Schools Victoria Day dance workshops with Stopgap Dance Company.
WORKSHOPS
In May 2025, Stopgap Dance Company worked with 3 Rushmoor schools, leading dance workshops to over 360 students across Years 2 to 6, with a range of ethnicities, disabilities and dance experience.
BUILDING SUPERHERO SKILLS THROUGH DANCE AND TEAMWORK
At Talavera Infant School, they led four Superhero-themed workshops for Year 2 (6–7-year-olds), exploring everyday heroes and the key skills they need—communication, teamwork, trust.
Each session included a warm-up, travelling, a game, a creative task, and a sharing.
CELEBRATING DIVERSITY AND DANCE THROUGH THE POWER OF WATER
At The Grange Community Junior School, they worked with two Year 5 and two Year 6 classes, each with a diverse group of young people. The workshop followed the Wonderful Water theme for Victoria Day.
Each session began with a warm-up game focused on listening and teamwork, followed by a short but rigorous movement phrase inspired by water to build dance skills. Using visual aids, students explored how waterfalls, whirlpools, steam, and ice could influence the way they moved across the space.
Finally, groups created their own dances using imagery of rapids, streams, rain, fountains, splashes, and waves, which they shared at the end of the session.
EXPLORING THE WATER CYCLE THROUGH MOVEMENT AND CREATIVITY
At Talavera Junior School, they delivered four workshops for Year 3 (7–8-year-olds) inspired by the Victoria Day theme Wonderful Water.
Exploring how water moves — like waterfalls, rapids, ice, fountains, waves, and evaporation — they used these qualities to inspire movement, linking directly to the class topic on the water cycle.
Each session included a warm-up, short routine, travelling, a creative task, and sharing.
THE POWER OF DANCE
“Thank you to your fantastic practitioners... opening [children] up to the power of dance... fascinated by how their bodies responded... wholeheartedly recommend.”
Laura Harman-Box, Head of School, Talavera Junior School
“Being a Rushmoor based artist it was a pleasure to deliver inclusive dance workshops in the local area and work with students from Talavera Infants &b Juniors and The Grange Community Junior school.
Having access to the Arts is more important now than ever, and for some young people accessing dance via school is the only way that it is available to them.
It was brilliant to see how all the young people engaged with the workshops, how they worked and supported one another, as well as witnessing their creativity, curiosity, resilience and joy.”
Cherie Brenan, StopGap Community Engagement Artist