In the Autumn term 2020 our Magpie Youth group dancers took part in the Big Schools SEND Let’s Dance Project, organised by Alexandra Palace and Para Dance UK. The project provided a series of dance workshops for Special Educational Needs schools around London, and Magpie Dance were lucky enough to get involved.
Alexandra Palace and Para Dance UK released a series of pre-recorded sessions starting in November. There were four, hour long dance sessions, each focusing on a different genre, including Lyrical, Musical Theatre, and Street dance. As well as these exciting dance sessions, they provided another four creative videos that focused on other elements such as props, set, costume and make up design. Each school had to pick at least one of the dance sessions to focus on and learn the routine. They were then encouraged to use the skills and information they learnt from the creative sessions to create a costume, prop, set or makeup look. Combining their dance routine and their creative element, participants recorded their dance work and sent it back to Alexandra Palace and Para Dance UK, so they could put everyone’s pieces together in to one big film.
This film premiered via zoom to all the schools and organisations that took part, on Friday 30th April 2021. Our Operations Coordinator, Ayanna, and Youth Coordinator, Florence, attended the online event on behalf of Magpie Dance. They both had such a lovely time meeting the other participants and watching the film. Everyone got their dancing shoes on and danced to an amazing set from DJ4BLUE. It was a wonderful way of feeling connected to so many people during this strange time!
We are thrilled to be able to share the film with you all. It is going live on Friday 7th May at 6:30pm on the Para Dance UK Facebook page and will also be uploaded to their Vimeo page if you can’t watch the Facebook live.
A huge well done to everyone involved in the project, especially our Magpie Youth dancers and team who worked so hard to create an amazing piece of work. It was such a great experience, and a great way to connect with others.
Magpie Dance would like to thank Alexandra Palace and Para Dance UK for creating such a fun project – we have had a wonderful time working with both organisations. We look forward to working with them again on future projects!