Enkindle

Dance, Health & Creativity
Professional development for community dance artists
led by Dance Centred.

Enkindle is for local Dance Artists like you looking to increase skills and confidence, re-ignite your creativity, and share practice. We invite you to gather, move together and be inspired!

As Community Dance increasingly becomes a key part of health provision, we, at Dance Centred also find ourselves swimming with that tide.
Do you find yourself in the same place?
Or would you like to, but need more tools and confidence?

We know that there is a wealth of skills and knowledge across Cornwall’s Dance Community and we are curious about who else is working in health and how they retain their creative practice. We have two sessions coming up in 2025 that we invite you to attend.

  • Saturday 8th February | 10.15-1.15pm |
    Liskerrett Centre, Varley Lane, Liskeard PL14 4AP

    We ask the question “should what you do be for everyone?”
    How do we balance our ideas, creative practice and skills with participants’ needs and expectations, let’s explore it together.

  • Friday 7th March | 10-1 |
    The Space, Bodmin PL31 2AE

    In this session we will explore methodology, contexts and learning, focusing on the Move Together project -dance for women affected by cancer. We will  look at how these could be adapted to other dance for wellbeing contexts.
    The session will include some practical movement work and some discussion

  • Wednesday 2nd April | 6.30-8.30pm |
    Studio4 Dance Studios, Old Vicarage Place, St Austell PL25 5YY.

    In this session we will explore props, materials and stuff - ways to inspire, generate and enrich movement. 
    This session will be full of practical ideas you can use in your own practice and some discussion.

Pay what you can
Tea and coffee provided
Question? info@dancecentred.co.uk

Look out for more Enkindle sessions in 2025!

Parking/travel info

  • Liskerrett Centre, park in one of the town car parks and the Liskerrett Centre is a 5 min walk.
    It’s also a 10-minute walk from Liskeard Railway Station.

  • Heron Tennis Centre, park in adjacent Trenance Car Park (free from 1st Nov and after 4pm)

  • Studio4 Dance Studios, 10 mins walk from St Austell train station. Nearest parking White River

    PlaceFunded by National Lottery Reaching Communities and Hall for Cornwall.  

sea dances



How does the sea move you
and how do you see the sea move?

Sea Dances Downderry, is a Creative Community Project exploring the sea and our relationship to it launching October 2024 and running until April 2025.

  • Launch Event | 18th Oct | 7-9pm
    For all ages, The Zone
    Performances, chat, refreshments and a chance to find out more about the project.

    Dance Workshop | 29th Oct | 10.30-12pm
    For children aged 4-9yrs, The Zone
    Fun and physical games, wavy sea weed, flying fish and more!

    Dance Workshop | 17th Nov | 2-3.30pm
    For all adults, The Zone
    Relaxed and creative movement. Enjoy being guided to find flow in your body with the sea as inspiration.

    Creative Conversations | 5th Dec | 6.30-8pm
    For all adults, The Village Hall
    A convivial session to support your creative process in response to the project question. Share ideas/work, be inspired or just be part of interesting creative conversations.

We are Sam and Lois, co directors of Dance Centred CIC. We love to spend time in the sea, on the beaches and rocky coves of Cornwall and are concerned for the seas future sustainability. As artists and dancers we want to explore further our relationship to this, thinking about movement, energy and the interdependency of the sea and ourselves. 

We invite you to join us in responding creatively in any art form to this question:
How does the sea move you and how do you see the sea move?

Let this be a trigger, a starting point of inspiration and exploration to go where your interest takes you.
You might choose to work alone or with others, make a creative scrap book for the duration of the project or have a sudden explosion of ideas on one day only - your ideas and outcomes might be joyful, thoughtful, beautiful and surprising!

To help nudge and feed your and our creative processes we are offering a series of workshops, online prompts and get togethers where we can share ideas as they develop, meet other creative thinkers, makers and potential collaborators. As you/we create work, be it writing, film, visual, dance, music, we can find ways to share, show and perform to and with each other and others.

This is a relaxed project for everyone up for a creative venture whatever experience, expertise or age. We welcome you to contact us about your ideas and let us know what you decide to do. 

We would love to share and show your work where possible and invite you to connect to our Facebook page…….we will begin to post creative prompts and inspirations and curate some of your work there.

Get in touch if you want to talk or join our Sea Dance email list info@dancecentred.co.uk 

We hope to see you, chat with you, move with you and share ideas with you soon

Lois and Sam Co Directors Dance Centred CIC
07730586306
lois@dancecentred.co.uk

This project was made possible with funding from FEAST, Hall for Cornwall, Cornwall Councillors Community Chest Funding and is supported by The Zone, Downderry.

compass

Professional development programme for dancers and movement practitioners.

Are you a professional dancer or movement practitioner? Compass is our development programme, a space to be playful, open and curious, aimed at those with experience and interest in creative movement and improvisation practice.

Next Session:
’From Here We Dance’ - Saturday 20th July | 10.30 - 2pm

An invitation from Lois to explore, as a starting point how different physical settings inform sensory experiences…….

“Come ready to play, be bold, inhabit landscapes and scenarios. Take part, observe and of course have fun! Depending on the weather, we will be inside, outside or a bit of both!”

Session details:

  • Space open for cuppa, chat and stretch from 10.15 am

  • Guided session 11 am- 1 pm – prompt start

  • Option to stop for lunch till 2pm (bring food)

Tea and coffee available

Venue: Main Hall, Liskerrett Community Centre, Varley Lane, Liskeard PL14 4AP

Transport: Trains from Truro 9.30 arrive 10.19 or 9.56 arrive 10.44 (check times) – there is a 10 minute walk from the station to the venue.

Payment:  All Compass sessions work on a pay what you can if you can basis, we suggest £10 – £20 but your choice.
Bring cash on the day or transfer to:
Dance Centred CIC - Nat West
Reference Compass  
Account: 74160974
Sort Code: 53 70 17

Booking/info lois@dancecentred.co.uk or 07730586306

Session Lead: Lois Taylor www.loistaylor.co.uk

Feedback from previous sessions:

Our last session was based on Archetypal Expressions, led by California based dance artist Amanda Banks. The Liskerrett Centre hall was filled with dancers and movement explorers from across Cornwall.

“Thank you for a fabulous session, it was so lovely to meet everyone and play with archetypes together.”

“Inspiring session, wonderful to move with you all.”

what is the TROPICAL hibiscus paradise experience?

Tropical Hibiscus Paradise Experience was a community arts project led by Dance Centred and supported by Unit 3, Lostwithiel Town Council and LEAF. A fun and creative programme of Hawaiian themed dance and art for all ages in July 2023. This culminated in an interactive performance (promenade) in which the audience were invited to travel far with their imaginations without even leaving Lostwithiel.

This project couldn’t have been possible with our company of 22 volunteer stewards, performers, makers, dancer, tech support and general helped outers. We thank you all for helping to make our Tropical Hibiscus Extravaganza Performance event a fabulous thing for all who came.

The project encourages regenerative approaches to making work, low impact on the earths resources and brings creative attention to the vulnerability of the Hawaiian islands, who like us are affected by rising sea levels.

Volunteer feedback
“So happy to have been a part of so many magical journeys. Nice one Dance Centred! Aloha!”

Performance feedback

“Congratulations team Hibiscus we had a super time! Lots of fun and a wonderfully tropical adventure in the most unlikely of settings, thank you for brightening our day.

Thank you very much for the experience of travelling with you , we had such good fun”.

“Utterly brilliant, brilliant experience!! Was laughing with joy at each stage !! Bravo all”.

“We felt like we had been on holiday”

“Really loved the bazar joy of it all. I felt like I was really going away and for Laura who had never been on a plane before, we were really taken care of and even got to go to the VIP lounge. Really recommend this THPE, just saying it makes me want to Hula”.

  • During August Sam was Artist in Residence at the Gatehouse, a wonderful little space on the Industrial Estate in Lostwithiel, hosted by UNIT 3, an artist led space and initiative led by Gary Marshall Stevens.

    This was a fabulous opportunity to experiment, explore and allow creative ideas to grow (and blossom!) in collaboration with other local artists, without any set goals. 

    Inspired by the story of a local woman who used the Gatehouse for many years to tend to her extensive geranium collection, a long held fascination with all things Hawaiian and the spirit of Aloha plus a desire to play with ideas around tourist attractions and the possibility of an entirely zero carbon tropical holiday….the Tropical Hibiscus Paradise Experience grew.

    The gatehouse was transformed into a tropical Hawaiian ‘Island’ – which involved days of painting tropical hibiscus flowers over the interior walls, creating a ‘beach’ of tropical sand and shells, and bedecking the space with Hawaiian flower garlands (Leis). The residency culminated in a work-in-progress event in the pouring rain on 4th September where approx. 40 people embarked on a ‘staycation with a difference’ using various sites on the industrial estate. Visitors received boarding passes at the gate and were ‘processed’ by an enthusiastic team of volunteers taking on the role of security guards and stewards. In small groups visitors went through passport control, security scanning and lots and lots of queuing with a heavy nod to the laborious process of going through an airport to go on holiday. They stopped off at a ‘rooftop’ tropical cocktail bar and were served tropical ice-creams at frequent intervals. Once on the Island visitors chose one of 3 tropical multi-sensory experiences before being guided on their return journey by a friendly exit steward. 

    Comments from visitors included:

    “Thank you so much to Sam and her wonderful, colourful volunteers for a splendid, tropical holiday experience on a soggy Sunday afternoon at Unit 3 in Lostwithiel.” 

    “It was great fun, with lots of giggles, anticipation and a lovely Rehydration Station. The security were extremely secure and the island holiday was novel and very atmospheric”

    “You were very gracious and lovely, and your dancing brought a tear to my eye. It reached a hidden part of me that I haven't quite fathomed yet.”

    Bizarre…but good bizarre! Liked the queuing…relaxed into it.

curious creatures

Expect the unexpected

more details below

  • Curious Creatures is an invitation to be part of something, be curious, make discoveries, try something new, be creative and celebrate!It was originally commissioned by the Welcome Back fund in 2022 to bring joy and people to the high street in Liskeard but the dancers have also been spotted in Truro, Bodmin, Lostwithiel Parade and Sterts, Upton Cross!

    Let Curious Creatures brighten up your town festival, or celebration in 2023.

    Curious Creatures performance
    Bright, colourful, surprising and curious…a group of dancers arrive, to take in the sights and to dance! This is a playful promenade dance piece full of fun and energy. Travelling through towns, parks, or festivals in a playful promenade, inviting the audience to stop and dance with them, bringing fun and joy to any space the inhabit.

    Curious Creatures workshops
    We can offer a package of community dance classes to bring local people into the performance

    Bookings and information lois@dancecentred.co.uk 07939 167526

Image credit to Hannah Timm Photography

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FLYING MONKEYS

Fun, creative dance classes for children.

SEE THE PROJECT HERE