Project Resurgence: Little London Primary Ballet

Little London Community Primary School pupils in Leeds are taking part in Project Resurgence which aims to make ballet more accessible and inclusive.

Transcript

00:00 The reason that I launched Project Resurgence with my partner Kate was to make dancing more

00:05 accessible in the UK, whereas dancing has become quite, and has always been, slightly

00:10 on the elite side. I wanted to make dance available for everyone, so at Project Resurgence

00:14 it's become really clear to us that not enough people have access to ballet in particular,

00:18 and that's something that I really want to rectify.

00:21 What we've actually created is a scheme of learning, which I didn't really understand

00:25 at first what that was, which is basically a six-week programme of classical ballet, and it is all

00:30 the different angles and the sides of classical ballet, and that's to put in to the PE departments

00:34 or the curriculum there, so that we can actually implement a six-week ballet programme, and

00:39 not just for the students of West Yorkshire, but I'm talking nationwide. This is something

00:44 that I really want to spearhead.

00:45 We've observed several positive changes with the children, really, not just in terms of

00:50 their ballet ability as well, in terms of, yes, they are absolutely becoming much better

00:55 ballet dancers, but in terms of their knowledge of the sport as well, and the art form, and

01:01 their physical development as well, in terms of their fundamental movement skills. I can

01:06 see noticeable differences in a lot of the children in my PE lessons who attend ballet

01:12 classes in just their general core strength and alertness. We can see children, children

01:18 really, we can see the positive impact of the children really setting high goals for

01:21 themselves.

01:22 I've learnt, like, some moves of my hands, like, how to, like, first position with my

01:28 legs and stuff, and I know how to, like, start properly, and I've also learnt how to relevé,

01:34 like, hold it up when I do pirouettes.

01:37 When I do my tippy toes, that I stay still while I'm on it, because it takes a long time

01:44 to stay on my tippy toes.

01:46 I used to, like, struggle with pas de chaise and balances, but now I'm, like, going with

01:51 the flow, and I think you should, like, try ballet because, like, it's fun.

01:57 Maybe they want to do ballet afterwards, but also, are they stronger, are they happier?

02:01 You know, that health and wellbeing is a massive thing for us at Project Research, and something

02:05 that we really want to focus in on. I can only spend so much time here, and maybe their

02:10 families want them to get involved in the world of dance afterwards, but they're not

02:14 going to know that until they see their kids dancing, and I would love it if we could showcase

02:18 their work.

02:19 I get to watch these guys accomplishing things on a daily basis when we work, so twice a

02:24 week. I get to see them do those things, and even today I've been seeing them doing things

02:28 I've never seen before, and that's really rewarding, and I can see that they really

02:32 appreciate that as well.

02:33 I want to prove that everybody in the world can do ballet on some level. So often I get

02:39 so many people turning around to me saying, "I could never do ballet, I could never do

02:43 this, I am yet to meet anyone that I couldn't train." It is a process of mechanics, as I

02:48 say, bend, stretch, and point. My personal goal and ambition, I'm going to be able to

02:52 do this through working with people practically and digitally, I'm going to show that everybody

02:56 can learn ballet on some level, and actually to a better standard than they could ever

03:01 dream possible. So it can be done, people, alright?