“Over the years, I’ve used a variety of superlatives to describe the public performances staged by YDance. But I’ve also seen what happens behind closed doors, and that can be summed up quite simply: YDance makes a meaningful difference to the lives of countless young people all across Scotland.” – Mary Brennan, The Herald
If you look through the project pages of this website you will see the difference that YDance projects have on the young people that take part.
Our work stretches across three main areas: Participation, Education and Talent Development. This is what we do:
1. We provide free or affordable dance experiences throughout Scotland. Over the last 30 years we have worked with around 575,000 young people who have performed to audiences of over 800,000.
2. All our projects improve young peoples’ confidence, mental health and physical wellbeing and our participation programmes are designed to lead to long-term personal change for disadvantaged young people. Evaluation from our CashBack programme found that 96% of young people reported increased confidence, 91% positive changes in behaviour, 93% increases in SHANARRI wellbeing indicators. As one of the young people from our Cashback programme said “I don’t know where I’d be if it wasn’t for YDance”
3. We train teachers so that more young people can be taught dance in schools. Since 1988 we have trained over 5000 teachers. Here’s a quote from one of our training sessions “Fab info, enjoyable material and the perfect tutor. I think even in my fifties I can have a go at this with a degree of confidence… This is the most useful training I have had in a long time” (Teacher, East Dunbartonshire)
4. We run Dance Leadership courses and Arts Awards to give young people qualifications they can use on CVs for training courses or employment.
5. We lead top level talent development programmes (Project Y, Hothouse and National Youth Dance Company of Scotland) to enable Scotland’s young dancers and choreographers to gain the experience and skills development they need to succeed in their future careers.
6. We tour internationally. Our companies have taken part in cultural exchanges and performances in Australia, India, France, Belgium, Ireland, Germany and Spain building the reputation of our work and the high standard of contemporary dance in Scotland.
Please support us so that we can continue to make a real difference to these young people’s lives.
