Engagement

RJC Dance plays a vital role in making dance and the wider arts culture more accessible to our community. We passionately believe that all people should be able to take part in dance and the arts, regardless of their ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation or disability.

To support our mission, we actively seek opportunities to engage with our local community here in Yorkshire. Below are the details of some projects we have recently undertaken that we’re especially proud of.

If you are an individual or an organisation with an idea that you’d like to collaborate on, we’d love to hear from you – get in touch!

Lives Not Knives

In partnership with the Black Health Initiative our male youth dance group , Boyz Noize, created a new work that tackled the subject of knife crime and its impact on the community. The work is just a small part of a wider project with BHI that not only seeks to raise awareness of knife crime, but to celebrate those who have actively chosen an alternative life away from it.

Rural Arts

The rural communities of Yorkshire have seen a decline in engagement with the arts, and so we were delighted to provide a cultural exchange with children and young people in North Yorkshire involved with Rural Arts to bring our touring performance of 'Still Blazin’ and Carnival Workshops to parts of this beautiful region.

RJC Playhouse Youth Theatre

RJC Dance and Leeds PLayhouse work together to deliver a regular theatre and performance programme for young people aged 9 -12. Sessions take place at the Mandela Centre, each Friday 4:30pm - 6pm.

Teenage Cancer Trust and Leeds Hospital Trust

RJC Dance Project Co-ordinator Kiran Kumar worked with 5 fantastic young people from Teenage Cancer Trust/ Leeds Hospitals Trust. Together they created a piece of dance, movement and film that explored their personal hobbies, passions and inspirations, which they performed at the Leeds General Infirmary Clarendon Wing on Thursday 24 August, as part of the first Leeds Teaching Hospital's Summer Youth Festival Showcase. We are so proud of what they achieved and the confidence that they developed and demonstrated in a short space of time. Congratulations Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust Youth Group!

Manor Wood Children's Centre, Schools Workshops

In August 2023, RJC Dance Project Coordinator Kiran Kumar and alumnus Omari Swanston Jeffers led Carnival workshops at Manor Wood Children’s Centre, in Moortown Leeds, as part of their summer holiday camps for children. 12 hours of dance, movement and exercise was to delivered to 63 young people aged 4-11 years. In the workshops they learnt about the history of Leeds West Indian Carnival, created and performed energetic Carnival dances and designed their own vibrant Carnival costumes, which culminated in a fantastic costume show display!

We had so much fun bringing a cultural exchange with all things Carnival to Manor Wood Children’s Centre, exploring Carnival history, dance, music, costumes and more.