About: The National Citizen Service (NCS) is a voluntary personal and social development programme for 15–17 year olds in England and Northern Ireland, funded largely by money from the UK Government.
NCS is a 3-4 week experience that helps build confidence and self belief. It provides young people aged 15-17 year olds the chance to live away from home, develop skills and meet amazing people.
Adventure / Discovery / Action / Graduation
Dance Woking is delighted to be working with two groups this summer who are helping us fundraise to support our education and outreach activity and in particular a youth dance company; this part of their experience is known as community action where they work with a local charity to fundraise, volunteer and seek sponsorship for us.
Dance Woking Board had a great strategy session at Bacaro Aperitivo Bar
We were very well looked after and would highly recommend Bacaro Bar; with pancakes & fruit salad to keep us going it was a great session facilitated by Caroline Collier Dance Woking Board are looking forward to celebrating 25 Years of Dance in Woking in 2019!
Following on from our Encounters announcement last week, it’s time to start talking about Party in the Park 2018on Saturday 7th July! Last year the event, hosted by Woking Borough Council, saw over 15000 visitors!
Dance Woking is curating the dance programme once more and we have many performances and workshops lined up from local dance schools, professional dance companies, primary and secondary schools. The Dance Woking Team is currently in schools teaching choreography and a flash mob and leading art sessions to create costume for the event. Keep a look out for announcements for more information on who will be performing this year!
Dance Woking will have performances appearing on the main stage, the cultural zone, the bandstand field and in our very own Encounters tent! As the final touches are made to the schedule for the day, we can reveal that Dance Woking will start the festivities with a huge dance parade at 12pm – not to be missed!
ZoieLogic Dance Theatre 2017
The theme will focus on the centenary of the end of World War 1 (1914-1918) as well as celebrating the achievements of leading suffragette Dame Ethel Smyth as we celebrate 100 years of women having the vote.
Party in the Park is the biggest event in the calendar and not one to be missed, open to everyone and completely FREE to attend! See you on the 7th July!
Event Details:
Venue: Woking Park, GU22 9BA
When: Saturday 7th July 2018, 12pm – 9pm
News
Different pasts, shared futures celebrating Refugee week
Different pasts, shared futures
Supported by Big Lottery Awards for All, Dance Woking has been working with a number of community groups and schools to explore the idea of home. During the evening five of the groups shared their experiences using dance movement, art, film and food. The funding also enabled us to work with professional dance company Amina Khayyam Dance and share their work with a number of the community groups as well as being able to present an excerpt of their work this evening.
For programme of evening click onto link: Programme
HORSELL BANGLADESHI WOMEN’S GROUP‘Imparting Through Food’
Working with Amina Khayyam the group have used food to express their home. Taste some delicious homemade dishes made by the Horsell Bangladeshi Women’s group – an insight in to the women you see but perhaps do not know.
DEVYNE DANCERS‘Searching through the borders’
Exploring the theme of ‘Where is Home?’, DeVyne Dancers have been looking at the obstacles that can be faced when searching for and building a home, moving around the key themes of border, travel and shelter.
LIAISE WOMEN’S CENTRE ART GROUP AT MAYBURY CENTRE‘Our Colourful Shadows’
As we move, work exercise and dance, we produce shadows…. taking their frozen shadow images and putting them onto a canvas the women then filled their shadow with a collage of images exploring memories and ideas of ‘where is home?’
Using memories to inspire movement sequences the Creative Seated Dance group have choreographed a dance film presenting their exploration of ‘Where is Home?’
Dancers: Gwen Hill, Kim Johnson, Derek Lane, Joan Malone, Zoe Nicholson, Jean Pitts, Dot Williams and members of Brockhill Creative Seated Dance
Filmmaker: Omari Carter ’The Motion Dance Collective’
Maybury have created a dance piece in their after-school club exploring the theme of finding and building a home, and working out what can make a house a home.
This year we marks the 100 Anniversary of World War 1 and the Representation of the People’s Act
Party in the Park will be used as a platform to highlight these celebrations and showcase some of the community projects and activities that will focus on these significant milestone events, and encourage participation among Woking’s diverse communities, developing ‘pride of place’.
“Surrey in the Great War: A County Remembers” – The Surrey History Centre will be planning events to commemorate the centenary of the end of the World War II (1914-1918), to showcase the work they have been involved in and promote their website “Surrey in the Great War”. The website will continue to serve as a legacy of the 1914-1918 Commemorations. The key theme for Party in the Park will be around the World War One theme.
Dame Ethel Smyth was a long-term citizen of Woking who had an international reputation, and it is most appropriate that our town should seek to be proud of Smyth, and to celebrate her achievements alongside those of other notables such as H.G. Wells.
Smyth was a remarkable woman by any standards, first and foremost a composer but also an author, a sportswoman, a vigorous campaigner for recognition of women’s contribution to the arts, and for two years (1910 –1912) a leading suffragette. She was especially active in raising awareness of the status of women within the music profession, and her books as well as her correspondence, most of which were written whilst living in Woking, contain much forthright defence of this subject. She was one of the most famous conductors of the Woking Choral Society.
With just 43 days to go, it’s time to put the date in your diary and get excited for ENCOUNTERS 2018! Hosted by Dance Woking, Encounters is a fantastic warm-up event the week before Party in the Park to get Woking up on their feet and dancing!
Taking hold of Jubilee Square and Woking Town Centre, this year’s Encounters features our biggest dance parade to date with schools, community groups and dance schools performing through the high street! The event features our parade, dance performances, flash mob, professional performances, workshops and a fantastic performance from Woking Rock Choir to get the party started.
More information and announcements on each group featured will be announced in the coming weeks!
Encounters 2015
This year’s theme, linking with Party in the Park, is celebrating 100 years since the end of World War 1 and celebrating the Suffragette movement with 100 years since women got the vote!
So what are you waiting for? Get your family and friends together and get your dancing shoes on, we’ll see you on the 30th June!
Event Details:
Saturday 30th June 2018
1pm – 3pm
Jubilee Square, Woking Town Centre
Open to all, FREE to attend!
Brockhill Creative Seated Dance Group have been working with dance artist Kate Finegan to create and present a film of their work titled Home at our event ‘Different Pasts, Shared Future’ in partnership with Woking Borough Council. The event is on Tuesday 19th June and is a cultural celebration for National Refugee Week that will feature a range of dance performances, film, art and food!
Brockhill is a unique housing scheme for the elderly based in Goldsworth Park and every Wednesday morning a truly wonderful group meet for Creative Seated Dance taught regularly by Kate. For the past six weeks the group have been focused on creating choreography and movement to present a film at the event.
‘We have been thinking of creative responses to the idea of ‘home’ with each member of the group contributing their own memories of home. These memories have been used as inspiration for choreographed sequences of movement by the storyteller, which has been taught to the group. We then culminated this project with a joyous morning of filming with Omari ’The motion dance collective’ Carter’ Kate Finegan
The film will be shown on Tuesday 19th June at ‘Different Pasts, Shared Future’. The group will continue to meet every Wednesday morning, and more information on Brockhill Centre and the weekly sessions with Kate can be found here!
Different Pasts, Shared Future Tuesday 19th June, 6pm-8pm H.G. Wells Conference & Events Centre
This event is FREE and open to all – more information here!
News
Encounters
Encounters, Saturday 30 June 2018
Jubilee Square, Woking Town Centre, Woking, GU21 6YG
11am – 3pm
Hosted by Dance Woking, Encounters is an exciting taster event leading up to next Saturday’s Party in the Park, to delight shoppers and encourage attendance to Party in the Park on Saturday 7th July, taking place at Woking Park.
There are opportunities to take part, perform and watch.
This year we marks the 100 Anniversary of World War 1 and the Representation of the People’s Act
Party in the Park will be used as a platform to highlight these celebrations and showcase some of the community projects and activities that will focus on these significant milestone events, and encourage participation among Woking’s diverse communities, developing ‘pride of place’.
Come and see the different banners and sashes made by the dancers as we move through Woking town Centre; parade starts just outside woking hospice at 1.15pm
Dance Woking have been working with Horsell Bangladeshi Women’s Group over the last two months to work towards a presentation of food at our event ‘Different Pasts, Shared Future’ with Woking Council. The event is on Tuesday 19th June featuring a number of community groups and schools that Dance Woking has been working with in order to celebrate National Refugee Week!
The Bangaladeshi Women’s Group have been working with professional dance artist, Amina Khayyam, in weekly sessions with the theme of ‘home’. They will be using food to express their home, giving everyone the opportunity to taste some delicious homemade dishes at the event!
‘The group are very much enjoying the sessions and the class has been hugely popular. Every week the class has grown in size through word of mouth. The women have found the class to be physically beneficial, mentally stimulating and hugely fun!’ Amina Khayyam
The group have been working together with creative movement and discussion and has been so successful that it has been extended to be a 90 minute class! The group have had a break in classes during Ramadan, but will be meeting once more before they present their dishes at the event on the 19th June.
Different Pasts, Shared Future Tuesday 19th June, 6pm-8pm H.G. Wells Conference & Events Centre
This event is FREE and open to all – more information here!
News
Introducing… Liaise Women’s Centre Art Group!
Our fifth and final group presenting work at our event ‘Different Pasts, Shared Future’ in partnership with Woking Council is Liaise Women’s Centre Art Group based at the Maybury Centre. The group will be sharing artwork that they have produced with artist Maria Lima. ‘Different Pasts, Shared Future’ is a cultural celebration event for National Refugee Week on Tuesday 19th June, 6pm-8pm at H.G. Wells Events and Conference Centre in Woking.
Liaise is a women’s centre providing a safe and supportive environment for women to network, learn new skills and get advice and information on a range of issues. Dance Woking have been working with Liasie over six weeks, first in movement with Kate Finegan, and then creating art using the movement as their inspiration with Maria Lima.
‘The Liaise Women’s Art group spent a morning exploring creative ideas through movement, firstly thinking about their own journey, where they were born, where they went to school, when they were married, had children, moved country, which they transposed into a series of movements sequences, which were then photographed. Blowing up selected images onto cardboard to create a silhouette to be filled further with a visual arts response to their journey , photos maps, images, flowers telling each unique story.’ Kate Finegan
The large silhouette will be presented at ‘Different Pasts, Shared Future’ and members of Liaise will be there to talk about their experience of creating artwork from movement. The event is free and open to all, come and see some fantastic artwork, dance performance and film!
Find out more information about Liaise Women’s Centre here!
Different Pasts, Shared Future Tuesday 19th June, 6pm-8pm H.G. Wells Conference & Events Centre, Woking FREE
