It is common knowledge that people across the country, and indeed the world, are finding new ways of working through the pandemic. Anecdotally, it seems that workers in the arts sector are now collaborating with each other more often, in order to benefit from each other’s skills and experience and to bolster the amount and quality of work produced in an extremely challenging environment.

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Over the years, Eleni has collaborated with many individuals and organisations, learning about the specialist work they do, as well as lending our experience and resources to successful joint projects. Over the 2020 autumn term, we went down a slightly unusual path, and joined forces, not with another dance organisation or individual, but with a musician. Gabriel Tranmer is a recent music graduate, building his portfolio, and he has created a bespoke musical composition to accompany a dance piece choreographed and performed by the  Eleni Youth Dance Company, which is led by Dance Practitioner Hanna, supported by Dance Practitioner Rachel who co-led on this collaboration.

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The Youth Dance Company sessions have been taking place online since early summer for obvious reasons. We know this isn’t the same as dancing together in the same physical place, but we hope it has provided a valuable alternative to enable the participants still to have a creative outlet with like minds. During the sessions which took place during the 2020 autumn term, the participants developed their own creative dance piece, guided by Hanna, and Gabriel composed the accompanying, tailor-made music. Both elements of the project have then been combined to produce a completely new, unique performance!

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The idea behind this project was to give the Youth Dance Company the opportunity to work towards a common goal, even though they couldn’t meet in person, and to add an additional layer in the form of the original music. Dance Practitioner Hanna has reported that the participants have all enjoyed the chance to contribute to this new kind of project and perform the finished piece for their families.

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Given the successful conclusion of this approach, it may be that Eleni plans more online projects like this in the future, even when we can have lots of people in the same room again – it is possibly another tool to add to our toolbox!