Autumnal Arts Awards

Dance links with China, touring youth theatre and visual arts workshops are just three projects that have recently received support.

Junction 25

Glasgow’s Tramway has been awarded £30,000 towards Junction 25’s forthcoming tours of Scotland, England and internationally. Junction 25 is a performance group for young people based at Tramway and supported through the RSAMDs Youthworks programme.

From Where I am Standing, a production set to tour throughout 2010, sees the young performers persuading their parents to join with them on stage, encouraging the audience to reflect on their own parent-child relationships.

Cove Park

Cove Park’s Artists in Schools programme (launched in 2004) provides secondary school students in Argyll and Bute the opportunity to work with artists both in their classrooms and on site at Cove Park. Artists in Schools has been awarded £13,000 to produce a programme of professionally led visual arts workshops with students from Parklands School. 

Students at Parklands School have complex support and communication needs and/or physical disabilities. Contemporary visual art and crafts offer valuable means of self-expression and communication. Children with autism are often defined by what they can’t do; this project aims to increase self-esteem and confidence by focusing on the childrens’ abilities rather than their disabilities.

Connecting with China

By connecting Scottish choreographers with Chinese choreographers, our Dancelinks China supports development opportunities which push the boundaries of creative practice through international exchange. As part of this, two choreographers, Janis Claxton and Alan Greig, have been supported to work in China. Alan is teaching and performing as part of Shanghai Dance festival in October and Janis will embark on a series of exchanges from November 2009.

Scottish Dance Theatre will tour Shanghai, Beijing and Huangzhou in China during November 2009 alongside their Agent for Change, Caroline Bowditch, who will lead a workshop programme with a focus on dance and disability. www.scottishdancetheatre.com