GDance: GDance Gees Up for International Dance Day!

Photo credit: Barehoof Performance

As dancers around the world are limbering up for International Dance Day celebrations on 29 April, local production company GDance is dancing with horses!

GDance is on a fascinating journey as Cirencester-based professional choreographer Marie-Louise Flexen explores recovery from trauma through Equine Therapy; creating performance material for a new show called ‘All Fall Down’, backed by Arts Council England.

Artistic Director, Helen Crocker, has taken her interest in the proven power of Equine Therapy to assist ex-service personnel with recovery from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as the starting point for All Fall Down.

GDance’s new star performer, Vigilante (‘Lante’), is from Gloucestershire based Barehoof Performance and has stunned GDance’s creative team by his ability to respond to dancers’ movements.

Lante’s trainer Melanie Fauske told us:

‘Vigilante showed me that he had a talent for more complex tricks so I began to encourage and build on what he offered to do for me. I was then introduced to equine therapy and witnessed how The Horse Boy Method uses trick training as part of their process in helping children with autism and neuro-psychiatric conditions’.

In ‘All Fall Down’, Lante will be joined by top UK wheelchair dancer Suzie Birchwood, the choreographer Marie-Louise Flexen, a local rapper and choir and Gloucester-based disabled and non-disabled community dancers.

All Fall Down will be shared with audiences in 2 twenty minute shows in Gloucester Park as part of the city’s Carnival day celebrations on Saturday 25 July.

The Gloucester-based charity GDance (Gloucestershire Dance) is celebrating its 20^th Anniversary in 2015. It’s hoped that International Dance Day will focus the county’s dance enthusiasts on the invaluable GDance courses and projects which benefit a broad range of local people facing disabling barriers.

Supporters can donate to GDance through its Anniversary Appeal or join the organisation’s team of volunteers. More information: http://www.gdance.co.uk/support.aspx

For more information about All Fall Down, contact Helen Crocker, Artistic Director, on 01452 550 431 or helen@gdance.co.uk.