Working with four top UK choreographers and dance specialists, they’ll be taking the resulting show on the road next week, opening at The Space for two performances on the afternoon and evening of Saturday, July 28.

Helen Brown spoke to choreographer and YDance’s education director, Katy McKeown, about getting the young on their toes.

happy feet

PROJECT Y 2006 was such a success last year that a follow-up was a foregone conclusion for YDance’s artistic director, Fife-born Andy Howitt, and his team.

The initiative is designed to bridge the gap between local youth dance and professional training and is seen by those involved as an invaluable opportunity for young people to develop their skills and talent. At least five of last year’s participants have gone on to take up further professional training with a view to a career in dance and it’s hoped that some of this year’s 28 young dancers will follow suit.

During the past few weeks, young people from all over Scotland have been working closely with four leading choreographers—Andy Howitt himself, in a work inspired by the life of the 17th century explorer Mungo Park; Thomas Small, artistic director of the Smallpetitklein company, who has created Rush, a fast-paced fusion of contemporary dance styles; Lisi Perry, whose appropriately-named New Work is a high energy creation combining physicality with humour and YDance’s education director Katy McKeown, whose improvisation-based Hiatus takes the subject of chance and sets it to the music of Quee Macarthur.

Katy herself joined the company as a dance worker back in 1998 and has been involved, over time, in a major dance in schools project, covering all 32 local authorities in Scotland. Both pupils and teachers take part and so far, now in its third year, 144,000 young people have gone through its paces, working with Katy and a team of 12 dancers.

Katy explained, “It’s done in workshop form and basically helps to get kids much more active within curriculum time, as well as encouraging them to be creative in all kinds of forms—street dance, contemporary, hip-hop, you name it. We train their teachers at the same time, too, so they take over and keep the momentum going after our stint with them is over. That’s the beauty of it—it’s not just a one-off, but something that will carry on and go further.

“We were in Dundee last year and it really took off here, and there is now greater involvement planned.

“The YDance project with young dancers is taking that to another level, if you like, highlighting 20-odd of the best young dancers, in this case from both Scotland and Northern Ireland, aged between 15 and 21. It gives them what I think is a unique chance to work with professionals, to really test themselves and to enjoy a different approach to dance that can take them as far as they want to go. Working with professional dancers and musicians every day is a terrific opportunity, especially when the dance pieces and the music are being specially created and composed for and with them.

“It’s also great to give them the experience of performing in national venues, theatres and dance spaces with full technical facilities, lighting etc. You can tell I’m really enthusiastic about it, can’t you!”

Katy herself started along the classic dance route, with ballet classes as a youngster and gained a teaching diploma very young, while holding a scholarship with the British Ballet Organisation. “I wasn’t ready to open my own school before I was 18, so I decided to train a bit more and went to the Laban Centre for Movement and Dance in London, where Andy Howitt also trained, incidentally.”

After graduating, she travelled to Australia, enjoying a stint as a dance outreach worker in Sydney, as well as working in Asia and New Zealand. She became YDance’s education director in 2004 and has also worked as dance artist in residence for West Lothian Council. She was also involved in the creation of the BAFTA-nominated 321Go! CD-Rom dance resource.

Her own creation for Project Y 2007, Hiatus, uses movement, film and music, with the notion of chance as the catalyst. “Part of the dictionary definition of ‘hiatus’ is ‘an interruption, a pause’ and I came up with the idea of asking the 14 young people I’m working with about what they would do if they could pause their life at some point—where they would pause it and what they would do. They’re very young lives, of course, but everybody gets caught up in the speed of life, the hectic nature of making choices, let alone the right ones and all of this age group will be making these big choices now or pretty soon. We all need time out to think and reflect about what we’re doing now and how we’ll be living in the future.

“It seemed very relevant to them and also offers the chance to use movement in a really creative way. Using improvisation meant that as well as looking at my ideas and approach, they could also come up with their own choreography. We’re also using a film backdrop of moving water which is a great abstract illustration of flow and speed and all the related ideas.

“I’m delighted with what’s coming out of my group and I think they’ll make a real impact in performance.”

All four productions are very different—the participating choreographers were all picked for their diverse experience and approach—and should bring out the best in the best of Scotland’s young dance talent of the future.

The Project Y Company performs at The Space, Dundee College’s Kingsway Campus at 2.30 pm and 7.30 pm this Saturday; at The Arches, Glasgow on Tuesday, July 31 and Wednesday, August 1 at 7.30 pm and at The Lemon Tree, Aberdeen on Friday, August 3 and Saturday, August 4 at 7.30 pm.