Local Schools are Dancing Round the World
March 2009
Thanks to The Henley Festival, 6 local primary schools have just completed a world-inspired dance project which culminated in a Dance presentation at Gillotts School, Henley-on-Thames on 11th March. Dance workshops took place earlier this term in the run up to these performances and were led by The Dance Movement, a community dance company based in Farnham, Surrey.
Schools taking part were: Robert Piggott Junior School, Wargrave, who took India as their inspiration and already have a link with an Indian school; Valley Road Primary, who also took the opportunity to extend their link with an American school by working on Modern Day USA; Peppard Primary, who took their dance piece from Native American traditions; Trinity School, who - inspired by Philip Pullman's novel 'Northern Lights' - chose Northern Europe as their theme; Badgemore Primary, who represented Eastern Europe; and, finally, Sacred Heart Primary in Henley, who looked at the culture of China.
This Henley Festival outreach project began in the autumn term when giant murals were created in each school, taking their inspiration from the 5 Olympic Continents. Also creating murals were 4 further schools, who then enriched their project by looking at music rather than dance and who will give a presentation on 20th March at Christ Church in Henley.
Says Mandy Beard, Community Projects Manager at The Henley Festival, "This has been a really special year for our SHOUT! (Schools in Henley OUTreach) work. The young people have shown enormous commitment and enthusiasm and have created something unique which really does deserve to be seen. The presentation evening at Gillotts was a memorable occasion - everybody loved seeing a projected image of their school's mural before the dance presentation began, bringing the dance and mural-making activities together under the 2012 theme."
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For more press information, please contact Rachel Shimell on 02380 732981 or Mandy Beard on 01491 843406 or email rachel.shimell@ntlworld.com or mandy@henley-festival.co.uk
