Artistic Director

Country: United Kingdom

Organization: Culture and Arts

Sport - Dance

Year the initative began (yyyy) - 2005

Main barrier addressed: Few effective tools for personal improvement
Main insight addressed: Leverage the fun factor

What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence? - A Dance Challenge project whereby 1200 young people participate in teams to choreograph and perform their dances at 6 events leading to Central London Finals.

Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field? - Dance Challenge is a quality stress-free, innovative showcase/competition that challenges and rewards young dancers from all walks of life. Children form low income families find it difficult to receive training or present their talents in renowned stages and my innovation gives them an instant recognition by bringing them to venues such as world renowned Wembley Arena.
This project uses the arts to promote positive behavior in children of different ages. I have expertise and experience of working in partnership with schools, local authorities, Positive Activities for Young People, youth and community groups.
This project gives young people the chance to work with professional choreographers to develop their own dance routines and be exposed to a variety of dance forms. They are motivated to participate with the chance to perform at high profile venues with judging panels consisting of dance professionals.

What are the existing barriers, the biggest problem, your innovation is hoping to address/change? - The lack of access to discovering talent within low income communities is a large barrier, also the cultural divide which we hope to overcome through presenting a beautiful mosaic of our community . This colorful mixture represents’ the nature of our city and its people who bring dance pieces with the flavor of Indian and African or more modern such as: Jazz, Musical, Jazz, Hip-Hop, Break and Contemporary

Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing? - A team of specialists recruits 2 panel of choreographers to train and to judge the dancers. Participants either choreograph their routines or train with our team of choreographers. The team is invited to present their work at one of our 6 sub-London Regional (Eliminatory) Dance Challenge events (May-June 08) The performances are reviewed by a panel of professionals who award prizes for the best and most innovative choreographic presentations. Every participant receives an attendance certificate.
After the Eliminatory events that are held during the Finals at the Mayor's Big Dance event (5-13 July) in Central London, over 300 dancers are involved and have a chance to win in each Eliminatory event.
At all events choreographers, modeling agencies and other arts representatives are invited. This creates a great opportunity for children to be seen and selected in future events and possibly to make future decision choices.

How do you plan to grow your innovation? - The project has been piloted for the last 3 years at Wembley Arena and in 2008 I am preparing to have 7 events between May – July.
Sussex (another region in UK) has already expressed interest in taking the Dance Challenge there and involve 500 dancers. Holding more discussions with regional partners and aim to move the Dance Challenge across Europe with the first European Dance Challenge™ in 2010 with the participation of winning teams form at least 3 European countries.

Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact. - Dance Challenge™ helps young people improve their health, self-esteem, artistic talents and gives a contribution in tackling obesity, delinquency and truancy

What impact has your innovation had to date/or what is your intended impact? Exactly who are the beneficiaries? - By participating in Dance Challenge young people develop and learn new skills in dance and broaden their horizons to varied dance forms, from Street, to Jazz and Classical. Dance Challenge™ opens a whole range of employment and exposure opportunity for dancers, choreographers, dance teachers and other artists in the UK.
Dance Challenge™ has created a tradition for children and young people to share the stage with famous professional artists such as: Francis Angol (Angol Dance Company). This has a positive and inspiring long-term effect in creating future talents and forging better community cohesion.
Given its inclusive nature, Dance Challenge™ is a tribune for local residents to celebrate their cultural diversities in the Borough, London and UK-wide. The wide and diverse range of dances on display from modern to more traditional styles is another positive feature of the Dance Challenge™.

How many people have you served directly? 4,000
How many people have you served indirectly? 20,000

Please list any other measures reflective of the impact of your innovation? - Community impact and legacy: Of the 725 young dancers who took part in this year’s Dance Challenge™ over 160 were identified as at risk. Over 60% were form minority groups and over 60% were women.
Local, national and international exposure for local residents
Dance Challenge™ creates more possibilities for local residents to participate in other London and UK festivals and celebrations.
For example: ‘Scenario’ one of the winners of Dance Challenge™ 20006 was invited to perform in United States. As experience has shown, some groups used Dance Challenge™ as a springboard to promote their work and have taken part in local, national and international

What are the main barriers to creating or achieving your impact? - Need talented event managers, lack of funding for choreographers, the differing culture between the world of sports and dance. – the competition feel of the project is well received by the sports community but not by the dance community.

How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)? - So far I have invested my own money and received some funding from Brent Council.
For this year I have received confirmation from London Boroughs of: Brent, Harrow, Hillingdon, Kensington & Chelsea, Southwark and Westminster who want to be partners in this project and have already confirmed their financial commitment. £38,950.00 is the partners’ cash contribution and another £104,150.00 will be given in-kind.

I have applied for another £150,000 form Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Paul Hamley Foundation.

If known, provide information on your finances and organization. - Please list: Annual budget, annual revenue generated, size of part-time, full-time and volunteer staff. • Annual budget: £189,000.00
• Annual revenue generated: £189,000.00
full-time: 1 part-time: 8 volunteers: 34

What is the potential demand for your innovation? - Council Departments such as: Youth Services, Sports, Culture and Environment, Education, Social Services, Youth Offending Team (YOT)
London Boroughs of: Brent, Harrow, Hillingdon, Kensington & Chelsea, Southwark, Westminster are our partners in this project and have already confirmed their financial commitment. £38,950.00 is our partners’ cash contribution and another £104,150.00 will be given in-kind.
During the last 3 years, we have spoken with numerous Youth Clubs and Schools.
Previous evaluation of our pilot projects with young people reveals that this project is relevant to their needs

What are the main barriers to financial sustainability? - As the Dance Challenge event is mainly for young people there is a constant problem of creating a sustained fund for the administration and continuation of the project.
Normally funding is given for an individual project and not with a year round view.
Some parents find it difficult to fund their children’s training.

What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story. - During the last 17 years, apart from doing, eating and sleeping dance I have also done a few other jobs such as: acting, public speaking, providing cultural awareness training and translating. The latter gave me an invaluable experience and an inside to different parts of the society especially local authorities. I realized that I had a story to tell as a role model and learned about the needs of young people. I could give back, inspire and have an impact into their lives. I applied to a few local authorities to deliver positive activities for young people, got my mini-bust driving license and started working with some of the most disadvantaged young people in London. The results were amazing and the changes were almost instant. This inspired me to work more in that field and hence created the Dance Challenge competition.

Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material. - I am passionate about teaching contemporary and folk dance. I also have a vast experience of working with students and young people at risk of offending including new arrivals. Currently I am working in several arts projects involving professional artists and young people in different London Boroughs. In 2005 I launched my new event for young people called Dance Challenge, a dance competition for several primary, secondary schools and community groups. This event runs several times a year in London and other UK cities. Taking part in this project has changed some of young people’s lives and they have gone to pursue their careers in

Contact Information:

Tomorr Kokona
Founder
Culture and Arts
(NGO)

Submitted by: Tomorr