Growing Older
(Dis)Gracefully
Growing Older (Dis)Gracefully
is an amateur
dance group for those aged forty and over, it is a non profit making organisation.
The group has approximately twenty five members some of which have no
dance experience, some have not danced for more years than they like to
remember and yet others have spent their lives in dance education. This
varied mixture of people brings a very special vibrancy and excitement
to the creation and performance of dance. Meetings are held weekly and
performance projects occur whenever the possibility arises.
The group aims to provide opportunities,
* for anyone over 40 to engage in active, creative, innovative dance workshops
in diverse styles, facilitating access for those new to dance and further
training for the experiences;
* that challenge experienced dancers and support access for the inexperienced;
* to devise and perform original dance celebrating and reflective of age
and experience.
The group was instigated
in 1997 as part of a wider Liverpool based project.
Since 1997 it has held regular workshops in a variety of dance styles
and taken part in many performance projects leading to live performance
or video
For example
In 2001 the group was short-listed in category 4 (Arts) for the UNIQ Age
Resource Awards
In 2003/4 it received funding from Arts4All to make a dance video, the
launch of which doubled membership
2004/5 was a particularly successful year with three major projects,
the ‘Faith’ project of Capital of Culture in the Metropolitan
Cathedral,
Bags for Life choreographed by a John Moores University MA student
‘Shimmer’ a contemporary Asian dance (which also involved
a local belly dancing group), choreographed by Sri Sarker and commissioned
by Chaturangan for the Brouhaha festival.
In June 2006 the group performed at Moving On and Up part of a South Liverpool
Active Aging Event
For 2006/7 the group have received funding from Arts Council England,
North West, to commission a new dance work and to rework previous workshop
material in order to create a longer dance performance
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