Making Moves (News Report)
Making Moves is a project aimed at giving youngsters in England a chance to choreograph their own dances
At a time when many schools up and down the country are drastically reducing their arts provision, Making Moves, a Sadler’s Wells initiative now coming to the end of its second year, is particularly relevant – and its impact was obvious in National Platform, the end of year show presented at Sadler’s Wells East.
Eight schools from English towns as far apart as Exeter, Durham and London presented work created by their mostly teenage students mentored by four eminent choreographers: Seeta Patel, Ben Duke, Kloé Dean and Jules Cunningham.
Sadler’s Wells launched Making Moves in 2023. Its second cohort, whose work culminated in the National Platform, started work in September 2024 and was selected from 42 groups up and down the country on the basis of initial drafts and performances in regional venues.
Towards the end of the process the eight had workshops with the choreographers, class with a professional, and a full tech rehearsal to give professional polish to their work.
The aim is to raise the profile of dance in schools – and testimony offered by the participants in a film projected at the beginning of the show made it abundantly clear how dancing helped these youngsters feel better about themselves and the world around them. “When I dance, I feel free”, one stated.
As the title indicates, the accent is on making dance. The mentoring choreographers are described as “toolkit choreographers” – their knowledge and experience are offered as tools to assist the youngsters in forming and shaping their ideas.
And although in the final show some of the specific quirks of each choreographer were noticeable, on the whole the eight works performed looked and felt very much like the youngsters’ own.
Working with the Ben Duke, the creator of extraordinary works of dance-theatre, ORB Youth Dance Co from Eastleigh and Aarohi – Pagrav Dance Youth Company from London produced two thematically linked works, both inspired by the Greek myth of Medusa, the beautiful young woman turned by a vengeful god into a Gorgon monster.
There the similarity ends. The Eastleigh group offered The Monster You Made Me, a darkly-lit, agitated work of continuous movement centred on a woman dressed in shocking pink, with complicated lifts and frenzied pair work, the intention being to explore themes of community, assimilation and rejection.
Making Moves, ORB Youth Dance Co. Photo: Jack Thomson
The London group produced what for me was by far the best, most accomplished work of the evening. Entitled Lathos (the Greek word for mistake) it was entirely anchored in the classical Indian dance of kathak, with its rhythmic footwork, delicate hand movements and syncopated chanting. Eight girls, elegantly costumed in dark blue tunics, delved into the layers of Medusa’s story and imagined its ending. It was a beautifully structured and danced piece.
Making Moves, Aarohi – Pagrav Dance Youth Company. Photo: Jack Thomson
Indian dance, in the form of bharatanatyam, was also present, though just incidentally, in the work presented by Exeter College Dance Academy, mentored by the award-winning dancer and choreographer Seeta Patel. Entitled Many Stories all at Once, its soundtrack included a layering of the students’ recorded conversations, and the movement explored the 14 female dancers’ relationship with space and words.
Seeta Patel also mentored TeesDance Youth Company, from Tees Valley in Listen Up! Danced by 10 girls dressed in bright red to a soundscape of heartbeat, breath and engine noise, this, too, was an energetic piece, which wanted to say something about the world we live in.
Jules Cunningham was a remarkable dancer, a long time member of Merce Cunningham’s (no relation) pioneering contemporary dance company in the USA before becoming a choreographer.
You could discern traces of Merce’s exacting movement in Urban Flight from Ascension Youth – VERTEX & SOAR from Coventry and City in Flight from TINeke (TIN Arts) from Durham.
Making Moves, Ascension Youth – VERTX & SOAR. Photo: Jack Thomson
Both pieces were firmly anchored on the rhythms of city life, with the Coventry group mixing impressive moves from break dance in their vigorous piece; and the Durham six-strong group, which included three dancers identifying as disabled, offering a gentler piece based on the dynamics of working as a group. .
Making Moves, TINeke (Tin Arts). Photo: Jack Thomson
Kloé Dean mentored the most energetic pieces of the show. Maybe it’s only Here, Inside My Head, by 3Fall Youth Dance Company from Shoreham-By-Sea showed interesting formations, as seven girls moved from group to individual and back again in a constant flux animated by existential questions on voice over.
Project Female from Brighton brought the evening to an exhilarating close with Society Says. Based on the game Simon Says and set to original music by Cate Ferris and Bobbie Johnson, 13 women in costumes akin to combat fatigues, blended hip hop and martial arts as well as standard contemporary dance into a high octane piece exploring society’s pressures on young women and highlighting paths of rebellion.
Making Moves, Project Female. Photo: Jack Thomson
Throughout the commitment displayed by every single dancer bore witness to how much this meant to them; but for me one thing was missing from the whole evening – a smile.
Where, I kept thinking as the evening wore, where is the very pure, very innocent joy of dancing, the primal instinct to dance when we are happy?
I understand that teenagers, assailed by the confusing pressures of the world around them, should want to express those suffocating feelings and somehow help put the world to rights. It’s commendable. But maybe their mentors and group leaders could have gently suggested that as well as being meaningful, dance could (should?) be joyous and pleasurable…
© Teresa Guerreiro
(Banner image credit: Sadler’s Wells, Making Moves. Photo: Ellie Kurtz)
Making Moves was at Sadler’s Wells East on 23 July 2025.
It is part of YFX Festival for the Young, which continues until 27 July at both Sadlers’s Wells houses, in Angel and Stratford. Full info and tickets here