Aberdeen’s Citymoves Dance Agency is stepping out to celebrate its 35th anniversary – starting with a spectacular spring show this weekend.
The event, being staged at both its Anatomy Rooms base and Schoolhill Studio, kicks off a special year that will see the charity share images, footage, and stories from its archives, stretching back more than three decades.
Hayley Durward, chief executive officer of Citymoves, said: “It is amazing to be at our 35th anniversary and I think this is a really good time to celebrate, specifically at this point in the pandemic. But Citymoves has also been through such change in its 35 years.
“It has always transformed, never remained stagnant, always been adapting to what people want, how dance can help people, and especially at the moment we are focusing on health and wellbeing.”
Citymoves is at the heart of Aberdeen’s cultural life
Citymoves is at the heart of Aberdeen’s cultural life, not only offering a range of classes but also doing vital outreach work to the vulnerable, as well as staging one of the Granite City’s major festivals – DanceLive.
The first anniversary of its event, the spring show, on Friday April 1 and Saturday April 2, promises to be a treat for dance fans, said Hayley.
“That is really showcasing our performance groups and our guest groups. We have Danscentre coming along, Evolution – who are in Inverurie – and we have Eden Court who have a dance young person’s group.
“So we are really looking forward to sharing that.”
Citymoves offers a huge range of popular classes and much more besides.
“We’ve got about 30 studio classes a week. So people come along for their dance fitness, or for tap, or ballroom or Latin sessions,” said Hayley.
“Some come along for our dance for Parkinson’s session, that’s a national project that was started by Scottish Ballet and DanceBase (Scotland’s National Centre For Dance).”
Citymoves’ Project Strive reaches out to disengaged young people
“We also have ones outside in the community, such as our hard-to-reach project, Project Strive. It’s all about going into communities and seeking young people that are disengaged from school or maybe at risk of offending. Quite often they are on the street. We have specific pathways for young people to come to us.
“It’s to encourage that idea of teamwork and satisfaction, building that confidence.”
Not only that, the agency supports dance professionals from across Scotland, offering rehearsal space and support – specifically at the Schoolhill studios – to work on new works and shows.
Hayley said: “Week to week we have companies with a whole host of dancers, in a range of styles, that come in and they create new work, they then tour that round the UK and quite often into Europe as well.”
And then there is DanceLive, the festival which has been running for 18 years, started by former Citymoves artistic director, the renowned Australian composer Ian Spink.
DanceLive festival brings top-flight artists and shows to Aberdeen
The event brings top-flight dance to the city every October and works side-by-side with the city’s Sound festival.
Hilary said: “This year we are going to bring back Ian Spink and his collaborator, musician Bill Thompson, to work on a choreographer’s and composer’s residency through the summer. We are going to commission three new pieces of work to go across both festivals.”
Remembering the journey Citymoves has taken – starting off with a handful of community classes and a single dance artist in residence – is key to its 35th-anniversary celebrations.
Which is why the agency will be sharing many memories in the coming months – including an exhibition at its Anatomy Rooms base, behind Marischal College.
Call for people to share their own memories of Citymoves
“We have past leaflets, brochures and posters that we want to show,” said Hilary. “We also want to show a lot of the footage of little films we have from past performances… and I’m talking about going back to VHS tapes.”
Hayley hopes that the people of Aberdeen will help in this look back over the years.
“If anyone is interested in getting in touch with any memories they might have of any groups they might have been part of, that would be brilliant.”
For more information on Citymoves visit citymoves.org.uk