Dance has the feelgood factor

ALL smiles . . . at the dance workshop

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PUPILS in Failsworth have been busy choreographing their own dance piece to help raise awareness about mental health.

More than 100 Year 8 pupils from three Greater Manchester schools, including Failsworth School, Manchester Creative and Media Academy, and The Co-operative Academy, are taking part in the project led by Company Chameleon.

Their three dances, focusing on topics such as isolation, loneliness, frustrating and support, will premier on Friday at Manchester Creative and Media Academy.

Each of them draw on the themes from Company Chameleon's latest dance production, Witness, which tells the story of the organisation's co-artistic director Kevin Edward Turner, who suffers from bi-polar disorder. The condition, formerly known as manic depression, is marked by periods of elevated high or low mood which, unlike mood swings, can last for several weeks.

Pupils at the three schools were given the opportunity to watch a performance of Witness and then took part in a series of workshops to create their own dances.

Kevin, whose own mental health condition traces back to his late teens, said: "Witness is the perfect catalyst or jump-point to get young people talking about an issue which is sometimes hard to talk about. Seeing a dance piece about mental health issues provides something tangible to relate back to and helps trigger debate and discussion.

"It's forward-thinking and brave of the Co-Operative Academies Trust to allow their young people to experience Witness, which in places is provocative and challenging to watch, and then on the back of this experience, be given the opportunity to craft their own creative responses through dance and movement."

The three-month project is being spearheaded by Frank Norris, director of the Co-operative Academies Trust.

Frank, who is also Kevin's former primary school head teacher, spotted him on BBC One's Going Back, Giving Back when it aired last October and reconnected with him.