Dance

Exploration Workshops

Dance Workshop

Since S4DAC's inception, dance has been an important component of our successful Disability Arts Community Development Program. In 1999, through a collaboration with the Vancouver Dance Centre and the Roundhouse Community Centre, we presented a workshop with the world-renowned British dance company, CandoCo. We continued with several public workshops that year, followed by focused work with two local choreographers, to develop work for presentation.

Various mixed-abilities pieces were presented at two of Performance Works' Dance Allsorts series in March, 2000 and April, 2001. We presented a piece at the annual Dancers for Life AIDS Benefit in June, 2001, to a very warm reception. The last dance program series with professional choreographers resulted in presentation of original work at our own kickstART! Celebration in August, 2001.

People Moving (toward an integrated learning culture for dance)

The Society for Disability Arts and Culture (S4DAC) is collaborating with the Victoria Dance Series Community Outreach Program and the Vancouver Dance Centre to present a People Moving workshop in Vancouver. People Moving is a one-day professional development workshop for teachers and dance artists working in integrated educational and community settings. It will present practical ways to create an environment where individual learning can prosper, and provide an opportunity to exchange knowledge and experience with colleagues.

There will be an additional half-day training workshop, prior to the full day, for approximately 3 to 5 Learning Support Assistants. The workshops will be led by two distinguished UK based dance artists/teachers, Jo Parkes and Kelly Davidson, in November, 2003. The Vancouver workshop will be the flagship offering within a larger plan to adapt and present the workshop in Victoria (November, 2003) and in Ottawa (June, 2004).

The workshop is inspired by models of dance animation that have evolved in the UK over the last 30 years. In that context, dance has made great strides in being integrated into the very fabric of society and its institutions, and has become recognized as a powerful tool for social development. Dance has also been used as an alternative approach to teaching key life skills such as raising self-esteem, cooperative and creative problem solving, improving social behaviour, and to address issues of social exclusion and access.

2004: Cyborg workshops and Light Motion

S4DAC has contined to exploring dance possibilities with the workshops as part of the cyborg show.

In May, 2004 Light Motion returned to Vancouver for a performance at the Roundhouse. Here's a short one minute movie from the event.