Seven Schools, One Town!

Seven Schools, One Town! is a project that was initiated through a chance meeting of Sidegate Primary School’s Head Teacher Wendy James, Gecko’s Artistic Director Amit Lahav and DanceEast’s Artistic Director & Chief Executive Brendan Keaney.  It involves 360 pupils aged 8-10 years, in 12 groups, from seven primary schools that feed Northgate secondary school, and offers them the opportunity to explore what it is like to be a student in Ipswich today and bringing the students together through dance.

Gecko’s Associate Director Helen Baggett is directing the project which aims for the schools to work together to explore the benefit of culture on students’ learning. Dance has been identified as a priority for the schools which currently have little or no dance activity available to pupils. The consortium believes dance could inspire pupils to express themselves more openly, learn creatively and help them become more active. With a focus on dance and movement, the project’s ambition is to build teachers across the consortium of schools who are more confident to deliver movement lessons themselves.

Each of the 12 groups take part in five workshops throughout January and March and movement tutors use dance and physical theatre to explore the children’s ideas of place, identity and home as a pupil at the school and living in Ipswich. The pupils are exploring aspects of filmmaking and will devise their own movement material and storyboard ideas to shape the content of a short film for each school.

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Gecko’s Associate Director Rich Rusk will film the workshops and gather footage to create a five to eight minute film which will provide a lasting legacy for each school. The filming will occur in places that have a special meaning for the pupils and locations include Sidegate allotments, The Willis Building and Ipswich Town Hall. Rich has worked with Gecko for many years and recently worked as film maker with Helen Baggett on the Moving Stories project with The New Wolsey Theatre and DanceEast.

All 360 pupils will come together on Thursday 9 June to give a mass outdoor performance which will help form an eighth film which we have commissioned a drone to film. There will be screenings of each film in each school and a showing of all eight films at DanceEast as part of the Move | Be Moved Festival on 1 July 2016.

Gecko’s Helen Baggett said:

“Gecko’s process is one of focus, experimentation and play. We are working hard to create a safe and focused environment in which pupils feel confident to explore and express themselves, verbally and physically and in which they can enjoy the experience of working together to create something unique, personal and brilliant!”