation.

Reporter Kelvin Wint from That’s TV South East visited Dance Woking this week to catch-up with the team about some of the projects that Dance Woking has been running. This report features Evolve Dance Company; this company is open to young dancers aged 12 plus who are interested in developing their skills further learning new techniques and experiencing what its like to create a piece from scratch where you are given stimulus and through creative tasks input and influence the movement created.

This February half term we have been working with James Wilton Dance Company dancer Oliver Robertson (Ollie) and Norikazu Aoki (Nori). Nori taught the dancers signature James Wilton Dance movement which is very physical on the first day, Ollie then used this as a basis to develop the choreography with the group.

Some of the dancers have come from different dance schools around Woking & Surrey:  Zambesi Dance Company, The Joanna School of Dance, Meraki Dance and Cremona School of Dance.

The dancers contributed their own movement ideas based on the theme; they worked well in collaboration, met the challenges of learning precise movement quickly and gained more experience in improvisation.

The company will perform this piece as a curtain raiser to James Wilton Dance Company’s The Storm on Tuesday 25 February at Rhoda McGaw Theatre, Woking; Follow this link for TICKETS

This project forms part of Dance Woking’s spring programme supported by funding from Arts Council England’s Project fund, enabling Dance Woking to bring more diverse professional companies to Woking.

Dance Woking is hosting a number of workshops this week during half term; today we are featuring ROTATE Parkour with guest teachers Anja, George & Michael from Oxford based Justice in Motion leading the sessions for the next three days:

Times: 12noon- 4pm

Venue: Sheerwater Youth Centre, Blackmore Crescent, Woking, GU215NS

PLACES Available – like what you see? Come and join us; contact: sam@dancewoking.com

The great thing about this week’s Parkour is that the Company have come with their Parkour Playground for us to use! It’s amazing! With scaffolding to build up balance, platforms to jump off and across, it provide a whole new set of features to explore.

Tuesday 11 February saw Nori Aoki, one of James Wilton’s Company dancers lead a two hour boys dance workshop at Yateley Secondary School. The boys were shown some signature James Wilton Dance Company movement along with some of the sequences from their new work called The Storm.

Head of Dance, Helen Wearing, was literally blown away by the workshop and the way it really energised the boys, some of whom had never danced before.

Following the workshop Tilly Maginnis from Dance Woking managed to catch-up with Helen to ask her about what bringing a professional company dancer meant to the group and school. Helen enthused   “…..the chance to work with Nori from James Wilton Dance Company was incredible he is very talented and just inspiring to challenge them to do movements they haven’t done before”. She went on to say ” It is amazing for them to be able to work with someone who it’s their profession as a job and to see something from a trailer on YouTube to actually be able to work with them in the studio for 2 hours is a real privilege.

And next steps for the group is to see the professional performance of The Storm by James Wilton Dance Company at Rhoda McGaw Theatre, Woking on Tuesday 25 February:

Helen continues “I can’t wait. Absolutely can’t wait and for some of the boys it is the first time they have seen dance at the theatre. I’m excited, their excited can’t wait”.

If you have been inspire by watching the footage and for those who have yet to purchase tickets please go to Book Tickets

Next week sees Dance Woking host a 3 day Residency with James Wilton Dance Company, places are still available and suitable for those aged 12 and older; for details go to: Apply now for dance residency