buildings that breathe

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BuildingsThat

Breathea project by the

DerbyDanceCentre

Interim Report 2006

Simon Redgrave


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What is Buildings That Breathe?

Buildings That Breathe is a celebration of the intriguing, private, public, forgotten and celebrated spaces and places to be found inNormanton, one of Derby's most inspiring and misrepresented communities. For over one year, homegrown talent came together withtransantional expertise to explore local cultures and environments, creating events, music, dance, spoken word and multi-media.Part oftheir Urban Myths programme - launched in April 2004 and embracing urban sports and arts the Derby Dance Centre built on thelegacy of The Hip Hop Happening, which gave young people participatory and volunteering opportunities during June and July 2004,culminating in a one day festival at Normanton Park on 31 July.

Buildings That Breathe is an ambitous eighteen month programme spanning commissioning, performance and production, exhibitions,education and professional development with strong emphasis on capacity building for artists and collectives.Sustaining a year roundoutreach and "cultural community development" in Normanton would stretch the skills of the Derby Dance Centre team. A key factorwhich influenced the planning, development, potential partnerships and funding base for the lead-up programme and final event, was thedeparture of the Centres director and the subsequent vacant post untilSeptember 2006. Whilst they endeavoured to retain the key elements of theoriginal proposal, practical issues inevitably had to tailor the degree of

attention some areas would be afforded.

All of the key outputs - dance, music, spoken word and written word, visualand graffiti art - all required either successful community developmentthrough outreach or the commissioning and performances of complex work.The first ten 10 month of Buildings That Breathe focused on communitydevelopment culminating in the a park less ordinaryperformance and isthe focus of this evaluation. The program of work then continues in late 2006with the development of a Normanton based Dance Film which will be thesubject of a separate evaluation.

This evaluation attempts to answer eight key questions put forward fordiscussion, and acts as an aid for further planning. The project is also moregenerally known as the Normanton Transnational Project.


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Elements of the Buildings That Breathe programme

BTB: Where you LiveOne focus of the project has been the 8 months of community development work based in Normantonscommunity centres. Existing groups and their leaders have further developed their skills, and newgroups have been formed giving young people in the area additional opportunities. These regularactivities, along side one-off taster workshops have encourage people in the area to recognise theircreative potential. Many of these young people were performing as part of a park less ordinary.

BTB: Building Blocks

In November 2005, a small group of session leaders visited Rotterdam to attend Culp Act UrbanTheatre Festival and performed in the finale of Black Soil Urban Film Festival, expanding their horizons,skills and confidence. Rotterdams Hip Hop Huis - one of the Netherlands top break dance crews -returned in April to work with young people in the area to create performance work which they shared atthe end of the weeks residency.

BTB: Your NormantonThis programme has sought to explore peoples thoughts and responses to the Normanton area. The

outcome of this research has led to the creation of a unique pack of cards. Each card shows a space ora place that has a special meaning or a memory. They help people find a sense of the city when theirhome may be far away and have been used by dancers, artists and musicians as a starting point increative planning.

BTB: a park less ordinaryThe culmination of this programme of activity was a performance in Normantons Arboretum Park on

Sunday 4 June. Community based musicians and dancers worked with Filip Van Huffel of Retina Danceand composer Jules Maxwell to create a unique event to compliment the surroundings of this recentlyrestored park.


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would see people they knew onstage and want to get involved orspread the word,

One of the aims as set down in therevised funding document was toraise community aspirations andreveal Normanton as a vibrantlycreative community. Thoseenthused by the project will makeits best advocates.

It isnt necessary to have a wideknowledge of national or

international nuances to buildworth in a transnational context;the key factor is to be an experton your own local environmentand local people, and to meettheir specific needs effectively.Buildings that Breathe is anexemplary project


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1 - Key Points

Derby Dance Centre enjoys a valuable working relationship with localvenues and organisations in the Normanton area. This relationshipinvolves a high degree of trust and reflects the professionalism ofstaff at the Centre, staff on site, and the project workers who carryingout the projects aims. This relationship was of paramount importancein delivering the regularity and the quality of the arts activitiesenvisaged.

Offering opportunities to a breadth of potential participants, includingchildren, shows people in Normanton that the Dance Centre iscommitted to an inclusive way of working.

The Dance Centre used effective and timely marketing, includingword of mouth, to promote the activities connected with the project.Sometimes the audience simply exist, and in these cases the Project

Team had the courage to adapt medium and short term plans.

The Project Team were very effective at dealing with practical issuesthat arose, and understanding the needs and habits of the audienceand practitioners, but without an Executive Officer some decisionshad to be arrived at through negotiation and debate, and so tookmore time and effort than they might otherwise have done


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performance. Obi had the confidence to adapt the timing of the Pulse to the style of his MCs and his own audience, without losingthe commonality that all the musicians were seeking on the day. Poet and animateur Spice was able at short notice to create aperformance piece for "A Park Less Ordinary"which fitted in seamlessly with everyone else's because she had been involved with

the project from the original visioning day.

Throughout the project Derby Dance kept the project's creative talent as free as possible by using the Steering Group to monitordelivery and support practice, even if it meant key staff coming out to ensure evaluation and monitoring forms were filled out.Funding specific requirements, such as collating session evaluation data like postcodes and ongoing recording of milestones washandled effectively and conscientiously by the project co-ordinator, leaving group leaders free to deal with practical problems andset about delivering better performance. Derby Dance gave sufficient opportunity for support and feedback to all of the extendedteam, although sometimes difficulties arose where situations occurred which were out of the range of the original proposal, such

as the low turnout for the Writer's Workshops, or the pressure on the musicians for the final performance.

2 - Key Points

The creative circle close to the Dance Centre represents a uniqueasset to the organisation. The "Buildings that Breathe"programmeprovided opportunities to nurture their professional development andfor them to engage fully in delivering the project's aims.

This "core group of individual leaders" was given every opportunityfor professional development and performance as part of theprogramme, and together they solved problems which would havebeen very difficult everyone had been directed from the centre.

Sometimes it was difficult for the Steering Group to ascertain and

take action on elements of the proposal which were hard for artiststo put into practical effect. In future some advance contingencyplanning and flexibility in the delivery plan would alleviate this.

The Derby Dance Centre team took personal responsibility in a"hands on" and proactive manner to ensure that this "core group"were given practical support and were able to concentrate on

delivery of their artistic responsibilities.


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3 - Key Points

If developing ICT skills is animportant objective for theprogramme, then this should bereturned to later. There is noreason why the Writers GroupForum could not be picked upagain at an appropriate time.

It is worthwhile having a clearpicture what it is that the projectwants to share and makeavailable. Giving a forum fortransnational discussion or for thesharing of music, images andvideo clips in the vein of MySpace

might find a more appreciativeaudience.


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using found objects and other materials. These were then manually cut up and rephotographed to make the Buildings ThatBreathe cards, and also used for publicity and design purposes.

4 - Key Points

The experience and skills of the Derby Dance Centrestaff and the Project Team were able to ensure that allproject participants were able to employ modern andprofessional ways of working.

The planned Mediaworks film of the Park LessOrdinaryperformance will capitalise on the depth andvariety of the events of the day and the opportunity toview, share and download it will bring the projecthighlights to others.


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5 - Key Points

The Project Team and Project Officer worked together

very competently and displayed experience andingenuity in solving problems and organising stranddelivery, substituting other activities if necessary.Sometimes there were difficulties without an ExecutiveOfficer, both because this was a very demandingprogramme on staff time and also because somedifficulties had to be solved by negotiation as they

overlapped people's fields of expertise. Any inherentweaknesses, such as the stress on writing over music,might also have been remedied at a very early stage.

At this interim stage the project has developed verywell, delivering worthwhile outreach sessions andartistic development which together have engendered a

great deal of genuine enthusiasm. The project as awhole would have benefited from a tighter definitionbrief; there is also an abundance of titles associatedwith the project - Urban Myths, Buildings that Breathe,Writing on the Wall, Where you Live, Building Blocks, APark Less Ordinary, etc which may not have impliedthe looked-for sense of unity and coherence to artistsand the public.

A great deal has been delivered by the Project Team,Derby Dance Centre staff and the "Core Group" ofartists that they have built around them. The longerprogramme of project work has allowed for increasedlocal artist training at observer, support and lead level;the next few months will reveal if this has increased

potential for long term employment opportunities.


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programme, and gave a wider horizon to participants and group leaders from the start of the programme.

Antwerp based Retina Dance choreographer Fillip van Huffel began his residency in October 2005 as Artistic Director, building on

regular weekly sessions that had been running since September of that year. He began to develop the work that would laterbecome the Park Less OrdinaryPerformance. The return visit by Hip Hop Huis the following April carried the transnational themeinto 2006, and provided a series of fourteen workshops and rehearsals to create dance pieces with Normanton community groups.These were based at the Mandela centre, and the performance that was first created in Rotterdam was developed and shared at aCommunity Performance - Two Hard to Break. Free tickets were offered to community groups and leaders, and the performancewas sold out.

Throughout the project repeated avenues of outreach to young people were developed and explored in order to establish new

relationships as well as deepen existing ones. The Writers Group ran at the Open Centre from September 2005 to February 2006,aimed at young people aged 14 to 17, but failed to find a wide enough audience to justify further financial outlay on an onlinewriters forum. A series of Open access drop ins, offers of visual arts and music workshops to regular attenders at the GuruRavidassi centre and outreach to feeder senior schools and Early Years groups complemented a proactive programme to engagewith young people across Normanton.


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6 - Key Points

The transnational exchange was a bold move on the part of

the Derby Dance Centre. The Project Team and staffmembers were able to coordinate the exchange of ideas,plans and people across Europe. The combined influences ofFillip van Huffel and Hip Hop Huis gave the Buildings thatBreathe programme a unique feel

The five key music groups developed to support the Park

Less Ordinaryperformance also contained artists whosebackgrounds, like Janelle Xavier, could be consideredtransnational. In the future it might be profitable to look attransnational dancers, musicians, etc. who are already here,and give them their own forum in the project.

Derby Dance will need to decide who will take responsibility in

the future for nurturing the links and what level of input itenvisages these groups and networks having in theorganisation.


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7 - Key Points

The two-day hot-housed consultation that DerbyDance set up was an excellent way of starting theproject; in line with the best policies of the sector.It generated a great deal of excitement andgoodwill, and encourage a positive attitude thatenthused partners.

Buildings that Breathe as a project was socomplex that it sometimes felt like it was a seriesof partnerships of its own invention. Namedschemes and workshops sequences, Buildingsthat Breathe, Urban Myths, Writing on theWall, Where You Live etc. sometimes had theeffect of gilding the lily.

The work of Derby Dance Centre is highlyregarded by agencies and professionals workingin Normanton and concerned with the culturaldevelopment of Derby. The Dance Centre needsto continue to find and work with those on groundwho have talents yet to be utilised, while lookingto move on its current core group into positions

where they can help strengthen the creativeinfrastructure that this project seeks to develop.


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material, if the successful impact of the project is made plain, and the research is sufficiently well indexed and promoted.Effectively quantifying and collating this research will be of value, as will quantifying the identified research networks and linksmentioned as one of the projects objectives.

At a basic level, this interim evaluation, in conjunction with pictorial evidence, the Mediaworks video and audio narrative andcollated audience and participant data must be shared with the Normanton Management group and other stakeholders. TheProject Team need to create as many advocates as possible for Buildings That Breathe in the short term, before the projectconcludes. There was a groundswell of positive opinion and goodwill throughout the programme and especially on the event of the4th June; this was very apparent to me conducting interviews afterwards. .

Continuation of discussions with Retina, and with contacts made over the transnational residency in Rotterdam - as such the Culp

Act Urban Theatre Festival and the Black Soil Urban Theatre Festival, and at the Breakin Convention in London - will benefitthe project. These partners, transnational and national, all have a similar demonstrable track record of successful work with hardto reach youth, an understanding of and passion for contemporary urban culture and music and a commitment to cultural diversityin theory and practice. The Derby Dance Centre can demonstrate a willingness to share and explore its findings and to question itsown practice. The Project Team in particular have a very unromantic and practical understanding of the issues related to runningthe project from day to day. This realism combined with the optimism of the project advocates would make an attractivecombination.


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8 - Key Points

The project was an effective advert for itself - ittried to remove access barriers by locating work atcentres people could get to easily on foot or bus,and avoid the need for private cars. A familyaudience base was envisaged from the start;people would see people they knew on stage andwant to get involved or spread the word,

One of the aims as set down in the revised fundingdocument was to raise community aspirations andreveal Normanton as a vibrantly creativecommunity. Those enthused by the project willmake its best advocates.

It isnt necessary to have a wide knowledge ofnational or international nuances to build worth in atransnational context; the key factor is to be anexpert on your own local environment and localpeople, and to meet their specific needs effectively.Buildings that Breathe is an exemplary project

Simon Redgrave [email protected]

buildings that breathe

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