Danielle Teale is looking for a brilliant, efficient and creatively-minded Project Coordinator to work alongside Artistic Director Danielle Teale and Producer Emma Abbey in coordinating a multi-stranded national dance programme, Dancing with Parkinson’s Collective IDentity (CID).

We are looking for an individual with an efficient and proactive approach, excellent organisation skills and a clear and compassionate communication style, to begin immediately on a freelance basis, working up to November 2021.

Vocal improv is one of the hardest musical practices because of its necessity for surrender and compassion, as is the same in dance improvisation. Surrender and kinaesthetic compassion are things we have explored in detail in our Dancing with Parkinson’s programme.

Sara Hibbert, visual artist on the CID Project provides an insight into her process and experience working with the Dancing with Parkinson's Company

As the CID Project reaches its conclusion this coming Saturday 20 July, Danielle Jones (Teale) reflects on the ambition of the project, what has been achieved and how we aspire to make an impact artistically, creatively and personally

One of the original collaborative relationships that initiated the CID Project was that between Artistic Director Danielle Jones (Teale) and Music Director Jaka Skapin. From the outset this was to be an immersive experience bringing dance and music equally into the forefront of improvisation and creative exploration.

In week 4 of the CID project, our last guest workshop leader Kimberley Harvey joined the company to share practices from her work 'Inky Matter'...

Three (of a thousand and one) reasons to be happy dancing in Poplar

This workshop insight contributed by Sally Varrall, supporting artist on the CID project, offers thoughts on visibility within the frame of seeing & being seen, in the week 3 CID workshop led by Casson & Friends.

Week 3 of the CID project saw us play together with the concepts of narrative and storytelling led by Casson and Friends artist Chloe Mead. We developed close personal duet material which we shared together for the rest of the group.

One of the values underpinning the CID project is bringing visibility to people with Parkinson's and their contribution to the dance community. This has been a featured topic in our discussion groups at the end of each weekly workshop.

Week 2 of the CID project saw us lead physically in exploratory tasks by Bim Malcomson to find a sense of ballet’s use of points in space, how the carriage of the arms can help us reach and trace to the edge of our kinesphere, how we can use opposing directional forces to find moments of expansion and how we can shape the geography and landscape of the space by physically relocating from one place to another. Using this acquired information, we worked on a series of tasks in pairs to create duets which we then performed to each other.

Kate Swindlehurst is a dancer with the CID project as well as a writer and author of 'The Tango Effect'... here she reflects on her experience of the project so far.

Jaka Skapin (Musical Director for the CID Project) reflects on the first session of the project

Week 1 of the CID Project at Poplar Union started with an introduction workshop and conversations led by Danielle Jones (Teale).

I am delighted to be expanding the work and and reach of my research with people with Parkinson’s alongside partner organisation DanceWest, to bring high quality dance opportunities for people with Parkinson’s, their loved ones, companions, friends and carers in a supportive and sociable community environment.

We have been excited for some time about our performance and research project CID - Collective Identity, and we are thrilled to announce that we have been awarded Arts Council Funding to deliver the first phase of R&D for this project in partnership with Poplar Union over the summer. The project places collaboration at the heart of the process, and most importantly, places equal value and weight on all contributors. Visual artists, musicians, dance artists and people with Parkinson’s will all come together to explore the intimate art of dancing and the value of collective creative expression - which are inseparable.

The Dancing with Parkinson’s programme at St. George’s Hospital Charity, Queen Mary’s University Hospital Roehampton, featured in the blog below for World Parkinson’s Day.

Danielle Teale and Jaka Skapin recently worked together with the St. Joseph’s Hospice Dancing with Parkinson’s Hackney group on a music and dance project which we’ve named, branches.

Here Jaka explains the process of devising new music with the dancers:

Anne has been dancing in Danielle’s Dancing with Parkinson’s programme at the National Hospital for Neurology since September 2018. In this personal account she shares the value of dancing in her life living with Parkinson’s…

“Through an evening physiotherapy event at the NHNN I heard about Danielle’s plans for a new group based at the hospital, and I was fortunate to be invited to join them. Once again the positive feeling of belonging to a supportive group with a shared experience and a positive, experienced teacher has been vital to my own well-being, and by extension to my husband and children.”

Welcome to Dancing with Parkinson's, a specialist session run by Danielle Teale in east London, one of a growing number in Britain, each part of an international movement of community dance classes, tailored for the special needs of people with Parkinson's…

During these dance classes I am taken out of myself – feeling the pleasures and rewards of moving freely in space. And this release was not just an escape from reality, it was therapy for reality.

I'm delighted to announce the launch of the Artists Exchange Programme funded by Arts Council England; an initiative that focuses on artistry and creative integrity in the continuing professional development of artists working in community dance.

I'm delighted to be presenting, sharing and joining with a network of incredible artists and experienced thinkers and movers at the upcoming People Dancing conference in Glasgow.

This conference comes at a time when many threads of my practice, experience, thinking and research are converging and I look forward to the opportunity to share this through the theme of dance with people with Parkinson's.

Days getting shorter and work load getting longer...! Autumn season is always the busiest...
 

In late 2016 I began an investigation with dancers with Parkinson's entitled Explorations in Collectivity and Intimacy, in response to my desire to interrogate further and answer questions arising from my own practice and what I was learning from the dancers I worked with...

Last week I was delighted to speak at the Culture, Health and Wellbeing International Conference on a topic that is very important to me and was the basis for my research into the role of the dance artist in Community practice. 'The value of artistry in dance and health...' argues the need for a shift in focus from rationale and best practice, to artistry and the creative integrity of the individual artist. Here I share with you the presentation that I gave with a few amendments to make it more suitable for reading:

from best practice to artistry, a reflection on dancing with parkinson's

Globally, dancing as a positive intervention and as a stimulating activity for people with Parkinson's has exploded with popularity over the last 10 years. With high quality research in the UK commissioned by English National Ballet and spearheaded by Dr. Sara Houston of University of Roehampton; the establishment of a supportive UK network for professional development and class set up, directed by Kiki Gale and housed under People Dancing; and the ongoing globally inspiring Mark Morris Dance Group programme Dance for PD, led by the commitment, dedication and positivity of David Leventhal in New York (recently awarded the World Parkinson Congress award for distinguished contribution to the Parkinson community).

Tucked away under disused railway arches, in the Zoho district of Rotterdam, a special gallery exists which takes the stories, lives and individuality of people from all walks of life, and demonstrates pure humanity through art. This gallery in the Station 'Hofplein' is the home of Dance for Health.