Youth Projects

“It was fun creating a new piece and watching it develop into the final performance. I felt quite proud of it at the end!"
"I liked being able to work with Luca and Bettina and having a work created specially for us. Loved performing it!" SHIFT Performers

Working with and for young people is part of Protein’s education mission. Focussing on the development of skills of observation and creation, with a particular attention to the act of performance, Protein’s youth projects are both enjoyable and challenging. With sources ranging from films to sports, from family life to the old battle of the sexes, participants have the opportunity to create their own movement drawing from their own experience and identity.

DANSATHLETIC  
Building on the creative ideas developed through Start to Finish, DansAthletic explored the sporting ideals of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. It featured 100 children and young people from the 5 Olympic Boroughs and was performed as the launch of Big Dance 2006 at Canary Wharf and as the launch of the Newham Arts Festival at Stratford Station. DansAthletic is now a resource pack for teachers co-written by Luca Silvestrini and Cathy Saxton and available from EastLondonDance.

Produced by East London Dance, funded by LB Newham, LB Tower Hamlets and Greater London Authority, supported by Platform for Art, London Underground and Canary Wharf Arts and Events.

Artistic director: Luca Silvestrini
Dance artists: Tasha Gilmore, Amy McGann, Sean Graham, Carla Trim-Vamben, Pauline Hugue,t Maria Campos Arroyo, Charlene Low, Theo Alade
Music: Weapons of Sound
Production management: Mike Herbert (for Stratford) Rachel Shipp (for Canary Wharf)
Premiere: 13 June 2006

START TO FINISH  
"Your film around the Olympics - with Newham young people - was pretty spectacular. Congratulations." Steve Moffitt, Director, Creative Partnerships, London East

Protein’s first film is a 20’ production with film-maker Ros Cheshire. Part of the “Olympics Links” project with East London Dance, it is sporty in theme, exploring the reactions of children in the London borough of Newham to the prospect of the Olympics coming to the East End in 2012. 150 children took part in the film from six different schools in the borough.
Commissioned by East London Dance

Artistic director: Luca Silvestrini and Bettina Strickler
Film artist: Roswitha Chesher
Dance artists: Tasha Gilmore, Esther Weisskopf, Jason Keenan-Smith, Amy McGann, Tommy Small, Curtis James
Performers: children from Carpenters Primary School, Godwin Junior School, Plaistow Primary School, Sarah Bonnell School, St Luke’s RC Primary School, St Helen’s RC Primary School
Premiere: 14 March 2005

 

Protein’s youth productions include:

Regime (2007)
Created for Swindon Youth Dance Company

The Manor House Project (2006)
A site specific piece commissioned by Dance East for the Manor House Museum, Bury St Edmunds for local young people

Two Generations (2004)
Created as an intergenerational project for Gloucestershire Youth Dance Company and ReactiveAge, Gloucester’s older people’s dance company

One size up (2002)
Created for ShIft, The Place’s youth dance company

Shaken not stirred (2002)
Created for Bucks Youth Dance Company

6.0 (2000)
Created for students of Newham Sixth Form College