Curtain up on young talent as dancers strut their stuff
City pupils were able to step into the Empire spotlight once again thanks to the return of the Sunderland Schools’ Dance Festival.
The annual festival couldn’t take place over the lockdowns but returned in style for its 35th year.
The non-competitive festival’s aim is to celebrate the dance achievements of Sunderland’syoungpeople,which they can share with friends and family to help boost their confidence.
More than 400 performers from 22 schools took part in this year’s event, with many more coming along to show their support, with parents and guardians also making up the audience.
The theme was ‘The Natural World’ which inspired a widerangeofdancesbasedon such things as the behaviour of animals in the wild, different or changing seasons, the weather, climate change and the impact on our world.
Easington Lane Primary School created a buzzing adventure named A Celebration of Pollination to show the work and importance of bees. Meanwhile, Biddick Academy’s All Must Pay Their Debt to Nature was inspired by the Blue Planet and the impact of pollutionandglobalwarming.
BBC Look North Presenter,JeffBrown,alsoreturnedas Master of Ceremonies.
Theone-dayeventisorganisedbyperformingartsstaffin the Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries at the University of Sunderland.
The festival was originally
initiated as part of a Masters Degree, investigating strategiesinthepromotionofdance in secondary education and began in a very small way with just three schools taking part.
It gradually grew over the years to become an established,
annual event in Sunderland Empire’s community calendar .
Lesley Younger, festival director said: "I find it very moving and inspirational to watch the sheer joy, enthusiasm and talentofthechildrenperforming
and of course I am very appreciativeofthecommitment and immense amount of hard work put in by the teachers.”
Jeff said: “It was so good to see the Dance Festival back, and an absolute pleasure to be hosting it once again.
“The arts are so important in lifting everyone’s spirits, and you can only imagine the confidence boost it gives the youngsters when they pluck up the courage to go out and perform in front of an audience.