Please come and join our wonderful vibrant intergenerational cast of professional and community perform “With Soundness of Heart” on Saturday 25th June at 11am outside The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery.
This one-off performance is to celebrate the Queens Platinum Jubilee and FRONTLINEdance’s 20th year Birthday Celebrations! Inspired by the thoughts and advice the Queen has given over the years whilst drawing parallels with FRONTLINEdance’s own ethos and being, this new work co-created by the cast and FRONTLINEdance’s Artistic Director, ‘Soundness of Heart’ will bring connectiveness, joy, aspiration, hope, and togetherness.
Access on offer:
Relaxed Performance
Any voice work will be Makaton and BSL signed by the performers
BSL interpreter in audience
Audio description delivered by the Artistic Director
This community participatory arts project has been funded by Arts Council England’s #LetsCreate Jubilee Fund which is made possible thanks to NationalLottery Players. Administered by UK Community Foundations#PlatinumJubilee, and Stoke-on-Trent City Centre BID #createfund . Thanks also to the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery and the ADHD FoundationFoundation.
Everyone and everybody of all ages are welcome! The project is fully inclusive and accessible to disabled people and those with long-term health conditions, those with previous dance experience and those new to dance.
Don’t want to perform but still want to be part of it – Then VOLUNTEER! There are lots of different jobs that we need help with. Let us know that you are interested.
Neither of interest? Then please come and experience our performance from 11am outside the Spitfire Gallery at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery. Bring a flag! 🏳🌈
“With Soundness of Heart” – an intergenerational and inclusive performance project by FRONTLINEdance! To mark 70 years since Her Majesty The Queen 👑 ascended the throne. Thanks to #NationalLottery players, we’ve been awarded funding to host a creative and cultural event to celebrate.
Thanks to funding from the Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire Clinical Commissioning group via their Long-Term Condition Fund, and People Dancing’s Live Well and Dance with Parkinson’s Initiative, we are introducing –
FRONTLINEdance’s ‘Moving Together’ programme is designed to provide an opportunity for those who have long-term health conditions to move together with others whilst reaping the benefits it has to offer in a relaxed and enjoyable way. These new groups have been created solely for those who have had a Parkinson’s, Stroke or Cancer diagnosis. It is unique to the local area, and FRONTLINEdance are seen as specialists. We’ll be combining physical, social, and mental health interventions whilst creating a rich new supportive community for each attendee to be part of.
Moving Together for Adults with Parkinson’s Starting 10th May Tuesday’s 1:15-3:15pm Swan Bank Centre Swan Square, Burslem ST6 2AA Registration form:https://forms.office.com/r/GNkw8KE7y6
“I arrived feeling unhappy but by the end I was enjoying seeing all that I achieved – I felt a sense of accomplishment”. (Moving Together Participant)
Moving Together for Adults who have had a Personal Cancer diagnosis Starting 27th May
“The benefits in terms of improved confidence and wellbeing were remarkable and supported by clinical data.” (Dr Virginia Wolstenholme, Consultant Clinical Oncologist, Barts Health NHS Trust)
Moving Togetherfor Adults who have had a Stroke Starting 27th May
“We see a sense of character in our patients when taking part in your sessions. It adds variety to treatment offered, it allows patients to express themselves and find a sense of themselves. We can see how it increases mood, engagement, adherence, and tolerance to exercise. It improves social interaction”. (Haywood Hospital)
COST:Sessions are FREE We welcome a Pay What You Can donation
BENEFITS OF TAKING PART:
FRONTLINEdance participants and our partners (including NHS staff feedback) echoes that of national and international researchers. This means that we are confident that our MOVING TOGETHER PROGRAMME’S methodology, style and approach supports the health, wellbeing, and independence of those who take part. We know that Moving Together offers an effective means of improving, and maintaining, each individual and the collective group’s wellbeing. It may help establish supportive relationships, and process thoughts and feelings that are often difficult to articulate or move beyond. It leads to more self-management, more peer support.
We know that having Cancer, a Stroke, or Parkinson’s can have an impact on your confidence and self-esteem. Being in a group with others in the same situation can help. You may have had a big change in body image and functionality, opposing new challenges. Our programme supports this.
For some this project will be an important extension of the rehabilitation they received in hospital. We’ll be providing a familiar activity to look forward to at the daunting time of returning home. Everyday life stresses may have become greater, and relationships at home and at work may have been strained and damaged. Space and release in our session will help. It will allow people space and time to adapt and come to terms with having a stroke in a safe accessible environment.
Please contact us for any further information; 👉 If you need support registering 👉 Have any questions you’d like us to answer 👉 To receive a detailed information sheet, about each programme 👉 To ask for the registration forms to be sent in different formats, such as via email or printed and posted. However, we do not provide an envelope or postage costs to return it
FRONTLINEdance can deliver taster sessions in your setting – hospital wards, outpatient’s groups, support groups for example. Please call to book a slot as soon as possible.
2022 marks 70 years since Her Majesty The Queen ascended the throne Thanks to #NationalLottery players, we’ve been awarded funding to host a creative and cultural event to celebrate
TASTER & INTRODUCTION to the project this weekend! SAT 30th April & SUN 1st May at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery.
The performance will be co-created with the participants and is fully inclusive and accessible to disabled people and those with long-term health conditions. The project welcomes those with previous dance experience and those new to dance. 👉 Not sure? 👉 Can’t make this weekend? 👉 Need any further information?
Please get in touch: hello@frontlinedance.co.uk | 07484 874335
FRONTLINEdance is 20 years old! On reaching this key milestone we’d like to review our work and learn more about the difference we are making.
Your responses will support our evaluation and feed into funding applications that we’re writing to sustain and develop our work.
The survey should take about 10-30 minutes to complete and we invite you to be honest and thorough in your responses. We value all opinions – they help us to learn and grow! If any question feels irrelevant, please feel free to skip it!
The deadline for responses is 31st March 2022.
For further information or to provide feedback in a different format, please use the contact details below.
Join FRONTLINEdance – The Explorer’s for a multi-sensory, interactive adventure! The performance and participatory experience has been created to be relevant, inclusive, accessible, and welcoming to disabled children and their families, including early years.
Places are limited, so please book your place direct with the library in advance:
👉 Date & Time: 19th March at 10.30am Venue : Newcastle -under-Lyme Library Cost: FREE (Approx. 1 hour) Direct telephone: 01782 485312 Email:newcastle.library@staffordshire.gov.uk
We all sign basic Makaton, describe visuals, and if anyone needs a BSL interpreter we can organise that too. A Social Story will be available from next week.
Want to find out more about FRONTLINEdance call 07484 874335 (9-5 weekdays) or email hello@frontlinedance.co.uk
Mike King; FRONTLINEdance co-founder and performer.
We asked Mike to share his FRONTLINEdance journey with us and what he did next.
Here it is!
I had a passion for movement that hadn’t been realised in my late teens or early 20’s, wherever I was on the planet I always found myself drifting towards the dance floor. A near death experience in my mid 20’s forced me to re-evaluate my life and realise that you only get one chance so don’t waste it…
I met Rachael on a Candoco Dance workshop and we discussed the idea of creating an inclusive dynamic dance company based further North in the country. Sharing a desire to dance, no money and a mutual sense of humour we decided to create a dance performance from scratch. Begging free rehearsal space – thanks to Bretton Hall College, Wakefield/ Greentop Community Circus, Sheffield/ Candoco, Stanmore. Along the way Rachael diligently completed the relevant paperwork whilst working as a live-in carer with a spinal cord agency, that meant a formal company could be established. Meanwhile I trained to be a primary teacher.
We worked for a number of years in the Midlands, however I still had itchy feet (metaphorically – as I can’t actually feel anything below my knees) and I was given the chance to train with Graeae Theatre. That led to some acting work, which then lead onto teaching Drama in Secondary Schools. Which then morphed into some directing, then back to some dancing with Scottish Dance Theatre and eventually back to teaching. I’m now in my 20th Year of Teaching and am Head of Department at a Secondary School in Kent.
The attitude that Rachael and I started with remains strong where there is a will you can find a way.
In terms of perspective, it’s important to remember that we are all still on a journey.
Inclusion still isn’t a given – 25 Years after the Disability Discrimination Act – we are sitting on the shoulders of giants, but the campaign is not yet over – I recently had to fight for a ramp and a door handle despite being an employee for 10 years. Frontline is a positive advocate for all people at any stage in their life, embracing new and exciting ways of approaching creative movement whilst remaining true to its core values. By consistently opening people’s hearts and minds, wider society is able to appreciate the true wonders that everyone on the planet has to offer, and plus those involved get to bust some moves.
Relaxed Performance
Thanks to 
