Dance Company Improvement

Candoco Dance Company is a contemporary dance company based in London that mixes disabled and non-disabled dancers in order to produce shows and performances that tour all around the country. They also act as a school, aiming to train again both disabled and non-disabled people to go into some sort of professional dance career. The company only focuses on those with a physical disability such as wheel chair users and people with prosthetic limbs.

The social issue that this company tackles is very obvious; making sure disabled individuals still have the same chance at a professional dance career as any other person. However, one way in which they could branch out would be to include people with mental disabilities as well as physical. This of course would be appropriate for the company as Candoco Dance Company is a charity and looks to help others. This would probably involve teaching and working with the mentally disabled to produce a show up to the standards of the company’s tour. An activity such as this can be looked at both positively and negatively.

The positive side to introducing a new scheme for mentally challenged dancers would be that it is very fitting with the company’s image as it is a charitable organisation for helping the disabled. Not only would it help the business, but it also would encourage people with mental illness to express themselves in ways that they may not have had the chance to do in the past, it gives them a chance to interact with others in a different environment promoting better social skills and physical activity, and lastly it may give carers and families a break from looking after them.

There are however some negative points. Candoco Dance Company, whilst promoting the image of a charity is mainly a professional touring dance company, therefore the teaching that is applied to the physically challenged and non-disabled dancers could not be used on the mentally disabled as this may be impossible for them. This would then mean that the company would have train its staff in the special skills required for dealing with the students or get in professionals to teach them separately from the other members of the dance troupe. This would most likely be expensive and actually does not maintain the image the company is going for because Candoco Dance Company is all about producing shows that combine disabled and non-disabled dancers.

Overall I think it would be in Candoco’s interest to introduce a scheme to train the mentally challenged to dance as they are a charity. However, it may just be a burden to the company as it would cost money and it may not be what the company is looking to become, as in my opinion this could be slightly too extreme because they seem to want to be a professional dance academy to train and produce professional dancers. Saying that however I do not actually know how capable mentally disabled people are as they could learn and digest the knowledge of dance just as well as people with no mental disability.

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Websites used: http://www.candoco.co.uk/