Its never a dull moment at Dance Woking!

On Wednesday morning Dance Woking joined dancers from First Dance Studios and 4 scooter riders, to put together a short promo film for this year’s Party in the Park.

Despite the mixed weather we experienced during filming: sunshine, rain, hail plus it was VERY cold! We had lots of fun at Heather Farm, Horsell using dresses supplied by Surrey Arts Wardrobe as well as some hidden treasures from the dancers own wardrobes!

With Emma Harris from First Dance Studios overseeing the choreography, film direction from Deborah Hickman, Woking Borough Council; Jane Bell, Trustee (one of the dancers – can you spot her?); as well as Sam McCaffrey from Dance Woking in an assistant mode we look forward to seeing the edits on Woking Borough Council’s Celebrate Woking webpage soon!

In the meantime some pictures:

To find out more about the activities and the organisations click on the links below:

Dance Woking Encounters – Sat 1 July HERE

Dance Woking Party in the Park – Sat 8 July HERE

Celebrate Woking HERE

First Dance Studios HERE

Heather Farm HERE

Surrey Arts Wardrobe HERE

Encounters 2017 – Saturday 1 July

Jubilee Square, Woking Town Centre

Following on from the now much celebrated success of Party in the Park, which in 2016 saw an amazing 20,000 visitors, Woking Borough Council will be hosting this event again in 2017. Dance Woking will be leading on the dance programme and welcomes applications from different dance groups within the borough and surrounding areas. Visitors will be treated to an array of free performances and activities set within areas and tents around Woking Park.

The emphasis for 2017 will be about celebrating Woking’s depth and breadth of Arts and Culture and in particular focusing on two decades, the 1960’s and 1970’s; paying tribute to Rick Parfitt of Status Quo who passed away on 24 December and The Jam who celebrate 40 years since the release of their hit single ‘In The City’. There will be a main stage featuring music and dance plus the Encounters dance stage dedicated to all things dance from workshops, professional dance companies to community dance groups. We are keen for groups to use music/fashion from the1960’s or 1970’s and in particular we are keen to have applications from anyone wanting to use music from Status Quo or The Jam.

The week before Party in the Park, we will be leading Encounters, a day of dance in Woking Town Centre, Jubilee Square with a mix of both professional and community led dance. This event has grown in recent years and a great way to introduce your group to new audiences. The theme for 2017 will follow on from the above and we would encourage groups to use this as an opportunity to be creative with this theme.

We are looking for 100 dancers to join us in a flash mob which will feature a tribute to Rick Partfitt of Status Quo, as part of the celebrations we hope to hold a parade featuring groups dancing to hits of the 60’s and 70’s; to apply click onto Encounters Application Form

Freelance Dance Teachers 

Dance Woking is looking for freelance dance teachers to assist with our outreach schools programme this summer. We are looking for trained dance teachers who have had experience-teaching 5 to 15 year olds. You will be working with groups towards two free family festivals in Woking, Encounters on Saturday 1 July and Party in the Park on Saturday 8 July.

To apply please provide your CV with previous teaching experience and at least two references; you will need to have had a DBS check within the last two years, ideally registered on line and have your own unique tax reference number.

Send email your CV and details to: Theresa James: office@dancewoking.com by Monday 22 May 2017;

For more details  Clicks HERE

STATE OF EMERGENCY – Where is Home?

Tuesday 9 May, Rhoda McGaw Theatre, Woking, 7.30pm

TICKETS STILL AVAILABLE – Please come and support us and see this inspiring dance musical

Where Is Home? is a dance musical that explores and investigates themes of global human migration and displacement. Live music.

Where did you come from? How did you get to this point in your life? Where are you heading?

Across the globe, from the dawn of civilization, migration has been a definitive and enduring feature of humanity. All humans in every social formation and society have recent or distant ancestors who trekked, wandered, or journeyed to new locations as a result of cataclysmic crisis or external demands that compelled relocation for survival and success.

Where Is Home? is suitable for 11 years and older

The story: Soweto, late 80s. A young man struggles against the security forces, confronts tribal tensions and deals with the death of his own mother. He falls in love with a girl from the wrong neighbourhood and together they decide to run away from home and everything they have ever known…

For Preview Click HERE

For Tickets Click HERE

For information on a dance class opportunity linked to tickets please contact the office:

Kate or Theresa on 01483 673271

Dance Woking attended ROH as part of their Links programme and found the day extremely useful and stimulating, meeting lots of interesting people and organisations, this is what Chief Executive PHF Moira Sinclair had to say on What does it mean to be resilient in the arts? Click HERE

To find out about the ROH Links programme click HERE

Dance Woking is pleased to welcome you to our 2017 Shorts Season. Supported by funding from Arts Council England’s Grants for the Arts Scheme and working in partnership with Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) and Woking Borough Council, we are introducing a series of professional dance companies to Rhoda McGaw Theatre as well as continuing our outdoor festival programme.

The dance programme has strong narrative themes which we hope you will find engaging; opening on 14 March Tavaziva Dance perform Africarmen based on the story of Carmen, details p5; 16 March Amina Khayyam Dance Company perform A Thousand Faces with live music, details p7. 9 May State of Emergency bring Where Is Home?, details p11.

TO VIEW Dance_Woking_Brochure_2017

Tuesday 14 March saw Tavaziva Dance open Dance Woking’s Spring Shorts season at Rhoda McGaw Theatre, with more than half the house occupied by an audience made up of mostly under 25 year olds, it was great to see the next generation of theatre goers enjoying some really fantastic dance.

Tavaziva Dance’s style is energetic, fast, highly physical, emotional and very attractive to look at; the audience was engaged from the moment ‘Carmen’ stepped out of the shadows and onto the stage.

A passionate love story with s twist on the classic tale this really was a fabulous evening of dance where the dancers got to show their great skill and physical fitness.

Opening the evening’s performance was Woking College who with their curtain raiser ‘She Walked with the Universe on her Shoulders’ which was created during a 2 day residency at the college led by company dancers, Jordan Bridge & Theo Samsworth.

The piece explored the strength, community and power of a group of females as they create and navigate their way through their own highly physical and dynamic landscape. Performed by 13 A’s and A2 students there was a great skill to the work created in just a short time, with a mix of solos’ duets and group pieces, it was a truly inspired piece of work based on Tavaziva’s movement style.

The performance was followed by a Q & A led by University of Surrey that was well led and very informative. We look forward to Thursday with Amina Khayyam Dance performing A Thousand Faces to see what its all about click HERE

Dance Woking is pleased to confirm two guest Company’s who will be performing at the Boys Only Platform on Friday 17 March, 7.30pm at Rhoda McGaw Theatre, Woking

To book tickets click HERE

SKETCH DANCE COMPANY (SDC)

About: Sketch Dance Company is an emerging contemporary dance theatre company owned and run by Artistic Director Jasmine Andrews. SDC promotes the concepts of human emotion and real life experience. Using contemporary based movement enriched with the use of character, musicality and narrative to create work aimed to inspire the lives of people everywhere. Blurring the line between dance and theatre with their repertoire, they strive to express how powerful dance as an art form can be for people’s relationships, struggles and personal development. Music their inspiration.

LUCY PALMER DANCE COMPANY

Recently premiering at this year’s Resolution in February, Lucy brings this exciting new piece to Woking;

Reviewing her piece at The Place, London in February ,Maria Hardcastle writes: Lucy Palmer’s solo How am I not myself? managed to retain stronger purpose in its euphoric exploration of self. The work was performed by the captivating Harry Parr who executed a complex and curious movement vocabulary. This seemed to be unconsciously initiated within the depths of his torso, causing convulsions to ripple throughout the body.

Despite the weather Dance Woking had a great time at Surrey Half, thank you to Boppin Woking, Georgina Olivia Performing Arts and Jenny Reed School of Dance who joined us for a very early start on Sunday 12 March to launch our Spring shorts programme Dance_Woking_Brochure_2017

Joined by Bert Romans from MoveMe and Aimee Bevan we braved wet weather to showcase some great dance and cheer up an otherwise cold, damp wet day! Full of very enthusiastic runners. Well done to all those who competed on Sunday and raising money for great causes.

Highlights to follow.