Recent Projects
People Dancing & Community Games
During the first six months of 2009 I was fortunate enough to work on an exciting and unique programme of activity focused on bringing West Midlands communities together to celebrate the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games
The programme, which represents a realisation of William Penny Brookes’ and Pierre de Coubertin’s visions for the modern Olympic movement as a marriage of sport and the arts, encompassed two strands, People Dancing and Community Games.
People Dancing is a three year programme of activity aimed at encouraging mass participation in dance and dance related activity across the West Midlands. Community Games, which is inspired by the annual Wenlock Olympian Games in Shropshire and launches in 2010, will see people of all ages and abilities across the West Midlands staging their own sporting and cultural events.
Working with the Creative Programmer for the West Midlands I, along with an associate, launched the People Dancing programme which involved organising regional launch events, producing guidance information, setting up an advisory panel, encouraging bids and finally overseeing the first round assessment which has resulted in eight exciting and wide reaching dance projects being commissioned.
We also developed some pilot activity and undertook research for the Community Games programme which I think will be huge over the next three years.
I’ve loved working on this programme and feel privileged to be part of something so exciting which will deliver real, tangible and lasting benefits for people of the West Midlands. Meeting so many people from the dance world, seeing performances and hearing people talk about how dance has changed their lives has also given me the dance bug so I will definitely be one of thousands of People Dancing before 2012.
"It was a pleasure and a privilege to work with Kerry on the West Midlands Culture Programme for London 2012. There was a huge amount to achieve in a short space of time, and Kerry and her colleague managed to maintain exceptional quality work even at the times of greatest pressure. The launch of the People Dancing programme was a huge success with around 200 people attending the four events she helped to organise, and the print and promotional materials were attractive, very clear and served our purpose completely. The fact that we had 27 proposals for the first round of People Dancing (far more than expected) and we had six pilot Community Games happening this year is a tribute to her energy and ability to deliver."