Claire Hackston
March 29, 2023
ROH Bridge Learning Offer Development Fund
December 18, 2023LEAP – Learn Engage Aspire Perform – is BEEE Creative’s new dance and digital project that focuses on creative exploration and co-creation.
The project, funded by Paul Hamlyn Foundation, enables pupils and teachers to try a range of dance, arts and technology approaches alongside professional artists / creatives, to become co-creators of artistic outputs. LEAP offers experiences of dance and movement creation in animation, photography, film, augmented reality, music and installation.
Currently in the first of two years delivering LEAP; the project team have taken up the roles of artists-in-residence at the seven schools taking part. Dance artists are in the project schools once a week, exploring each scheme of work across six weeks, with a guest tech artist to support along the way.
It’s amazing to see the impact of the project on pupils and teachers in the schools already:
Children have been enthusiastic to use their digital devices creatively, combining new skills and techniques for co-creation in dance and tech, through creative exploration of different apps. They have expressed their creativity physically and digitally, as well as built on teamwork, showing an increase in artistic confidence as a result of their engagement on the project so far!
Teacher CPD is also at the heart of this project. Although there may feel like there is a lot of observation of the artists at work in this first year of LEAP; the intention is for teachers to learn by experience alongside their pupils. Some have already expressed their delight in being able to engage with tech devices physically and creatively, giving more options for their use and development of teaching styles. Teachers will experience one or two schemes of work in year one, supporting our artists to develop relevant and useful resources, so that in year two they will feel more confident to take on the role of project delivery. As a result, teachers will become arts ambassadors in their school, working to embed these schemes of work in to their curriculum and therefore promoting the combined creative power of teaching dance and digital.
Photo Credit: Stewart Baxter
Photo Credit: Stewart Baxter
Stay tuned for our next blog, where we look to the future of LEAP and plans for a festival of work as well as continued teacher CPD.
The artistic content of LEAP has been developed in collaboration with makeAMPLIFY, Hinterland Creative, Controlled Frenzy, Flicker Mill, Tom Hobden, Sam Ivin Photography and Hannah Delaney Dance. Delivery in schools will be led by Rebecca Benford, Hannah Delaney, Claire Hackston, Michael Joseph and Hannah Pickett.
Here are the project schools and the schemes of work they’ve experienced in Autumn 2023. We are delighted to be working with:
- Brickhill Primary School (Bedford) – Dance & Film
- Linden Academy (Luton) – Dance & Animation and Dance & Photography
- Parkside Community Primary School (Borehamwood) – Dance & Animation and Dance & Music
- Putnoe Primary School (Bedford) – Dance & Film and Dance & Animation
- Sarratt CofE Primary School (Sarratt) – Dance & Film
- Scott Primary School (Bedford) – Dance & Animation and Dance & AR
- St Philip Howard Catholic Primary School (Hatfield) – Dance & AR and Dance & Music
