We recently spoke with Andrew, from Holborn Community Association, about their work with the Student-Led Project: DanceIt!
Holborn Community Association is a UK Charity that seeks to create a thriving and inclusive community by bringing people together, helping them learn new skills, and doing fun activities.
Can you briefly describe the activities that your participants were involved in?
We worked with DanceIt! this term, in which they did a series of workshops at our Community Centre for older people. These workshops were organized and led by students from the Dance Society who did a great job organizing and communicating what was happening, what was taking place, who we were going to work with, etc and supported by Cynthia (Project Supervisor).
They did – from the top of my head - three workshops on Contemporary, two on Jazz, and one on Ballet. All of them were very popular and very successful. So thank you very much for organizing it.
On each occasion, the students leading the workshop prepared the music and the dance moves they were going to rehearse and practice with the group. Then, they spent an hour working with the participants, meticulously going through the dance moves and, you know, showing great patience and great understanding, given the fact that they were working with people over 55, rather than, say younger people. So it was lovely to see the interaction between the students and the older people, the patience shown by the students, and their understanding of the fact they would have to approach the workshop in a different way than they would normally do with younger people.
They showed great professionalism and great understanding and also great love of what they were doing, which from my point of view was lovely to see.
From my perspective it was great that we were able to work with the Dance Society again because we had worked with them for many years before the pandemic. So it was lovely to resume that great professional relationship with the UCL Dance Society.
What impact did these workshops have on the participants and your organisation?
Oh, it was lovely to see. We knew from working with you guys before the pandemic that we could look forward to some really visible impact. You could see it in people's faces, in their body language, in how they spoke about the students and the project.
Many people said to us how great they felt after the class and how they felt revitalized and regained some energy from working with the students and having a good dance.
Why did your Holborn Community Association decide to host one of our Student-Led Projects?
We always love working with the Dance Society. Like I said, we worked very successfully with them, for about 2-3 years prior to the pandemic, in providing dance workshops of a similar nature, offering Contemporary, Jazz and Ballet classes. All these classes were very popular pre-pandemic, I had no doubt they were going to be popular now.
We like creating opportunities for older people to come down to our community centres to participate in activities that will, you know, hopefully improve their emotional and physical wellbeing. And we know from our experiences that such dance classes provided by you guys are really good opportunities.
What advice would you give to another organisation considering whether to host one of our Student-Led Projects?
I would say basically if UCL comes knocking on your door saying, “hey guys, would you like to work with us on providing students volunteering opportunities?” – say yes. Because you can guarantee that you're going to enjoy the experience, the people you work with will benefit from it, and it's going to be a great partnership.
It is so great that post pandemic we can do this again. That we can do face to face, people to people, real time learning opportunities, real time interaction between older people and younger people.
It's so great to see intergenerational interactions, and it guarantees positive outcomes every time.
Your school or organisation is interested in partnering with one of our Student-Led Projects? Find out more information here!