Changing Young Lives: How dance changed my life

31 March 2009

Dan Evans, a 19 year old from Folkestone in Kent is successfully climbing the first rungs of his career ladder and is continually seeking new opportunities. However, back in 2001 as an 11 year old boy starting secondary school at Brockhill Park Performing Arts College in Hythe, Kent, Dan found himself in with the wrong crowd and often in trouble outside of school. He found some parts of school “boring” and didn’t like sitting still at the desk, learning out of heavy-going text books.

However, in Year 8, school-life changed for him when he was invited to join Male Order Dance Company which is an all male dance group run through Instep dance company. At the same time as Dan found dance, Brockhill also became a Creative Partnerships School of Creativity.

“Everything seemed to open up to me”, says Dan. “Lessons become more practical and suddenly a lot more fun.”

The Schools of Creativity programme harnesses a school’s commitment to creativity. It aims to raise educational standards and develop in students the skills that employers say they need such as the ability to question, make connections, innovate, problem solve and reflect critically. Schools of Creativity are a national network that make an important contribution to the ongoing development of the Creative Partnerships programme as a whole.

At 12 years old, Dan began to realize his interest in dance and joined the workshop classes at Instep Dance Company based at Brockhill. At this stage there were other projects and performance opportunities through the work of Creative Partnerships which developed and extended his own dance opportunities. Dance became a channel for Dan’s emotions: “It took time for me to get into my dance but it really began to help me get out of trouble. I got such a buzz from the performances I took part in. My grades began to pick up as the teachers took a new approach to their style of teaching – the lessons I found ‘boring’ suddenly became much more interesting.”

Dan explains how science classes became creative – rather than just reading about it he was testing the theory of gravity for himself outside of the classroom after building and launching his own rocket. When he was in Year 10 he saw the school transform the old sports hall into a proper theatre with working equipment and a full stage. Dan says, “We had somewhere to perform and rehearse properly. Not just in some small classroom but in a real theatre. All the dance lessons are now carried out in there too.”

Dan left Brockhill Park School in July 2006 with good qualifications, including an A* for Dance GCSE. He then went back to Brockhill in September 2006 to study for a further two years where he achieved two A-Levels, one in Dance and one in Performing Arts. Now he is involved in helping others to realise their own dreams and maximize their achievements through creativity and culture.

Now at 19 years old, Dan is working on The Gap Year Project at Brockhill School where he is a teaching assistant and also goes out to local primary schools to offer one hour dance workshops to Year 5 classes. Through the Project, Dan is working towards an NVQ Level 3 in Teaching.

Dan is also involved in the Shepway Find Your Talent pathfinder in Kent led locally by The Creative Foundation. Find Your Talent is the government’s pilot cultural offer for all children and young people. Dan is leading the Project Advisory Group – the group of young people whose ideas help to form programme for the district.

This isn’t where it ends; Dan is also sharing his passion for dance with young children. In addition to The Gap Year Project at Brockhill Park, Dan tours local after-school clubs delivering dance workshops for 10 hours a week through Kent Play Clubs – sometimes he does two or three schools per night and also runs school holiday clubs as well.

This is just a snapshot of Dan’s achievements. He is adventurous, likes a challenge and wants to tour the world through his love of dance. His next steps… possibly a PGCE so he can go onto teach and inspire others in dance or perhaps a scholarship to study dance in America.