Dance Transformations is a part time two year training programme.  It supports a small group of emerging artists with a physical disability and/or sensory impairment and non-disabled dance artists based in the West Midlands.

On successful completion of the project, the artists will form the core of a regional community of practice, able to act as advocates for their art form and as champions for further opportunities for disabled dance artists as dance makers. The project also has the potential to transform the working methods of the partner organisations, and the wider dance/arts network in which we sit, giving a clear legacy beyond 2012.

Dance Transformations is managed and delivered by Blue Eyed Soul Dance Company in partnership with Coventry University’s ICELab; (Institute for Creative Enterprise) and with the support of DanceXchange (dx), all of whom have a stake in providing enhanced opportunities for disabled dance artists in the region.  Ultimately Dance Transformations aims to provide a unique environment that empowers emerging artists to investigate dance making.

We invite people of all backgrounds and interests to join our Dance Transformations online community forum to follow the programme, share our discussion and reflection, and view images.

Visit Dance Transformations

DT aims

• Provide accessible high quality dance provision, presently limited for adults with a physical disability and/or sensory impairment.
• Create an environment that empowers disabled dance artists and reinforces their own image of themselves as having an identity in dance and as dance creators.
• Challenge provision within an art form which is led predominantly by non-disabled artists.
• Strengthen the authority of inclusive choreographic practice and provide national recognition and more visibility for the work
• To showcase the work of disabled choreographers.

DT benefits

• Provide a model of good practice that will have national influence and impact.
• Establish a regional community of disabled and non-disabled dance artists
• To create a network across the West Midlands (and beyond) that draws together disparate pockets of activity into a formal structure with the potential to have an advisory capacity.

Dance Transformations encourages artists to discover for themselves what their specific choreograph interests and developmental needs are, and the pathway for partner organisations to respond to this. As an artist led project it is difficult to specify the exact details of its 3 year development, but Transformations seeks to provide a secure management and financial structure within which the artists can learn and grow. The key to this learning is being the ‘making of’ and not the ‘made on’ of dance work, giving opportunity to realise artistic vision.  Although inclusive it is envisaged that Transformations will be driven by the needs of disabled participants in order to address the inequality of provision. For non-disabled participants it offers a unique opportunity to develop their knowledge and expertise in inclusive practice and dance making.

In supporting a small number of trainees we can work intensively and meaningfully to break barriers to inclusion, change the mind set of the dance community and launch disabled young people in a life time career in dance that will reach a wide and diverse audience. Transformations represents quality at its core and in addition will develop over the 3 years to represent quantity as it reaches a wide community of artists and audiences.

If you would like to learn more about the Dance Transformations programme please contact:
T: 01743 210830 (office)
E: outreach@blueeyedsouldance.com
(Rachel Liggitt: Education and Training Co-ordinator)

Dance Transformations is a Dancing for the Games project inspired by London 2012 and part of the Cultural Olympiad in the West Midlands. It has been funded by Legacy Trust UK, an independent charity set up to help build a lasting cultural and sporting legacy from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Arts Council England and Advantage West Midlands.

Blue Eyed Soul Dance is delighted that Dance Transformations features within this broader cultural offering for the region, and has also been awarded the ‘Inspire Mark’.