Reporter Kelvin Wint from That’s TV South East visited Dance Woking this week to catch-up with the team about some of the projects that Dance Woking has been running. This report features Evolve Dance Company; this company is open to young dancers aged 12 plus who are interested in developing their skills further learning new techniques and experiencing what its like to create a piece from scratch where you are given stimulus and through creative tasks input and influence the movement created.

This February half term we have been working with James Wilton Dance Company dancer Oliver Robertson (Ollie) and Norikazu Aoki (Nori). Nori taught the dancers signature James Wilton Dance movement which is very physical on the first day, Ollie then used this as a basis to develop the choreography with the group.

Some of the dancers have come from different dance schools around Woking & Surrey:  Zambesi Dance Company, The Joanna School of Dance, Meraki Dance and Cremona School of Dance.

The dancers contributed their own movement ideas based on the theme; they worked well in collaboration, met the challenges of learning precise movement quickly and gained more experience in improvisation.

The company will perform this piece as a curtain raiser to James Wilton Dance Company’s The Storm on Tuesday 25 February at Rhoda McGaw Theatre, Woking; Follow this link for TICKETS

This project forms part of Dance Woking’s spring programme supported by funding from Arts Council England’s Project fund, enabling Dance Woking to bring more diverse professional companies to Woking.

Dance Woking is hosting a number of workshops this week during half term; today we are featuring ROTATE Parkour with guest teachers Anja, George & Michael from Oxford based Justice in Motion leading the sessions for the next three days:

Times: 12noon- 4pm

Venue: Sheerwater Youth Centre, Blackmore Crescent, Woking, GU215NS

PLACES Available – like what you see? Come and join us; contact: sam@dancewoking.com

The great thing about this week’s Parkour is that the Company have come with their Parkour Playground for us to use! It’s amazing! With scaffolding to build up balance, platforms to jump off and across, it provide a whole new set of features to explore.

Tuesday 11 February saw Nori Aoki, one of James Wilton’s Company dancers lead a two hour boys dance workshop at Yateley Secondary School. The boys were shown some signature James Wilton Dance Company movement along with some of the sequences from their new work called The Storm.

Head of Dance, Helen Wearing, was literally blown away by the workshop and the way it really energised the boys, some of whom had never danced before.

Following the workshop Tilly Maginnis from Dance Woking managed to catch-up with Helen to ask her about what bringing a professional company dancer meant to the group and school. Helen enthused   “…..the chance to work with Nori from James Wilton Dance Company was incredible he is very talented and just inspiring to challenge them to do movements they haven’t done before”. She went on to say ” It is amazing for them to be able to work with someone who it’s their profession as a job and to see something from a trailer on YouTube to actually be able to work with them in the studio for 2 hours is a real privilege.

And next steps for the group is to see the professional performance of The Storm by James Wilton Dance Company at Rhoda McGaw Theatre, Woking on Tuesday 25 February:

Helen continues “I can’t wait. Absolutely can’t wait and for some of the boys it is the first time they have seen dance at the theatre. I’m excited, their excited can’t wait”.

If you have been inspire by watching the footage and for those who have yet to purchase tickets please go to Book Tickets

Next week sees Dance Woking host a 3 day Residency with James Wilton Dance Company, places are still available and suitable for those aged 12 and older; for details go to: Apply now for dance residency

Dance Woking and Momentum Parkour were invited to lead assemblies this week for Year 7 and Year 9 at Woking High School, linking in with their Mental Health Awareness week. As well as explaining Parkour and its benefits by the team, James & Chris Harrison from Momentum did live demonstrations to show how to do 3 different types of jumps: Running Precision Jump, Step Vaults and Kong Vault Pre. This was followed by volunteers from a number of pupils watching willing to have a go at some basic jumps; year 7 pupils were more willing to try out new skills in front of their peers with the volunteers doing amazingly well at learning the jumps shown; year 9 found the experience more daunting but Year Head Mr Bland did volunteer following encouragement from his staff team and pupils and led the way.

For those who don’t know: Parkour was originally termed Art du Deplacement, but now as well as Parkour it is also referred to as Free running, and was founded in France in the 1980s

Why we like it, Parkour is:

• Non-competitive
• Uses running, jumping, climbing and quadrupedal movement
• It encourages self-improvement on all levels
• Reveals one’s physical & mental limits

The aims of Parkour is to:

• Build confidence
• Determination
• Self-discipline
• Self-reliance
• Responsibilities for one’s actions

What does Parkour encourage?

• Humility
• Respect for others and for one’s environment
• Self-expression
• Community spirit

It highlights the importance of:

• Play
• Discovery
• Safety at all time

Weekly Parkour sessions are back! Dance Woking is running weekly Parkour sessions every Thursday evening at Addlestone and Sheerwater Youth Centres. The sessions are running from now until March, new comers are welcome; for details follow the link: Rotate Parkour – Every Thursday

2019 video highlights

This activity is supported by: Surrey Community Foundation, Sportivate – Active Surrey, Arts Council England, Woking Borough Council, Surrey County Council Family Services