Ballet Changed My Life: Ballet Hoo!
Youth at Risk specialises in designing innovative and challenging personal development programmes that have a proven track-record for getting to the very heart of youth disaffection and empowering society’s most difficult and damaged youngsters to turn away from crime, drugs and anti-social behaviour and build a better future for themselves.
‘Leaps & Bounds’’ was one such programme. Chronicled in the four-part series on Channel 4 entitled Ballet Changed My Life: Ballet Hoo!
This unique project combined powerful personal development and life skills coaching with a demanding regime of ballet training to bring about a radical transformation to the lives of a group of young people from Birmingham and the Black Country. It culminated on September 28th in a live performance of Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s production of Romeo & Juliet at the Birmingham Hippodrome,
The premise of the project was, if these young people could, from scratch, successfully cope with the disciplines, challenges and intensity of the training required to dance ballet to a high standard and to stage a full scale professional ballet production, then this would build their self esteem and set them up to tackle other challenges in their lives with renewed belief in themselves. Successful achievement of the ballet project would act as evidence that they can achieve when they take control of their lives and seize the opportunities that are offered to them.
The story of Romeo & Juliet provided a perfect metaphor for the lives of these young people, embracing as it does dysfunctional families, gang warfare, drugs, murder, sex and teenage suicide.
A ballet company prepared to take risks was fundamental to the project and in Birmingham Royal Ballet, Youth at Risk found a willing and perfect partner. Education and community work are central to BRB’s artistic vision and in ‘Leaps & Bounds’ it saw the opportunity to take this work several steps further and involve the whole company.
A presentation on the project was made to Andrew Sparke, Chief Executive of Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, whose enthusiasm for it led in turn to presentations to the Black Country Partnership and Birmingham City Council. The outcome was a decision, a brave one given the pioneering nature of the project, for the local authorities of Dudley, Sandwell, Wolverhampton and Birmingham to participate in one overall collaborative programme, with funding and resource support from Black Country Connexions and the Learning & Skills Council.
Youth workers from both statutory and voluntary organisations, teachers and youth offending teams were trained by Youth at Risk in its enrolment process. Already working professionally with young people at risk, their task was to identify candidates for the project, based on the criteria of greatest need, introduce them to it and enrol them on it. Through them some 200 young people signed up to participate.
Recruitment consultants Alexander Mann lent their services to bring on board volunteers from the local communities to be trained by Youth at Risk as life coaches. Life coaches are a fundamental element of Youth at Risk programmes. They are matched one-to-one with programme participants and support them throughout in achieving their goals. Without them the chances of the young people ‘turning the corner’ are greatly reduced.
At the outset of the project in May 2005, participants in groups of 30-40 underwent an intensive 4-day Youth at Risk personal development workshop. In these workshops participants addressed the issues in their lives that were making them behave the way they did. The days were long and tough, the training emotionally challenging – but always compassionate. At the end of the course participants set themselves three main life goals related to their commitment to change and signed up to a fitness regime.
During the course of the next year they met each month in area groups for further personal development training and on a weekly basis individually with their life coaches, who supported them in implementing change in their lives, in accessing other services available to them and in avoiding old habits and mistakes.
At the end of that year just under 100 participants enrolled for stage two of the project where the focus on the ballet element intensified. They were introduced to the wide variety of roles they might play, which included the technical areas of staging a production such as costume and scenery design, stage management, marketing and administration as well as actual dance performance.
The following six months were intense and demanding. Life coaching sessions continued and were overlaid with 3-hour long dance and movement workshops, fitness training and day-long meetings as a total company. Mid-July saw the first intensive rehearsal week, followed by another in late August. After a brief respite over the August Bank Holiday it was a life of intensive daily rehearsal until the first full run-throughs on stage, the technical run, dress rehearsals and then, ‘The Big Night’.
Ballet Changed My Life: Ballet Hoo was high drama, heartwarming and heartbreaking. It made compulsive viewing. Above all else though it was a testament to the remarkable achievement of young people who were enabled to recognise and realise their potential, best summed up by one particpant who said "I used to be a nobody - now I'm a somebody".
