Donation from the 2024 Belfast Black Santa Appeal
On Sunday 2nd February, on behalf of DU Dance, Mags attended Belfast Cathedral’s annual Good Samaritans’ Service to receive a very welcome donation from The 2024 Black Santa Sit Out Appeal.
Mags enjoyed meeting special guest Lady Mary Peters and took great delight in hearing Peter Corry sing during the service.
This year’s Sit Out raised over £200,000, all of which has been shared out among over 107 local charities. Representatives of The Belfast Charitable Society marked the 250th anniversary of the opening of Clifton House on Christmas Eve 1774 by contributing an amazing £73,600 to this year’s total.
This generous donation will immensely benefit Alternative Energies, our intergenerational dance programme in Ballycastle.
It is the last opportunity to see the stunning photography exhibition produced by our Sutemos group with the support and guidance of professional photographer Jim Corr.
The exhibition ‘Seen / Unseen’ will be at Hill of The O’Neill and Ranfurly House Arts & Visitor Centre in Dungannon until 27 February. Do call in if you are in the area.
The idea for the exhibition originated from the young people experiencing first hand how social media can mask the reality of peoples lives.
Thanks to funders BBC Children in Need for their support.
We were excited to embark on an exciting new project with members of the Newtownabbey Women’s Group in Rathcoole this week.
The dance workshop was the first of a series that will take place in women’s centres across North Belfast and is called ‘Journeys’. It was lovely to meet some new and friendly faces and we look forward to dancing and learning together.
This project is funded by Clanmil Housing Association.
We were incredibly pleased to receive funding from Arts Council Northern Ireland to support Alternative Energies – our community-based arts project benefitting older people. The funding received is part of the National Lottery Arts and Older People Programme, a pioneering initiative funded by The National Lottery and Public Health Agency, which aims to tackle loneliness as-well as promote positive mental health and well-being among older people, through engagement with the arts.
The National Lottery Arts and Older People Programme was established by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland in 2010 and is now a cross-governmental partnership with funding also from the Public Health Agency. The programme has been designed to challenge perceptions of what it means to be an older person, empower participants, and give older people a voice. To date the programme has provided over £2m funding to community organisations and voluntary groups across Northern Ireland in the delivery of over 272 arts projects to older people.
Alternative Energies is an intergenerational dance project which brings together young people aged 15-18 years with elders 65+ in Ballycastle, County Antrim, to meet, create and have fun. By taking part in dance workshops and performances, older and young people from the same community are given an important opportunity to engage in the arts.
Alternative Energies is free to join and sessions take place weekly on a Wednesday from 4pm to 5:30pm starting again on Wednesday 22nd January 2025. They take place in Sheskburn Recreation Centre, 7 Mary St, Ballycastle BT54 6QH. For more information, please contact deborah@dudanceni.com.
We are looking forward to seeing you all there and if you haven’t been before, come along and give it a go!
Thanks to National Lottery Players and money raised for good causes for the continued support for this programme.
On Friday 10th January, Artistic Director Mags Byrne was invited to talk at the AHRC Critical Dance Pedagogy Network: Symposium 4: Leadership and Futures in the Drama and Film Centre at Queen’s University Belfast.
The network has been established to foster networking, collaboration, knowledge exchange, and exploration of some transformative practices in Critical Dance Pedagogy. At these events practitioners and academics from the field of dance engage in discussions and workshops around addressing social assumptions, structural power relations, and inequities within dance and dance education.
Asked to reflect upon her career in the sector, Mags spoke of her experience working in a variety of settings, including internationally and in conflict zones. Of particular note was her exploration of how dance sits within the cultural landscape in Northern Ireland and the differences compared to other contexts.
The day finished aptly with DU Dance’s Belfast Boys who gave an upbeat and fun-filled performance about which Aoife McGrath, Professor of Dance at Queen’s University Belfast, said:
“…the performance by the Belfast Boys was just a fantastic way to bring some joy and hope to the space.”
Thank you Aoife for inviting DU Dance to be part of this key event.
Did you know between April 2023 and March 2024 we delivered 31 performance events and 6 film screenings?
Read all about those, and what else we were up to, in our brand new Annual Report by clicking on the link below:
Eight dancers from our Youth Engagement project Sutemos were in Limerick for the weekend with partner organisation Youth Dance Limerick. The group is part of the Youth Dance Matters research, a collaboration between Queens University Belfast and University College Dublin.
Hosted by Dance Limerick in their wonderful studio in John’s Square, the dancers worked with Prof. Aoife McGrath and Dr. Victoria Durrer. They had a ball and loved the work, the city and even the 8 hour bus journey, which became an extended chance for a sing song!
Thank you to all for treating us so wonderfully.
On Sunday we all came together for our annual Day of Dance at the Crescent Arts Centre.
It was a really special afternoon as all our Youth Engagement Projects had an opportunity to share their work, took part in short workshops and created a short piece together.
Here is just a snapshot of the fantastic audience feedback:
“Great to see everyone working together!
“Brilliant day, cracking energy from everyone.”
“Great day, lots of energy, positivity and Christmas cheer!”
“Today’s performance was excellent and really well put together, loved how the young people expressed themselves through movement.”
“Fabulous work, brilliantly organised, total engagement.”
Thank you to everyone who performed, who joined the enthusiastic audience, who served the festive treats and a BIG pat on the back for Debs who pulled it all together! And just check out these stunning photos by Jim Corr Photography.
Enjoy your well earned Christmas break and see you all in January!
….Christmas!
Our annual Day of Dance 2024 takes place this Sunday 8th December at the Crescent Arts Centre. It is always a magical event as all our Youth Engagement groups come together to share what they have been working on this term with much joy and laughter.
Families join us later to enjoy the showcases, the festive treats and, of course, the annual dance-off.
What a lovely way to end a busy year!
Our Sutemos and Suteminis are just one of the important projects in Northern Ireland funded by BBC Children in Need. Thanks to their on-going support, we can continue to work with this fantastic group of young people and share performances that always reflect upon, and celebrate, diversity.
Last Friday, we were really pleased to be invited to attend the Appeal Day Thank you Event at the BBC Blackstaff Studios.
There has not been an appeal since before covid, and this year CiN NI decided to bring it back to celebrate and say thank you to the projects they fund.
Two members of Sutemos, Nikita and Julia, travelled from Dungannon to join Mags and Morag for the evening and share what we do and how we work. The dancers must be commended for their efforts at entertaining the younger guests too!
It was a wonderful evening of celebration and a great opportunity to meet the lovely team at Children in Need, members of the board, CiN supporters and representatives from other projects.
Thank you to everyone involved.