What is YDance’s International development programme?
YDance is respected in Scotland, and across the UK and the world as a provider of high quality work, both participatory and performance based. Representing youth dance in Scotland across the globe and playing a part in raising the profile of youth dance in different countries is extremely important to YDance.
In addition to providing and championing youth dance in Scotland, YDance works with partners in other parts of the UK and internationally, seeking to raise the profile of young people’s dance globally, and to give young dancers from Scotland the chance to work with their peers from other parts of the world. YDance works closely with One Dance UK, National Youth Dance Wales and DU:Dance in Northen Ireland and is constantly searching out new international partners who share the values and mission of YDance.
In 2014 YDance produced the first ever Commonwealth Youth Dance Festival when Glasgow hosted the Commonwealth Games, bringing together youth dance groups from across the UK and from Commonwealth countries including Australia, Canada, India, Namibia, New Zealand, and Malta.
The National Youth Dance Company of Scotland has worked with their peers in Australia, India, Estonia, France, Belgium, Ireland and throughout the rest of the UK and YDance Horizons dancers have been involved in European projects with the Netherlands, Germany and Spain.
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Estonia 2023 – NYDCS partnered with Koolitants, the Estonian Youth Dance Company based in Tallin. NYDCS dancers visited Estonia in May 2023 to work with their counterparts in Tallin and perform at the Estonian Youth Dance Festival. In July / August, the Estonian group came to Scotland to work with the Scottish dancers and choreographers Anna Kenrick and Eliisa Sirelpuu on the creation of a new short work. Three pieces (NYDCS, Koolitants and the joint work) were performed at Dancebase in Edinburgh as part of the Fringe Festival to sold out audiences.
Ireland 2023 - NYDCS visited Dublin in June 2023 to perform at the Irish Youth Dance Festival. The Dublin Youth Dance Company came to Glasgow in July to perform along with NYDCS and other YDance projects at the Project Y Evolution platform at Tramway, Glasgow.
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Australia 2016, 2018, 2019 – Connections made at the 2014 Commonwealth Youth Dance Festival in 2014 led to an ongoing partnership between YDance and Australian Youth Dance companies QL2 Quantum Leap, Yellow Wheel and Transit Dance. NYDCS dancers visited Canberra in 2016 and Melbourne in 2018 and 2019, taking part in the Australian Youth Dance Festival in 2019.
Let’s Dance European Project (2016 – 2018) - YDance was part of European project Let’s Dance, supported by Creative Europe. Let’s Dance was a community dance project offering young people and dance artists in Germany, the Netherlands, Scotland and Spain the opportunity to build their experience in community dance through a series of local and exchange workshops. The project aimed to inspire new creative work through artistic co-production and engage new dance audiences across Europe. As part of this, YDance created Horizons – an inclusive youth dance company for dancers with a range of abilities, aged 12 to 25, which continues today as a legacy of the project.
