We always love to hear from our participants about how DanceSyndrome workshops help them to improve their lives.
Here are two case studies from our Accrington workshop, which takes place every Thursday morning 10:30am -12pm at the New Era Centre. The workshop started in November 2015 and you can see from the case studies that it has already had a huge impact on some of the regular participants.
Donna McCallum
Donna is aged 39 and lives in Accrington. She first found out about DanceSyndrome’s workshop in Accrington through the Bridge Centre North West. Donna enjoys coming to the dance workshops because she enjoys dancing and meeting new people. She also enjoys working in teams and her favourite part of the session is the name and action game. Donna often helps with this part of the session and she finds that helping Dance Artist Sue makes her feel relaxed and happy.
In the future, Donna would love the chance to further her abilities at dance leading. Since coming to DanceSyndrome, her confidence has greatly increased when taking part in the exercise. Donna feels this is because exercises are repeated each week along with some new ones, so if they seem confusing to start with once she has done them a few times they are no longer confusing.
Donna said that since coming to DanceSyndrome she feels a lot healthier and stronger and because of this she is making sure she eats healthier at home. Before coming to DanceSyndrome she had done some line dancing but DanceSyndrome has given her the confidence to start other activities such as football, swimming, bowling and kick boxing. Donna believes that she has learnt lots of new dances at the dance workshops and she loves dancing and says she will never give it up.
Matthew Poole
Matthew is 25 and lives in Clayton-le-Moors, near Accrington. He found out about the dance workshops through Bridge Centre North West. Matthew enjoys every aspect of the dance sessions but particularly likes meeting new people and getting to know everyone. He feels much more confident now when joining in the dance workshops than when he first started coming to the DanceSyndrome sessions. While Matthew still feels too shy to take the lead at the moment, he loves to help Sue and Lizzie in some activities.
Matthew enjoys coming to the dance workshops and he said he feels upset when he is unable to come. He believes that he has learnt a number of new things since first coming to the DanceSyndrome workshop, including learning how to be himself and let go of his inhibitions. Matthew has learnt how to make new friends and interact with a wide range of different people.
Before starting the dance workshops, Matthew said he would just go to the restaurant where he works and didn’t really do anything else, but thanks to DanceSyndrome he has now started to join in with a lot more activities. He now goes swimming, plays football and golf, goes bowling, meets up with his friends and goes to Preston to attend games workshops. Matthew said that 5 years ago he wouldn’t have been able to imagine himself dancing and doing all the activities he does now.
Can you bake, run, walk, dance, swim or shave your head?
Then you can help DanceSyndrome raise funding in our appeal to hit our target of £10k by September!
In 2016 we want to build on the momentum we created in 2015, which culminated in our Founder Jen Blackwell being voted Inspirational Woman of the Year at the EVAs. We have decided to run an ambitious fundraising appeal with a minimum target of £10,000, which is the cost of running one of our community workshops for a full year. There will be lots of fundraising activity going on throughout the year including a sponsored dance, a ceilidh event, a sponsored triathlon and the campaign will close with a music and dance festival in September. Can you do something else to help us raise money?
If you would like to help us to reach our fundraising target but aren’t sure where to start, then our fundraising pack can help! It has lots of ideas of ways to raise money and includes information on how to promote your fundraising event, including poster templates and a printable sponsorship form.
You can view the new fundraising pack here.
If you need any help with your fundraising ideas, please contact the DanceSyndrome team and we will be happy to help you! You can telephone 07597 942494, email info@dancesyndrome.co.uk or contact us via the website www.dancesyndrome.co.uk or Facebook www.facebook.com/dancerleddisabilityinspired
We really appreciate all that our members and supporters do to help us and we hope that we can continue to provide inclusive dance opportunities for a long time to come!
Thanks again for your continued support!
DanceSyndrome supporter Richard Baldwin has signed up for a charity challenge to support the charity’s 2016 fundraising appeal.
Richard, age 52 from Preston, has been supporting DanceSyndrome for just over a year. Richard is a volunteer with the Canfield Trust, who support small charities to become more sustainable. His work up to press has involved helping to write funding bids and implement the business plans, but he 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 Richard 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 challenge Richard has chosen is a triathlon in Snowdonia which will take place on Saturday 15th May. It involves approximately 10.5 miles of cycling, 9 miles of trekking and 2.5 miles of kayaking.
The cycling part of the journey begins in Llanberis, and travels along the shore of Llyn Padam (Llanberis Lake) passing the slate quarries of the Snowdonia National Park towards Llyn Cwellyn, where the hiking part of the challenge commences with the ascent up Snowdon. After reaching the summit, there is a long descent back to Llyn Padam, for a 2.5 mile kayak.
Richard is hoping that by completing the triathlon he will be able to raise at least £400 for DanceSyndrome and make people more aware of the work that the charity does.
If you would like to support Richard, you can donate online via www.localgiving.org/fundraising/richard-baldwin or alternatively you can visit www.dancesyndrome.co.uk for more ways to donate.
DanceSyndrome founder Jen Blackwell has been included in the May edition of Lancashire Magazine.
The magazine which went on sale on Thursday 7th April features a 3 page spread about Jen and how she was inspired to start DanceSyndrome.
If you would like to read the full article you can find it here.
DanceSyndrome are launching their first major fundraising campaign at a BBC Get Creative Day event at Blackburn Library on Saturday 2nd April.
BBC Get Creative Day is a celebration of the arts across the UK. The campaign encourages participation in creative activities and recognises and celebrates the arts and culture that happen every day across the nation. The campaign invites arts, cultural and community organisations of all shapes and sizes to put on free events on 2nd April to inspire people to develop and share their own creativity. DanceSyndrome will be working in partnership with Action Factory Arts to deliver a workshop at their event at Blackburn Library from 12pm to 12:30pm.
The event in Blackburn will mark the start of DanceSyndrome’s 2016 fundraising appeal. Please help us to keep delivering inclusive dance by getting involved in our fundraising this year. With a target of £10k, we are asking supporters to get involved and do something to raise much needed funding. The appeal will start on Saturday 2nd April with BBC Get Creative day and will end with a Dance and Music Extravaganza at Bartle Hall, Preston on Sunday 25th September. There will be sponsored dance events and one supporter is doing a sponsored triathlon around Snowdon!
Anyone with other fundraising ideas is invited to contact the DanceSyndrome team on 07597 942494, email info@dancesyndrome.co.uk or via the website www.dancesyndrome.co.uk.
Jen Blackwell has been celebrated in an article in New magazine as part of their feature on Down’s syndrome awareness week.
The article was written to showcase inspiring women who have Down’s syndrome and also featured successful Australian catwalk model Madeline Stuart and British actress Sarah Gordy, who has appeared in Doctors, Call The Midwife and Upstairs Downstairs.
Down’s syndrome awareness week is taking part this week, from 20th – 26th March and the theme this year is “My Friends, My Community – What it means to be included”. The campaign wants to promote the idea that when children and adults with Down’s syndrome are given opportunities to participate and be included, the whole community benefits. Of course, this is very much in line with DanceSyndrome’s approach and we are thrilled that Jen has been featured in a national publication as an inspirational woman who demonstrates that disability doesn’t have to stop you from achieving your dreams!
North West ladies networking organisation Pink Link has chosen DanceSyndrome Founder and Creative Director Jen Blackwell as a guest speaker at their biggest International Women’s Day Conference to date.
Jen aged 33 from Chorley was the winner of the Inspirational Woman of the Year award at the Enterprise Vision Awards (EVAs) 2015, which recognise women in business from across the North West.
Jen, who happens to have Down’s syndrome, founded inclusive dance charity DanceSyndrome, with support from her mum Sue, in 2009. DanceSyndrome provides opportunities for people with learning disabilities to lead their own dance workshops in the community across Lancashire and Greater Manchester.
Jen founded DanceSyndrome because she could not find any opportunities to work in community dance, yet she was determined that she would follow her dream of being a dancer. Now, as a result of the work that DanceSyndrome does, many people like Jen are training to become dance leaders and dancing together with professional dance artists to produce beautiful performance pieces which they perform across the UK. Jen’s hard work and determination was recognised at the EVAs in September and as a result she has been chosen to inspire delegates at the Pink Link International Women’s Day Conference at Ribby Hall Village, Preston, on Tuesday 8th March.
Jen is very excited to be given the opportunity to speak at the event. She said “I still cannot believe I won Inspirational Woman of the Year! I’m so thrilled and grateful. Dancing is my life, I am passionate about dance and about supporting people like me to have opportunities in the dance world. Winning the award and being invited to speak at the conference shows that people with learning disabilities can do amazing things with their lives if given a chance”
DanceSyndrome Managing Director Dawn Vickers says “We are so proud of everything Jen is achieving. I know that Jen wants to inspire other people with learning disabilities to lead a life of their choosing and we are thrilled that she is starting to get the recognition that she deserves.”
Anyone who wants to see Jen’s inspiring speech at the International Women’s Day Conference can get tickets from www.pinklink.co.uk
Dance by Example is DanceSyndrome’s unique training course which empowers people with learning disabilities to become dance leaders and those without learning disabilities to become support artists. This is a case study showing how Dance by Example has worked for Helen, one of our current participants:
“Hi my name is Helen and I’m from Darwen, Lancashire. I am a support worker for a charity; I help to run workshops for adults with physical and learning disabilities, encouraging and enabling new skills and independence.
I enjoy going to watch live music and attending festivals. I also enjoy being creative including weaving, knitting, silk painting, tie dying, singing and lots of other ways.
I have always enjoyed dancing. I have explored different sorts of dancing in recent years, I have tried Belly dancing and really enjoyed it and I did ballet and tap when I was young. I had heard of inclusive dance but never looked into it before.
I heard about DanceSyndrome and the Dance By Example course through a friend of my mum’s so Mum & I attended the induction day to find out what it was all about. It was very exciting to find out all about the course and we were really happy to get a place.
The course started in September I was excited to explore inclusive dance further but also a little apprehensive going into something new. There was no need to be nervous as the tutors put me at ease straight away. I had some concerns because I have some health problems and I didn’t know if I would be able to keep up but I didn’t need to worry as the course is inclusive for all and allows me to manage my health issues in any way I need to. The pace and the aim of the course has been really good for me.
The course is fantastic! I have really enjoyed meeting a lovely group of people and learning lots of new skills. We are covering lots of theory at the moment and I am really excited about the next few weeks when we will put all the practical and theory work together and get to try out all we have learned!”
If you are interested in joining Dance by Example, you can find out more here: https://dancesyndrome.co.uk/what-we-do/
DanceSyndrome are running an online campaign to raise awareness about our work and to celebrate Jen’s achievements over the last year.
We are using a platform called Thunderclap to flood Facebook and Twitter with support for Jen on International Women’s Day, Tuesday 8th March. Thunderclap is an app that posts a single message to your Facebook or Twitter account at the same time as all the other supporters, which enables us to saturate social media with our message and helps us to really make our message be heard.
It is really easy to help us to spread the word, all you need to do is sign up with Thunderclap and they do everything else. You can sign up at: http://thndr.me/GIXPRK
We need at least 100 supporters for our campaign to work, but it would be great if we could get beyond that target! We would be really grateful if you could pass the information on to anyone else who you think would be happy to support our campaign.
We really appreciate your help to celebrate Jen’s amazing achievements and spread the word about DanceSyndrome.
Thanks again for all of your support!
A new inclusive dance workshop led by dancers with learning disabilities will be starting at the New Era Complex in Accrington on Thursday 19th November.
“Everybody Dance” is a fun, accessible and inclusive dance and fitness session for anyone who wants to get moving and have a good time. The sessions include both upbeat and gentle dance and movement to music, which all helps participants to build their confidence, exercise their creativity and have fun in a safe and supportive environment.
The workshops are run by DanceSyndrome, an inclusive arts charity that aims to inform and empower people through dance. DanceSyndrome workshops are led trained Dance Leaders with learning disabilities, who are supported by professional Dance Artists. They are creative and fun learning opportunities for anyone who wants to improve their physical health and personal wellbeing , regardless of age or ability. No experience of dance is needed, just a positive attitude!
The sessions at New Era run every Thursday from 10:30am to 12pm and the special introductory price is just £1 per person (subject to change in April 2016).
If you would like more information about this workshop, please call DanceSyndrome on 07597 942494 or email info@dancesyndrome.co.uk
