Faced with restrictions brought about by the pandemic, the Dance Beds summer school, which is usually hosted at the University itself, went mobile with local dance artists visiting schools and their students directly.

Established through the support of Arts Council England and the University’s Research Institute for Media, Arts and Performance (RIMAP), the Dance Beds project is split across two strands with one focussing on the promotion and development of youth dance across the region in partnership with regional dance agency, DANCE EAST.

A pool of ten local freelance dance artists, including several of the University’s alumni, and artists from a local dance company called Two Thirds Sky were involved in the project. The artists were selected based on their ability to offer a range of dance workshops to primary, secondary and post-16 students.

Overseen by Sadie Hunt, Senior Lecturer in Dance, the workshops included:

• Creative dance
• Release-based contemporary dance
• Bollywood
• Hip Hop
• Street dance
• Contemporary and Commercial fusion
• Krump

The initial plan had been to host the Dance Beds project on campus but due to Covid-19 the plan was changed so project lead, Sadie Hunt, adapted the plans and developed Dance Beds into a mobile summer school, which travelled directly to schools and colleges.

A brochure detailing all available dancers and activities was sent out to local schools. Liaison teachers then completed an application form, selecting up to five free workshops for their students across their institutions. 

A total of 178 hours were taught to over 200 pupils during the Dance Beds project.

Sadie Hunt said: “The impact of Covid on young people has been enormous.  For young dancers having to dance in their living room, online or not dance at all has had a significant impact.  Some of the benefits of this project are that students get to access our professional level staff and artists, and to meet other young people from different schools. 

“Although the pandemic caused issues, there were advantages to going out into schools, such as reducing the barriers that some young people may have to be able to get to campus.”

She continued: “By taking these workshops out into schools, we enabled hundreds of young people to participate in dance – to dance with their peers and experience the joy of dancing together in real space and real time with professional artists. We know that moving is good for us all, especially for our physical and mental wellbeing. 

“Dance is joyful, it enables freedom, fun, creativity and release and this is what all the young people we worked with needed.”

The project also commissioned dance artist and film maker, Michael Joseph, to create a film of the summer school which can be viewed on YouTube.

Evaluations from the Dance Beds project have been really positive from both the participating pupils and school staff. One of the positive comments received from a participant was: “I loved the workshop so much – it felt amazing and it brought the inner me out.”

Dance Beds is led by Dr Jane Carr and features a range of activities aimed at developing dance and choreography and exploring ways of reaching new audiences. There are a number of projects planned for Autumn/Winter 2021. More information can be found via the School of Dance’s Instagram feed and the project website: