Get Up And Groove (GUAG)
Project Street Address
Project City
Project Province/State
Project Postal/Zip Code
Project Country
Sport
Dance
Year the initative began (yyyy)
2007
YouTube Upload
Project URL (include HTTP://)
Which of these barriers is the primary focus of your work?
Stereotyping that excludes
Which of the principles is the primary focus of your work?
Use sport to build character
If you believe some other barrier or principle should be included in the mosaic, please describe it and how it would affect the positioning of your initiative in the mosaic:
This field has not been completed
Name Your Project
Get Up And Groove (GUAG)
Describe Your Idea
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence?
Encourage young people with learning disabilities to express themselves and gain social skills through dance, whilst informing them about education and career opportunities too
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field?
We introduce young people with learning disabilities to dance and help them develop their communication, expression, team work and decision making skills in a fun and participative way. We reach out to young people who are often ignored and help them develop into dancers and peer leaders.
Dancers in our programme move on to teaching their peers, and developing their own dance performances. The young people are involved in all aspects of the programme design and decide themselves how they want their club nights to be, and how to develop public performances. We believe that no one knows better than the young dancers themselves what is good for them. We also run programmes for young women and men and encourage “hard to reach” youth to be more involved in their communities.
My dream is to get all of the youth to all work together, all dance together rather than splitting them up into groups. We are all dancers, passionate about dance.
What are the existing barriers, the biggest problem, your innovation is hoping to address/change?
Young people with a disability are underserved. Many people also do not know what benefits dance can bring into a young person's life: not just fitness and confidence but a range of other life skills.
We have to invest a lot of time we could be dancing convincing teachers and other social workers about the benefits of dance for everyone – including young people with a disability. We want to give them the same rights and oppotunities as thier ablebodied peers
Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing?
Our currently model is to offer classes once a week during school time and do intensive projects during school breaks. During the school breaks we create new work for public performances like in the last few years in Trafalgar Square. These public performances install a huge sense of pride and achievement in all of us.
Young people with disabilities are often made invisible and forgotten. Our programmes put them proud on centre stage. They want to learn and teach and run their own events. We provide the framework for them to do this. It helps them to become more proactive people.
Unfortunately we are not running the programme as a whole. Our funding finished in March '07 and we have been unlucky in securing further funding. We meet with the group embassador Cynthia once a month. she helps us with the reseach for funding. We meet with the whole group every three months to catch up, we also meet thier parents to update them
How do you plan to grow your innovation?
We would like to offer the programme once a week and in more locations through the East London boroughs where we are operating. We would include six half term intensives where the young people would meet during the day while there is no school. We also want to include better transport for the young people and opportunities for other professionals to come and work with the dancers on other aspects including teaching, administration, peer motivation and education choices
We would like to get the group a performnace schedule too. making a concious decision about where they perform, ensuring they meet and engage with a cross section of other young people.
One of the biggest things for us would be to offer FREE taster sessions to disabled young people all over East London. This would allow us to enage with more young people and get them onto the project.
we would give GUAG a forum through setting up a MySpace allowing discussion for all to join
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact.
We prove it is not pointless to invest in dance training for young dancers with a disability.
What impact has your innovation had to date/or what is your intended impact? Exactly who are the beneficiaries?
The parents of our dancers are very enthusiastic about the impact of our programmes. We get phone calls asking when we will be starting again and whether we can expand into other parts of London!
Everyone can benefit from dance through fitness gains, team work skills, confidence and communication skills, planning and presentation skills. It gives people new tools to express themselves and leads to qualities which also help outside the studio whether in a job, family or school. Dance performance also instills an ethic of giving back and social awareness.
Beneficiaries are the youth themselves and the community.One of the dancers in the group is Cynthia. She has made a MASSIVE improvement since being apart of GUAG. She is the head of the GUAG steering group set up by the members, she comes into the office once a month to work with us on reseaching funding, she has worked as an apprentice dance teacher too
GUAG has given her new tools
How many people have you served directly?
We have served 10 dancers per class during the week. With more resources we could double this figure to 20. We have had to retrict numbers due to lack of well trained teachers. We have only been able to employ one lead teacher at any one time. We would like to take this to one lead and assisstant teacher and one apprentice, which will allow us to work with more young people per session.
How many people have you served indirectly?
Through performances, workshops and the club night we have served over 2000 people.
Our performances and outreach to schools and social workers helps create a new vision of dance and of disability. We would like to get away from splitting all the groups into sub groups: “hard to reach” groups, “boys’” groups, “girls’” groups, “disabled” groups, “youth” groups and move into an integrated training. We want to work ourselves out of a job as “disabled” dance trainers and focus on what is important we are all passionate about dance!
Please list any other measures reflective of the impact of your innovation?
We can give valuble training experience to young people who want to train and learn more about teaching dance. we could do this through an apprentiship scheme allowing a young person to work with the group for three months under the guidance of the organisation and teachers working with the group.
This would mean we are serving all of our dancers be it as a dancer, teacher or choreographer
the lead teacher would also gain valuble mentoring experience guided by the organisation
What are the main barriers to creating or achieving your impact?
People, even those working with disabled youth, often say that teaching dance is pointless and what should it bring? We need to do a lot of educating out the benefits of dance to all especially disabled young people. Through our work so far and looking back at the progression that Cynthia has made there is so much that can be achieved through dance.
This Entry is about (Issues)
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)?
We will continue to look for funding so that we can get GUAG up and running again. We would also ask the members, thier parents or local school to make a termly contribution of £10 to the project.
We have a fundraising manager as part of our staff. He is currently working on several bids related to our youth programme, this firmly includes GUAG.
If known, provide information on your finances and organization.
We have 9 members of staff who are based in the office:
5 full-time
3 part-time
1 full-time company intern, with us till April 08.
Out of the office we have:
1 part time development manager (fundraising and sponsorship sourcing)
40+ Dance Artists (teachers and Choreographers)
What is the potential demand for your innovation?
What is the potential demand for your innovation?
We could provide this programme in all 7 East London boroughs. We could also document are formula for scheduling and lesson plans producing a GUAG curriculum and approach which could be transferable to other young people across the UK and abroad.
What are the main barriers to financial sustainability?
Convincing people of the value of dance whilst working with young disabled dancers. We need people to see, understand and value the INVESMENT needed in order to continue and develop our work. We are truly greatful for ALL funding that we recieve for the group but we need to ensure that the investment is long term and not just for a few months.
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story.
GUAG was set up after the inbalnace in activity for disabled dancers was made clear through other projects that we run. There were young disabled dancers who did not feel that they 'belonged' when taking part in some of our programmes. sadly this was due to other young people who did not understand how to 'cope' with disabled dancers in thier classes. It was beacuse of this we started GUAG and up until March 07 were successful in securing funding for the project to continue.
we would like to continue GUAG as it serves a community that is not always recognised in society as a whole. Through the work that we have done with GUAG we have managed to raise the profile of disabled dancers. We have done this mainly through the group performing at many events including the Main Stage at the FYA (Festival of Youth Arts) showcase in Trafalgar Square.
Such an event allowed us to reach hundreds of young people and showed them that dance is for all and disabled dancers can achieve the same as them, with the right investment.
we hope to be able to deliver the programme for many more years to come adapting and redifining it year to year to ensure that we are keeping up with the constant chages to the youth community. Ideally we would work ourselves out of this programme so that we could pull all our resources to work with ALL young people in ONE project
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material.
East London Dance develops access, inclusivity and innovation across the East London boroughs producing a dynamic dance culture in East London reflecting, encouraging and celebrating the whole community in its diversity of cultures, ages and abilities.
Vicki Igbokwe is Creative Projects Manager for East London Dance. Her strategic area is Children and Young People-Informal, working with young people (aged 8-26yrs) on a variety of projects that take place out of the curriculum. Vicki is a Nike Dance Athlete and Freelance Dance Artist
How did you hear about this contest and what is your main incentive to participate? (this is confidential)
Nike UK and Heather Cameron from the Free University and Boxgirls
Affiliation (please list all that apply)
Nike Dance Athlete
UK Dance
 | Victoria Igbokwe said: Hi Truexteddy Thank you for your kind words. Your comment demonstartes a true understanding of the project and its benefits. Vicki about this idea. - 807 days ago read more > |
| Victoria Igbokwe said: Hi Steve The funding that we recieved up until March 07 had come from the local Borough. It would take us approximately £15000 a year ... about this idea. - 807 days ago read more > |
| Victoria Igbokwe said: Hi Heather The main changes in these young people are their developed self confidence in their abilities. Through the project they ... about this idea. - 807 days ago read more > |
| Victoria Igbokwe said: Hi Dana GUAG started through the need to engage young disabled dancers in dance. As an organsiation East london Dance works with many ... about this idea. - 807 days ago read more > |
| Dana Frasz said: Hello Victoria, Interesting project! I would love to hear more about how it started and about its impact. How many potentially ... about this idea. - 813 days ago read more > |
| Stephen Byars said: Your project is particularly uplifting, Victoria, because you help us recall that even in the midst of a great city in the First World, ... about this idea. - 822 days ago read more > |
| Heather Cameron said: Hey Vicki! I am glad to see your project up and the discussion it has started. Perhaps you can tell us more about the changes you see ... about this idea. - 822 days ago read more > |
| Ted Yates said: I agree, dancing is not an elitist activity. Moreover, children with disabilities do not always fit the mold of a paralympic athlete. ... about this idea. - 824 days ago read more > |
| Victoria Igbokwe said: Hi Jasper Thank you for taking an interest. I encounter many people who believe that sport is elitist and this is so far from the ... about this idea. - 826 days ago read more > |
| Jasper Nicolaisen said: Hi Victoria, what I like about this is how it brings out dancing as a tool for disabled people. Many people, I guess, think of ... about this idea. - 836 days ago read more > |
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