Dance United

This project focuses on cross-cultural and
cross-generational work.

Historically, dance has always been a social gatherer. However, currently there are few situations that bring strangers and different generations or cultures together. Dance United NI seeks to address the breakdown in contact between communities and individuals by celebrating the power of dance as a vehicle for personal and social growth.

Performance projects
have and will include:

Alternative Energies 2012-2013

This is a cross generational dance project targeting women and girls across a wide age range.  The programme will encourage the sharing and exchange of ideas, skills and knowledge and will look to link and make connections between women of different generations and from different communities.  It will include the composition of original and live music, by composer Ruby Colley, and a diverse skills programme, which will support the creative work.

Over the Halfpenny Bridge
(St. Georges Market, Belfast, April 2009)

An evening of celebration, encompassing a wide range of art forms and ethnic cultures and involving children and elderly people in cross-community, cross-generational activities. At the core of the programme was creative dance and story telling.

Performers: 65 Primary 7 children from Elmgrove Primary School in east Belfast and 20 participants from the neighbouring Elmgrove Manor and Greenville Court Sheltered Housing.

Dance Halls
(Ballroom, Culloden Hotel, Holywood, March 2008)

This cross-generational project ran over a period of five months and involved children, teenagers and elderly participants in a programme based on the dance halls of the 1940s and 1950s. The climax was a community celebration and performance, with music played by the James Huish Big Band.