Devise an area of possible development for a small contemporary dance company (real or imagined) that might effectively engage with or explore one current social issue – describe the new activity, suggest why it would be appropriate for the company and describe how this development might affect the organization
The company I have chosen is a hypothetical dance company based in Plymouth in the Southwest. It is made up of a group of 5 dancers who specialize in Hip-Hop, Street and Break Dances. The new activity that they will explore and engage in will help encourage disengaged students back into some form of learning.
The reason why this new area would be appropriate for the dance company comes from a recent article about truancy in Plymouth. Matt Flemming reports that ‘TWO secondary schools and a primary in Plymouth experienced almost twice the national average percentage of children playing truant from school, according to Government statistics’. Its also appropriate for the company as dance can be seen to help tackle some of the issues associated with Truancy and disengagement.
St Francis Xavier Catholic Primary School was a case study from the Foundation of Community Dance. Results from the workshops stated that ‘Behavioral and educational standards increased as hoped’ and ‘Additionally concentration levels, teamwork skills, and the social atmosphere have all improved.’ This proves how dance workshops can be implemented with success.
I would propose that the dance company work closely with local schools implementing compulsory workshops during school hours. These workshops would be less formal than normal lessons and the lessons would be planned and taken by the dancers. The workshops should have a truancy theme and I would encourage the dancers to promote learning by talking about their own personal experiences to which students can relate with. This should then lead to a public performance in the local community, highlighting the problems of truancy. The public performances would give the students the sense of involvement and success they might not have experienced before due to disengagement, which can lead to under achieving.
When looking to develop to company it is important to remember that involving a dance company cannot solve truancy alone. Christine Blower states that it’s a ‘long hard slog involving cross-local-authority service responses and support’ and ‘Children who do not attend school are far more likely to commit criminal offences.’ Clear and realistic aims must be considered to prevent the company not meeting its triple bottom line approach. Despite this, Dance can provide a fresh alternative approach to initiate the learning experience.
The company would need to develop areas to deal with the application of working with children. It would need to ensure its employees have an up to date CRB check. The company would also be required to ensure training is up to date, such as Health and safety, Child Protection, Managing Challenging Behavior and PTLLS (Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector.) These qualifications are available through ‘City College Plymouth’ but would cost the company to enroll. This could possible mean the company employing a Human Resources Manager.
The government takes truancy and the disengaged learners very seriously. We have seen from the quotes that truancy has detrimental effects on social issues such as crime and unemployment. For a dance company to be able to show evidence that they are playing a role to help improve this would increase its work and business and its relationship in the community.
Sheppard, Jessica, 2010. Truancy at record high. [online] Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/mar/25/truancy-pupils-record-high
[Accessed 28 November 2010].
Flemming Matt, 2010. Truancy double national figure at three Plymouth schools. [online] Available at: http://www.thisisexeter.co.uk/news/Truancy-double-national-figure-schools/article-1868242-detail/article.html [Accessed 28 November 2010].
Case Studies, 2010. From Special Measures School to Healthy School. [online] Available at: http://www.communitydance.org.uk/metadot/index.pl?id=31545;isa=DBRow;op=show;dbview_id=30793 [Accessed 28 November 2010]
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