CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE (CYP)

Advocacy

Programme Board: CYP Dance

The CYP Programme Board brings together organisations with a strategic remit for CYP dance in England, both in and outside school settings. There is now very positive engagement from key stakeholders including DfE, ACE, awarding organisations and exam boards. One Dance UK provides the secretariat and meetings are chaired by Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), with meetings taking place termly to ensure key issues remain high on the agenda.

Due to the ongoing pandemic, U.Dance regional and national activity was delivered online, building on the success of U.Dance Digital 2020.

U.Dance Regional Platforms

All U.Dance regional partners in the nine English regions, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland committed to delivering a U.Dance regional event or at least managing applications of dance films from their region in 2021. Successful film entries were screened as part of the U Dance National Festival 2021 showcases, with very positive engagement and feedback. Overall, there were 128 entries from groups and individuals across the UK.

U.Dance National Festival

The U.Dance National Festival 2021 was delivered as a digital event, built around a theme of ‘Where can Dance take you?’, with a focus on talent development opportunities, audition tips and ‘next steps’ guidance threaded through the programme. The programme was highly aspirational and the full line up of masterclass and careers toolkit Q and A sessions was made available for 1 month following the event. The showcases included 42 youth dance films selected from a range of settings being screened across three nights, and an additional Young Choreographers Showcase matinee performance.

Dance education report - ‘Everything We Loved About Dance Was Taken’

April and May 2021 saw the publishing of a large-scale survey of dance educators entitled ‘Everything We Loved About Dance Was Taken’. This public facing report, launched in October 2021, details the current dance education landscape. The headline findings are certainly cause for concern, marking a decline in dance activity in schools and a reduction in teaching hours and staff, as reported in The Stage. This research also provides an action plan for Government, education leaders and others, as well as a commitment from One Dance UK to address the issues raised in the report.

The report can be viewed here.

• Young people were also able to participate in two public facing challenges.

• We reached over 2000 young people across the showcases, challenges, masterclasses and Q&As

• The showcases (broadcast on One Dance UK Facebook and YouTube) collectively reached nearly 10 000 people

• Of those who returned our short feedback form we had 96% positive feedback, with 87% considering going on to higher/further education in dance