WHAT IS SYNERGY DANCE?
Synergy Dance® is a mixed dance fitness program for boys and girls (infants, juniors and teens) in schools and leisure centres. We provide dance and fitness classes, Yoga and wellbeing courses, workshops, dance parties, holiday camps and SEND programs.
We are School Engagement Partners with Active Surrey and working in partnership with Guildford Spectrum Leisure Complex. We are affiliated to the Exercise Dance Movement UK where you can find our online packages for schools. We are also working in partnership with ParaDance UK for Special Needs and Disabilty classes for all throughout the UK, to deliver our not for profit Synergy Dance Outreach program.
We have also established many other partnerships and collaborations with leisure centres, organisations, charities, SEND providers, schools, trusts, community hubs and clubs and Surrey Choices.
You can view all our collaborations on the Synergy Home Page:
By joining Synergy, you are investing in both the health and fitness of our young people and a new approach to dancing in schools and leisure time which reaches everyone.
#JoinTheDance #Synergy #Innovation #EveryoneCanDance
You can find out everything you need to know about Synergy on our website:
What is the Synergy Dance® program?
The Synergy Dance® program for infants, juniors and teens offers a taste of many different dance styles, from Break Dance and Street to Disco and Acrobatics, inspired by the aim to synergise the many different dance forms; a unique and ground-breaking effect. We also offer single genre courses such as Breakdance or Acrobatics, junior and teen yoga, fitness, aerobics and other packages listed here:
http://synergydance.co.uk/synergy-dance-in-leisure-centres/
http://synergydance.co.uk/classes-courses-clubs-in-schools/
Live Synergy ShakeUPs™
We are now launching a Synergy ShakeUp program™ for live Video streams in public places - aimed to get children moving in 15 minute bursts. These will start in Surrey, following our recent Pilot.
Synergy Shake Ups - are fun express dance fitness workouts for children and teens to join in a variety of places!
Anyone can take part!
We will deliver Synergy Shake Ups for Preschoolers and Synergy Fitness - Xpress workouts for juniors and teens. We suspect parents will enjoy it too!
We film live classes and workshops with a Synergy instructor, which children can join in, either via U Tube free of charge, or via live video streams on a TV in public places. These will be specially tailored and simple so that anyone can have a go.
These ShakeUps are often themed, but are expensive to produce, so we need your help. We are urgently looking for match funding and public support to allow us to produce these film clips for children to join in on a regular basis.
These ShakeUps will take place in public places such as airports, shopping centres, cafes, fast food outlets, piers, and so on, where children are often with their families and would love to join in a free live class. They will also go into schools. This method of exercise means fitness is fun and seamlessly slots in to a "day out" when children experience flat time in a queue, or when they are restless, and adults are sitting down.
...Or during break times in schools when children may be at a loss for what to do during "wet play". This will help us all to tick the box for our children to gain a step closer to regular fitness, each day of the week.
Why does it work? It's the next best thing after Soft Play, as children grow up, but need to release all that energy! Our ShakeUps mean that children can be spontaneous and take part in exercise, even if they hadn't planned it!
DiscoFit™
We have created a new type of exercise called DiscoFit™ which we have piloted, and is now running at Guildford Spectrum Leisure Complex three times a week. This exercise program is breaking down boundaries and children and teens are simply loving these classes! This will form part of the live classes we produce as it has proved so successful.
http://www.guildfordspectrum.co.uk/gym-and-classes/courses/childrens-course-dance/
http://www.guildfordspectrum.co.uk/gym-and-classes/courses/children-and-teens-fitness-courses/
http://www.guildfordspectrum.co.uk/gym-and-classes/courses/children-and-teens-mind-and-body/
Back to Basics programs for schools and leisure centres - getting back to nature!
Our workshop program also extends to our Back to Basics programs for schools and leisure centres.
These involve Wilderness and Desert Island workshops for kids. For example, children learn to make a raft, build a fire, make dinosaur fossils, story telling, sand designs, arts and crafts, finding food, camouflage, tools and fitness. These are actually based indoors and outdoors and have wide appeal.
The social impact is to get children off their Ipads, learning new skills and keeping fit. Both boys and girls love these programs but we need funding for resources to expand our Back to Basics program too.
Community performance:
Synergy deliver highly popular healthy living workshops for schools and leisure centres - see our website for all the themes we offer - from Space to Glow in the Dark to Circus Acrobatics.
Synergy are keen to bring children and teens together in the community with our dance programs to get children and teens active and performing. Last year we received Match funding from the Arts Council and Just Act, for our first round of funding on Crowdfunder.
Special Educational Needs and Disabilities campaign - can you help?
The Synergy SEND Outreach program is a movement and dance program for schools and leisure centres - this is a specialist Synergy Dance program for children who may have special needs or disabilities - this might range from mild behavoural or emotional needs and ASD, ADHD, Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, Global Development Delay, ADD and children in wheelchairs.
We are working in partnership with ParaDance UK to expand provision of classes for children with special needs or disabilities, and to train up more of our instructors via ParaDanceUK.
Find out more:
http://synergydance.co.uk/synergy-dance-send/
Synergy and ParaDanceUK are working together to expand our SEND program throughout the UK in 2018.
“We are working in partnership with ParaDanceUK to provide inclusive dance and yoga training for Synergy instructors to teach Special Educational Needs and disability classes in schools and leisure centres.”
“The best thing about being involved in inclusive sport and dance is seeing the children happy and knowing that we are making them feel normal. A lot of children, especially older children and teens understand that they are different but we are giving them the opportunity to undertake dance, yoga, art and other activities that have otherwise been impossible for them. This is a big relief for parents and carers too, who are looking for exciting activities that both inspire their children and will help to keep them fit”.
Rachael Hurton, Founder, Synergy Dance
Synergy Sit and Be Fit classes - we need your help...
We are urgently raising funds on this platform to continue our free provision of Synergy Sit and Be Fit classes for Surrey Choices venues in Walton and Sunbury on Thames - for disabled adults.
This is a dance and movement class currently being delivered free of charge to disable adults to Surrey Choices but we have run out of funding.
We have no more funds to finance this and our classes will stop in the New Year if we cannot find further support to offer this provision free of charge.
Both the participants and instructors are loving these classes:
...."The customers really enjoyed the class, Charlotte was great.
The sessions have really been enjoyed by both at Walton and Sunbury so would love to continue if possible"...
Samantha Howlett | Area Operations Manager , North East Surrey | Surrey Choices |
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CASE STUDY: Guildford Spectrum Leisure Complex
Synergy Dance and Movement class for 6+ years
Mondays 4-5pm - By Erin, lead Synergy SEND instructor
The classes so far at Guildford Spectrum have endeavoured to create a fun and accessible environment for participants to feel both involved yet individual. As the class is small at the moment, it has provided an organic and nurturing atmosphere in which the children and their parents/guardians have been able to “get stuck in”. This has been really special to both facilitate and interact with children and parents, whilst simultaneously enjoying the experience of witnessing the interactions and bonds between these pairings and the children themselves. The children in the class are of various ages, with a range of needs and abilities. By staying open, dynamic and adaptable I have found that I can stick to a structure and yet follow their lead, catering the class to specific needs depending on what the class dynamic is that day. This is done through a structure that includes a general greeting, warm up, adaptable choreographies with room for expression and improvisation, creative movement with imagery and props, games and a cool down. This works well and the children have been able to begin to bring a piece of themselves, in terms of ideas and personality into the class, as they become familiar with me, the class and other participants better. A seed for a little “community” has been planted and will continue to be nurtured through creative and expressive dance and movement.
As the weeks have gone on, I have found as facilitator, the children recognise and remember the structure of the class and dances/movement activities included within it. They are beginning to get used to dancing together, waiting for one another and taking turns/sharing. They have also begun to pick up movements from one another. As they get used to the space, I have witnessed them moving away from adults and taking on a more independent role, interacting more with one another as they do so. This is encouraged, not only through movement, music and dance, but through the use of props and verbal communication or ideas. I have noticed that the children have become much more at ease with me, recognising me as their teacher but also someone to dance and have fun with! Their interactions have increased through movement, eye contact and verbal communication since we began. It has been an all round extremely positive, rewarding and heart warming experience and I enjoy every second, learning to adapt and fit in with the group as I teach them so that we are all included and have a good time. I feel these ever growing skills and my capacity to be flexible and hold the class are supplement to my training with ParaDance UK.
(Lead Synergy SEND instructor, Erin)
SEND TESTIMONIALS - WHAT THE SEND CHILDREN AND PARENTS SAY
“Seeing the children interacting in a safe environment and being able to take part in something they might not otherwise be able to do is just the best. To these children being able to take part is just as thrilling as winning a race”.
“Thank you so much for the workshop, it was lovely seeing Lucy enjoying herself and participating with others”
“The movement aspect of the workshop was perfect for our daughter, with her cerebral palsy she finds movement so difficult so having this aspect of the workshop was really lovely, she had a great time and smiled the whole way through”
“Hi! My daughter, Orla attended the SEN dance class at The Edge in Haslemere this afternoon. Just to say a big thank you & she really enjoyed it! Hoping there will be more! Zoe”
Hello, my daughter enjoyed the format & had a lovely time. Her concentration is poor, so nice that she wasn't forced to take part in all of it & could dip in & out of it! She was v.happy, which was the main thing…Thanks again for a lovely time!
It went really really well and we had Zoe, Orla and their mum's join in. The theme was animals and we explored the way they moved. It was very accessible and creative and everyone had fun! Both mums said it was great and Zoe's mum is really interested in keeping her in the loop for more classes
The highlight for me was when a mother said after the workshop “that was the most her daughter had “moved” her arm in the past year”. Another parent said on the phone that the prospect of these inclusive workshops was “music to her ears” and she can’t wait to join up.
Partnership with PARADANCE UK
#EveryoneCanDance
Patrick McGeough is CEO of the UK National Governing Body for para dance sport and inclusive dance within the UK, for those who would otherwise be excluded from dancing.
Patrick has provided this statement in support of our partnership:
"Our aim is to promote and develop wheelchair dancing as a sport and leisure activity across the country, to raise the standard of instruction and competition in the UK and internationally at all levels, as well as making dance, in whatever form, FUN, exciting and something that individuals who take part in wheelchair dance are proud to say “I can do that”.
We welcome working with Synergy Dance® to engage more disabled individuals to be active through dance and look forward to supporting them to ensure that all the activity they offer is open to the whole community as well as giving opportunities to training and develop new activity around competition and supporting people to be the best they can be"
Chief Executive Officer, Patrick McGeough
SUMMARY
*Our Synergy ShakeUp scheme can help to bring fun exercise programs into everyday life - no fee, no pressure to book a place, just join in on the day.
* Our SEND work is not for profit - as part of our Synergy Dance Outreach program - a separate Charity. Our free classes for disabled adults in Surrey Choices Sunbury and Walton cannot continue in the New Year without further funding.
* Our community work is not for profit and we provide this free of charge to the council holiday schemes in Surrey.
* As an organisation, Synergy Dance Ltd - we are split between charitable work via our SEND Charity Outreach Program, and generating funds which allow us to work as a whole - via mainstream Synergy Dance Ltd.
* Synergy Dance mainstream provision runs in schools and leisure centres and is spreading fast.
*Our SEND provision is also spreading fast via our Outreach program.
* Our Special Needs and Disability provision is not for profit and is part of a separate Charity called Synergy Dance Outreach.
You can find our first successful crowdfunding campaign here:
https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/synergy-dance-getting-children-teens-active
Help us to change lives. We've touched a nerve and we want to do more.