Dance workshop aims for young disabled people

Beijing Daily December 21, 2007

By He Jianwei

The Northern Ballet Theater (NBT), based in the UK, will run a week-long dance workshop for young people this Monday to Friday as the first event of the Young Advocates Program – Developing the Paralympic Spirit, initiated by the British Council.

The 20 workshop participants, ages 18 to 25, from Beijing Union University, are not professional dancers, and 10 of them are disabled nominated by the China Disabled Persons Federation (CDPF).

The workshop, held at the Beijing Disabled Persons Activity Centre, aims to improve participants’ communication skills through dance.

"Through the workshop's interactive process, we hope all participants will imbued with creative communication methods and leadership," Samantha Grainger, Acting Director of the British Council Beijing, said.

The British Council initiated the Young Advocates Program to secure an international legacy to China's 2008 and the UK’s 2012 Paralympic Games.

"The participants will have the confidence to express their ideas, explore their own potential and raise awareness of the Paralympic spirit of social inclusion within their communities," Grainger said.

Two dance artists and one musician from NBT's Learning and Access department will train students in basic ballet and other body movements.

NBT has an ongoing commitment to working with disabled people and a strong track record in doing so. It teaches participants to develop their physical and nonverbal communication abilities.

"Dance is the only art form to use non-verbal communication as its primary means of expression," Selina McGonagle, director of Learning and Access at NBT, said.

"We hope that the project will leave a legacy for dance in Beijing by equipping teachers and community leaders with the skills they need to deliver dance for people with and without disabilities in the future," McGonagle said.

Each day will begin at 9:30am with a warm up. The warm-up exercises will progress throughout the week, taking into account the needs of individual participants.

Through the creative workshops, the participants, facilitated by the artists, will explore themes and ideas through movement. The sessions will ask participants to challenge themselves to create original movements based on tasks set by the dance artists. These ideas will be developed, refined and rehearsed, then structured by the dance artists to create the final piece.

The Young Advocates Program is aimed at building skills in a core group of young people, and through them, raising awareness of how sport can benefit the community.

Disabled dance workshop participants are expected to become Young Advocates and take on a volunteer leadership role in their community to promote Paralympic Spirit and inclusion of young people with disabilities in sport.