Starting in January 2017 the David Ross Education Trust would like to offer a diverse set of cultural and dance experiences to our Northern cluster of nine primary and secondary academies. As our pupils' skills in dance develop, we will take our varied performances out to the wider community of Hull, targeting hard to reach groups such as residential care homes, as well as performing in open public spaces. This project will engage other local schools to participate within workshops and themed days. These schools will be invited to work collaboratively with the DRET schools at larger community performances. This project will reach it's climax in late June, early July with the Dance Festival, involving performances from all nine Northern academies and the other collaborative schools. These performances will be influenced by the cultural and dance opportunities that they have accessed throughout the year and will be performed to the Hull community, to this project's supporters.

What we'll deliver:

• We will Introduce pupils and the community to a wide variety of Dance
• We will encourage pupils to design and develop cultural dance performances
• We will hold a dance festival, celebrating culture
• We will engage other local schools with cultural opportunities, encouraging collaborative performances
• We will offer performances to the Hull community

Why it's a great idea:

This project will provide invaluable cultural opportunities to thousands of pupils in the Hull area. The vast majority of our schools are located in areas of high deprivation, where cultural and artistic opportunities are not as readily available. The festival will be promoting further creativity as pupils will adapt their experiences to generate their own performance material. Pupils will gain experience of performing and the wider community will be introduced to cultural adaptations of various dance forms. Not only will this project bring hard to reach community groups together, it will also bring local schools together to work collectively on joint projects, sharing ideas and experiences around arts and cultural provision. Ultimately this project will be a celebration of dance, art and culture and will seek to bring expression, movement and creativity to the forefront during the key celebration events held over the year. This project will truly highlight the importance of art.

Steps to get it done:

• All schools are running a regular dance club
• All dance groups have performed in front of an audience
• All groups have worked with at least one cultural dance artist
• All groups have performed to the local community
• Successful series of cultural hub days
• Successful delivery of 'Dance Festival Hull 2017'
• Key supporting partners established

The dance festival will be held in the central location of Hull city hall, capable of seating 1,200 people in it's audience. For each pledge of £10 or more, we will award one ticket to the final festival performance. For a pledge of £2,000 or more, we will award the individual or organisation publicity space at the venue on the night and on the T- shirts of our performers. Further details of this to be negotiated.