DanceSyndrome’s inspiring work was recognised at the Red Rose Awards, where the charity was chosen as the winner of this year’s Not-For-Profit Award.
The awards, which took place on Thursday 9th March at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool, exist to celebrate excellence in business in the Lancashire area and are organised by Lancashire Business View magazine.
DanceSyndrome was nominated for the Not-For-Profit Award and members of the team were interviewed by the judging panel in early February. The award was designed to celebrate not-for-profit public and private sector organisations that demonstrate support and development of their workforce including commitment to skills, flexible working, team building and sharing successes.
The DanceSyndrome team were delighted to attend the Awards night, where a total of 25 awards were presented on the night, to all types of businesses, from retail, to skills and training, to property, and everything in between! The team was absolutely thrilled when they were announced as the winners of their award!
The judges’ comments, which were read out on the night, stated “DanceSyndrome is a truly inspirational and passionate business which is changing lives. They can clearly be seen going the extra mile and, with franchise aspirations, this business model could change many more lives for the future.”
DanceSyndrome Managing Director Dawn Vickers said “We are so proud to be chosen as winners of the Not-For-Profit Award! The other organisations who were nominated all do really valuable and important work, so we feel truly honoured to be chosen as the winner! It is a real privilege for DanceSyndrome to be recognised in the company of so many excellent organisations from across the county. We hope to be able to build on this success and enable even more people to join us and be inspired to follow their dreams, whether that is in dance or other areas.”
The award win got a great response on Twitter – check out our Twitter page!
If you would like more information about any of DanceSyndrome’s activities, please contact the team via email at info@dancesyndrome.co.uk
Sue Blackwell, DanceSyndrome Co-Founder and Trustee, helped set up the charity with her daughter Jen, who happens to have Down’s syndrome. Jen was unable to find suitable training to help her pursue her dream of a career in community dance, so DanceSyndrome was developed to help Jen and others like her who didn’t want their disabilities to stop them from following their dreams.
Here Sue writes, whilst on holiday in Ragusa, Sicily, about how her life has changed now that Jen is more independent and how they have both realised the value of having good friends to support them along the way.
“How unbelievable. Here I sit in paradise with no responsibilities, other than to myself. It is so unreal. I feel as if I should pinch myself every morning to check that it’s not some kind of dream that is about to be shattered. But no. I’m aware of the comings and goings of others but they don’t have a clue what I’m up to unless they put themselves out to come and see me. Perfect.
The mix of people in Ragusa is wonderful. People from all walks of life with every socio-economic demographic represented and it makes for great socialising! I’ve never been part of anything remotely like it. I am so unbelievably privileged not only to be here supported and welcomed by a lovely community, but most of all to be able to be free and be my own person. That’s what’s so incredible. Jen really doesn’t want me cramping her style and getting in the way. I’ll probably ask awkward questions and have unreasonable expectations!
I stopped being Jen’s main carer only 4 years ago. In that time she’s blossomed into a person in her own right though I certainly recognise that there will always be crunch points, times when she falls off her tightrope and we need to get creative to arrest her fall into the abyss. She continues to be her own worst enemy in many respects, but with the right mix of people in her life, it’s been shown without doubt that she can thrive, be her own person, live life as an independent person (perceived), be respected and valued for who she is, use her talents and assets in a way that is setting the world alight, she has real friends who will stand by her when the chips are down and fathom a way through, but most importantly, she’s happier and more fulfilled than she’s ever been. How many parents with offspring with learning disabilities can say that? And how fantastic! Long may it last!!
My closest friends have played their parts in being there for Jen, in supporting her on her journey, and being there for me. Without their support I would not have had shoulders to cry on, and I’ve certainly needed those. They’ve seen a lot of the grief and the trauma probably much too close up and personal, and I am indebted to them for putting up with that. At those times when there was no clarity, no path to tread, and seemingly no one remotely interested in helping I felt so helpless. On many an occasion I’ve had no idea which way to turn or what to do for best. Cups of tea help, but mostly time to speak freely without fear of retribution. That’s what makes a real friend. I owe them so much, much more than they will ever know. The joy of friendship is unquantifiable. I only hope that one day I can repay them, even if only half as much. They are a rock for me, a rock I will treasure for ever. I must say “Thank you from the bottom of my heart”.”
Jen herself spoke recently at an event in City Hall, London, about how DanceSyndrome has changed her life, giving her a voice to be heard, making her feel valued and respected and enabling her to form true friendships for the first time in her life.
Social inclusion and building relationships is a vital outcome of the work that DanceSyndrome does. If you would like to get involved with our work, we are always looking for more volunteers and you can find out more on the Become a Volunteer page of our website.
We also need donations to help us to continue to provide workshops, training and outreach work in Lancashire and other parts of the UK. All donations make a difference to small charities and we are grateful for all your support! There are many ways to donate. You can donate via Just Giving, Local Giving, Paypal or by text – Text “DANS10 £5” (or the amount of your choice) to 70070
DanceSyndrome is taking its latest performance piece “Orbit” to this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival!
DanceSyndrome will be performing “Orbit” at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival on Monday 14th and Tuesday 15th August at The Space at Surgeons Hall.
Orbit was produced in 2016 as part of an Arts Council funded project. DanceSyndrome’s dancers worked with respected choreographer Aya Kobayashi and inclusive practitioner Rachel Liggitt to develop a stunning collection of creative group performances, duets and solo pieces, all inspired by the dancers’ relationships with nature and the solar system. The audience feedback from performances in early 2017 was incredibly positive and encouraged the charity to look for bigger performance opportunities, such as the Edinburgh Fringe.
Wow the Premier performance of #Orbit by @DanceSyndrome tonight was totally magic! next performance details https://t.co/5SGZUS74hB
— Jane Fox (@Fired4u) November 18, 2016
https://twitter.com/DIsabilityNW/status/799720794335092736
This was absolutely brilliant. Well done @SophieTickle_ and @DanceSyndrome . One to follow @wheelchairdancr and @GlosDance https://t.co/gDmDAxOUMR
— Jeff Fletcher (@Jefflet) February 3, 2017
Utterly moved by the performance by these guys. The world needs examples of inclusion & respect more than ever https://t.co/79U4CXbBPK
— Grace Dyke (@grace0103) February 6, 2017
The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is the largest arts festival in the world and takes place every August for three weeks. The festival caters for everyone, from big name entertainers to emerging performers, and covers all sorts of art forms such as theatre, comedy, children’s shows, dance, physical theatre, musicals, operas, all genres of music, exhibitions, street performers and events.
A performance at such a well respected and well attended event is a great opportunity for DanceSyndrome. 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.
DanceSyndrome Managing Director, Dawn Vickers, said “We have been overwhelmed by the success of our Orbit project and we are so proud of what our dancers have achieved with this amazing performance piece! We are absolutely thrilled at the prospect of taking the show to the Edinburgh Fringe and we really hope that this new 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.”
To enable the dancers to make the trip to Edinburgh, DanceSyndrome need your help with our 2017 fundraising appeal. If you have any great ideas for fundraising and would like to get involved, please contact the DanceSyndrome team on 07597 942494, email info@dancesyndrome.co.uk or via the fundraising page on our website. Anyone who wants to donate to the campaign can donate via Just Giving.
We also have a range of sponsorship opportunities available to businesses who want to support us. If you are interested in helping DanceSyndrome, please get in touch via info@dancesyndrome.co.uk
Watch this space for information about purchasing tickets for the shows!
Here is a taste of one of the performance pieces that makes Orbit so special:
DanceSyndrome supporter and local businessman Colin Mather has signed up to run a half marathon at the Run Wigan Festival 2017, to support the charity’s 2017 fundraising appeal.
Colin aged 63 from Wigan, has been supporting DanceSyndrome for the last 5 years. Colin, pictured left with DanceSyndrome Founder Jen Blackwell, owns Harmony Blinds, a local company who have manufactured and supplied window blinds across the borough and beyond for over two decades.
As a volunteer for DanceSyndrome, Colin has been a regular face at the Rose Club, Hindley for many years, where he goes to see friends each week who participate in the inclusive dance sessions held there. Not only does his enthusiasm and encouragement add to everyone’s enjoyment but he also donated funds to keep the session going until DanceSyndrome secured funding last year. Now Colin decided he would like to do something a bit more challenging to help to raise money and awareness for the charity!
When asked why he chose to support DanceSyndrome Colin said “I’ve seen at firsthand how much enjoyment and benefit people get from DanceSyndrome. Also as a small charity, I know that any funds I can raise will make a significant difference.”
The HW Moon Toyota Wigan Half Marathon takes place in Wigan on 19th March 2017 and Colin is aiming to raise £500 for DanceSyndrome and he hopes to make people more aware of the work that the charity does.
If you would like to support Colin, you can donate online via DanceSyndrome’s Just Giving page.
Do you love running, jogging or walking?
Do you want raise money for DanceSyndrome?
On Sunday 28th May 2017 we need you!
The Great Manchester Run is happening in Manchester city centre we are looking for individuals or small groups to take part on behalf of DanceSyndrome.
If you have always wanted to take part in a large sporting event now is your chance, you can walk or run the 10 km (6.2 mile) course and raise money for a great cause while you are doing it.
DanceSyndrome will cover the cost of entry, and provide a t-shirt to run in, for 20 individuals who can commit to raising £100 or more for the charity.
If you are interested or would like more information, please email info@dancesyndrome.co.uk
Sue Blackwell is a Trustee at DanceSyndrome and co-founded the charity with her daughter Jen in 2009. The charity was started because Jen, who happens to have Down’s syndrome, was unable to find suitable dance training for a person with a learning disability and many other people were in the same situation. Sue has been there every step of the way as DanceSyndrome has developed and grown and she is incredibly proud of what the charity has achieved in recent years.
Sue wrote the following feedback in response to DanceSyndrome’s second performance of “Orbit” at The Met, Bury on Monday 23rd January:
I’m just back from the second performance of Orbit, DanceSyndrome’s Arts Council funded project and wanted to share my thoughts with you.
I’m no dancer, but it’s amazing in so many ways, not least the way that it has each and every member of the audience mesmerised and engaged in the ebb and flo of the action, from calm to energetic to dynamic or reflective. You could have heard the proverbial pin drop, such was the engagement of every member of the diverse audience. It was interesting that over half the audience had learning disabilities and all were bound up in the spell of the dance so at no time was I aware of a rustle or sound or movement either voluntary or involuntary.
Orbit has evolved so much since it premiered in November, it’s almost a different piece. The complexity, the intricacy and connections between every dancer are yet more amazing, more personal, more committed and confident. The dancers adapted perfectly to the different space, constraining movements where necessary and showing their ability to be adaptable and professional dancers.
So, very, very many thanks to all the dancers.
Through their actions these guys are living proof of their right to be treated as equal citizens and afforded opportunities in the same way the rest of the population takes for granted. There are not lesser mortals, just different with differing needs and abilities from which all in society can learn, benefit and embrace. Together the dancers are demonstrably one organic body each entitled to be an individual but equally to converse with any number of others, and always coming together at the end as one complete whole.
To Sophie Tickle, our incredible Lead Artist, I must say this: You are achieving wonders, more than any training, college course, counselling, therapy will ever deliver.
I would love to find a way to portray the enormity of this journey. It is being filmed, and we are looking forward to having some great quality footage that we can share, but that in itself will never convey the atmosphere and the focus that every dancer brings to their performance in that moment. We now need more people to see our work and to understand the power in what we do. Our next challenge is to make DanceSyndrome more visible and to start performing at more high profile events – our dancers have proven they are more than capable of achieving this!
The final performance of Orbit is taking place at St Helens Library on Friday 3rd February and tickets are available from https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dancesyndrome-orbit-tickets-27931400571
Peter is a volunteer Dance Leader with DanceSyndrome and has recently taken on an administration role too, helping with our social media, collating research data and helping around the office. He has been heavily involved with DanceSyndrome since the very early days and he tries to join in with all aspects of our work, so we thought he was the perfect person to write a regular blog for DanceSyndrome! You can find out more about Peter in his case study https://dancesyndrome.co.uk/peters-story/
Here is Peter’s blog about his activity with DanceSyndrome in November.
18th November 2016
I travelled to Preston to the practice for the Orbit show that night. We rehearsed it 5 times. Then it come to show time, we had 41 people come and watch us! When we had finished the performance everyone was saying how wonderful and professional it was. We were all tired and in high spirits after the performance.
Image: Peter (right) performing a trio piece with David Darcy (centre) and David Corr (left) at the Preston performance of Orbit. Thank you to Simon Rich for the image.
Here are some of the great feedback we got about the show:
Wow the Premier performance of #Orbit by @DanceSyndrome tonight was totally magic! next performance details https://t.co/5SGZUS74hB
— Jane Fox (@Fired4u) November 18, 2016
https://twitter.com/DIsabilityNW/status/799720794335092736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
22nd November 2016
I travelled down to Preston to run the Dance by Example training course with Sophie. We did a few exercises, one with a chair and a scarf and the other was a museum exercise which worked well with the group. Then I got my train back to go and do my social night, where I DJ.
23rd November 2016
I travel to Preston to do our dance development day. It was a relaxing session because we work very hard on the Orbit show.
29th November 2016
I travel down to Preston to run the Dance by Example training course. We did some group work and we recapped everything we covered in the last couple of months.
If you didn’t make it to the Preston performance of Orbit, there are more shows coming in the new year. Click here for more details about how to get tickets. If you would like a taste of what the show is like, visit our YouTube channel for some brief clips.
Thank you for all your support in 2016! It has been an amazing year for us!
We will be taking a short break over the Christmas period. There will not be any workshops between 18th December and 9th January.
We hope you all have a great break and we look forward to seeing you in 2017!
DanceSyndrome Dance Leader Becky Rich is thrilled to have been chosen as the winner of the Volunteer of the Year award at Lancashire County Council’s Pride Awards 2016.
The Pride awards are Lancashire County Council’s annual awards to celebrate the achievements of their staff and volunteers. The ceremony took place on Thursday 24th November at The Harris Museum in Preston, with a total of 6 awards being given out to individuals and teams who have shown commitment to helping the people of Lancashire.
Becky is 26 and lives in Fulwood. She became involved with DanceSyndrome in 2014. When Becky first started attending DanceSyndrome sessions she was a little bit nervous, which is quite normal when starting something new, but since taking part in the weekly workshops and DanceSyndrome’s unique ‘Dance by Example’ leadership training course, her confidence has grown enormously. This increase in confidence, combined with her improved dancing and leadership skills, enabled Becky to independently take on the role of Dance Leader at Gerrard Street Day Centre, separate from DanceSyndrome. She now runs her own dance class there every Friday.
It was because of this work that Becky was nominated for the Volunteer of the Year award by Garry Dawson, who is a Manager at Gerrard Street Day Centre, Preston. The award celebrates volunteers who have made a marked difference to the life of an individual or community and consistently deliver outstanding service.
Speaking about Becky, Garry said “She is an exuberant and vibrant volunteer delivering sessions that continuously grow and develop…. She has provided people with disabilities the opportunity to learn and develop skills, confidence and enjoy meaningful activity and has been a role model to the group…. Ultimately, each person involved is always excited to see Becky and fully participate and engage in something of great worth and positivity.”
Becky was delighted to be announced as the winner of the award! She said “To win Volunteer of the Year Award 2016 is a lot to take in. It is very exciting to win the award and knowing that I am making the lives of people with disabilities better is the best reward. Thank you again to Garry Dawson for nominating me, to all my dance students at Gerrard Street and also to all my fantastic friends at DanceSyndrome.”
DanceSyndrome Managing Director Dawn Vickers said “We are so incredibly proud of Becky! She has gone from strength to strength since joining us. She really excels in leadership, she’s a fantastic spokesperson and she’s a young woman on a mission to make Society take notice of the assets of people with learning disabilities. We have always known Becky has a lot of skills and talent to offer, but it is wonderful to see other people recognising that outside of her work with DanceSyndrome!”
After hearing about Becky winning this award, Granada Reports decided to do a feature about her, which was really amazing for DanceSyndrome to be involved with! You can watch this report on Becky’s award win online.
You can read more about Becky in her Case Study.
Sue Blackwell is a Trustee at DanceSyndrome and co-founded the charity with her daughter Jen in 2009. The charity was started because Jen, who happens to have Down’s syndrome, was unable to find suitable dance training for a person with a learning disability and many other people were in the same situation. Sue has been there every step of the way as DanceSyndrome has developed and grown and she is incredibly proud of what the charity has achieved in recent years.
Sue wrote the following feedback in response to the premier performance of DanceSyndrome’s Orbit show on Friday 18th November:
“Last Friday was yet another step along an increasingly and ever broadening road leading to our rosy future when the world begins to understand the enormity of this purposeful journey.
“I have seen DanceSyndrome perform many times, but on each and every occasion I am in endless admiration for the enormous progress made since the previous performance. Every single dancer is incredibly committed and works so, so diligently to create the interwoven, mind blowing art which they are making their own.
(Images: Left -Dancers perform the piece “Passing Through #2”; Right – Dancers perform the piece “Ordinary Curve”)
“The dancers’ focus is almost palpable and has the audience entranced, probably wishing, like me that the trancelike state would just continue, continue, continue – it pulls the audience in, making them a part of the whole and pushing any other concerns in our personal lives to the back of our consciousness, making us totally engaged and absorbed in the present.
“‘Thank you’ cannot do justice to my sentiments, but none the less thank you from the bottom of my heart to Sophie (DanceSyndrome’s Lead Artist) and the dancers. They are creating magic, a magic which the world needs to recognise, embrace, celebrate and support. I hope that the dancers are aware of the incredible impact that they are having and the respect that we feel for each and every one of them.”
If you would like to witness the power of Orbit for yourself, there are more shows taking place in January and February. More information can be found in the News section of our website.
