Little London Community Primary School pupils in Leeds are taking part in Project Resurgence which aims to make ballet more accessible and inclusive.
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00:00 The reason that I launched Project Resurgence with my partner Kate was to make dancing more
00:05 accessible in the UK, whereas dancing has become quite, and has always been, slightly
00:10 on the elite side. I wanted to make dance available for everyone, so at Project Resurgence
00:14 it's become really clear to us that not enough people have access to ballet in particular,
00:18 and that's something that I really want to rectify.
00:21 What we've actually created is a scheme of learning, which I didn't really understand
00:25 at first what that was, which is basically a six-week programme of classical ballet, and it is all
00:30 the different angles and the sides of classical ballet, and that's to put in to the PE departments
00:34 or the curriculum there, so that we can actually implement a six-week ballet programme, and
00:39 not just for the students of West Yorkshire, but I'm talking nationwide. This is something
00:44 that I really want to spearhead.
00:45 We've observed several positive changes with the children, really, not just in terms of
00:50 their ballet ability as well, in terms of, yes, they are absolutely becoming much better
00:55 ballet dancers, but in terms of their knowledge of the sport as well, and the art form, and
01:01 their physical development as well, in terms of their fundamental movement skills. I can
01:06 see noticeable differences in a lot of the children in my PE lessons who attend ballet
01:12 classes in just their general core strength and alertness. We can see children, children
01:18 really, we can see the positive impact of the children really setting high goals for
01:21 themselves.
01:22 I've learnt, like, some moves of my hands, like, how to, like, first position with my
01:28 legs and stuff, and I know how to, like, start properly, and I've also learnt how to relevé,
01:34 like, hold it up when I do pirouettes.
01:37 When I do my tippy toes, that I stay still while I'm on it, because it takes a long time
01:44 to stay on my tippy toes.
01:46 I used to, like, struggle with pas de chaise and balances, but now I'm, like, going with
01:51 the flow, and I think you should, like, try ballet because, like, it's fun.
01:57 Maybe they want to do ballet afterwards, but also, are they stronger, are they happier?
02:01 You know, that health and wellbeing is a massive thing for us at Project Research, and something
02:05 that we really want to focus in on. I can only spend so much time here, and maybe their
02:10 families want them to get involved in the world of dance afterwards, but they're not
02:14 going to know that until they see their kids dancing, and I would love it if we could showcase
02:18 their work.
02:19 I get to watch these guys accomplishing things on a daily basis when we work, so twice a
02:24 week. I get to see them do those things, and even today I've been seeing them doing things
02:28 I've never seen before, and that's really rewarding, and I can see that they really
02:32 appreciate that as well.
02:33 I want to prove that everybody in the world can do ballet on some level. So often I get
02:39 so many people turning around to me saying, "I could never do ballet, I could never do
02:43 this, I am yet to meet anyone that I couldn't train." It is a process of mechanics, as I
02:48 say, bend, stretch, and point. My personal goal and ambition, I'm going to be able to
02:52 do this through working with people practically and digitally, I'm going to show that everybody
02:56 can learn ballet on some level, and actually to a better standard than they could ever
03:01 dream possible. So it can be done, people, alright?