Swindon Youth Dance Company
Our flagship youth company amazes NALGAO delegates
December 2009
Swindon Dance's flagship youth group, Swindon Youth Dance Company (SYDCo), amazed the delegates at this year's NALGAO Conference, which was held in Swindon in November.
Back in August, SYDCo members had participated in a residency with Artistic Director Emma Langhorne during which they created a dance piece for Action Traction, a specially-commissioned site-specific promenade event for the conference that included theatre, dance, music and film, all performed by young people from Swindon's leading arts organisations.
SYDCo's piece, entitled Tracking, involved 10 young dancers aged 14-19yrs performing a dynamic contemporary piece to over 140 delegates at Swindon's STEAM museum. Of their performance, Helen Miah, Swindon Borough Council's Head of Culture, said:
"Delegates at the Nalgao conference were literally blown away by the standard of dance displayed in the Action Traction performance. The self assured maturity of performance was astounding from such young dancers and in a site specific piece too, where the dancers were fully exposed to the audience. This was youth dance at its very best and an extraordinary demonstration of talent."
SYDCo will be performing Tracking, together with newly-choreographed piece Song Birds Aren't Meant to Be Caged, on 11th December at Swindon Dance and in local and regional platforms throughout 2010.
Nalgao is the National Association of Local Government Arts Officers.
Photo: Jason Moore