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Traditional and Contemporary Dance in Community Settings

City Moves Dancespace

Purpose

City Moves Dancespace provides specialist accommodation for dance in Aberdeen. The City Council gives support by funding the artistic director and general manager's posts from Scottish Arts Council sources.

Provision

The Community Based Adult Learning Guide for Aberdeen, presented by Aberdeen City Council in association with Aberdeen College, indicates that thirty-one dance classes are included in the city-wide programme. These range from sequence dancing and Scottish country dancing to step dancing and belly dancing. While most of these classes take place in community halls or schools, City Moves Dancespace provides specialist accommodation for dance. In 1997, City Moves Dancespace received a lottery grant of £41,250 towards the cost of a replacement dance floor and improvements to facilitate disabled users. This has resulted in a most attractive, good quality dance facility.

The centre promotes a range of dance classes for dancers of all ages, stages and abilities. Classes are offered at low cost and at concessionary rates to over-sixties, students, children under sixteen and disabled people. Contemporary dance is a strong feature. Other classes include T'ai Chi and gentle exercise, an integrated performance group for people with or without learning difficulties and a creative movement class for people with learning difficulties. The dance and gentle exercise class for the over-fifties is attended by large numbers of women who come to the class for the health and social benefits. Many have been coming to the class regularly for many years and value the importance of dance to their well-being and to building and sustaining friendships. City Moves Dancespace also offers a joint summer school and residencies with another council-run venue, the Lemon Tree, which provides a performance space for touring dance companies.

The potential of City Moves Dancespace to attract dancers to base themselves in the city may help to create a stronger dance base in local schools and communities and provide the basis for more integrated provision across the city. City Moves Dancespace is part of the Scottish Arts Council dance strategy to support a network of national dance agencies in Scotland. This is an exciting initiative for dance development in the north east of Scotland.

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