YDance mentoring scheme - building a community of dance

YDance is introducing a groundbreaking new training initiative funded by the Big Lottery.

Participants identified from five local authorities will be trained, mentored and supported through a comprehensive dance course aimed at delivering dance workshops to young people.

Participants will have a YDance mentor during the year to provide ongoing support and training, and will also take part in the Big Weekend which will provide an intensive grounding in the basics of teaching dance - choreography, dance styles (Breaking, Capoeria, Contemporary, Jazz, Hip Hop and Dance for Theatre) plus health and safety, planning a dance course and physiology for dance.

The mentoring programme will be designed to support and sustain the workshop delivered by dance specialists. 20 candidates per year will be identified from the community to be part of the YDance building dance foundations programme. The candidates would have an interest in taking dance forward in their particular environment, for example, schools and youth clubs.

Over the course of the year, participants will take part in a structured term time course comprising:

• The Big Weekend - a two day training event based on YDance resources (paper and CD rom) to kick start the candidates in teaching and planning their workshops
• The Big Chat - monthly meeting with a mentor to discuss and review progress and where the mentor views a workshop that the candidate is leading. There will also be regular reports and feedback from the mentor

Outwith term time, the participants would take part in assisting on a holiday project led by a YDance team, and researching and revising workshop plans.

The Big Help - a portion of funding per local authority area would be left aside, and part way through delivery it would be decided how best this funding could be used to support the needs of the community to develop dance.