Dance is for everyone
Location
To encourage young people to express and develop themselves as individuals through dance. Making them a better person within society and encoraging them to showcase their talent on various platforms regionally, nationally and internationally without the huge price tag associated with it.
About You
Location
Project Street Address
Project City
Project Province/State
Project Postal/Zip Code
Project Country
Your idea
Sport
Dance
Year the initative began (yyyy)
2006
YouTube Upload
Project URL (include HTTP://)
Positioning of your initiative on the mosaic diagram:
Which of these barriers is the primary focus of your work?
Few effective tools for personal improvement
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:
Name Your Project
Dance is for everyone
Describe Your Idea
To encourage young people to express and develop themselves as individuals through dance. Making them a better person within society and encoraging them to showcase their talent on various platforms regionally, nationally and internationally without the huge price tag associated with it.
Innovation
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence?
To encourage young people to express and develop themselves as individuals through dance. Making them a better person within society and encoraging them to showcase their talent on various platforms regionally, nationally and internationally without the huge price tag associated with it.
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field?
To produce original and create dance works for public performances.To assist young dancers between the ages of 11 and 20 from all backgrounds to develop their technical and performance dance skills in a variety of different styles.To develop educational links with local schools to provide quality dance teaching.To deliver regular dance classes for dancers to access a range of dance styles.To provide creative dance workshops within local community schools.Unlike other dance schools within the area we do not profit from the young people and reinvest all monies back into the company to fund projects so they can perform on the various platforms around the world. We do not charge our dancers for being dancers.
What are the existing barriers, the biggest problem, your innovation is hoping to address/change?
There are so many great potential dancers and choerographers in the world today that cannot afford to show their talents off because of the lack of money they possess. Dance platfroms around the country are expensive to travel to because of the location in the country we are sited.We intend to be able to showcase dancers talents with no or little cost associated with it and invest a lot of time to develop them as individuals.
Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing?
We deliver a regular training/rehearsal schedule that keeps the young people busy once a week after school. These rehearsals are based primarily for the public performance twice a year in front of a local audience. We try to raise funds through our website by the sale of merchandise, sponsorships deals, dance classes and our public performances.We also deliver dance classes to everyone of any age of any ability and we have recently extended this to include singing.
We realise the only way forward is not by begging for money but by going out there and earning it to enable the dancers to perform at international venues.
How do you plan to grow your innovation?
We have recently created voluntary positions within the company that involve the creation and innovation of several projects. One of these projects is aimed at involving a wider part of the community not involved in dance but may have an interest in dance.
We aim to get more people involved within dance by making easier access to our classes by relocating to different premises.
We are also looking at teaching young people to IDTA level.
Impact
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact.
To help provide access to platforms to showcase the talents of young people at little or no cost.
What impact has your innovation had to date/or what is your intended impact? Exactly who are the beneficiaries?
There are several young and inspiring children that have been identifed through the public performances we have undertaken. These children have gained the confidence to enter local and national competitions that otherwise they would not have dreamed to enter. One of the young girl dancers has just won first prize in her dance section at a national competition.
We intend to be able to take these young children to platforms around the country/world to be able to showcase their talents.
The beneficiaries are the young people and the local communities these children come from.
How many people have you served directly?
We serve 20 children directly (auditions) to become company members and another 100 per week through dance and singing classes.
How many people have you served indirectly?
Through our workshops in community schools and public performances these number run into the early thousands.
Please list any other measures reflective of the impact of your innovation?
The dancers become better individuals in society, they become better teachers and cheoregraphers. They also build confidence in live public performances.
What are the main barriers to creating or achieving your impact?
A lot of people in the community require educating in the importance of dance within the area and on how important dance for the young people of today is for local businesses.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)?
We self fund our initiative. We believe that we will not achieve our goals with a begging cap. So we raise funds through our website in selling merchandise. We also provide revenue through the sale of tickets at our twice yearly public performances and workshops in the community. We would love to be able to go that one step further by taking young people to the international dance competitions though sponsorship (of which we lack)
If known, provide information on your finances and organization.
Our 2008 budget expenditure is approximately £14,000 per annum with a budget income of £12,000 (These figures do not include sponsorship or taking the team abroad to the international dance competition)
What is the potential demand for your innovation?
Current interest in our company is increasing as more and more people get to hear about us. Our goals are to be able to reach all four counties of Yorkshire when we grow in size. We currently serve Wakefield and have recenty extended into South Yorkshire.
What are the main barriers to financial sustainability?
To be able to educate people on how important showcasing the talent of our young children of today is and not everything has to be profited on.
The Story
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story.
Louise Wilkins the founder of Dimension Dance was approached by a national rugby team to create a new type of dance team to move away from cheerleading to encourage families to watch rugby.
After three seasons Louise decided to call it a day because it wasn't fun anymore. However we thought the young children we had devloped as dancers would stay with the dance team at the rugby club and not stop dance altogether. Bearing this in mind we had a large number of young people who did not know what to do for their future.
Some of the young children we had developed into cheoregraphing dance routines for the first time in front of ten thousand fans.
Although we were now looking forward in having our weekends back we could not stop thinking about what these children would do now. So we had a decision to make in that we original thought we could put on a production in the following year by auditioning young talent who were serious about their own future. This idea then grew with the involvement of the young people to showcase their talent on a wider scale. Dimension Dance was then born.
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material.
Louise has worked in the industry as a dancer, performer, dance captain and choreographer in various places around the UK. She is IDTA trained and is a qualified teacher in all theatre dance subjects. Louise currently works as a Dance Lecturer at Wakefield College in West Yorkshire.
How did you hear about this contest and what is your main incentive to participate? (this is confidential)
I was contacted via email and pointed towards this competition.
The main incentive is publising what Dimension Dance is all about.
Affiliation (please list all that apply)
Wakefield College kindly offer room hire free of charge.
 | Jasper said: Hey, thanks for the cheerleading answer :). Ziba´s point about sport and film is a good one, I think. It´s not only good for ... about this Competition Entry. - 1498 days ago read more > |
| ziba said: Paul, I love this! I am wondering if and how you guys may have used video to accomplish some of your objectives/ increase your ... about this Competition Entry. - 1513 days ago read more > |
| ziba said: Paul, I love this! I am wondering if and how you guys may have used video to accomplish some of your objectives/ increase your ... about this Competition Entry. - 1513 days ago read more > |
| Dimension dance said: We were very successful in offering the rugby club what they were desperatley looking for. We offered a professional image with young ... about this Competition Entry. - 1513 days ago read more > |
| Jasper said: Hi Paul, good to see you on changemakers! I find that bit about how you grew out of a "let´s come up with a different kind of ... about this Competition Entry. - 1513 days ago read more > |
