GET INTO DANCE 2014

This two year project aimed to achieve 5,400 new people taking part in dance or dance fitness activities across London. With over 100 events and a brand new dance competition for schools developed, find out more about how we got London dancing.

Funded by: Sports Participation Fund – Greater London Authority

Partnerships: The project worked with multiple partners including local authorities, dance and dance fitness organisations, leisure operators, community groups and schools.

Funding awarded: £150k over 2 years, 2014 – 2016

Project objectives: To increase participation in dance and dance fitness across London.  Below are the targets we were set by the Mayor’s Office:

  • 5400 Overall Participants,
  • 1080 Regular Participants (attend 9 out of 12 sessions),
  • 1890 inactive participants (had not taken part in any physical activity 4 weeks prior to the activity
  • 540 Disabled participants

Project outcomes: All of the objectives above were exceeded by this project as well as engaging with an additional 3500+ participants across open events.

About the project:

This project was designed to engage with participants across London through dance and dance fitness activities.  Across the two years the project worked with over 100 events, including the Big Dance Bus tour, StreetGames Coca-Cola GB Multi Sports Festival and local borough events such as Camden’s Give It A Go Festival.

The London Youth Games, part of the School Games London Dance Competition was created, enabling a competition structure to be formed to motivate Key Stage 4 girls to take part in physical activity.  Local opportunities were created through commissioning of activity in specific communities specially to engage inactive participants.

The project was far reaching across London, working in 30 out of 33 boroughs.

GET INTO DANCE 2017

With the huge success of Get into Dance from 2014 to 2016 and the expansion of our remit to group exercise, we were funded to extend our work across London until 2018. Find out more on how we’re continuing to get boroughs moving.

Funded by: Sports Participation Fund – Greater London Authority

Partnerships: Various

Funding awarded: £150k over 2 years, 2016 – 2018

Project objectives:

  • 4250 Overall Participants
  • 900 Regular Participants
  • 1800 Inactive Participants
  • 3825 Women and girls
  • 425 Disabled Participants
  • 200 Young Leaders

Project outcomes:

This project is within its final year and is well on course to reaching the targets.  Within the first year over 3000 participants took part in group exercise of which over 1000 were previously inactive.

About the project:

Get Into Dance 2017 consists of two strands with the focus of reaching women and girls. 1) Expanding on the Dance Competition structure in partnership with London Youth Games 2) Engage inactive participants within varying communities across London.

So far through London Youth Games activity, we have engaged over 2000 female participants through school, borough and county level opportunities.  The London Competition at the Copper Box on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park saw over 600 participants from across 23 boroughs compete.  See the full story here.

In addition to this we have delivered group exercise activities at 18 events, worked with Barnet Hospital to create activity for staff and patients, as well as offer opportunities for employees to take part in exercise at their workplace.

With one year left to go, there are more partnerships being formed and exciting work being delivered.

LONDON YOUTH GAMES ACTIVATION

To further build on the success of the London Youth Games Dance Competition, we used Sportivate funding to create extra curriculum activities and provide support to enable 500 young people to continue their new passion for dance.

Funded by: Sportivate, London Sport

Partnership: London Youth Games

Funding awarded: £15,000

Project objectives:

  • To get 500 14 – 16 year olds active through extra-curricular dance in school.

Project outcomes: The target set was exceeded and this activity led to the creation of dance hubs within many London schools to sustain dance activity.

About the project:

As part of the London Youth Games, part of the School Games, London dance structure, Sportivate funding was offered to create new dance activity within schools who had not previously been given the chance.  To motivate the young people, schools were entered into their local borough competitions to compete to represent their borough at the London competition.

DANCE FIT PLUS

This project aimed to bring the benefits of regular dance fitness sessions to disadvantaged communities across 23 London boroughs. Find out how we helped over 500 people get active and learn how to stick to their healthy new lifestyle.

Funded by: Big Lottery Fund, Awards For All England & Sportivate

Partnerships: Various

Funding allocated: £9,230 from Big Lottery, Awards for All England.£19,170 from Sportivate, London Sport

Project objectives:

  • To engage and retain 400, 11 – 25 year olds in dance activity across disadvantaged communities in London.  The groups would also be given health and fitness information to help them make educated choices about their lifestyle.

Project outcomes:

Over 500 participants took part in these sessions. 70% of participants attended 9 out of 10 sessions.  25% of participants were disabled and over 40% were previously inactive having not participated in any dance or exercise within the previous 4 weeks.

About the project:

The project gave 11 – 25 year olds the chance to take part in dance fitness, many of which were in disadvantaged communities across London.  The local offers in 23 boroughs enabled previously inactive participants; the majority of which were young women and girls, to take part in physical activity within a sociable, fun and safe environment.  The sessions also included information on health and fitness through the educational resources which enabled the participants to make their own lifestyle choices and changes.

ACTIVE PEOPLE, ACTIVE PARK

We worked with local instructors and companies to deliver one off and ongoing dance fitness sessions all taking place in and around the Olympic Park. From a young female focused event linked to International Women’s Day to a 12 week Parkour dance project for the over 60s; find out how this project used dance to engage, inspire and empower a range of groups.

Funded by: London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC)

Partnerships: LLDC, London Sport, Parkour Dance Company and various local instructors

Funding allocated: £5,000

Project objectives:

  • To deliver dance and dance fitness activity as part of a number of events held on the Olympic Park as well as running regular weekly dance sessions.

Project outcomes: 200 Unique Participants and 400 overall attendances

About the project:

We provided dance and dance fitness sessions as part of the International Women’s Day on the Olympic Park as well as creating an event focusing on 14 – 25 year old female participants called ‘Get Ur Freak On’.  These events included Bollywood, Zumba, House, RaveFit, FitSteps, Hip Hop and Commercial Street.  These were all activities chosen to engage females who had done little to no exercise previously.  Over 50 participants attended and over 50% of them declared they were doing no exercise before taking part.

Regular sessions were also delivered as part of the project. Parkour Dance Company were commissioned to deliver their Forever Young programme for people over 60 across 12 weeks.  The sessions were a fusion of parkour and dance which utilised the varying landscape of the park.  Street Dance sessions were run at a local community centre to reach 14 – 25 year olds.  Off the back of these sessions a Dance Activator course was run so that young people could learn how to lead and continue the dance themed sessions within their community.

ACTIVE FOR LIFE

This project saw us working with Brighton and Hove Council’s Active for Life team to develop a plethora of diverse and innovative ways for communities to get active. We had people sharing their love of dance at local events, Mums doing Flashmobs with their babies and community sessions enabling all walks of life to give dance fitness a try!

Funded by: Active Sussex, Chalk Cliff Trust and Sport England

Partnership: Brighton and Hove City Council Active for Life

Funding awarded: Approx £5,000

Project objectives:

• To increase the number of people in the community taking part in dance fitness. With specific focus on the below groups;
o Low socio-economic
o Young people
o Inclusive
o Older adults

About the project:

This project aimed to use dance fitness as a way to inspire people with little or no exercise experience to become active and lead a healthier lifestyle. We worked with key figures within the city of Brighton, including; Ruth Quill (Azonto Beats), Julie Stacey (Brighton and Hove City Council) and Marina Studios, to set up multiple innovative, fun and rewarding dance fitness opportunities that engaged with a range of groups within the community.  All in all, we had 401 participants involved in opportunities such as an Azonto Beats flashmob and Take Part Festival, a family event full of taster sessions and performances.