Nurturing Young Talent for a Diverse Dance Future - Evaluating our Cygnet School programme

Cygnet School is a pioneering pre-vocational dance training programme for young people aged between 13 - 18, created and led by New Adventures, in partnership with The Marlowe Theatre. It began in 2021, and since then has brought together young dancers to explore the unique aspects of New Adventures’ work, style and training. Cygnets focus on technique, storytelling and creativity, physicality, expression, gesture and character relationships whilst gaining insight into the inner workings of the wider dance industry and learning about different career pathways in the arts.

Professor Angela Pickard, Professor of Dance Education at Canterbury Christchurch University, carried out a three year evaluation of Cygnet School, in which she explored the impact of the programme on the young people who participate in it. The evaluation process engaged 26 cygnets, 10 New Adventures artists and 360 hours of observations, participatory activities, focus groups, reflective journals, photos, documentary films and questionnaires.

Angela observed that, through its values of joy, wonder, connection and creativity, Cygnet School has enabled young people to access dance and have their talent nurtured through the fully funded programme, and has therefore achieved it's aims!

You can find out more about the evaluation and read the full report here.

Cygnet School is supported by Arts Council England, The Dorfman Foundation, the Mackintosh Foundation and The Noël Coward Foundation.