Go Dance Project studies Dance and Psychological Behaviour in school children

After undertaking Continuing Professional Development (CPD) training, three dance artists from across the East of England devised dance sessions for school children in Year 6, aged 10 - 11. Creative in nature, these sessions focused on addressing the physiological fitness components of flexibility, aerobic endurance and muscular explosive power.

The aim of this innovative project was to study children’s behaviour and the positive effect of creative dance sessions in schools. The participating schools were:

Norwich Road, Norfolk
Quarry Hill, Essex
Holy Rood, Hertfordshire

The pupils involved were provided with notebooks to keep a record of their experiences, and the artists and school teachers also observed the children's behaviour for analysis.
 
Initial findings from the Go Dance project were presented by Elsa Bradley at the University of Bedfordshire conference From motivation to movement: Towards an empirical understanding of the role of dance in health, in June 2011.
 
The Go Dance project also allowed the pupils involved to work with professional dance artists to create unique performance pieces that were presented to a live audience at a festival in Brightlingsea in July.

Go Dance has been granted the Inspire Mark, the badge of the London 2012 Inspire Programme. The London 2012 Inspire programme recognises innovative and exceptional projects that are directly inspired by the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

‘This has been a fantastic project, all the students involved have worked really hard on creating some amazing performances and it’s hard to believe some of these students had never danced before! I am looking forward to reading the findings from Elsa’s research.’ Jane Langston, East Youth Dance Coordinator.

Click on the image below to download the Go Dance final report.