Dance South West

Sports Leaders UK Award in Dance Leadership Level 1 – delivered by Bristol City Council in Partnership with South Gloucestershire Dance and Relays

 

The Level 1 Award in Dance Leadership was delivered over one week this summer in partnership between Bristol City Council (Youth Dance Officer & Project Worker), South Gloucestershire Dance (Development Officer) and Relays at Bristol University.

Each partner works to develop opportunities for young people to participate in and progress through dance and sports activities. South Gloucestershire and Bristol are two very different geographical areas but there are shared demographical challenges between inner city residents in Bristol and rural residents in South Gloucestershire – namely isolation, academic attainment, health, income and employment issues. There is enormous interest and engagement in dance across Bristol & South Gloucestershire, with dance being a particularly successful tool to address issues around engagement amongst hard to reach groups.

Bristol City Council had previously delivered this award to community based dance leaders, which proved enormously successful in terms of uptake, exit routes and the flexibility of modules to be adapted to local needs.

Whilst the national Dance Training and Accreditation Partnership (DTAP) www.dtap.org.uk  are developing accreditation models for dance education and leadership, this Sports Leaders UK www.sportsleaders.org  model offers dance organisations an ideal entry route for those considering leadership roles.

Funding and Delivery

The Step into Sport Small Grant allowed partners to deliver this course to a diverse group of young people at an affordable cost of £20 per person, with no charge made where there was demonstrable hardship. Relays kindly provided studio and lecture room space at Bristol University which, along with a small grant of £250 from SportsLeaders UK enabled us to offer this course at an affordable cost of £20 per person, with actual delivery costs covered by staff core hours.

For us as delivery partners, one of the joys of this course is the flexibility to deliver modules according to our strengths to relate learning to real life scenarios, offering the type of practical experience not generally accessed through academic studies. For example, under Unit 5 ‘Understanding the Scope of Opportunities in Dance’, we were able to talk about child protection, self employment and youth funding opportunities – providing a realistic foray into issues faced by freelance practitioners.

The course offered twenty places in total to ten students from South Glos and ten from Bristol. Demand far outweighed the number of places available, with a total of 32 young people applying demonstrating the number of young dancers looking to develop careers in this field. Places were finally offered to 20 young people.

Other than one drop out on the first day due to family bereavement, retention was 100%, with all students attending the course full time during the first week of summer holidays. All of the candidates successfully completed each unit of work and have been recommended for the Award, with ten of the twenty students having secured placements to develop their dance leadership skills. We will be working with other candidates over the next few months to help them secure their progression routes.

Comments from participants

 

“I have met (sic) how to communicate with different people”

 “I’ve gained confidence and everything I wanted to come out of this course has happened, I’ve had fun and learned a lot”

 “I’ve got more confident, am open to more opportunities, know how important the right communication is and have learned a lot in only 5 days.”

 “I’ve learned what I wanna do in the future and thanks for a great week!”

 “I feel really inspired and I know now what to do when it comes to teaching.” (participant age 15)

 “This has helped me with what I want to do when I leave school.” (participant age 15)

 “it has opened my eyes to knowledge I did not know. It has given me individual knowledge on how to teach which I need for my career.” (participant age 17)

 “I have learned everything I wanted to from the course and I can’t wait to put it into classes I teach.”

 “I have learned things I never thought I would know. I hope there is another course like this and thank you for a great experience.” (participant age 14).

 “I want to dance at college now, so glad I came. Thank you!” (participant age 15)