The company work with, by and for the people of Reading. Reflecting the diversity, range of backgrounds and perspectives found in Reading is key to our work. Whilst our ‘Home’ project originated from the Artistic Director’s experiences of settling in Reading, the creative process involved our culturally diverse and wide-ranging online and workshop participants in three, investigative performances. Each performance questioned whether a sense of ‘home’ could be experienced by the performers and audience members who occupied that site-specific space. Our ‘Vote 100 Public Dance and Debate’ project used the Vote 100 Reading community group as a focus group for the creation of the performance which was further underpinned by Dr. Jacqui Turner’s research from the University of Reading on the lead up to women’s suffrage in the UK.
We aim to continue to heavily draw on and reflect the diversity, range of backgrounds and perspectives in our work going forward which will include placing local pupils at the centre of our Moves Together project. The SMSC (spiritual, moral, social and cultural development) and youth dance project in partnership with The Rising Sun Arts Centre, John Madejski Academy, Geoffrey Field Junior School and Brookfields School aims to identify common thoughts, feelings and experiences around health and wellbeing in relation to pupils’ social media use. The project adapts social choreography as a methodology to overcome the social issues that pupils have experienced online.
The pupils who attend all schools are culturally diverse. Moves Together aims to bring together pupils of varying ages, abilities and ethnicities to identify and tackle these common social issues through dance.
Photograph by Jennifer Christine Stokes.
