We are delighted to be once again offering five mini grants of £500 to support folk dance activity. In September we invited grant applications from new folk dance projects and those who wanted to develop something new within an existing dance activity, making folk dance more accessible to a wider range of people with diverse backgrounds and needs.
We received a high number of varied applications – and really enjoyed reading the wonderful ideas. We had a hard job selecting just five award winners, but we are delighted to announce the following successful applicants:
BlueJam Arts
"We're absolutely delighted that BlueJam Arts will receive this mini-grant from EFDSS to help us develop our folk music and dance activity with families in Penrith and the surrounding area. We already enjoy playing tunes, singing, and dancing with participants at our regular family groups, and we can't wait to create a new ceilidh dance, devised by the young people who attend our FridayJam sessions. We'll then hold an afternoon family ceilidh event to make sure ceilidh dancing is accessible and available for all the families we work with. We get lots of requests for afternoon music events for families, and it's great to have funding to put on a free, inclusive and celebratory event for families to enjoy ceilidh dancing together - strengthening connections between the many people who engage with our varied community arts projects." - Sara Barnard
www.facebook.com/bluejamartspace
Instagram @bluejamarts
Havering Changing
Havering Changing is an ACE Creative People and Places project in Havering which supports local people, to choose, create and take part in their own their programme of inspiring arts and culture. The EFDSS funded project in Harold Hill will create a series of four free to access community folk dance events, over the winter months December 2024 and January 2025, drawing on the diverse heritage of local residents. Consisting of 4 social dance events on a series of Saturdays, where a variety of social dance traditions can be learned and shared, and then performed together.
"Based in the MyPlace venue in Harold Hill, the project aims to give people access to diverse traditional dance traditions and encourage new audiences and participants, through creating shared experiences and social engagement." - Sarah Stuchfield
https://linktr.ee/haveringchanging
Instagram @haveringchanging
X: @haveringchange
www.facebook.com
Photo by Hannah Davis
Horizon Community College
Horizon CC are a secondary school from Barnsley who were introduced to folk dance by taking part in The Full English project that EFDSS set up many years ago.
"The project has developed a legacy of folk dance that has continued to this day with hundreds of students each year benefitting from learning folk dance styles- it also developed our signature style of fusing traditional styles with modern ones. We are so thrilled to receive this funding and we plan to further advocate for folk dance by creating educational performance work to tour youth dance festivals and local primaries. We cannot wait to get started!" - Jade Hunt
Musical Chairs
Jane and Jeremy of Let's Dance have been regulars running the maypole at Folk Festivals for years.
"Recently, inspired by EFDSS inclusivity projects we have brought live music and dance based on English Folk to two mixed mobility groups in North London. Guests, carers and volunteers alike had a great time at a Memory Cafe and a local Stroke Survivors' Club.
We now want to hold a larger open event with the name Musical Chairs to invite friends and family to join the party. It would be great to include musicians and practitioners who work in that field as well. After all, what could go wrong – we run out of handkerchiefs?"
- Jeremy Monson
Wickham Skeith Country Dance Club
"My mission for the project is to bring back traditional music and dance to my local community. In the area where I live there is a history of traditional musicians and dance. My own village always had regular ‘country dances’ and the history group has photos of melodeon players, dulcimer and fiddle players from the village and dancing in the street! The age of people in the village is quite mixed with elderly and new young people coming into the village. I see this dance club as belonging to them where the meetings are not just for dancing and music but socially.
In our first meeting in October already half of the people attending were from my own village and other surrounding villages. This mini grant will enable us to buy a PA which will give us the opportunity to have more musicians and live music, plus we hope to hold a ceilidh once in a while to bring more people in. I am thrilled that we have been chosen to receive this grant, it will certainly be put to good use." - Jayne Delarre
