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Podcast: dance for life

By Victoria Watts
April 22, 2010 at 1:20 pm

What has dancing got to do with the Red Cross? I went to a Dance for Life event in Buckinghamshire to find out – and was struck by the passion and enthusiasm of the people I met. Listen to the podcast to find out more and perhaps be inspired yourself.

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Transcript:

Victoria Watts: I’m Victoria Watts, fundraising writer at the British Red Cross, and today I’m at a Dance for Life event in Buckinghamshire to find out about a programme that teaches young people about the Red Cross through dance. First off I talked to Laura Deacon who came up with the project five years ago.

Laura Deacon: Dance for Life is a youth dance project that raises money for the British Red Cross. It was started in 2006 as a way to engage with young people in the work that we do here in the UK and overseas. So what we do is invite local schools, youth groups, colleges, dance groups, any young people from age zero up to eighteen to create a dance based around the work of the Red Cross. They then come to a venue – we’ve got venues around 17 counties across the UK – and they come and perform their routine in front of friends, family and their whole school. So it’s a really enjoyable day out and they’re also learning about the work of the Red Cross at the same time.

Sharon Charlton: My name’s Sharon Charlton, I’m senior fundraiser and Dance for Life co-ordinator for Buckinghamshire. This is our first Dance for Life heat for Buckinghamshire, and we’re doing it at Beckensfield School, which is a performing arts school. We have five dance groups taking part today, a mixture of primary schools, dance schools and high schools.

Break Loose: We’re Break Loose from Gerard’s Cross Church of England School, and we rule.

Dancer one: Well, our dance relates to the Red Cross because the story is at the beginning there are happy children who are kidnapped from their families and friends and they’re forced into having a life of being a child soldier. And it’s really miserable, until the Red Cross come and save them, and bring them to their families again and teach them new things and help them recover from the war.

Tom Russell (dancer): Hi, I’m Tom Russell, doing the dance diploma course at Amersham Wickham College. Our dance is about child soldiers, about the oppression and just how bad their lives are, and our dance tries to bring forward the issues within that and show the pain and the emotions they feel.

Question: Before you took part in Dance for Life did you think about that very much?

Tom: I thought about it not as much, I have to say. This sort of brings it home about the charity and what they’re doing in Haiti. As well as doing the dance you feel the emotion, because you get into the dance, so it helps you feel what the charity is for, so it’s good in that respect.

Dancer two: Yeah, we’ve learnt a lot. We’ve learnt that the Red Cross is a very good sort of system, and it will help lots of children and adults as well.

Rebecca Smedley (teacher): I’m Rebecca Smedley from Amersham and Wickham College. I’m the course leader for the national diploma in performing arts dance course. I saw the Dance for Life competition a couple of year ago, on a website I think was sent to me or something, and I just thought it was a really great opportunity to get students involved in giving back to the community and getting involved in a charity organisation and raising money for a good cause. It’s really important for my students who are the ages of 16-18 to think about someone other than themselves, and to raise money to support a cause, especially this year with all the problems in Haiti and different causes like that I thought it was a really great time to be involved. I’ve been really proud of how much money we’ve been able to raise this year.

Sharon: Mainly where our fundraising comes through is from the groups, the participant sponsorship, and the ticket sales to all the parents, and we always kind of sell out in all our heats we do in Buckinghamshire. We raised just over six and half thousand pounds; previous year was just under three thousand, so we know we’re going in the right direction.

Dancer three: We have a fair coming up as well, all the Dance for Life people are coming in their Dance For Life costume, and we bring one pound as well. So that will also go to the Red Cross.

Victoria: Do you have any top tips for people taking part in Dance for Life?

Dancer four: Just have fun with it. Just enjoy yourself. It’s all about enjoying yourself instead of going there to win and stuff.

Dancer three: I just say go for it, no matter what. And if you lose, it’s not the end of the world. It’s just saving lives, what you’re doing, so I just go for it.

Introduction to dance: “Everybody involved in war has their lives changed forever by the impact, whether it be losing their houses and their possessions, or tragically death. We hope to engage the audience in the pain felt by those involved and show the release of anger felt inside. Ladies and gentlemen, please give a big round of applause for Energy School of Dancing senior section with their piece ‘They don’t care about us’. [Applause]

Laura: Everybody has a great experience while they’re here. Since 2006 I think we’ve educated about 10,000 young people about the work of the Red Cross and we’re hoping to educate another 5,000 young people this year alone about the work that we do, because it’s expanded so much. And not only are we working with the young performers, but we’re working with audiences who come to watch, and they’re learning what the Red Cross does in a fun and unique way that everyone can enjoy.

Dancer three: I’m doing something that I love, and actually saving loads of people’s lives. So I just think Dance for Life and the Red Cross are just fantastic.

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Tags: Dance for life, fundraising

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