Share Dance employs dance artists to offer unique and diverse dance workshops to underserved youth, children, and families in Metro Vancouver.
ABOUT
Share Dance employs dance artists to offer classes and workshops to underserved youth, children and families. Workshops pair equity-owed artists with underserved communities to offer opportunities for artists to connect with diverse young people. In turn, participants explore self-expression through creative movement, and see their cultures and lived experiences represented among the teaching dance artists. Workshops are low-barrier, and tailored to meet the specific needs of the groups the dance artists work with. Communities are able to access dance programming that is designed with them in mind, and artists expand and develop their skills in adapting their teaching to a variety of groups.
Our workshops take place in schools and with community organizations at no cost to the schools and organizations we partner with. We have expanded the program to offer public workshops open to young people and their families in public parks and online, to broaden the reach of the program throughout the pandemic.
Our Share Dance program gives teaching opportunities to Dance Instructors from diverse styles including: Contemporary Indigenous, Dances from Africa, Hip-Hop, Contemporary, Jazz, Latin Dances and more! Get in touch with us to find out how the Share Dance Program can create unique workshops for your community.
The Share Dance Program brings free dance workshops into schools and organizations that support underserved young people in metro Vancouver. New Works runs these workshops at no cost to the schools, after-school care programs, or organizations which typically have little or no budget for artistic programming. Our Share Dance program gives teaching opportunities to Dance Instructors from diverse styles including: Contemporary Indigenous, Dances from Africa; Hip-Hop, Contemporary, Jazz, Latin Dances and more! Get in touch with us to find out how the Share Dance Program can create unique workshops for your community.
Share Dance provides opportunity for social and cultural recognition and reflection by utilizing dance as a means of communication that transcends language. As a result, the program is uniquely inclusive for newcomers, and people with learning, mental health, cognitive and physical challenges.
Since 2014 Share Dance expanded by including new partnerships with organizations in the Downtown Eastside that serve children and youth not served by traditional school systems due to housing instability, immigration issues, and other complex and systemic barriers.
COVID-19 UPDATE
New Works has been working hard with the artist team leaders to fashion effective new modes of delivery to ensure the safe continuity of Share Dance. Pre-recorded and online workshops form the bulk of the current online resources and we have just started to return to select in-person workshops at our partner facilities with COVID-19 safety measures in place.
CONTACT US
If you have any questions, suggestions, or would like to propose a workshop, please contact Marco Esccer, our Share Dance Coordinator at marco@newworks.ca.
THAIYO SEO – BREAKDANCING 
MARCO ECSSER – DANCING EMOTIONS 
JHOELY TRIANA – FLAMENCO 
HARMANIE ROSE – MOVEMENT IS MAGIC! 
NYLA CARPENTIER – POWWOW 
KEVIN LI – TUTTING, FINGER TUTTING
Students are learning how to adapt to learning with different adults, I different circumstances. Students were able to see their own cultural practices reflected back to them, and were able to enrich their understanding of their community. {…} New Works was able to adapt and meet our classes needs! This program is fantastic and our kids benefit greatly from it.
Judah Kong – Lord Strathcona Teacher
“Arts open a door for a different way of expression, different ways to learn and give different lens to live and see the world. Arts are not a luxury, they are a way to see and understand the world”
Erika Sáenz – Contemporary Mexican Workshop Leader
I love all of it! It was so exciting and informative! I learned so much and had such a good time!
Students from Tupper Secondary (dances from Africa class)
It was fun being able to do cool things that was based on a lot of trust
Students from Tupper Secondary (acro circus class)
