Youth Dance Company on Tees Valley schools tour

ARC has received a funding boost towards the work of Tees Valley Youth Dance Company thanks to players of a charity lottery.

ARC was awarded £4550 by People’s Postcode Trust and is using the money to run the Advance Dance Tour, a project enabling Tees Valley Youth Dance Company to tour an exciting piece of choreography to Tees Valley primary and secondary schools to inspire young people to get involved with dance.

The three month project has given the Tees Valley Youth Dance Company, a group of young dancers aged 14 – 19 the opportunity to develop their skills in choreography, teaching, planning, leadership and communication. 

They have already toured their performance to Northshore Academy, Kings Academy and St Patricks College and are about to visit a further 8 schools over the next week, engaging over 300 young people in dance workshops and exciting them about getting involved with this sport.

“Each workshop got better as more we are more in the swing of it and we are getting better with practice.” Imogen, Tees Valley Youth Dance Company member

“Each session we do we come back with something we can improve on to make the next one better.” Toni, Tees Valley Youth Dance Company member

“We are learning to adapt to different ages and sizes of the group.” Jamie, Tees Valley Youth Dance Company member

“We have got better at adapting the workshops for different groups; speeding up, slowing down. All the group have got more confident, got each other’s back in the sessions.” Alex, Tees Valley Youth Dance Company member

“The tour has been a fantastic opportunity for the company members to hone their performance skills and gain experience and confidence by delivering workshops to a wide range of school groups.  It’s great to see the company blossoming as performers and inspiring the next generation of dancers.   We have received a warm welcome and incredible support from all of the schools we have visited, so the future of dance in the Tees Valley looks set the go from strength to strength.” Alan, ARC House Manager

People’s Postcode Lottery is a charity lottery, where players play with their postcodes to win cash prizes while raising money for good causes. As a charity lottery, 45p from every £2 ticket goes to support charities and good causes across England, Scotland and Wales, including People’s Postcode Trust. People’s Postcode Lottery believes in supporting local communities so the money raised stays local to players. To find out more about applying for People’s Postcode Trust funding and the projects which the Trust supports, click here.

To find out more about Tees Valley Youth Dance Company, click here.