RADiate Summer Sharing celebrates partner schools
On Friday 10 July, the Royal Academy of Dance welcomed 15 dancers aged 4–11, alongside their families and school staff, to share the dances they had been creating during the summer term.
With two imaginative performances on the theme of Splish, Splash, Splosh!, the young dancers embarked on a seafaring adventure, climbing aboard a boat to voyage across the waves while navigating seaweed along the way. The second performance celebrated the simple joy of a rainy day, with dancers splashing through puddles.
RADiate is the Royal Academy of Dance’s programme providing high-quality dance opportunities for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). This year’s Summer Sharing featured children with severe and profound learning difficulties, including children who are pre-verbal, demonstrating how dance can provide meaningful opportunities for communication, expression and connection.
The impact of the programme extends far beyond the weekly classes. One partner school reflected that through RADiate, “Pupils are learning to collaborate, express themselves physically, and become more proprioceptively aware.”
Another school, whose participating children are autistic with severe learning difficulties and experience significant challenges managing stress, shared: “Our pupils have thrived… our pupils are often unable to access anything like this.”
The Summer Sharing offered a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the children’s creativity, confidence and progress and the importance of ensuring every child has the opportunity to experience the joy of dance.
We would like to thank the Kusuma Trust for their support of RADiate over the past two years.
Photos: Jimmy Parratt
