The 2013 Youth Dance Conference, named ‘Dance Insights – working together for the future of dance’, will take place on 20 November at CAST, Doncaster’s new performance venue in Yorkshire. The conference will cover teaching dance, health and wellbeing, and leadership in the context of working with young people on challenging economic times.
In addition to general funding cuts, the arts for young people also suffer due to a general lack of funds, with many companies having to find ways of becoming self-sufficient or even have to disband. It is clear that dance for children and young people is under serious threat, however Dance Insights aims to bring those working within youth dance together for essential discussion in a range of areas: health and wellbeing, sport, education, community, children and young people, regeneration and the arts.
In order to make sense of these issues and attempt to combat them, the conference will include presentations from national and regional experts, opportunities to share experiences and ideas for the future of youth dance, the chance to develop and build networks and work as a collective whole to find ways forward for the future of dance with children and young people to take away a stimulated view point and action plan.
There will also be an engaging participatory workshop-discussion programme on offer during the conference which will include sessions on inclusive dance, ‘standing up’ for dance, barriers to dance progression for young people, dance and health, young people and social media, innovation and risk taking in youth choreography. In hearing the opinions of young people about dance, and youth dance in particular, it will open up more avenues for discussion and possibilities to pursue in order to maintain the standard and amount of youth dance that is known today.