Critical Mass: Dancing to the Commonwealth Games

Katie Stevens reports on how the West Midlands region is in full swing preparing for the arrival of the athletes and visitors, and how dance is taking centre stage of the celebrations.

Critical Mass Participants

Photo: Lensi Photography

Critical Mass, an inclusive dance collective made up of 300 young people aged 16-30 from across the West Midlands, has been generously funded by The Spirit of 2012 and is the hub of the performance activity that will run throughout the Commonwealth Games. The collective will perform at a number of celebratory events on the lead up to and for the duration of the Games, with it all kicking off in March with Wondrous Stories, the opening of the Birmingham 2022 Festival.

After attracting so many participants to perform at high profile events and with rehearsals well underway, we wanted to hear how the process was going. Tara Lopez, Senior Producer of Critical Mass and Zoie Golding, Lead Dance Artist, gave us an insight into this unique project.

What makes Critical Mass?

Critical Mass, Tara explains, is the brainchild of Martin Green, Chief Creative Officer, and Raidene Carter, Executive Producer, both of Birmingham 2022 Culture Festival. They believe that although there has always been opportunity for community dancers to be involved in mass projects, few on this scale are truly inclusive - barriers such as physical access into the space, or lack of time or funds to see the project through can stop people from getting involved. As Birmingham 2022 will have a fully integrated Para Sport programme, it is important that this inclusion is reflected within the cultural festival too.

Critical Mass is made up of several standalone performances created by different choreographers, dance artists or in collaboration with the participants. The 300 participants will have the opportunity to perform in several high-profile events such as 'Wondrous Stories' – the opening show of Birmingham 2022 Festival, Birmingham International Dance Festival, festival sites throughout the Games as well as the Opening Ceremony of the Commonwealth Games.

The dance artists of Critical Mass

Dance artists have been leading free weekly dance sessions across Birmingham and the West Midlands, with 16 separate classes taking place each week. A warm and welcoming space has been created, with a team spirit running throughout the sessions. In our conversation, Zoie clearly acknowledges the emphasis on building trust and relationships between the participants and dance artists before the art is even considered, helping to avoid anyone feeling vulnerable throughout the process.

The dance artists provide the crucial link between choreographer and dancer in Critical Mass. With so many participants and only a handful of choreographers, the dance artists negotiate the choreographers’ intention to suit the dancers in their sessions. This allows for a more inclusive nature – each artist knows the dancers personally and has an understanding of everyone’s needs.

“The best teachers are the participants. No one knows more about what they need than they themselves or their parents and carers.”

Tara Lopez, Senior Producer, Critical Mass

Zoie champions the idea of including creative opportunities for both the dance artists and participants to contribute to the creation of the choreography to suit themselves, as well as translating movement given by the choreographers to make it accessible.

Mass inclusion

The team navigates their way through the project by looking through the lens of access and inclusion. Tara talks about the many avenues this takes, such as, staggering start times and minimal weekend rehearsals to help participants who may need to pay for carers, “there’s no point being given a huge rehearsal schedule that the dancers just can’t meet, or will mean that they’re fatigued and can’t sustain the full week.” The Critical Mass project has dedicated a substantial portion of the budget to access and inclusion costs, allowing for any needs such as travel expenses being covered, hiring BSL translators and support workers being made available at every session.

The lynchpin of this inclusion approach, Tara explains, is their inclusivity rider – a checklist of requirements that every space and session must meet. This is the baseline of standard minimum accessibility requirements as well as Critical Mass’ standard requirements. This includes additions such as support workers at each session and a separate quiet breakout space for the dancers. Layers are then built upon this which can change from session to session, for example, the rider might include how communication needs to be presented through imagery, or a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter might be needed for the day’s rehearsal.

Support workers and an inclusion champion make up the team and training has been given to everyone involved, as well as constant check ins, asking whether the team are maximising the opportunity for inclusion and what more can be done to find and fill gaps so that all 300 participants have the same experience. These changes throughout the process can be small, and some are like pendulums, Zoie explains “the focus is on constant learning for all involved, with the conversations around inclusive practice being kept open and on the table all the time.”

The finish line

What will the impact of this huge project be for the Birmingham dance scene when the athletes have packed up and the final pose has been struck at the Closing Ceremony? Tara envisions a long-lasting legacy of upskilled dance artists with learnings being passed on to the dance sector and a blueprint on how to approach a mass participation project. Zoie sees Critical Mass as not only an exciting opportunity for people who have never tried dance before, but also reengaging those that went away from dance and have come back – it’s encapsulated both grassroots work and reignited people’s connection with dance.

Facts and Ambitions

Critical Mass is rooted in accessibility, inclusion and opportunity. Critical Mass strives to engage with:

• 300 young people aged 16-30

• at least 1/3 of the participants will be disabled people

• 40% will come from an Asian, Black or minority ethnic background

Critical Mass is made up of:

• £1million investment from Spirit of 2012

• Network of 70+ dance organisations from across the West Midlands

• 16 free weekly dance sessions across the West Midlands

• 4+ large-scale performances

www.criticalmass22.org.uk

Dance Development Leaders Group (DDLG) present Critical Mass in collaboration with Birmingham 2022 Festival, DanceXchange, Arts Connect Generously supported by Spirit Of 2012.