We've been hard at work...

Check out Moving Oxford's mention on Georgina Harper's blog!

http://georginaharper.blog.co.uk/

After writing to my MP through Dancevote UK, here is my reply...

The Government fully recognises the tremendous artistic, economic and social impact of
arts organisations across the UK and will continue to support great art projects and dance
across the country through Arts Council England (ACE). ACE, as experts in the field, make
independent decisions about how and where funding is delivered, and do so at arm’s length
from Government. However, it is important that arts organisations also support themselves
in new ways, such as those which you mention and through a mixture of public support,
admission receipts and private giving.

The DCMS needs to contribute to government savings, and arts and culture have a role
towards this difficult end. Wherever possible savings need to be found from administrative
efficiency, which is the best way to minimise the direct impact upon practitioners who deliver
arts on the frontline, and contribute in such a valuable way to wellbeing and the economy of
the country. The Government is, however, confident that by increasing the amount of
National Lottery money going to the arts, and the drive to encourage greater philanthropy
and sponsorship, it can help to generate money for the sector from other sources.

However, at this time of financial austerity there is a need for prudence, and decisions on
Government spending will be measured in that context.

Moving onwards and upwards..

Well our third session has been and gone and we are now under a month away from the big event! Time flies! Maddy’s beautifully designed posters and flyers have been produced and are being distributed as we speak so here’s hoping families are penciling it into their calenders. As a team, we are all busy making plans, promoting and organising the event before our next session; it’s really important for us to spread the word to all towns and villages in Oxfordshire and beyond.  Our first drop off points were the charity outlets of Cowley Road and the 02 Carling Academy, whose manager made an informed decision of whether or not our event was right for him to promote...i’m sure as soon as he saw the pretty flyers he was convinced!

Our sessions so far have been an overview of budgets, SWOT analysis, project plans, marketing strategies and evaluations – a lot to take in! But with most of us being students and graduates with brains like sponges, I think we're all taking it in our strides. Angela has taught us the importance of knowing our target demographics and therefore our aims and objectives for Moving Oxford as an event. At the moment, whilst working as a team at large, we are divided into two key areas – creative and management, which is helping us to spread the workload evenly and keep on top of everything that needs doing. However, there will no doubt be points where we’ll all overlap and I can see a mass team effort happening on the actual day!

Well, our next meeting is on Saturday..keep checking for news on here on how we're getting on. You can also check us out on facebook and twitter.

H x

Moving Oxford gets support from MOVE IT's Georgina Harper

“It’s really great to see that MOVE IT has inspired dance in Oxford and all over the UK” Georgina Harper, Creative Director, MOVE IT

Check out http://www.moveitdance.co.uk/ for info on the next MOVE IT event in March!

Moving Oxford will also be featured on Georgina's blog: http://georginaharper.blog.co.uk

Hayley Irwin

Describe yourself in 3 words: Caring, conscientious and determined

Favourite genre of dance: Ballet/Jazz
Loves: Glastonbury, dogs and peanut butter

Hates: Ignorance, schauvanism and people who are rude about vegetarians

Greatest/proudest moment: winning a choreography competition at 17 and finding out I got a 2.1 in my degree
Ambition in life: to be happy and live life to the full

Sarah Furness

Describe yourself in 3 words: Loving, bubbly and conscientious
Favourite genre of dance: Contemporary
Loves: Family/friends, holidays and dancing
Hates: Peas, people that are moody and rude for no reason,
and student debt.
Greatest/proudest moment: Graduating
Ambition in life: To be happy and fulfilled with my life - career
wise, as well as in my personal life. Hopefully this will include
travelling the world and maybe winning the lottery!:)

Madeline Spicer

Describe yourself in 3 words: creative, organised, happy

Favourite genre of dance: Ballet

Loves: Christmas, Storms at night, My dog Beau

Hates: Being late for things, peas, small flying insects..like dragonflies and moths! 

Greatest/proudest moment: Graduating

Ambition in life: to go travelling

 

http://madeleinespicer.wordpress.com 

Amandine Limtouch

Describe yourself in 3 words: curious, active and sincere
Favourite genre of dance: contemporary
Loves: hands on activities, the outdoors, and the ambience and nature of grassroot and cultural festivals. I  really like to be apart of cultural experiences abroad, and catching the odd smile from a grumpy man
Hates: ignorance, not being able to let my hair and others down once in awhile, and not enough time or money to try out as many things as possible
greatest achieevement: many,  currently being given the chance to fulfil an MA in choroegraphy.
Ambition in life: to travel and work as a choreographer

Rebecca Flood

Describe yourself : Organised and sociable
Favourite genre of dance: Tap
Loves: (3 things); Food, Shoes and Dancing
Hates: (3 things); Spiders, Mushrooms and Eggs
Greatest/proudest moment: Getting the grades to get into Uni.
Ambition in life: To earn enough money to fund my Shoe Addiction.

Laura Polson

Describe yourself in 3 words: creative, fun and hard working
Favourite genre of dance: contemporary and physical theatre
Loves: (more than 3 things, i cant keep it down!) The countdown to christmas, chocolate, peanut butter and banana sandwichs and days off to pamper myself
Hates: Birds, coffee, public transport and cleaning!
Greatest/proudest moment: a mix of graduating, winning a graduate grant to set up my own dance company and seeing my students improving and happy
Ambition in life: to always enjoy myself and do jobs that i love most of the time, to spend my time off with the people i love, see as much of the world as possible and own a beetle car!

Lucy Glover

Describe yourself in 3 words: ambitious, dedicated,
Favourite genre of dance: contemporary - but i think Tap is desperate need of support to stop it from dying out
Loves: (3 things) Travelling, blowing bubbles and Animals
Hates: (3 things) Lies, being scared, and narrowmindedness
Greatest/proudest moment: graduating Laban / I think I still have my greatest moment to come
Ambition in life: to be like Jude Kelly (Director of Southbank Centre)

Miranda Laurence - Arts Officer for Oxford

Describe yourself in 3 words: dance, organise, oxford
Favourite genre of dance: contemporary
Loves: (3 things) sushi, crisp autumn days, singing
Hates: (3 things) cycling in the rain, stansted airport, fruit teas
Greatest/proudest moment: getting full houses for shows I have directed/choreographed
Ambition in life: to become Dance Czsar for Oxford!

Rachel Pedley

Describe yourself in 3 words: determined, hard working and caring
Favourite genre of dance: jazz and ballet
Loves: my partner (Dan) my dog Bonnie and being in Wales
Hates: Peanut butter, Marmite and football!
Greatest/proudest moment: I'm always proud when I see my students achieving
Ambition in life: to be still be doing the splits in my 60's!!!

Angela Conlan - Course leader

Describe yourself in 3 words: hard working, fun and loving
Favourite genre of dance: Contemporary
Loves: (3 things) The seaside, nature, my family
Hates: (3 things) Meat, Meanness, Football
Greatest/proudest moment: Having babies
Ambition in life: to be a good mum

Get Oxford Moving...

Hi there and welcome to the Moving Oxford blog. As I am writing this, myself and my fellow team members have already completed two fifths of our journey towards the Moving Oxford event and while slightly daunting, it is all actually starting to take shape and getting very exciting!

To start from the beginning, Moving Oxford was an event inspired by Rachel Pedley’s visit to Move it in London in 2009. With an idea in mind to take her experience and turn it into something positive for Oxfordshire, Rachel put forward her call for volunteer event managers to take part in a training course and put their new-found skills into practise . Through South East Dance, we came together as a team to put on Moving Oxford! While we are all from different backgrounds, dancing and otherwise, we share a passion for dance and all have the desire to gain events experience for ourselves. Thrown together, we are working to come up with a day of workshops, networking, careers advice and live performances in what will hopefully be an inspirational dance event for the community on November 7th.^.

Personally, I’ve never been part of such a big team effort, nor ever so directly involved in the hard work that goes into planning and delivering a successful event; the processes that I am learning are really opening my eyes and there’s still a lot more to come! To kick start the blog, I want to introduce the team behind the scenes...H x