The group explored a range of dance and theatre skills and decided to base their piece upon body image and the media’s idea of ‘perfection’. Set to a fun upbeat dance track the girls set to work exploring Barbie doll images of celebrities - moving like manikins in blonde wigs and Barbie-esque masks!

The piece started as a drama sketch based on the idea of using the ‘Trisha Goddard’ interview show to question the two famous characters of Paris Hilton and Avril Lavigne. The famous stars were quizzed about their body image and messages to give their fans. The piece then progressed quickly into a difficult dance routine exploring what it would be like if we were all ‘perfect’? It came to a close with each individual taking away their ‘perfect’ identities of masks and wigs and becoming them - the real image, which was so enlightening to both the performers and audience members.

The 10-minute challenging piece closed with a question to each dancer about their own perception of body image to which the following answers were given…

“don’t follow the crowd”

“be happy with who you are, I have come to like myself through doing this project - its helped me to lose weight and I now like what I see”

The young people demonstrated a real talent and grew in confidence throughout the duration of the project.  They had devised the piece collaboratively with Laura and all agreed that they had experienced a journey of self-perception, breaking down barriers of mistrust. The piece was performed and highly received. at the Mini Arts Festival for Looked After Young People which was organised by Sandwell Youth Service and held at Coneygre Arts Centre in July 2008.

Due to issues of confidentiality the young people taking part in this project were unable to be photographed or filmed during the project and therefore they are not visually represented on the website.  This should not distract from what they achieved individually and collectively and the valuable contribution they made to Move It!

Stacey tells us about how the project has gone in this interview from the Coneygre Festival -

Leanne loves to dance, find out what she thought of the project in her video diary -

Relive their performance in this video captured at the Coneygre Festival -

We interviewed the group just after the performance, see how they thought it went in this video -

Gemma is very supportive of other parents in the group and has encouraged them to try new activities which are planned by parents in the rolling programmes. Gemma is a talented dancer and was very keen to try the dance project as soon as the idea was put forward to the group.  She spent some time persuading the other parents that it would be fun for them to try dancing too. Gemma came into her own during the dance project – she had recently had her second child and it gave her quality time to treat herself to time out from the demands of being a mother.

Gemma would be keen to continue learning about dance as she really enjoyed this project and the sense of accomplishment that the final performance provided.

Gemma tells us why she got involved in the project and whether she’s looking forward to the final performance in her video diary  -

Kerry is particularly interested in making changes in services provided for young parents in Sandwell and is a member of the Teenage Pregnancy Young People’s Board, Mashed Sexual Health Arts group, and the Greets Green Young Parents’ Forum. Kerry won the Brightest Star Award at Sandwell Young People’s Services annual award ceremony earlier in the year for her services to young people.  She has recently completed her Introduction to Youth Work course and is about to start work as a sessional youth worker.
Kerry has always been enthusiastic about taking up new opportunities and saw the dance project as an opportunity to try something new. The dance project has been brilliant for building Kerry’s confidence and for strengthening her relationships with the other parents in the group.

Follow Kerry’s journey from first rehearsal to final performance in her video diary -

The young women were originally going to be dancing with their children but they felt strongly that this should be an opportunity for them to do something positive for themselves away from crying babies and dirty nappies.

In response to this feedback a crèche was provided enabling the young women to crank up the volume without fear of waking up the baby.  The women worked with dance artists Stacey Lunn and Hayley Duffield over 10 weeks and learnt a number of different streetdance routines.

Although originally classically trained Sarah now loves the versatility of different dance techniques and particularly enjoys the fusion of styles that young people bring to the dance platform.

Here Sarah and Stacey talk about the initial dance sessions with the group -

The shared experience of learning a new skill and practising for the performance has brought the parents closer together as a group and as friends, which has really developed the peer support element of the group, which I think is a brilliant outcome for a dance project!

In Louise’s first video, she tells us about how the group are enjoying the project  -