Daring to Inspire

A New Direction

Who
Windsor Secondary School in partnership with Irie! Dance Theatre

What and how
Windsor Secondary School is on the Joint Head Quarters Military Base at Rheindahlen, Germany. It is one of 47 Service Children’s Education (SCE) schools worldwide. SCE is an Agency of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and is dedicated to the education of Her Majesty’s Armed Forces, MoD Personnel and sponsored organisations stationed overseas. SCE schools follow the National Curriculum (England).

The project was launched and promoted to students and parents in January 2010, in order to identify and recruit participants (a number had been 'invited to apply' because the lead teacher and Headteacher identified them as being likely to benefit from an intensive programme of this type).

The creative practitioner Denzil Barnes, from Irie! Dance Theatre, was in residence at Windsor School on two blocked deployments, working with Year 7-9 students on the 2nd-4th February and the 2nd-4th March 2010. (3 workshops per day). Denzil was chosen due to his accomplished street dance expereince and work with boys and young men, particularly those who have not danced before; his practice also focuses on the relationship that street dance has with other dance forms.

This project helped move the school forward following an increased interest in dance over the past three years. A number of other dance initiatives have taken place involving both boys and girls. For the first time, in Spring 2009, an arts event at the school featured a group of boys dancing. The school wanted to build on these successes in order to promote greater involvement of boys in dance and thus increase their motivation and interest in school; this project allowed the school to go beyond the staffing capacity in order to bring in outside expertise and to provide additional curriculum opportunities.
There was a performance of the completed dance piece at the school and the work will be showcased at a major SCE event in July.

'Denzil did far more than show them dance, he was able to show them that it was possible for men to earn a living in the arts - as they are surrounded by the military, a lot of boys end up joining the army, even when they have artistic skills' (Joy Harris).

Why
The project aimed to:
* improve and develop the student’s artistic creative expression through dance
* broaden their thinking and have developed new ways /ideas for creating dance
* be less inhibited through exploring creative ways of communication
* contribute to choreography by exploring the opportunities provided increase their fitness levels and enjoyed improved performance skills.