DanceSyndrome’s dancers are excited to finally be returning to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this summer after a long break due to Covid.
The DanceSyndrome team are looking forward to performing at TheSpace @ Niddry Street from Thursday 24th August to Saturday 26th August with a completely new performance piece called SENse. Tickets are now available via this Edinburgh Fringe Festival website link.
SENse is a truly inclusive dance performance presented by a team of dancers with and without learning disabilities, who work together to demonstrate the beauty and significance of all movement. The piece is co-produced and co-choreographed by Dance Leaders with learning disabilities working in collaboration with professional Dance Artists, in line with DanceSyndrome’s unique co-delivery model. Together they have considered the idea “In a Big Brother world where it’s easy to feel as though we are constantly being watched, are we ever truly seen?” The performance will explore humanity’s need to be seen, felt and heard through the powerful medium of inclusive dance.
This isn’t the first time that the DanceSyndrome team has performed in Edinburgh. In 2017, the dancers followed their dreams and performed for the first time at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the world’s largest arts festival. This was a huge opportunity for the charity to shine on an international stage and audiences at the festival were surprised and delighted at the passion, energy and ability of the dancers, who have overcome many personal barriers to achieve success. The DanceSyndrome dancers had an amazing experience in Edinburgh, learning lots about the performance industry, including successfully promoting their show, eventually achieving a sold-out audience! The success of the 2017 trip gave the dancers a significant confidence boost and, as a result, they returned in August 2018.
When the pandemic happened, the DanceSyndrome team adapted quickly to offer online dance sessions via Zoom and YouTube. As lockdown easing started to happen, the one opportunity that participants continued to say that they felt that they had really missed out on was performing in Edinburgh. Determined to make this dream a reality, the charity ran a fundraising campaign in December 2022 to raise £10,000 towards the trip.
Sophie Tickle, Artistic Director at DanceSyndrome says “It will be incredible to return to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2023 and present our work after the difficulties of the last few years. People with learning disabilities were hit hardest by the impact of pandemic. Performing at the festival gives our dancers; a platform to create work about issues and themes that matter to them and present them to a wide and eclectic audience; a chance to communicate key messages about inclusion, teamwork, and achievement; and to ensure people with learning disabilities have their voices heard”.
Dance Leader Becky Rich speaks out positively about how having Down’s syndrome does not define her. Talking about previous trips to Edinburgh Becky said “We were very touched by the positive response that we received when handing out our flyers on the Royal Mile to promote our show. Also we had fantastic audiences which made it really special for us as performers and we think we really connected with the audiences in a special way. We all had a very special and fun time in Edinburgh and we really look forward to going back!”
Audience feedback from previous DanceSyndrome performances at Edinburgh Fringe:
If you will be in Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival, you can get tickets for the shows via the Edinburgh Fringe Festival website.
We are still in need of business sponsorship to support the costs associated with making this life-changing opportunity happen. If you or someone you know would like to know more about sponsorship opportunities, please visit the Business Sponsorship page of our website.
If you are inspired by DanceSyndrome and the work we do, please consider donating to support our work, using the form below or visit the Fundraising page of our website for more options.
