Homeless Young People’s Dance and Film Project
2004-2007

Since 2004 Dance4, Newark and Sherwood District Council and The Newark Emmaus Trust have been refining their partnership and delivering high quality dance projects with hard to reach homeless young people.

One example of this partnership is ‘Crossing Borders Making Moves: The Journey’ a dance and film project. The aims of the project were

· To develop creative dance for hard to reach young people. 
To provide opportunities for new and challenging groups of young people to experience movement and dance.

· To build relationships on practical and creative level
· To provide accessible physical activity that is non-competitive, creative and expressive.
· Promote independence, confidence, self-esteem and trust
· Challenge the boundaries of who can dance and seek to build connections
· To be an opportunity for young people to learn new skills and find out about their own creative abilities.

Thirteen young people with project workers from Newark Emmaus Trust made the commitment to work together on a weekly basis during 2004.  The project was launched with introductory meetings with young people, seeing, discussing and questioning.  This purpose of this was to get to know the group but also to find out what interested them to begin to shape the direction of the project prior to practically working together as a group.  This was followed by a series of 8 weekly workshops, 2.5 hours duration using a neutral space sports facility.

This project allowed young people to explore their own creative abilities using the languages of movement and film, express their identity and individuality, and discover personal and group challenges as well as relationships to each other.  Film was explored during the project to document and create a film piece about the journey with the young people as the project responded to their interests.  Here dance and movement was devised in a more unusual and exciting way with the young people exploring skills and disciplines.  Being both in front and behind the camera and working as a team they devised and shaped movement and dance pieces, creating solos, duets, and group sequences specifically for film.  Not only this but young people’s journey during the project was just as important to capture with a documentary style film showing processes of both their challenges, achievements and how they felt about doing the project.

“I feel I got more confident doing this.  I never gave up during the dancing, I learnt not to give up on things so easily” Participant

“You worked towards something. You actually like met that … it felt good … I felt proud that I’d put the effort in” Participant

For more information about this project or to buy a copy of dance films
produced please contact Dance4 on 0115 9410773 or