Our dancers had an amazing time in Edinburgh and the Fringe Festival feedback was just incredible! We are so proud of this achievement and wanted to share the collection of comments with you in this blog.
Thanks @DanceSyndrome for making me feel so proud. Your hauntingly beautiful show Lit a Drift @edfringe pushed all my emotional buttons. The quality of the company’s work just gets better & better. Love to Jen, Becky, Peter, Sue, Dawn etc ?????????? pic.twitter.com/BUvirc1SSV
— Julie Ward MEP (@julie4nw) August 18, 2018
And you can pay no greater compliment @DanceSyndrome. Stay tuned and take care. https://t.co/olj2hkMWFe
— George Fielding (@GeorgeFielding1) August 18, 2018
I can only hope that one day everyone has the emotional intelligence to attend one of your performances. To all my followers check these guys out. perhaps a subject/guest for @AXSchat #AXSChat #a11y
— Gavin Neate (@gavinneate) August 18, 2018
Wonderful show – follow @DanceSyndrome to keep informed about future performances as sadly last Edinburgh performance today. Don’t miss future opportunities!https://t.co/GOmxfBAFdG
— Susan Harrison (@susanhconsult) August 18, 2018
Absolutely loved it! Memorable and inspiring
— Susan Harrison (@susanhconsult) August 18, 2018
Think I might just have seen my favourite show of the Fringe in @DanceSyndrome’s #litadrift! All members of the troupe have learning difficulties and they have devised a beautiful piece of dance-cum-circus theatre that left me in tears.
.#edfringe #intotheunknown #disability— Henry Parker (@henparks77) August 18, 2018
The first time I saw @DanceSyndrome “Lit aDrift” at @edfringe I thought it was powerful, the second time I realised it was sublime. This organisation doesn’t just need your support it needs your attention as its message is one for us all. #DisabilityInspired #EqualityByDefault pic.twitter.com/MvbdNPX0zc
— Gavin Neate (@gavinneate) August 18, 2018
Show 1. Brilliant start to our #EdFringe2018, Lit Adrift by @DanceSyndrome . Hauntingly beautiful performances by a talented company of an uplifting story of loss, love and life which is relevant to all. Fantastic
— Jan James (@speckledyhen) August 18, 2018
Absolutely stunning performance by @DanceSyndrome at #EdFringe #LitADrift ?????? pic.twitter.com/pCYfb3A8Vg
— Zoë Davis (@zoemedia) August 18, 2018
This morning I saw @DanceSyndrome @edfringe it was so beautiful and moving . Get a ticket to see them utterly wonderful! All the ?? loved it so much . Thank you !
— Ingrid Dahle (@IamIngridDahle) August 16, 2018
Loved it. You guys ROCK. pic.twitter.com/0keO7QHX8X
— Gavin Neate (@gavinneate) August 16, 2018
#ShowShoutOut A stunning, immensely moving, the most beautiful peace of theatre I’ve seen this year at #edfringe2018 #LitADrift Is a true eye opener that anyone can do anything! @DanceSyndrome If you have the time please see this wonderful show! #IntoTheUnknown pic.twitter.com/pCFwaqTQSi
— Larissa Jayne Oates (@LarissaOates3) August 16, 2018
Having just watched @DanceSyndrome perform “Lit aDrift” @edfringe I can say I have never seen a better example of #EqualityByDefault. Truly moved by their performance and the organisations vision. @sueblackwellDS #dance #a11y #equality #talent pic.twitter.com/kTin2i5YQ8
— Gavin Neate (@gavinneate) August 16, 2018
So that’s it…Edinburgh, I have been blessed and you will see me again! Top 3 picks would have to be @TheMilkAndBlood’s #thedip, a riotous comedy caper about a homosexual awakening, @DanceSyndrome’s #litadrift, a beautiful, ethereal dance piece about making connections in life
— Henry Parker (@henparks77) August 26, 2018
Feedback sent via Facebook Message: “Visually, the show was lovely. Elegant, soothing and clear emotions. The combination of able-bodied and disabled performers enhanced all aspects and actually personalised the performances to a greater degree than in an all-able-bodied company. The thing that moved me the most though was the importance of the work your company does. On a fundamental level, the arts should be accessible to all. On a professional level, as a choreographer I could recognise the impressive technique of some Downs performers and it breaks my heart to think that they are unlikely to be accepted into a mainstream company despite their talent and so the opportunities you offer are so important and it makes me angry that traditional training and performance isn’t more inclusive. Keep doing your thing and pushing for visibility and equality!”
Feedback from audience feedback forms completed at Edinburgh Fringe performances in 2018
“Wonderful performance, so much talent!”
“Delighted we were able to come up earlier than planned to see Lit a Drift. A hauntingly, beautiful performance, telling a story of life, loss and love that resonates with everyone.”
“Wonderful performance!”
“That was a very beautiful and thought provoking performance. Thank You”
“The best show I’ve seen!”
“What a brilliant and moving performance. Thank you David for asking us to come! Freda.”
“Fab event. Keep up the excellent work”
“Superb, Stunning. Thank You”
“Stunning, Moving, Exceptional!”
“Amazing!”
“Uplifting”
“Saw it last year and loved it, this year was even better! Made my heart happy! So moving and beautiful, Thank you!”
“I loved the authenticity of the disabled performers and the general ‘what you see is what you get’ presence. I found some of the non disabled performers performances a bit too forced.”
“It was lovely. Well done to all the dancers. Beautiful choreography!”
“I loved this performance. Didn’t want it to end. So absorbing and moved me emotionally. Thank you.”
“Wonderful show, skilled committed ensemble, uplifting and exciting. Loved it”
“Brilliant, Society needs more things like this, this is what makes society better. Loved it so much.”
“Thank you for your work and this very, very touching performance!”
“So moving, just wonderful”
“The performance today was magnificent. A beautiful story, performed with passion and care. So much talent”
“I felt extremely moved by the performance. I loved the story and the meaning behind the routines. You could sense the emotion oozing out from every pore of every dancer.”
“An amazing group of dancers! Would love to see a million times over”
“Fantastic performance! We absolutely loved it!”
“Such a moving dance, amazing”
“Amazing, very special. So pleased to have been here”
“Really moving, beautiful. The disabled woman in the final trio particularly impressed me”
“One of the most beautiful and moving pieces of theatre I have seen. Tells an amazing story and shows the ‘soul’ of all who take part – would be lovely for everyone to see it!!”
“Such an amazing experience, I feel privileged to have been part of the audience, comments I’m hearing all around me are: It’s great, it’s good, excellent, moving, divine, never expected that, wow, so brilliant, fantastic, marvellous, superb, well done, imaginative. so Thank you”
“This was an incredible show performed by incredible people. What a show!”
“Excellent performance! Sitting at the back – perhaps a venue with more “raked” seating next time? Well done!”
” A beautiful and moving piece”
“Fantastic performance, would certainly watch again. Loved it. I see why David enjoyed elicitations”
” I felt positive before but even more so. It was inspiring & thank you to Peter for sharing the show with me and my friends on the train. Let me know anything your doing”
“Beautiful, moving, powerful piece. Inclusion at its very best!”
“Brilliant. Well done”
“Show was moving & fantastic, lovely”
“The show and performers brought me to tears. The skill and focus of the performers was amazing. Everyone should be so proud of their achievements this morning.”
“Excellent, inclusive performance. Choreography V impressive.”
“I was so happy to watch feeling I was seeing a story rather than anything about disability”
“Beautiful performance, nice choreography, we don’t know the english words for it, but we loved it.”
“Amazing performance, emotional, enthralling. A wonderful 50 minutes.”
“Beautiful choreography, evocative music, balanced, creative & thought provoking.”
“Great performance”
“I thought this dance production was worth my trip to Edinburgh. It was outstanding & inspiring V emotional. Thank You.”
“Wow! Absolutely beautiful performance – stunning. Moved to tears – Completely blown away!”
“Very focused – Great show – will come again.”
“Fantastic Performance”
“A stunning performance!!! Really beautiful an eye opener that anyone can do anything!!! Will certainly see a DanceSyndrome show again!!!”
“Absolutely fabulous show. Had me crying throughout. Powerful message. Would come see the show again.”
“It was wonderful so creative and beautiful. I cried from beginning to end. Best thing I have seen at the fringe.”
“Congratulations on a fantastic performance! Thoroughly enjoyable and rewarding.”
“Great performance. I loved it and got very emotional. Please let me know if I can help in any way.”
“Another polished and professional performance – Well done to all dancers. Great story telling & expressivity. Keep dancing you are an inspiration.”
Thank you so much to everyone who came to see the shows for sharing your thoughts with us. Feedback is always really important to us as it helps us to gain funding and create a buzz around our work, but most importantly, it is a real confidence boost for our dancer to know how much you value their work!
The trip to Edinburgh could never have happened without the dedication and hard work of our dancers and supporters, who have provided practical support as well as helping to raise the money to cover the costs of the trip. Please see this blog which thanks everyone who helped us with this amazing achievement!
Dawn Vickers is DanceSyndrome’s Managing Director. She has been the driving force behind the charity since joining in 2014. Dawn is a skilled networker who loves to meet new people and find ways to work in partnership. She is an ambassador for inclusion, supporting people with learning disabilities, helping people to overcome any barriers they face and focusing on their talents and abilities, rather than their disabilities. As well as doing this through her work with DanceSyndrome, she is also a founder director for Spring Into Action and Meet and Match, both organisations supporting people with learning disabilities to live the life that they want to live. Following a recent nomination for the Business Woman Award at the forthcoming EVAs, Dawn blogs about her life with DanceSyndrome.
Having just returned to rainy Lancashire after a brilliant three days at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with our amazing dance team, I’m attempting to focus on writing a few words to sum up what it means to me to be at the helm of DanceSyndrome, this incredible, inspirational and life-changing charity that I’ve been privileged to work with since 2014.
Indeed, it’s been a roller-coaster journey of joy, challenge and rather a lot of dance of course. I love to dance, it makes me feel alive, makes time stand still and makes me want to share the feeling with everyone. My younger brother Craig, who happens to have Down’s syndrome, is a serious ballroom dancer (not like his silly sister who lives to Disco) and has had to put up with me dragging him onto dance floors his whole life. I’ve sung in bands for over 30 years and I know about the art of performance. I’ve worked in business development roles and helped to set up a community interest company of which I’m still a volunteer Director. To say that managing DanceSyndrome ticks all my boxes is a serious understatement, it’s my dream job.
During the first 12 months I spent time learning about the work of the charity and getting to know Sue and Jen Blackwell, mum and daughter team who had founded and built DS since 2009. Their combined passion and energy was infectious, now they needed a cunning plan to take their work further and enable more people to benefit from their original mission and vision – to enable adults with learning disabilities to be leaders, to influence and educate society and to demonstrate inclusion through powerful, professional inclusive dance. That mission has never changed.
Next we needed the right team to make it happen. Enter Sophie Tickle, Lead Artist, an incredible talent and experienced practitioner in the world of inclusive dance. Working alongside Dance Leader and Trustee Peter Pamphlett, our Dance Leader training programme was born – Dance By Example – and made available to adults with learning disabilities who wanted to learn how to lead, teach and design inclusive dance activity. A team of Dance Leaders grew and before long weekly dance sessions sprang up in community venues across Lancashire and Greater Manchester, co-delivered by Dance Leaders and a growing team of freelance Dance Artists. Everyone was welcomed to join in, hence we named our project work Everybody Dance. And everybody did, from all backgrounds, with all levels of ability but with the commonality that they loved to dance.
Now we were starting to get busy! Sarah Calderbank joined us to take over our PR, marketing and social media. I applied everywhere for funding, had many rejections and learnt some tough lessons. But then we were incredibly fortunate to receive 3 years of funding from Spirit of 2012. What a springboard that turned out to be! We were able to develop our work locally and engage more people by delivering outreach dance sessions in schools, hospitals, community centres, day centres, care homes, Colleges, Universities – the list went on. We gained funding from Arts Council England to further develop our contemporary dance performance work, which we performed locally and then at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2017 to great acclaim. In 2017 we gained funding from Big Lottery Reaching Communities, to enable us to work with partners in other areas of the UK, testing a social replication model over a three-year period. This was an exciting development, we were starting to get lots of interest in our work and requests to work with organisations across the UK. We needed to find a way too do this without losing focus on the people we were working with locally and now we had a funded project in place to enable this to happen.
Our Dance Leaders were growing in confidence and as such their individual skills, talents and assets were beginning to surface. They were invited to speak at conferences across the UK, Jen Blackwell won Inspirational Woman of the Year in the Enterprise Vision Awards 2015, Becky Rich won Volunteer of the Year in the Lancashire County Council Pride Awards 2016. The Dance Leader Team won The Sporting Chance Awards 2016. DanceSyndrome won Charity of the Year in the Red Rose Awards 2017 and Charity of the Year in the E3 North West Business Awards 2018!
Our board of trustees has changed and grown too, with experts joining our team to help us achieve our mission and vision. More volunteers joined our ranks to help us fundraise. The future is looking good!
And so, in summary. I’m so very proud and privileged. The Dance Leaders drive the work of the charity and I try my very best to keep up with them. They let me know in no uncertain terms if I’m lagging behind! And when my energy fails as it does sometimes after the endless admin, managing, planning and organising that goes with the territory, then this dancing family gets me back on my toes every time.
Anyone for the Macarena?
Dawn is a finalist for the Business Woman Award at the Enterprise Vision Awards. You can vote for her by visiting the EVAs voting page: www.evasvoting.co.uk/business-woman-award
DanceSyndrome Managing Director Dawn Vickers has been recognised with an award nomination!
Dawn has been shortlisted as a finalist for the Business Woman award at the 2018 Enterprise Vision Awards!
Dawn has been the driving force behind DanceSyndrome since 2014 and has had a huge impact on the direction the charity has taken. She has a great business mind and has had several successes at generating funding for the charity, gaining £200,000 from Spirit of 2012 in 2016 and £160,000 from Big Lottery Fund in 2017. Dawn is a skilled networker who loves to meet new people and find ways to work in partnership.
The thing that often sets Dawn apart from other business women is that she is an ambassador for inclusion, supporting people with learning disabilities to live the life that they want to live, helping people to overcome any barriers they face and focusing on their talents and abilities, rather than their disabilities. This has been a lifelong commitment for Dawn; her brother has Down’s syndrome and she has always been involved in championing people with learning disabilities.
As well as working with DanceSyndrome, Dawn is a founder director for Spring Into Action, set up in 2012, who support adults with learning disabilities to participate in a variety of inclusive sports activities and she has also recently taken on the management of a dating service for people with learning disabilities called Meet and Match. In all of these activities, Dawn is obviously in the right job, she has real talent for putting people at ease, improving their confidence and aspirations and making dreams come true – this month she is in Edinburgh supporting the dancers to perform at the prestigious Edinburgh Fringe Festival. When Dawn isn’t working, she can be found drumming or singing in various bands across the North West.
DanceSyndrome Project Co-ordinator, Sarah Calderbank, said “We are so grateful to work with Dawn, she is an inspiring lady who goes out of her way to make life better for every person that she meets. We’re very proud that she has been nominated for the Business Woman Award and we are certain that everyone who knows Dawn will think she deserves to win this!”
Dawn said “I feel really honoured to have been nominated for this award. DanceSyndrome is a wonderful organisation and I strongly believe in our mission to empower and include people. Hopefully this award nomination will highlight the wonderful work that we do and encourage more people to get involved!”
The Enterprise Vision Awards take place on Friday 28th September 2018 at the Blackpool Winter Gardens.
Please vote for Dawn to win the Business Woman Award at:
https://evasvoting.co.uk/business-woman-award/
The DanceSyndrome team feel very fortunate to have been able to return to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2018 and couldn’t have done this without the help of many dedicated supporters.
We would like to express our thanks to the following people:
Our sponsors Empower Housing Association, please visit their website www.empowerhousing.org.uk for more information.
Special thanks to Razamataz Merchandise for providing DanceSyndrome’s branded clothing.
Our wonderful fundraising volunteers who have helped our campaign to be so much more of a success than we ever hoped it could be! Also, to everyone who donated or sponsored our volunteers. It’s not too late to recognise their efforts, if you would like to sponsor them, please visit our Just Giving page.
Ruth Spencer and the UCLAN Dance Department for their help with the preview show.
Ben and all the team at Plungington Community Centre for supporting our rehearsal process.
Thanks so much to Liam Armson for his lovely documentary about our rehearsal process and preparations for the Fringe. So much goes on behind the scenes of an inclusive dance company that you don’t see by watching a performance alone and we think that Liam has captured it perfectly.
Charles Pamment and theSpace UK team for all their support and for making us feel so welcome this week.
Thank you to our audience members, without you there would not be a show!
Finally, thank you to our “dancing family”, our team members, volunteers, trustees, patrons and our families and friends whose continued support makes it possible for us to follow our dreams! We couldn’t achieve so much without you!
We have loved working on Lit aDrift and are looking forward to our next challenge! Keep an eye on our Facebook and Twitter pages to find out what that will be!
DanceSyndrome is taking its latest performance piece to this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival thanks to financial support from Chorley based business Empower Housing Association.
In 2017, the DanceSyndrome team performed their debut performance at the Edinburgh Fringe after a successful fundraising campaign to fund the trip. The performances were so successful and got such an amazing response from the audiences that the dancers wanted to return in 2018.
In order for the 2018 trip to be successful, DanceSyndrome needed sponsorship from a local business with similar objectives. Empower Housing Association are specialists in providing homes for people with disabilities and it was felt that the two organisations’ core ideas were a perfect match; both focus on equality for people with disabilities and believe that disability should not present barriers to living a full life. Empower Housing Association wanted to support DanceSyndrome to take those core values to a bigger audience on an international stage, so they decided to sponsor the trip to Edinburgh.
As a result of the sponsorship and other fundraising efforts, DanceSyndrome has been able to confirm a slot at the Fringe Festival and will be performing “Lit aDrift” on Thursday 16th, Friday 17th and Saturday 18th August at The Space at Surgeons Hall. This expands on last year’s performances, providing an extra date, something which the dancers specifically asked for because they enjoyed the experience so much last year. Performance is a vital way for the dancers to communicate key messages about inclusion, teamwork and achievement, as well as challenging audience perceptions about people with learning disabilities, so they love to have as many opportunities to perform as possible!
DanceSyndrome Managing Director, Dawn Vickers, said “We are thrilled to have found an inclusive organisation like Empower Housing Association to support our trip to Edinburgh and really appreciate this type of support from local businesses. We are so excited at the prospect of returning to the Edinburgh Fringe with a brand new performance piece specifically developed for the festival. We are sure that the audience will be surprised and delighted at the passion, energy and ability of this incredible group of dancers who have overcome many personal barriers to achieve their potential.”
For more information about DanceSyndrome’s trip to Edinburgh, please visit our events page.
If you would like to donate to the campaign, please visit our Just Giving page.
DanceSyndrome wins Charity of the Year at the E3 Awards
DanceSyndrome has been named “Charity of the Year” at the 2018 E3 Business Awards. The event took place on 12th July at the Macron Stadium in Bolton.
The chairty faced strong competition from not-for-profit organisations from across the North West. The award was presented by Azhar Iqbal representing the award sponsor Colne Tyre Centre.
Receiving the award, DanceSyndrome Founder, Jen Blackwell said: “I’m thrilled and amazed to received this award! Dancing is my life and my passion and I’m so grateful for the opportunity to follow my dreams with DanceSyndrome and inspire others to do the same.”
Speaking on behalf of 1 Events Media, the host and organiser of the awards, Managing Director Mubarak Chati said: “The E3 Awards have always been about more than just commercial success; they celebrate the impact that enterprise has on lives and communities across the North West. DanceSyndrome is a fine example of that enterprising spirit and it’s right that its commitment should be recognised.
“DanceSyndrome can be very proud of its achievement. Competition this year was exceptionally fierce; so much so that we felt we had to increase the number of shortlisted candidates in several categories. To come away with a win in 2018 meant proving an extraordinary commitment, and that is exactly what DanceSyndrome did.” ”
Speaking on behalf of the DanceSyndrome, Managing Director, Dawn Vickers said: “We are so proud to have won this award! We hope that this award will introduce us to even more people who believe that inclusion is a fundamental human right for everyone and want to support our ground-breaking work to enable more learning-disabled adults to realise their dreams and ambitions.”
You can read more about other awards that DanceSyndrome has won on the Accolades page of our website.
More information about the E3 Business Awards, including a full list of winners, can be found at www.e3businessawards.co.uk
Wednesday 11th July saw the exclusive preview performance of DanceSyndrome’s new Edinburgh Fringe performance piece Lit aDrift.
Our dancers were thrilled to perform in front of a packed audience at The Media Factory in Preston. It turns out the audience we’re equally thrilled to be there! The feedback that we have had from the performance has been incredible and we wanted to share it with you ahead of next month’s Edinburgh Fringe performances.
As part of her role as an Ambassador for DanceSyndrome, dancer Becky Rich invited the Mayor of Preston to come along to see the performance. After the show, the Mayor and Mayoress visited the dressing room to talk to the dancers. The Mayor gave a heartfelt speech that really meant a lot to our dancers:
Aside from this lovely feedback from the Mayor, our audience members were asked to tell us what they thought of this premiere performance. Here are some of their comments:
“A magnificent first performance provoking my emotions of sadness and joy.”
“Wow! I cried, smiled, felt sad, felt happy, amazing group and performance.”
“Wonderful, uplifting and thought provoking. Very talented performers.”
“This was a very moving piece. The tone of the dancers was especially impressive.”
“The most amazing experience ever. What a fabulous performance of interaction, talent and a very touching group of dancers.”
“Beautiful. Great performance – could have watched it again!”
“Ability rather than disability. Amazing!”
“I am lucky enough to see DanceSyndrome perform each week where I work but it was a totally different experience to see it live in situ. Wonderful.”
“Excellent performance of a very high standard. Well done!”
“Amazing story and great performance.”
“So impressive. Lead was fantastic but everyone’s roles/characters and skills were splendid. Choreography so inclusive and impressive.”
“Inspirational! Amazing dancers, such commitment , enjoyment and ability to express the messages in Lit aDrift. I have been honoured to watch tonight’s performance and would love to see more. Thank you!”
“Beautiful, clever, most emotional performance. Excellent.”
“Stunning, true integration, loved it”
“Ability not disability! Beautiful!”
“Honestly the most beautiful thing I’ve seen. Can’t put into words how moved I am by that performance. Just wow!”
“It was absolutely amazing it blew me away and brought me to tears. So emotional.”
If you would like to experience the beauty and power of Lit aDrift, you can join us at the 2018 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Our 2018 Edinburgh Fringe Festival performances are funded solely through the fundraising efforts of volunteers and through business sponsorship. If you would like to donate to the fundraising campaign, please visit our Just Giving page.
In 2018, DanceSyndrome has been fortunate to be able to 
celebrate our 5th anniversary of being a registered charity. As part of our celebrations we are sharing memories and highlights from those 5 years to demonstrate how far we have come in that time, and how much potential there is for the future.
But to only celebrate those 5 years would mean leaving out a significant part of DanceSyndrome’s history and the foundations for our future success. Prior to 2013 when we received charitable status, there had been 4 years of hard work, investment and dedication from those people who have been with us since the very start of our journey, so we just want to acknowledge the impact that those early years had on the shape of the organisation we all know and love today!
Here is a brief history of the early years before DanceSyndrome became a registered charity.
DanceSyndrome Founder Jen Blackwell happens to have Down’s syndrome. She went to a mainstream high school and when leaving school in 1999 she was determined that she wanted to turn her passion for dance into a career as a community dance leader.
With the support of her parents Sue and Malcolm, Jen embarked on what would eventually become a 10 year search for the right training and opportunities to enable her to follow her dream. It became apparent that nobody was offering exactly what Jen needed – an inclusive structured opportunity spanning several years where she could be treated as an equal whilst still having the appropriate support that she needed as the result of her disability. As they searched fruitlessly, it became clear that Jen wasn’t the only person looking for such opportunities.
With the support of her parents, Jen formed the dance company DanceSyndrome in 2009 and it was officially constituted and registered as a limited company. Funding applications were made to several organisations, including Awards for All. The following year Jen advertised for dancers and got over 100 enquiries! Now she was in control! She selected 14 dancers to work with, half of whom had learning disabilities. Together they learned how to communicate through inclusive dance, meeting once a month for a full day rehearsal in Manchester.
2011 was a fundamental part of the story as this is when DanceSyndrome began to trial its unique delivery style of a Dance Leader with a learning disability co-leading with the support of a professional Dance Artist. In their monthly dance development sessions, the dancers worked hard to develop a toolbox of delivery techniques so that any Dance Leader could successfully work with any Dance Artist, enabling everyone to be included and everyone was given the opportunity to lead. Funded by an Awards for All grant, more than 70 workshops were delivered in this way and this unique, empowering, inclusive style of delivery is something that has been fundamental to our later success.
This theme continued into 2012, when the group had a strong leadership training focus. Jen invited inclusive Dance Artist Rachel Liggitt to work with the dancers to deliver dance skills and inclusive dance leader training. Inclusive leadership training has gone on to be one of our flagship services and is now the focus of our current Big Lottery funded project, with a view to extending this offer across the UK in the future, so this point in time was crucial to the way DanceSyndrome moved forward.
2012 also saw the first regular inclusive community dance workshops delivered by DanceSyndrome’s newly trained Dance Leaders. With funding from Lancashire County Council, these were delivered in Kirkham and Fylde and Wyre on a weekly basis for over a year.
The final piece of the DanceSyndrome puzzle also fell into place in 2012. The core performance team was working hard to deliver high quality performance pieces and during this year they gave high profile performances at the Lowry and the Manchester day parade. Part of the success of the performance team came through the recognition at this time that several members of the team benefitted from working in much smaller groups. This led to the development of some duet and quartet performance pieces which not only expanded DanceSyndrome’s repertoire and performance potential but also provided vital personal and professional development opportunities for the dancers who were involved. Again, this change in approach has heavily influenced the way that DanceSyndrome works with our performance artists today.
As you can see from this brief history of those early days of DanceSyndrome, a lot of really important foundations were laid in this time and the future success of DanceSyndrome as a charity has certainly been the result of the input of so many people who gave up their time, resources and money in those early days, so we really must thank all of those people!
If you are inspired by the story of how DanceSyndrome has grown and evolved, there are lots of ways you can contribute to the future of our charity. We are always looking for volunteers who can make a contribution, whether that is as support in workshops, as a member of our performance team, filming or photographing performances and events, or in an administrative role. You can find out more on the Volunteers page of our website.
We also need charity fundraisers and donations to enable us to continue to fund the work that we do. You can find out more on our Just Giving page.
Jen Blackwell, DanceSyndrome founder, honoured by The National Lottery on ITV primetime TV
The National Lottery’s ‘Big Surprise’ – which honours the individuals who have made a real difference with the help of National Lottery funding – made a dream come true for our Founder Jen Blackwell!
The ‘Big Surprise’ is a 90-second weekly slot during the ad break of Saturday night primetime ITV shows – meaning Jen achieved national recognition with around 5 million people tuning in.
Jen founded DanceSyndrome in 2009 and we achieved charitable status in 2013. We offer dance leadership training so that people with and without learning disabilities can work together to become dance leaders, with a focus on unlocking their talents and focusing on their abilities, rather than their disabilities. We also offer inclusive dance workshops in community venues across Lancashire and Greater Manchester which are co-led by the dance leaders who complete this unique training. Our dancers also perform at special events across the UK, with the challenging perceptions of disability.
For Jen’s ‘Big Surprise’, The National Lottery arranged for her to meet her hero, Alexandra Burke, at the world-famous Pineapple Dance Studios in London and perform her own specially choreographed dance to the singer’s hit record, ‘Hallelujah!’ The National Lottery filmed the heart-warming results.
Jen said: “I just can’t put into words how I felt. It was just amazing – I was totally lost for words. It was most definitely big hugs all around! I love Alexandra and have always admired her. She is such a fantastic inspiration.”
She continued, “It was incredible to be able to perform for her at Pineapple Dance Studios – something which was totally beyond my wildest dreams. I cannot thank The National Lottery enough, it has literally been a once in a lifetime experience for me and something I will never, ever forget.”
With a little help from her favourite dancing hero @alexandramusic, we gave Jen Blackwell, founder of #NationalLottery funded @DanceSyndrome, the surprise of her life for all her hard work. pic.twitter.com/l5ku4YOTFk
— The National Lottery (@TNLUK) June 7, 2018
Jen’s ‘Big Surprise’ aired on ITV and STV at 8.15pm during ITV’s primetime Saturday night TV schedule. ‘The Big Surprise’ is the continuation of the return of The National Lottery results to primetime TV and will celebrate and showcase National Lottery funded heroes like Jen from across the UK.
Players raise on average over £30m for National Lottery-funded projects every week across the arts, sports, heritage, health, education, environment, charity and voluntary sectors. In the constituency of Hyndburn, where the DanceSyndrome office is based, over 600 individual National Lottery grants have been allocated which have amounted to around £21 million of funding.
In 2017 DanceSyndrome was awarded £160,000 of National Lottery funding to expand our Everybody Dance programme in Oldham and Beeston. Everybody Dance will engage people with learning disabilities in dance workshops that aim to improve self-esteem, health and social skills whilst reducing isolation. Participants help design and develop the sessions, can gain leadership qualifications and jointly run their own workshops. Outreach taster sessions and performances will inspire people with or without disabilities and change perceptions of disability within the communities of Oldham and Beeston.
You can also see some extended footage about the Big Surprise here:
If you would like to know more about the ongoing work that DanceSyndrome does, you can sign up for our quarterly email. If you are interested in joining us or working with us, please get in touch with us via info@dancesyndrome.co.uk
If you would like to know more about the Big Surprise, or the National Lottery please visit www.national-lottery.co.uk
Sarah Calderbank (pictured second from right at a fundraising event for DanceSyndrome) is the Project Coordinator for DanceSyndrome’s Spirit of 2012 funded project. She has been involved with the charity since 2014, initially as a volunteer before being employed in 2015. Sarah’s role involves promoting the charity and recruiting people to our workshops and training courses, as well as organising and attending performance at events. Here she writes about the significant role that volunteers play in driving small charities forward.
I’ve written in blogs before about the significant impact that volunteers have on small charities like DanceSyndrome. In particular there is a blog I wrote last year about the big impact of small acts of Micro-volunteering and another that Dance Leader Helen Shepherd wrote about how she personally benefited from starting a volunteering role.
As part of Volunteers Week 2018, I wanted to go into more detail about the impact that volunteers have on DanceSyndrome’s work. In the last 12-28 months this is something that I have become more and more aware of as our work has evolved and expanded in ways that we wouldn’t have thought possible when I first started working with DanceSyndrome in 2015!
Of course, it has always been clear to us that volunteers are fundamental to the work we do. Like all charities we have a board of Trustees and four Patrons who all volunteer their time and expertise to help keep the charity running on a day to day basis. Similarly, our core company of performance artists is comprised of volunteers who dedicate a lot of time and effort into rehearsing and performing our contemporary dance performance pieces. The families and carers of our Dance Leaders must also be recognised for their unfailing commitment to our work and going above and beyond to help with organising events, providing feedback and ideas and fundraising to keep our work happening. Together they have formed the DanceSyndrome Select Team and they hold regular meetings to discuss the ways that they would like to see our charity progress and evolve. They really are incredibly dedicated!
The hard work of this group of volunteers was recognised in 2016 when the team was awarded the Sporting Chance Award at the national Learning Disability and Autism Awards (and in 2017 they performed at the Awards event!) Dance Leader Becky Rich was awarded the Volunteer of the Year Award at the 2016 Pride Awards and Dance Leader Anna James recently won the Student Volunteer of the Year Award at the UCLan Centre for Volunteering and Community Leadership (CVCL) Awards in May 2018! We are so proud that our volunteers have gained this recognition and also incredibly grateful for the awareness that they raise for our charity through winning these awards.
Without this level of commitment from these volunteers, the last year would have looked very different for DanceSyndrome. In August 2017, our dancers made their debut performance at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, a dream come true for our Dance Leaders, Dance Artists and support staff alike! Those performances created a sense of pride and achievement, a demonstration of professionalism and provided a whole new learning experience for every member of our team and we are all very proud of this achievement and thankful for the amazing opportunity.
This opportunity would never have become a reality without the hard work of many dedicated volunteers. The performance and all related expenses were funded through donations from the public, which were generated by several volunteers who organised fundraising events and sponsored activities and generated an unprecedented amount of funds, way beyond what we expected at the start of the campaign (more details on this blog thanking people for their contributions).
The performances were also more successful than anticipated, drawing audiences much larger than expected, purely thanks to the volunteers who went out on the streets of Edinburgh to promote the show and talk to the public about our work. Volunteer Dance Leader Becky Rich even gave a journalist an interview stood in the middle of the Royal Mile!
(Image: Becky is interviewed in Edinburgh by a journalist from “Humans of the Fringe“)
"I'm from DanceSyndrome. This year we are putting a show on for the Orbit tour. It represents everything like…
Posted by Humans of the Fringe on Sunday, 13 August 2017
This success is something we are hoping to replicate this year with a return to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Again, we are relying on volunteers to fundraise for the trip to be a success and, again, we are overwhelmed by their efforts! So far we have had an amazing team of volunteers running 10k and marathon races, Dance Leader Anna walked the Preston Guild Wheel, our Admin team and their families did a sponsored walk, Dance Leader Pauline did a sponsored swim and Pauline’s family also organised a fundraising film screening of last year’s Edinburgh show (highlights of which are in the video below). They are all doing amazing fundraising work and you can keep up to date with the progress towards our £10,000 target on our Just Giving page.
I’m sure you agree that the work our volunteers do is incredible and that their achievements are amazing! We really couldn’t manage without the time and effort that they give to us. If you are inspired as much as we are and would like more information about how you can volunteer with DanceSyndrome please get in touch by emailing info@dancesyndrome.co.uk or you can download a fundraising pack for some ideas about how you can help us.
Here are the highlights of the 2017 performances in Edinburgh. We can achieve amazing things with the help of volunteers!
