From 1988 to 1998 these summer schools took place in a different location every year and involved a different Artistic Director including – Royston Maldoom, Frank McConnell, Karen Wood and Winifred Jamieson. In 1998 Andy Howitt was appointed as our first full time AD and in 1999, with the help of 4 dance tutors and a musician, he ran 6 non-residential summer schools involving 750 young people.
We continued to develop and expand our activities and in 2001 were granted advancement funding by the Scottish Arts Council. As part of that advancement process we rebranded the Company changing our name to YDance and were recognised as Scotland’s National Youth Dance Agency as a result of the increasing ways we engaged with young people.
In 2002 we launched our first interactive CD-ROM AnyBodyCanDance, designed to help teachers and group leaders get their pupils dancing, and in 2003 worked with sportscotland on the creation of 321 Go! another interactive resource for 4 to 7 year olds.
We took our commitment to getting young people to dance to another level in 2005 when with funding from the Scottish Government Health Department we launched the Dance in Schools Initiative. 2005 also saw the launch of the performance wing of our Company. Andy Howitt brought in 3 professional dancers and choreographed a piece especially for young people called Story of the Blues which toured to venues and schools across Scotland supported by a programme of workshops to help the young attenders get as much as possible from the experience.
In 2006 we recognised the gap between local dance classes available and professional dance training opportunities available to young people so with funding from the Scottish Arts Council created Project Y, Scotland’s Contemporary Youth Dance Company. This four week experience offered participants had the opportunity to work with some of the best choreographers the UK has to offer and get a real taste of what it’s like to work for a professional dance company.
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