What is Everybody Dance Now!
We are excited to launch our new initiative, Everybody Dance Now! This is a long term project, which aims to set up a “bank” of new and used dance shoes, that people can apply to loan for free, until the shoes are outgrown or not needed, and they can be given back to our bank, or if worn out, recycled.
The essence of this project is to help make dance accessible for all by helping with the expenses of dance training. Primarily, the project is aimed at parents of children who are taking dance lessons, but we will also have adult sizes for teens and adults who also wish to pursue dancing as a hobby, for well being, or as part of their education and training.
Who Can Apply?
When we are ready to accept applications, we hope to be able to rely on the good will of people and allow applications to be open to anyone in the UK, who feels they are in need of some financial support, and that the recipients are actively taking part in regular dance lessons.
How Can You Help?
What we really need to get this project off the ground is dance shoes! If you have some old ballet, tap, or jazz shoes lying around, that you or your child has grown out of, please consider donating them to this project!
If you don’t have shoes, but still want to help, you could help in the following ways:
- Buy a pair of new dance shoes for the project. Bloch pink ballet shoes, and Bloch tap shoes with heel and toe taps are generally the most used by dance schools. However, we will accept all shoes as not all classes require specific uniform.
- Buy a pair of used dance shoes from eBay, Facebook marketplace, etc. and donate them to the project.
- We will soon have a fundraising page if you would like to donate money to support this project. Look out for updates.
- If you know of any dance wear providers or producers that would be willing to donate a pair or two, please let us know, or contact them on our behalf.
How to Give Shoes
You can send shoes, by filling in the form below, and we will respond with our postal address. Thank you
Dance Schools - How Can You Get Involved?
We would love to work with dance schools on this project. We are happy to discuss any ways in which you would like to be involved or support Everybody Dance Now! Just drop us an email or use the contact form.
Other Organisations - How Can You Help?
We are keen to collaborate with any organisation that feels they want to support our project. Drop us an email to discuss how you want to be involved. This could be sponsorship, regular donations of funds or shoes, social media sharing, or anything else.
We are delighted to be being supported by Claire Farmer – Performance and Training. Claire is a dance scientist, and strength & conditioning coach, as well as dance science lecturer, reiki practitioner and amazing advocate of mental health and well being. Check out her website and her fabulous instagram for loads of insightful and original content.
Why is Dance So Important?
Like many of the creative arts, dance can be holistically beneficial to children, teens and adults.
Dance is a whole body form of expression, that incorporates fitness, creativity, and specialised techniques.
Dance is empowering! It instills body confidence, positive body health, along with transferrable strength, balance and resilience.
It quietly and effectively develops teamwork, leadership, independence and communication skills.
Dance invites you be part of a community of like-minded children, young people or adults, where you all share a love of dance, music, skills and techniques, and personal development.
Dance is an incredible tool for improving mental health and combating mental illness. It allows for whole body and mind enrichment, catharsis, expression, and enables you to develop a gentle control over your mental and physical spaces.
For children, specifically, dance provides vital screen free time, along with important and varied physical exercise and awareness. Dance is fun; through dance, children can be silly and play in the way children are meant to, they can experiment and express with their bodies, they can learn to communicate without speech; tell stories and create characters, and they can develop both their gross and fine motor skills
Dance also allows for an exploration of music. Through music we can discover more expression, rhythm, style, emotive response, symbolism, poetry, language, self awareness, and emotional intelligence.
The Future of Everybody Dance Now!
Our long term goals for Everybody Dance Now is to provide more funding, which will aim to make dance more accessible to all, as well as promoting and providing dance experiences which increase well being. Watch this space!
