Essentially Dance

Essentially Dance is a new resource available to schools, which trains teachers to teach students in ballroom and Latin American dance.  Featuring Darren Bennett and Lilia Kopylova (best known for their roles on the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing), the National Curriculum based resource takes teachers and young people through the Cha Cha Cha, Waltz, Jive and Quickstep.  The programme was piloted by The Aldridge Foundation in 29 primary and secondary schools in five areas around the country in 2009 – Darwen near Blackburn, Salford, Rotherham, Bromley in south London and East Brighton, to evaluate the social benefits of dance for children.

Essentially Dance aims to encourage young people to engage in a new form of physical activity, improving health and fitness, contributing to the battle against child obesity.  The appeal of this type of dance has increased across the population following the success of Strictly Come Dancing, and provides an opportunity for cross-gender and inter-generational engagement.  In addition, it has been shown that it can lead to improved academic performance and optimises learning.  It is the first training package for school staff to teach ballroom and Latin American dances to school students, and will include other resources such as booklets CDs and a DVD choreographed by Darren and Lilia. 

The idea was first formed by Rod Aldridge and Darren Bennett, who were both keen to give every child in the country the chance to learn ballroom and Latin American dance, by taking the activity into schools.  The Essentially Dance programme, which came from this initial idea, has been formed by a partnership of social entrepreneur, Rod Aldridge OBE, Chair of The Aldridge Foundation, alongside dance professionals Darren and Lilia, Dale Bennett, CEO of City Limits Dancentre in Sheffield, and Lorraine Drolet, a championship winning amateur dancer, and physical education expert Sue Cooper, now National Co-ordinator for Essentially Dance. 

As well as meeting key targets for the Physical Education agenda, the work ties in with the Change 4 Life physical activity programme being run by the Department of Health.  All schools in the pilot areas of Darwen and Falmer also took part in an evaluation by Roehampton University, which was funded by the Foundation.  The study looked at the benefits of the scheme both physically and mentally.  On 22nd June 2009, a Roehampton University report was published, evaluating the success of the scheme, looking at psychosocial and fitness benefits.  The report can be downloaded here.

Following the successful pilot, Essentially Dance now sells this product within schools, to date reaching 100,000 young people, some of whom are going on to dance schools to further develop their skills.  Rod Aldridge's share of the profit from the programme is put back into The Aldridge Foundation, sustaining our charitable activities in this area.  

Dance plays an important role in the work of The Aldridge Foundation, and forms part of the sports specialism within our Academies.  Following the successful piloting of Essentially Dance at our Academies, they maintain the teaching of the resource, and dance is now one of the most popular activities amongst students.

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*The Aldridge Foundation thanks MGW Films for allowing their staff to volunteer in order to make the film shown above.