Take Flight

Take Flight is a project based on curiosity. It is collaborative, brave and encourages a rich learning experience where everyone involved – children, teachers, YDance artists and three emerging dance artists – work collegiately and meaningfully to enhance learning in schools.

YDance has been awarded £35,892 by the Scottish Government’s Youth
Arts Fund through Creative Scotland to develop and deliver Take Flight with three schools in North Lanarkshire – Cathedral Primary School in Motherwell, St, Monica’s Primary School in Coatbridge and Woodland’s Primary School in Cumbernauld – between May 2021 and March 2022.  

The project will ensure performance making comes from a shared exploration into the unknown where teachers and artists work together collaboratively and bravely, bringing their own diverse skills to the process to allow a two-way learning relationship to unfold. It will develop and embed creative learning into the school and give children a broad range of ways to connect and use movement and text to express new ideas and embrace risk taking through creativity. The project will culminate in an outdoor show with each school at a site in their local community and leave a creative legacy.

The teachers and creative team will work together in a virtual “creative hub” throughout the project to explore personal tacit assumptions of the arts and dance, critical thought, creative exploration, working with the unknown and pupil agency.

Take Fight will be delivered by Anna Kenrick, YDance Artistic Director, Philippa Clark, a hugely experienced freelance theatre maker who specialises in working in community settings with diverse and marginalised groups, and YDance Head of Education, Linzi McLagan, a leader in dance education pedagogy. They will be joined by three emerging dance artists aged 21-25 years. The three emerging artists will take part in a “development hub” to gain specialised training to develop their learning and passion as dance educators, performers and choreographers.

Project Aims

Take Flight aims to:

• Create outdoor performances with three schools, 90 children and three emerging dance artists.
• Create a new approach to performance through a curious collaboration with teachers through a blended in person and online model.
• Enable the child’s voice to lead development.
• Support and develop three emerging dance artists practice through an intensive 6-month CPD and mentoring, teaching and performing programme.
• Enable the experienced creative team to reflect and analyse practice and methodology.
• Raise awareness of the impact of youth arts to partners, stakeholders and families.

Funders

Take Flight is funded by the Scottish Government’s Youth Arts Fund through Creative Scotland with support from Youth Music Initiative and Time to Shine. The Youth Arts Fund ensures creative opportunities for children and young people continue to exist across Scotland despite the COVID-19 pandemic.