Three new dates for the informal dance meetup:
For timing, venue, contact email and other details, click through to the earlier post about non-schooler dance meetups in Nottingham.
Friendly event, usually not super busy, good for dipping into if you’re new to non-school education and in the right age range. You don’t have to be “good at dance”!
Non-schoolers age 11-18, dancing for enjoyment. You don’t have to be “good at dance”!
Date: We’re resuming for 2018. To hear when dates are fixed, make sure you’ve been in touch with dance-meetup at non-school-nottingham dot org dot uk, so that you can be sent emails.
In the past, we’ve varied the day-of-the-week, so that it won’t always clash with the same other things, to enable more people to join in sometimes.
Age range: 11 to 18. Unfortunately this has to be an exact limit, as it’s set by the venue we’re using (presumably related to their funding agreements). In practice so far, it’s mostly 11 to 14 year olds who have been interested. There has been some talk of setting up a similar event for under-11s at a different venue.
Time: Meet in reception around 12.45/12.50 for dance session 1pm to 3pm.
Venue membership, free: If you’ve not been to NGY before, you’ll need to get a membership card. You’ll need the card to beep into the door from reception to go upstairs. Beep out every time as well, as it’s how they keep track of who’s in the building in case of an emergency.
It’s free to join. Filling in the membership form takes maybe five minutes, and then allow another five minutes for the reception person to make your card. If you like, you can download the membership form here, print it out and fill it in beforehand, to save time on the day.
From 3.30pm, 11-18-year-olds can use the social space for free (table-tennis, pool table, comfy chairs, snack bar etc).
Venue: Dance studio at NGY myplace, 29-31 Castle Gate, Nottingham NG1 7AR.
Area: Nottingham city centre, just off Maid Marian Way.
Price: £2 each, for the dance studio hire. Pay the reception person when you arrive. (NGY’s dance studio can be booked by any NGY member at a rate of £1 per person per hour.)
Booking: You don’t have to book as such – but it’s a good idea to be in touch and say you’re planning to come, just in case there was a week when plans changed at the last minute.
How it works
The young people themselves are deciding what to do in the 2 hours.
At the first meetup, people took turns to choose a song to dance to. Not everyone knew each other beforehand, but everyone was friendly.
One idea for future meetups was that half the time could be more of the “choose songs and improvise to them” and the other half could be developing and rehearsing duets or trios or group dances. But it just depends on what people decide to do on the day.
A quote from the first meetup: “No-one was in charge, but we all had ideas”
Guidelines for the session
We want everyone to have a good time!
so here is a kind of “dance group code of conduct”:
(let us know if you have ideas for making it better!)
* Look out for each other in a friendly way, so e.g. if someone seems to be left out or seems not to know what’s going on, it’s everyone’s role to include them, as a team.
* Discuss together how to use the time and what everyone wants to do. Consider dividing up the time into chunks. For example, you might agree at the start to have 20 mins doing X, 20 mins doing Y, then stop and have a think about what to do next.
* Try to make sure that everyone gets to do at least a little bit of what they wanted – e.g. if one day, most people want to do Thing A but one person wants to do Thing B, have at least 5 or 10 minutes that day where some Thing B gets to happen.
* Take turns making suggestions, and listen to each other’s ideas. If you’re doing one big dance, think about ways to build up a big dance from smaller pieces so that everyone has come up with part of it.
* It’s OK for someone to be a leader or choreographer for one particular dance. Over the weeks, everyone should get a chance to take that role if they want to, or to put in ideas to someone else’s dance if they don’t want to choreograph a whole one.
* If you’re leading the group in learning something, think about respectful ways to point out to people how you’d like them to do it, e.g. “Could we have everyone doing it like this?” (and demonstrate how you want it and how you don’t want it)
* No criticising other people’s clothes or bodies, and no teasing (except maybe some friendly teasing with people you know well enough to know for sure that they don’t mind it). Not that we think you would do this, anyway! Just saying.
* If there are any problems with the room, e.g. the music player doesn’t work or it was too hot or cold, talk to the person at reception. If they can’t help you themself, they can probably find someone who can.
* If there are any disagreements or problems that don’t get resolved entirely satisfactorily, talk about it afterwards with [coordinating parent] and your parents.
* The main aim is to enjoy the dancing and enjoy each other’s company in a friendly way, as well as the satisfaction of practising and learning 🙂
Practical tips & what to bring:
Music
The dance studio comes with a music speaker that has an input cable with a small plug, like the kind on headphones. So if you want to bring music to play, it needs to be on something with that kind of headphone socket (e.g. a phone or an ipod).
You can get the venue’s wi-fi password from the person at reception, and there were no problems with the wi-fi being too slow. So as long as it’s working, you’ll be able to get music from the internet, as well as whatever you brought.
Clothes & shoes
Wear comfortable clothes that you can move about in.
Most people will probably dance barefoot, but if you’d rather wear shoes, wear soft clean grippy ones.
Dancer checklist for the day
Comfy clothes
Water bottle
£2 for the studio hire
Your NGY card if you already have one
Anything else that you might need that not everyone would, e.g. asthma inhaler or whateverOptional extras…
Music, on phone/ipod/similar
Notebook & pen/pencil, or phone or tablet, if you might want to make notes or swop contact details
Snack, or extra money for the food counter if it’s open
Dance shoes, if you don’t want to dance barefoot
Access: The NGY building has a wheelchair-friendly toilet, and a lift and ramps. If you have any other access needs, email dance-meetup @ non-school-nottingham dot org dot uk, and/or contact the staff at NGY, and we’ll do our best.
Map showing NGY myplace:
Bigger map showing NGY myplace
Transport: It’s just off Maid Marian Way and about 320 yards’ walk from the Old Market Square, hence not far from any of the city centre bus stops. Nearest tram stop is Old Market Square.
Parking: One simple method for parking is to use one of the Park and Ride sites and get the tram into town. Feel free to comment if you have other tips for city centre parking.
Non-schoolers age 11-18, dancing for enjoyment. You don’t have to be “good at dance”!
Date: We’re currently planning to vary the day-of-the-week, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday – so that it won’t always clash with the same other things, to enable more people to join in sometimes.
The next one actually booked is:
Other dates we have in mind for autumn 2017, to be confirmed when the studio’s actually booked:
Update: All the following dates are now booked for autumn 2017, at the new time, see below.
Any updates or cancellations will be amended here.
Age range: 11 to 18. Unfortunately this has to be an exact limit, as it’s set by the venue we’re using (presumably related to their funding agreements). In practice so far, it’s mostly 11 to 14 year olds who have been interested. There has been some talk of setting up a similar event for under-11s at a different venue.
Time: 1.30pm to 3.30pm.
Please note new time: Meet in reception around 12.45/12.50 for dance session 1pm to 3pm.
If you’ve not been to NGY before, you’ll need to get a membership card. You’ll need the card to beep into the door from reception to go upstairs. Beep out every time as well, as it’s how they keep track of who’s in the building in case of an emergency.
It’s free to join. Filling in the membership form takes maybe five minutes, and then allow another five minutes for the reception person to make your card. If you like, you can download the membership form here, print it out and fill it in beforehand, to save time on the day.
From 3.30pm, 11-18-year-olds can use the social space for free (table-tennis, pool table, comfy chairs, snack bar etc).
Venue: Dance studio at NGY myplace, 29-31 Castle Gate, Nottingham NG1 7AR.
Area: Nottingham city centre, just off Maid Marian Way.
Price: £2 each, for the dance studio hire. Pay the reception person when you arrive. (NGY’s dance studio can be booked by any NGY member at a rate of £1 per person per hour.)
Booking: Non-schoolers the right age can just turn up on the day. But if you want updates, or just to let us know to look out for you, email dance-meetup at non-school-nottingham dot org dot uk.
How it works
The young people themselves are deciding what to do in the 2 hours.
At the first meetup, people took turns to choose a song to dance to. Not everyone knew each other beforehand, but everyone was friendly.
One idea for future meetups was that half the time could be more of the “choose songs and improvise to them” and the other half could be developing and rehearsing duets or trios or group dances. But it just depends on what people decide to do on the day.
A quote from the first meetup: “No-one was in charge, but we all had ideas”
Guidelines for the session
We want everyone to have a good time!
so here is a kind of “dance group code of conduct”:
(let us know if you have ideas for making it better!)
* Look out for each other in a friendly way, so e.g. if someone seems to be left out or seems not to know what’s going on, it’s everyone’s role to include them, as a team.
* Discuss together how to use the time and what everyone wants to do. Consider dividing up the time into chunks. For example, you might agree at the start to have 20 mins doing X, 20 mins doing Y, then stop and have a think about what to do next.
* Try to make sure that everyone gets to do at least a little bit of what they wanted – e.g. if one day, most people want to do Thing A but one person wants to do Thing B, have at least 5 or 10 minutes that day where some Thing B gets to happen.
* Take turns making suggestions, and listen to each other’s ideas. If you’re doing one big dance, think about ways to build up a big dance from smaller pieces so that everyone has come up with part of it.
* It’s OK for someone to be a leader or choreographer for one particular dance. Over the weeks, everyone should get a chance to take that role if they want to, or to put in ideas to someone else’s dance if they don’t want to choreograph a whole one.
* If you’re leading the group in learning something, think about respectful ways to point out to people how you’d like them to do it, e.g. “Could we have everyone doing it like this?” (and demonstrate how you want it and how you don’t want it)
* No criticising other people’s clothes or bodies, and no teasing (except maybe some friendly teasing with people you know well enough to know for sure that they don’t mind it). Not that we think you would do this, anyway! Just saying.
* If there are any problems with the room, e.g. the music player doesn’t work or it was too hot or cold, talk to the person at reception. If they can’t help you themself, they can probably find someone who can.
* If there are any disagreements or problems that don’t get resolved entirely satisfactorily, talk about it afterwards with [coordinating parent] and your parents.
* The main aim is to enjoy the dancing and enjoy each other’s company in a friendly way, as well as the satisfaction of practising and learning 🙂
Practical tips & what to bring:
Music
The dance studio comes with a music speaker that has an input cable with a small plug, like the kind on headphones. So if you want to bring music to play, it needs to be on something with that kind of headphone socket (e.g. a phone or an ipod).
You can get the venue’s wi-fi password from the person at reception, and there were no problems with the wi-fi being too slow. So as long as it’s working, you’ll be able to get music from the internet, as well as whatever you brought.
Clothes & shoes
Wear comfortable clothes that you can move about in.
Most people will probably dance barefoot, but if you’d rather wear shoes, wear soft clean grippy ones.
Dancer checklist for the day
Comfy clothes
Water bottle
£2 for the studio hire
Your NGY card if you already have one
Anything else that you might need that not everyone would, e.g. asthma inhaler or whateverOptional extras…
Music, on phone/ipod/similar
Notebook & pen/pencil, or phone or tablet, if you might want to make notes or swop contact details
Snack, or extra money for the food counter if it’s open
Dance shoes, if you don’t want to dance barefoot
Access: The NGY building has a wheelchair-friendly toilet, and a lift and ramps. If you have any other access needs, email dance-meetup @ non-school-nottingham dot org dot uk, and/or contact the staff at NGY, and we’ll do our best.
Map showing NGY myplace:
Bigger map showing NGY myplace
Transport: It’s just off Maid Marian Way and about 320 yards’ walk from the Old Market Square, hence not far from any of the city centre bus stops. Nearest tram stop is Old Market Square.
Parking: One simple method for parking is to use one of the Park and Ride sites and get the tram into town. Feel free to comment if you have other tips for city centre parking.
Date: Tuesday afternoons from September 2017.
Time: 1.30pm to 2.30pm, with possibility of dividing the older ones into a separate group at 2.30pm if/when the group gets big.
Venue: Manor Arts at The Manor House, 2 Middle Street, Beeston, NG9 1FX.
Area: Near the main Beeston tram & bus stop interchange.
Organiser: Catherine Chivers, catherinechivers at gmail dot com.
Age range: 5 to 12 approx (6 to 10 at time of writing) for this group, which is specifically for home edders. Catherine also runs other drama groups for young people, to which a few home ed children aged around 10 to 12 are already going.
Price: £5 per session.
Booking: Pay as you go. Probably best to email first if you’re new, so Catherine knows to expect you.
Dance, Drama, Art, Music, Literacy – script writing, performance poetry etc.
I am a very experienced Primary teacher with specialist expertise in Dance and Drama. I have worked a lot with children and adults with learning disabilities, ASD and confidence issues. I am very calm and caring teacher and always endeavour to bring out the best in people.
If parents would like this session to run in conjunction with a support group for them I am happy for Manor Arts to provide the venue for this and you would be welcome to make use of tea/coffee making facilities and meet together whilst your children enjoy their time together being creative! I can very easily incorporate Science/History themes into creative sessions too! If there is enough interest I can run a group for older children 2.30-3.30.
I have an enhanced DBS and Public Liability Insurance.
Do get in touch if you would be interested in this exciting new venture.
Access info:
Wheelchair accessible and large toilet. There is gravel on the drive but I have a lot of people with pushchairs using the venue and they are fine. I can arrange parking at Falcon House Nursing Home next door for wheelchair users. Children with autism or learning disabilities most welcome.
Map showing Manor Arts:
Bigger view of map showing Manor Arts
Nearest tram stop: “Beeston centre” tram stop is only about 100-200 yards away round the corner. This is on the Toton branch of the tram line. Tram information.
Nearest bus stop: “Beeston Interchange“, on the 36 route, Orange Line. Trent Barton buses which stop there are the Indigo and 20. Sometimes cheaper, but not valid on most pre-paid bus cards, is the YourBus Y36, usually a dark red colour, which follows the same route as the NCT orange 36.
Parking: Tesco is about 250 yards away and allows 3 hours’ free parking. Off street parking nearby, but not right outside the venue. Contact Catherine if you need somewhere nearer; see access info above, “I can arrange parking at Falcon House Nursing Home next door for wheelchair users.”
Date: Tuesday afternoons, beginning 6 June 2017.
Time: 1.30pm to 2.30pm.
Venue: Manor Arts at The Manor House, 2 Middle Street, Beeston, NG9 1FX.
Area: Near the main Beeston tram & bus stop interchange.
Age range: “Primary age (or Primary ability level if SEN)”.
Price: £5 per session.
Booking: Pay as you go, initially; “ideally a regular commitment so projects can develop week by week”.
Organiser: Catherine Chivers, catherinechivers at gmail dot com.
Daytime Creative Arts Group- new class specifically for home schoolers involving dance, drama, music, games, choreography, creating sketches and plays, films around topics to start on Tuesday 6th June. To develop confidence, social skills and friendships.
Catherine explains:
I am a very experienced Primary teacher and dance/drama specialist. I have set up and run Manor Arts for a year now. I have a beautiful purpose built dance studio and games room in the grounds of The Manor House in Beeston. I run pre-school and after school dance and drama sessions (no exams – it’s all about nurturing creativity and developing confidence.) I also teach adults Fitsteps (Latin and Ballroom based dance fitness class) and run a Mums and Kids version on Friday evenings plus adults Tap. I have a lot of SEN experience and interest and also teach an adults with learning disabilities class. I am hoping there will be enough interest in my setting up a Creative Arts Daytime Group for home schoolers after half term. If parents wish they would be most welcome to use the venue as a support group with other like minded people whilst the children get creative!
Access info:
Wheelchair accessible and large toilet. There is gravel on the drive but I have a lot of people with pushchairs using the venue and they are fine. I can arrange parking at Falcon House Nursing Home next door for wheelchair users. Children with autism or learning disabilities most welcome.
Map showing Manor Arts:
Bigger view of map showing Manor Arts
Nearest tram stop: “Beeston centre” tram stop is only about 100-200 yards away round the corner. This is on the Toton branch of the tram line. Tram information.
Nearest bus stop: “Beeston Interchange“, on the 36 route, Orange Line. Trent Barton buses which stop there are the Indigo and 20. Sometimes cheaper, but not valid on most pre-paid bus cards, is the YourBus Y36, usually a dark red colour, which follows the same route as the NCT orange 36.
Parking: Tesco is about 250 yards away and allows 3 hours’ free parking. Off street parking nearby, but not right outside the venue. Contact Catherine if you need somewhere nearer; see access info above, “I can arrange parking at Falcon House Nursing Home next door for wheelchair users.”
Date: Sunday 19 February 2017.
Time: Tap jam itself is 7pm to 9pm. Extra workshop at 6pm, optional.
Venue: City Arts, 11-13 Hockley, Nottingham, NG1 1FH.
Area: Hockley area, east side of Nottingham city centre. Venue is about 700 yards east of the Old Market Square, just north of the ice rink.
Age range: All ages – as long as young ones are able to cooperate with the atmosphere. So when it’s not their turn to dance, they’d either be watching and encouraging the other dancers, or entertaining themselves fairly peacefully, e.g. with a game or book.
Price: Entry to tap jam £6 / Free after 8pm / Free for under-14s. Loan of tap shoes included if you don’t have your own (if they have the right size for you).
6pm-7pm workshop with special guest Junior Laniyan is £12, or £8 for under-14s. Or £15 combined price for workshop and jam.
Booking: No need to book, just pay on the door.
Organiser: Jess Murray from the Tap Rhythm Project. This isn’t a home-ed-specific event, but Jess ran some tap dancing try-out sessions for local non-schoolers last year, which were much enjoyed 🙂
A Tap Jam is a place for tap dancers to improvise with musicians and other tap dancers. Everyone is welcome, whether to take part or simply to watch and enjoy. Tap Rhythm Jams are open to dancers of all levels of experience, from complete beginners to professional performers. We even have tap shoes that you can use for free if you don’t have your own!
About the tap improvisation workshop, 6pm – 7pm (additional cost)…
Special guest Junior Laniyan will lead a musicality and improvisation workshop before the jam starts. You can try improvising in a low key environment and learn some easy approaches to get you started.
Video clip of Junior Laniyan and Andrew Nemr dancing at the London tap jam in 2010
Video clip of Annette Walker and Jess Murray dancing at the London tap jam in 2010
(You don’t have to be amazing dancers like them to give it a go! Beginners welcome!)
City Arts “how to find us” page, including access info.
The tap jam will be in the ground floor space, which has a wheelchair-accessible toilet and flat access.
Nearest tram stop: “Lace Market”. Any tram through the city centre will stop here. Tram information.
Nearest bus stops: “Hockley” opposite the venue (all red or lilac line inbound buses), “Boston Street” 150 yards (all red or lilac line outbound buses), “George Street” 350 yards (which is on the “city loop” bus route, so turquoise line all buses, green line all buses, orange line number 34). Bus information.
Parking: “Arena” car park, Lower Parliament Street, 150 yards – or on nearby streets. Outside the venue you can only drop off or pick up, not actually park.
Date: Wednesday 10 August 2016.
Time: 6.30pm to 7.30pm.
Venue: New Art Exchange, 39-41 Gregory Boulevard, Nottingham, NG7 6BE.
Area: Forest Fields / Hyson Green. It’s just round the corner from the Forest tram stop / Forest park & ride / Goose Fair site. By tram, 10 mins north of city centre.
Age range: All ages and standards, including beginners, including adults. Tap shoes available to borrow, from child size 10 to adult size 13. Smaller children can wear their own shoes – ideally with a hard sole.
Price: FREE! because it ties in with the Dissonance exhibition, with Beverley Bennett’s art, which is currently on at the NAE.
Booking: via event info page at the NAE site, or by ringing NAE reception on 0115 924 8630… or just by going there before the day and talking to the reception people. Places limited.
This isn’t a non-schoolers’ event as such – it’s open to anyone – but Jess and Stickman are the same people who did some workshops for us earlier in the year. They’re great at the kind of relaxed, flexible leadership style which home ed families tend to like 🙂
Later that same evening, 8pm-9pm, they’ll be playing at NAE in their trio “Untold Rhythm”, a combination of tap dance, spoken word and melody. This performance is not really aimed at children, but children who are old enough to sit still and listen for an hour are very welcome. Again, free and please book tickets in advance, same link & phone number.
This workshop ties in with the “Dissonance” exhibition, where Nottingham-based artists (dance, spoken word etc) take inspiration from Beverley Bennett’s beautiful abstract drawings.
As part of the exhibition, artist Chiara Dellerba created the “tangram floor” and Jessica Murray of Untold Rhythm improvised dances upon it, at three different locations around Hyson Green. A video of the dance expedition forms part of the exhibition, along with a spoken word video from Dave “Stickman” Higgins of Untold Rhythm.
At this workshop, Jess will introduce you to some tap dance moves, Stickman will provide live music, and the tangram floor will be out for everyone to explore its various subtly different sounds!
To get the most out of the workshop, you might like to visit the exhibition first. But if you don’t, that’s fine too – the workshop will still make sense without the rest of the exhibition.
Parents may like to note that as part of a parallel exhibition, there’s currently a lovely “children’s art” room at the NAE, with paper, pens, stickers, dressing-up clothes, electronic screens with a drawing app, etc. Access to the children’s art room is free and no need to book.
Aimed at: everyone who enjoys exploring dance, of any age or standard! Children must be accompanied by an adult.
(Tap shoes will be available to borrow, from child size 10 up to adult size 13. Children with smaller feet can wear any shoes of their own, ideally with a hard sole.)
Nearest tram stop: “The Forest“. All trams going north out of the city pass through this stop. Tram information.
Nearest bus stops: Coming from town, the tram is more convenient than any of the buses. However, if you want buses anyway…
The L14 runs every half hour to “Hyson Green Asda” stop.
Turquoise Line buses (77 78 79) head west from town to “Player Street” bus stop. From there, you can cross the road, walk down Oldknow Street (with Bridlington Street playground on your left), turn left into Birkin Avenue, turn right onto Gregory Boulevard, for a total of about 600 yards’ walk.
Yellow, Brown, Purple and Lime line buses head north out of town and stop by the Forest, at stops named “Forest Recreation Ground” or “ncn Clarendon College“. From there, you can walk west along Gregory Boulevard or across the Forest, around half a mile.
Parking: There is usually parking at the Park and Ride site at that time of day.
Access: The New Art Exchange has flat access, proper wheelchair-accessible toilets, and lifts to all floors. The only inaccessible space is the actual staircase; this sometimes has artwork on display, but isn’t the location of the Dissonance exhibition. There are two “Blue Badge” spaces next to the building. For more info, see the New Art Exchange access statement (PDF), or contact info@nae.org.uk or 0115 924 8630.
Date: Thursday afternoons 16, 23 and 30 June 2016. It’s up to you how many of them to come to.
Each person can choose between tap and percussion, or do a bit of both.
Time: Take note, the time is not the same every week!
| Date | Start | Finish |
| 16 June | 2pm | 3.30pm |
| 23 June | 12.30pm | 2pm |
| 30 June | 2pm | 3.30pm |
(We asked for timing preferences: some families were busy earlier, and some later, so this timing is to give as many people as possible the chance to join in and try it.)
As these free sessions are drop-in, we don’t know exactly how many people will come. If it turns out there’s more than about 30 to 40 of us, then some people might have to wait a little while before they get a go, depending on space and available tap shoes. Info below on likely timing plan, plus soft play area and café.
Venue: St Saviour’s Church Hall, Arkwright Walk, Nottingham NG2 2JU. Update: Apparently that postcode doesn’t work very well in satnavs, so maybe click through to the map, or have a look at the church’s “how to find us” page – see below.
Area: The Meadows, on the Navy and Green bus lines. Portland Leisure Centre is about 200 yards away.
Age range: All ages! including parents!
Price: FREE for these three sessions, supported by National Lottery funding.
These sessions have been specially set up for non-school families. Those considering non-school education for the future are also welcome!
(If enough of us wanted it, we might subsequently set up a regular group where we chip in to pay session leaders.)
There will be tap shoes available to borrow, starting at around a child size 13 and going up to adult size. For children with feet much smaller than size 13, maybe see if there are some shoes with a hard sole that you could bring.
Booking: There’s no need to book, just turn up. However, if this is your first visit to a home ed event and you won’t know anyone, do drop us a line via email first, so we know to look out for you and say hello!
Enquiries/contact: tapdance at non-school-nottingham dot org dot uk.
Nearby Soft Play and café: Eden Soft Play is in the church itself, in the same group of buildings, along with a community café.
The 4-tier soft play area is open to children under a height limit of 5 feet / 148cm, as measured by their sign, and has a separate toddler area. (It’s advertised as “under-10s”, but in fact that’s a guideline; the real cut-off, for insurance & safety reasons, is the height limit.)
At the soft play area, accompanying adults and under-1s go free. For the children in the paying age ranges, we will have some vouchers to get into soft play for half price. We plan to give out these vouchers when people arrive. This allows for parents to collaborate and take some children into the soft play area if they’re not interested in the tap and percussion, or if they have to wait a little while for their turn.
More on what will happen at the tap and percussion…
Leading the tap session, we have Jess Murray, “a leading artist in the UK’s rhythm tap community… musicality, improvisation and self-expression at the heart of the tap dancer’s craft”.
On percussion, we have Stickman, “world class, multi-disciplined, drummer and percussionist, also a poet, actor, educator, conceptual artist and father”.
The flavour will be informal and there will be a fair bit of “see what everyone wants to do on the day” – perhaps especially at the first session when the group is new.
We shall have two rooms, so that it’s possible for the tappers to go in one space and the percussionists to go in another.
What we might do is have three stages: a first go, a break, a second go which gives priority to anyone who hasn’t yet tried what they wanted, another break, then come together for the last part.
Or we might just be all together all the way through.
Map showing St Saviour’s Church Halls.
St Saviour’s “How to find us” page.
Nearest bus stop: “Ryehill Street“, on the Navy and Green Lines. All the bus numbers from 1 to 10 stop here. It’s about 250 yards from the venue.
Nearest tram stop: “Queens Walk”, about 650 yards from the venue (i.e. the bus stop is closer). You’d need to be on a Clifton tram. Tram information.
Parking: some by the venue, lots at Portland Leisure Centre about 200 yards away.
Dance participation event mainly for children, with live music, at Loco Youth Centre in Netherfield, Nottingham, on Wednesday 4 May 2016, free. Tap shoes available to borrow. Dance, or watch and listen.
(click on flyer pic for bigger view, or see below for transcript of text.)
5pm till 6pm. Maybe arrive slightly early if you need to find yourself some tap shoes.
This is actually the last in a series, but you don’t need to have been to the previous ones to come to this – beginners still welcome.
Parents & carers are welcome to join in.
Here’s a page about it. (The page says 5pm till 5.45, so please note that for this final one it’s a slightly extended format, 5 till 6.)
Venue: Loco Youth Centre, 139A Victoria Road, Netherfield, Nottingham, NG4 2PD.
Tip from someone who’s been there: “From Colwick Loop Road, go over the old railway line and it’s the next building on the right”.
Youth Centre home page including a map.
Nearest bus stop: seems to be “Victoria Road” on the red route 44, about 500m from the Youth Centre. If anyone knows different, please comment.
Here’s a photo of the Youth Centre (possibly an old one, so it might not look exactly like this now).
As with the all-ages Tap Jam last weekend (much enjoyed by those who went!), this isn’t a home ed event as such, just a cool thing which some of us will probably go to 🙂
Copy of flyer text:
Tap Rhythm Project
FREE Tap Jam for Kids
Loco Youth Centre
139 Victoria Road, Netherfield, Nottingham, NG4 1PB
Wednesday 4th May 5 – 6pm
Tap dance freestyle with live music
Tap shoes provided
Parents and carers welcome to join
Hosted by Jess Murray with Ben Martin (sax),
Andy Tytherleigh (bass) and
Jonathan Curtis (drums)
www.tapproject.com
Lottery funded
For more info:
www.tapproject.com
info [at] tapproject.com
A child-friendly, all-ages dance participation event with live music, in Nottingham City Centre on Saturday evening, free for under-14s. Dance, or watch and listen.
A Tap Jam is a place for tap dancers to improvise with musicians and other tap dancers. Everyone is welcome whether to take part or simply watch and enjoy.
This isn’t a home ed event as such. It’s child-friendly, informal and not super expensive. Some home edders have been going to other similar events run by Jess, and will probably be going to this too.
There will be a group improvisation workshop before the main jam starts for you to try improvising in a low key environment and learn some easy approaches to get you started.
Venue is City Arts, 11-13 Hockley, NG1 1FH.
It’s on the east of Nottingham city centre, just round the corner from the north end of the skating rink building, about a third of a mile from the old market square.
It has flat access and a wheelchair-accessible toilet.
There’s a sort of café kitchen area where snacks and drinks are usually available for donations.
Map showing City Arts, Nottingham.
Flyer text:
Tap Rhythm Jam: Nottingham
hosted by Jess Murray
Saturday 30th April City Arts, 11-13 Hockley, NG1 1FHFreestyle tap dance with live music!
Take part or simply watch and enjoy. For complete beginners to professional performers. Use our tap shoes for free!
£5 on the door or free after 8pm. Free entry for under 14yrs.
6.30pm – 7.00pm Tap improvisation workshop
7.00pm – 9.00pm Tap Jam
www.tappproject.com
Link to Tap Project web page for this event, inc some video of Jess dancing.