What: National Youth Dance Festival
Where: Birmingham Hippodrome
When: 4 July 2010

U.Dance England is the new incarnation of the National Youth Dance Festival. This high profile youth dance event will take place at the Birmingham Hippodrome on 4th July next year, with a three-night dance residential beginning on 1st July.

Application packs are available from the U.Dance website from 1st September 2009. Dancers or dance groups need to be aged between 11-19, with a minimum group size of 1 and maximum of 15. U.Dance welcomes applications focusing on any dance style.

To find out more and download an application pack, visit: www.u-dance.org

Where: Birmingham (venue TBC)
When: 25 November 2009
Cost: £130 + VAT (some free places available)

This training is aimed at anyone who is new to or currently considering delivering the Youth Challenges and Youth Achievement Awards with young people.

It should be emphasised that attendance at an introductory training day is a basic requirement for delivering the Youth Challenges and Youth Achievement Awards.

For more information or to book a place go to the training page on the UK Youth website: www.ukyouth.org

Emerge is holding the monthly networking meeting for creatives at the Institute for Creative Enterprise (ICE). Come along to share your creative ideas, meet potential collaborators or just meet people from other artforms.

To book a place at this event please contact Katie Law on 024676 158381 or klaw@cad.coventry.ac.uk.

Dates for your diary: Emerge Networking is held on the third Thursday of each month, so make a note of the following dates: December 17 and January 21.

Are you a teacher or a musician working with young people who have special needs, learning difficulties or physical disabilities in a school - mainstream or special? Or in youth clubs, health settings, or support groups? Then this is your chance to share stories, skills, techniques and best practice. Discover how to make the most of technology, try out the Patrick Music and Multimedia Studio at Symphony Hall, and develop your network of contacts.  A MusicLeader West Midlands and Youth Music event in association with Town Hall Symphony Hall, Birmingham.

Register your interest now – email west-midlands@musicleader.net

Dancescape have teamed up with U.Dance to provide a fantastic one day training opportunity for teachers and artists in the sub-region. U.Dance is a nationwide programme, led by Youth Dance England, to create more dance opportunities for young people, across the country. U.Dance also have a professional development programme, designed by experts within the field. This training day will cover the module; Raising Choreographic Standards for Dance Performance.

Target audience: Experienced dance teachers and dance leaders who work with young people aged 12 and up.

This module will explore the process of choreography and creativity. It will delve into ways in which teachers and leaders can use imaginative methods to translate a stimulus into movement by communicating ideas, solving choreographic problems and overcoming challenges. The module will aim to increase the participant’s understanding of working with choreography in a variety of settings, by marrying the skills of the young people with appropriate source material and leadership styles. By distinguishing where a group is currently at and realising the potential of where that group could be, we can raise standards in choreography.

This training opportunity is subsidised by Dancescape, and is therefore provided at a cost of £15.00 per person. This will include a day of training and a resource pack to take away. There are 25 places on the course, first come first served!

To register for a place, please email hduffield@solihull.gov.uk

The first Dancescape sub-regional Youth Dance Showcase will be held on Tuesday 10th November 2009, at Solihull Arts Complex. This will showcase the talent of Dance groups from across Solihull, Coventry and Warwickshire.

Where: DanceXchange, The Patrick Centre
Birmingham Hippodrome, Thorpe Street, Birmingham B5 4TB

Promoting Dance to increase the understanding and awareness of its contribution to the health of people in the West Midlands

The seminar aims to:
Increase opportunities for dance and health partners and provision across the region
Showcase current dance initiatives
Share good practice

Key Speakers:
Jan Burkhardt, Health Improvement Specialist Leeds PCT
Suzanne Gardner, Regional Physical Activity and Sport Coordinator PAN-WM
Toby Norman Wright Youth Dance Strategy Manager, West Midlands DanceXchange (in Partnership with Youth Dance England)
Jade Moulden, National Delivery Manager, Exercise Movement and Dance Partnership

PLUS!
Practical workshops from dance and health professionals in the West Midlands showcasing their projects:
Dudley Performing Arts
Sandwell PCT
Staffordshire County Council
Coventry Performing Arts

To register an interest or if you have any queries please email erica.rogers@pan-wm.org.uk or call 07825 915068.

“Take your partners” is supported by DanceXchange and the Dance and Health Sub Group Programme subject to change

October Half Term
Tues 27 October - Sun 1 November, 11am - 4pm

Join us this October half-term and take part in two great family activities.

Drop-in and make your very own still life collage. Drawing inspiration from The Artist's Studio exhibition and using a variety of interesting collage materials you can create an original artwork to take home.
Be entertained by our very own storytellers. Sign up at the ticket desk to listen to an epic adventure tale woven around one of the classic paintings in our permanent collection.

http://www.comptonverney.org.uk/?page=whatson/activitiesAllAges.html

Bookings are now being taken for Red Teapot Day on 22 October.
 
Red Teapot is a day to confer with others on being an artist now. A national event which is a kind of experiment to discover what happens if you gather 100 artists from all over the UK in the same place at the same time and give them something interesting to explore...

The event will bring 100 artists together to debate, collaborate, reflect and range-freely; engaging with four specially-commissioned artworks to develop their own organic and individual path through the day, culminating in collaborating on a ‘fifth artwork’ that brings together the day’s reflections and discoveries.

If you like, you can think of the day as a kind of non-conference where there are artworks to stimulate debate instead of papers, and you meet and talk to interesting people throughout the day rather than only when you are outside huddled over a cigarette in the rain.

As this event has been funded by the Arts Council, it will only cost you £32 to book. This includes your lunch and refreshments. All bookings will be taken online via www.redteapot.co.uk