Great Sport Dance - a new activity!
Great Sport Dance is a new mass participation dance programme which is part of the Take to the Streets campaign. Sport Dance is a new concept of athletic dance, drawing on sports and dance training to develop a new approach to fitness and movement. The movement is highly physical and athletic and is designed to develop the two main areas of cardio-vascular fitness and skill development and draws on all 7 components of fitness (agility, balance, coordination, endurance, flexibility, power and strength) to create a full body workout.
Created by Campbell Dance Consultants, with the support of Nova International and the approval of Laban Dance Science Department, the Sport Dance programme has just finished a pilot study in the North East in which 70 people have been taught a 4/6 week sample of the programme. This has encompassed people from all backgrounds and fitness abilities, ages ranging from 9 - 57 years old and a mix of men and women. The feedback and evaluations following the pilot programme have shown that the vast majority of participants described Sport Dance as "fun", "challenging" and "different" and that they felt improvements in their stamina, flexibility, agility, balance and coordination through Sport Dance sessions.
Rooted in sports training and fundamental sports movements, Sport Dance has already enabled and encouraged more physical activity, with the most commonly used words to describe the feeling after a Sport Dance session being "exhilarated" and "healthier". The majority of participants reported that not only did they feel better about themselves after completing a session, but that they felt that their concentration, motivation and mood were enhanced by the programme too.
We hope to have a series of mass participation Great Sport Dance events in 2009, participants will enter a sport dance event and by signing up commit to a 6-8 week training programme lead by a qualified instructor. On a given day the dance is then performed by the group of participants creating a mass dance spectacle similar to that achieved by mass participation running.
This exciting new concept was launched and showcased in Newcastle/Gateshead at the Great North Run weekend.
