Darling Editor, Karine Torr catches up with the Inspiring Dame Darcey and her latest brainchild.
It’s true – I basically want everyone to experience dance.
The nice thing is this one: it does not have to be done at a high standard to get all the attributes and improve your well being. Dance around the kitchen table, at a Silver Swans ballet class, socially – it doesn’t matter.
After years of working alongside the likes of Kenneth MacMillan, being a principal dancer in performances like the Prince of the Pagodas, investigating the life of Margot Fonteyn, and becoming an Artist Laureate of The Royal Ballet School, I took my last curtain call to Song of the Earth at the Royal Opera House back in 2007 and moved to Sydney. Returning home in 2012, I have been fortunate enough to have worked with the amazing team of Strictly Come Dancing. Being on the dancing judging panel of Strictly for seven years was an extraordinary experience, and, since then, I’ve been involved with some wonderful dance charities, and I enjoy that a lot.
Amongst them is the Royal Academy of Dance, and I am honoured to be President. The RAD is home to the leading ballet syllabus, its widely-acclaimed performing arts programme influencing dance institutions around the world. This is something we should all be really proud of, as young people receive about 20 million hours of ballet coaching from RAD teachers every year worldwide.
The RAD is something we in the South West are going to hear more about as they are just about to move into their brand new headquarters in Wandsworth, with seven beautiful studios. With the RAD celebrating its centenary this year, there is also going to be an exciting exhibition celebrating British dance at the V&A museum, opening in May
Dame darcey bussell interview
One project I spend a lot of my time on is Diverse Dance Mix (DDMIX), which is a social enterprise that I founded.
DDMIX’s aim is to have dance fitness as part of regular PE in as many schools as possible. We are up to 42, and there are 24,000 schools in the UK, so we have a lot of work to do! With current low levels of participation in physical activity, we clearly need more ways to engage and inspire our children to move – I‘m not saying we should replace team sports and athletics, but it’s time to add other elements. Dance fitness is the most wonderfully concentrated package of wellbeing for students in the 21st century.
You know just as well as I do that we are living in an era where our young people are going to spend most of their working lives and a good part of their social lives in front of a screen. If they have this technology at their fingertips already, and it is so stimulating, and they are losing the pleasure of being active, we must give them the tools to create balance in their lives.
Dr Marco Narici, featuring on a BBC program hosted by Angela Rippon, stated:
‘When you go to the gym, it is repetitive and you work on single muscles or muscle groups. Whereas dance stimulates so many more systems: the brain, nerves, muscles, ligaments. Dancing facilitates the cross-talk of the muscle and the nerve, making a much more holistic comprehensive exercise’.
If you think about it for a minute, dance is a full-body workout and aerobic.
It provides an appreciation of rhythm and teaches musicality. It is another form of expression, it engages the imagination, it is social, completely inclusive, cheap, and, best of all, great fun.
In order for the programme to be completely inclusive, I knew that the answer for schools was not in specialised dance like ballet or Latin. However, with my Presidential hat on, I do completely endorse specialised dance training, especially when it comes to the young people who want to dedicate their time to dance.
Dance fitness, with lots of different genres, delivered simply and enthusiastically, can provide all the attributes to every child, and can be put directly into PE. At DDMIX, we have spent four years getting the delivery system right, so that any teacher can become confident in teaching dance fitness very quickly.
On the 25th of March, we are holding one of our school’s festivals at the Arthur Cotterell Theatre in Kingston, where we get as many schools as possible to come and experience Diverse Dance Mix.
So, if you know a school in the South West that would benefit from the DDMIX programme, please do get in touch. Right, I’m off to pick up daughters and walk the dogs and perhaps do a dance move or two in the common. Please excuse me if I disturb your walk!
ddmixforschools.com
royalacademyofdance.org
Photography Alexander Rhind
“The job of feet is walking, but their hobby is dancing.” – Amit Kalantri
