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

Dance Woking is delighted to confirm receipt of a grant to support our Spring 2020 Programme from Arts Council England’s Project grants fund. Celebrating 25 years of dance in Woking the Spring Programme forms part of the festivities focusing on the different ways we engage with our audiences providing opportunities to watch, take part and perform in dance. The grant has enabled us to bring James Wilton Dance Company’s new piece The Storm to Woking; James’s piece provides a stimulus for our work with Boys and wellbeing; his work is of a very physical nature with highly energetic movement. James’s work also explores the effects of mental health, likened to that of a storm, this aligns well with our dance and resilience project. Partnering with the Youth Service in Woking & Surrey we are taking our Dance & Resilience pilot project to Woking High School with funding from Active Surrey.

Additional activity that this grant is supporting is Evolve Youth Dance, which sees us deliver 3 days of dance for young people 12 years and older, led by James Wilton Dance, providing a great opportunity for local aspiring young dancers to work with a professional company. The group will learn company technique and develop their choreographic skills working towards a curtain-raiser for James Wilton Dance Company’s The Storm on Tuesday 25 February.

As well as developing our relationship with James Wilton Dance we are pleased to start a new one with Oxford based dance and theatre company Justice in Motion. The company will be delivering 3 days of performance parkour over February half term at Sheerwater Youth Centre, this is a development opportunity and follows on from our weekly Thursday parkour sessions called Rotate Parkour at Addlestone and Sheerwater Youth Centres.

For further details about Dance Woking’s February activities and performance platforms please see our website.

Dance Woking started the New Year by welcoming professional choreographer James Wilton to Woking.

A company member led a professional dance class for Dance Woking’s team of freelance dance teachers; the team were taught classic company movement by company dancer Sean as well as showing share some of Jame’s signature movement linked to his new work ‘The Storm’. The team are now working in various schools in Woking with groups working towards pieces to perform at Woking SLAM on Sat 29 February and the Boys Platform on Thursday 12 March.

James Wilton is quickly becoming known as one of the UK’s leading choreographers, renowned for creating breathtakingly physical choreography. Since forming his company, James Wilton Dance has toured extensively both in the UK and Internationally to critical acclaim, winning numerous awards including The Sadler’s Wells Global Dance Contest, 3rd Prize at The International Choreographers Competition in Hannover ( 2012), winner of the Audience Prize at 16Masdanza, 3rd Prize at The Berner Tanzprize.

Wilton has also choreographed and restaged works on many other leading companies, including Scottish Dance Theatre, Ballet Hagen, Oper Graz, Stadttheater Geissen, Konzert Theatre Bern and Tanztheater Münster. As well as choreographing for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Rugby League World Cup 2013. James is an associate artist at The Hall for Cornwall, Truro. JWD have an incredible output of education work, reaching over 3,000 people in the past 12 months alone.

Weekly Parkour sessions are back!

Dance Woking is running weekly Parkour sessions at Addlestone and Sheerwater Youth Centres every Thursday evening.

The sessions are running from January to March, new comers are welcome; for details follow the link below:

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

Dance Woking is looking for volunteers to help support our very exciting 25 Anniversary Year, and help us deliver our 2020 programme of events in Woking.

Dance Woking manages various dance events throughout the year, both indoors and outdoors, and we couldn’t do it without the enthusiasm and dedication of the volunteers who give up their time towards making our events run smoothly. Following a very successful Winter Shorts Programme we are now seeking volunteer support for our Spring and Summer programmes. If you are interested in discovering how volunteering can help widen your own experience and CPD opportunities please contact the office for further details.

To see our available opportunities please download Dance Woking Volunteer Pack 2020

For all our volunteering opportunities please contact Ellie Dowling and fill in Dance Woking Volunteer Application Form 2020

e-mail: of****@*********ng.com, Tel: 01483 495460, by post Ellie Dowling, Dance Woking, Pearl Assurance House, 28 High Street, Woking, GU21 6BW

We are delighted to share an amazing achievement for one of our projects in collaboration with Woking Youth Service. Sandie Bolger, Youth Development Officer at Woking Borough Council who works at Sheerwater Youth Centre was nominated for Active Surrey Community Project of the Year at the Sport Woking Awards 2019 in response to Rotate, the weekly Parkour Sessions held on Thursdays at Sheerwater Youth Centre. This project is run in partnership with Dance Woking. Sandie has encouraged some of the young people who attend the centre to volunteer and support Rotate as part of their Duke of Edinburgh Award. We are very proud of this recognition. In order to run this project funding support was received from Active Surrey, Surrey Community Foundation and Woking Borough Council.

If you are interested in supporting similar projects please do contact us on of****@*********ng.com. We are keen to develop new partnerships in order to continue to offer creative ways to support community cohesion through active engagement of young people.

We would like to thank you Woking Youth Service and Sheerwater Youth Centre for their support in delivering this amazing project. Congratulations to all winners and shortlisted nominees. Please see below the full article about Sport Woking Awards 2019.

https://woking.gov.uk/leisure-and-culture/sports-activities-and-facilities/sport-woking-awards-2019

Please note that Rotate Parkour Sessions are back on Thursday 16th of January.

For details click here

Just in case you missed out here are links to four highlights from 2019:

Innovate 2019 November:

Young Dancemaker Highlights 2019:

Summer Highlights:

Richard Alston Company dancer Ihsaan de Banya is leading Dance Woking’s Evolve group this October half term; after two days of intensive dancing the group have already put together two and a half minutes of material.

The sessions start with technique class followed by the dancers learning some choreography from classic Richard Alston material such as Gypsy Mixture

From this material is put together.

The group will perform at Young Dancemakers in November and Innovate

We look forward to seeing Richard Alston Dance Company at New Victoria Theatre next week, 5 November

Some pictures from the group:

CEO of University of Surrey Students Union, Alan Sutherland, joins Dance Woking as the new Chair, he takes over from Louisa Bartlett-Pestell (Director of Programming Arts Depot, London) who resigned from Dance Woking at September’s Board meeting following a very successful 3 year tenure as a Trustee and Chair. Whilst Louisa will be greatly missed Alan joins Dance Woking along with four other new Trustees.

“I am honoured and delighted to be succeeding Louisa as the new Chair for Dance Woking. This is an energetic and dynamic charity which is providing a fantastic community resource for Woking and Surrey in making dance accessible to all. I am really looking forward to working with Sam and everyone else involved in Dance Woking over the next few years as we continue to welcome more of the community to our amazing activities”

Joining Alan on the Board is Chase Demmers (Educational Programme Development and Training Executive – Stagecoach Performing Arts Worldwide), Carla Kingham (Marketing Manager,Polka Theatre), Ross Carter (Targeted Youth Support worker) and Karen Robinson (Head of Learning and Standards for Creative Arts at Guildford College); for more details about Dance Woking’s dynamic and highly skilled Board go to: https://www.dancewoking.com/about/board/