United In Dance Project

Wycombe Swan have been generously supported by Wycombe District Council's One Comunity Cohesion Fund to further develop the pilot project, United in Dance Project.

The next two years will involve six of the schools we worked with in the pilot scheme and possibly a community centre group. The project will also be supported by Buckinghamshire County Council, METAS and the Adult Learning Centre based at Millbrook School.

Booker Hill School, Millbrook School, Cressex Community School and Eastside Community Centre took part in the pilot project Phase One which began in November 2008 and Phase Two groups included Ash Hill Primary School, Hamilton Primary School, Highcrest Community School and Wycombe Youth Action. Each group worked with one of our two associate professional dance artists/companies; Subathra Subramaniam and Gerrard Martin from Tavaziva Dance. Both choreographers specialised in fusing traditional forms with contemporary dance, creating unique and inspiring choreography for young people to perform in a professional environment.

Suba fuses classical Indian dance form, Bharata Natyam and Tavaziva fuses various styles of African dance forms with contemporary dance.

The groups rehearsed for ten weeks, once a week and came to the Wycombe Swan to perform their original dances on the main stage on Thursday 22 January 2009 and Thursday 21 May 2009, 6.30pm!
Year Two, which commences in November 2009 and culminates in two performance on Wednesday 10 February 2010 at Cressex Community School and a larger performance involving all six groups at Wycombe Swan on Thursday 27 May 2010. 

It involves the same school groups as in the pilot project but this time we are exploring ways in which we can encourage community cohesion through bringing together parent and carers of the children from schools by providing them with workshops in either costume making or drumming. We hope this will encourage the school and its local community to support the children and the school throughout the process and for the final performance.

Tickets for Phase One performance at Cressex Community School on Wed 10 Feb 2010 are available from Millbrook Combined School, Hamilton Primary School or Cressex Community School offices or you can buy them on the day at Cressex School. You can buy tickets for Phase Two performance on Thu 27 May 2010, 6.30pm from Wycombe Swan Ticket Office - 01494 512000.