Achievements

Indepen-Dance is Founded

Indepen-dance was founded in 1996 by Karen Anderson on the principle of access, participation and inclusion. Karen was Dancer in Residence for Strathclyde Regional Council (as a job share with Jamie Armstrong) and worked on a project named “Disintegration”, bringing together young people with and without disabilities to dance.

The outcome was an overwhelming success and prompted Karen to set up a weekly dance class specifically aimed at people with learning disabilities at the then Strathclyde Arts Centre.

Touring Begins

Indepen-dance begins touring Internationally, visiting Germany, Italy, Spain, France & Canada to name but a few.

Special Olympics

Dancers from Indepen-dance perform in the opening ceremony of the Special Olympics.

Disability Employment

Employment of registered eligible disabled administrator, 3 disabled dance assistants, 2 disabled dance artists and 1 disabled admin support who we currently fund as employees.

Commonwealth Games, Dheli

Two of our dancers [one disabled and one non-disabled] perform at the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Delhi 2010.

Edinburgh International Festival

June – Indepen-dance 4 performs at the launch of the Scottish Government’s Disability Strategy, Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh

August – Performance by Indepen-dance 4 at Dance Base’s “Head’s Up” programme, Edinburgh as part of the Edinburgh International Festival.

Government Funding

Receiving Government funding to employ a General Manager and a National Dance Worker.

Lifetime Fellowship from the Society of Performing Arts

One of our disabled Dance Artist received a Lifetime Fellowship from the Society of Performing Arts, in partnership with the Scottish Consortium for Learning Disability and the Royal Society of Arts

International Festival of Inclusive Dance

Successful production of 2nd Gathered Together – International Festival of Inclusive Dance, Tramway, 2016 with increased audiences, participants and media coverage.

Best Dance Performer Award

Dance Artist, Hayley Earlam becomes the winner of The Sunday Herald Culture Awards 2018 for Best Dance Performer. Hayley has toured extensively with Indepen-dance4, with diverse works by Stop Gap, Christine Devaney (Curious Seed), Ramesh Meyyappan, George Adams, Laura Jones, Anna Newall and Marc Brew in collaboration with Scottish Ballet.