OUR TOWN DANCES WITH UNIT

About Our Town Dances

Our Town Dances in Hadleigh and Stowmarket bought together over 140 participants from schools and community groups aged 8 to over 80 from within the two towns. DanceEast ran over 40 individual sessions with the participating groups to create two dance film portraits, one for each town. The project culminated in a celebration event in each town bringing all the participants together to meet, share tea and cake and watch the very first screening of their film. The Hadleigh event took place in the Ansell Centre and the celebration in Stowmarket was held at the Mix.

Participating groups included:

Hadleigh Stowmarket

Jim Lawrence Lighting & Home Store Abbot’s Hall Primary School, Year 4

M W Partridge & Co Ltd Chilton Court Care Home

St Mary’s Church of England Primary School, Year 4 Salvation Army/Café@TheRec

Sydney Brown Court Stowmarket Market Traders

The Porch Project StowMovers

WI Hadleigh

The project was led by UNIT, a collaboration between choreographer Tom Hobden and film director Kate Flurrie. UNIT worked with the participants, encouraging storytelling and the sharing of key life moments that tie people to the town in which they live though weekly sessions held in their workplace, school or regular meeting place. These views and memories were used for the creation of dance movement, filmed on location in homes, community centres and sites of local interest involving the community and supported by professional dancers.

The project was commissioned by DanceEast and funded by Babergh & Mid Suffolk District Council with additional support from Locality Budget grants.

Celebration Event for Our Town Dances Hadleigh in Ansell Centre and the Mix, Stowmarket.

DanceEast hosted two Celebration Events in April, one in each town with over a hundred people at each event. This was the first chance for all the participants to come together and meet. This was also their first chance to see and share the film and for DanceEast to say a very big thank you to all the people who got involved, without whom the project would not have been possible.