Mandeville School Early Years Creative Movement Project

description: a young girl with a pink jumper and pigtails sits on a woman’s lap and looks to the side with a huge smile.

Welcome to our first guest blog from the perspective of Emily Walsh who has chosen BLINK as her placement for her Central Speech and Drama MA Applied Theatre course. She has chosen to write about her weekly sessions at Mandeville School which she has been attending with BLINK Directors Kat Gill and Delson Weekes.

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description: a group of children sit in a circle on adults laps

Every Wednesday for two months I had a placement with BLINK Dance Theatre company, which became my favourite day of the week. The project was at Mandeville School with their Nursery Class. We worked with two groups of children ages 2-4 years old, one group were on the Autistic spectrum (ASD) and one group with with Severe Leaning Disabilities (SLD) and Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties (PMLD). In first four weeks we worked with the students and staff focusing on varied movement experiences, interacting with a partner and working creatively as a whole group. From week five onwards parents were invited to come and join in the fun and be creative with their children.

[description] A young boy dances in the middle of the circle standing with his legs crossed and his hands out to the side in a sassy pose with a huge cheeky smile on his face.

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The feedback from parents was overwhelmingly positive, which added to why I enjoyed my Wednesdays so much. One of the parents who has a child with Autism said: 

‘Wow, my son stayed in the group the whole session and was really calm, I wouldn’t have expected that.’

Another parent whose son has PMLD commented on one of the activities which used Lycra material to explore different ways of moving:

‘My son finds the rocking the Lycra so relaxing, I’m going to get some, and do it will him at home.’

Nursery staff gave the parent Lycra to use at home and she came back the next day with photos of them playing together.  A staff member commented that this child does not like touching objects or playing with toys so it challenging to find activities that the parent and child can do together. The Lycra has given them a new option to play with! 

[description] Two staff members hold a huge blanket of pea green lycra between them with a child held inside like a cradle. You can see the child’s arms and legs flailing with joy above the lycra and high smiles of the staff looking down at the child and interacting with them.

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Staff at the nursery also gave some great feedback, Julise Maritz (Nursery Teacher) said:

 ‘Early years can be a difficult time for a lot or parents, they can find the process of diagnosis hard. It’s been great for them to see how much fun the children can have, to bond rather than trying to achieve something.’

For me it was great to observe the parents bonding and being creative with their children and seeing the joy in their faces.

[description] A mother beams at her young boy overwhelmed with joy, the boy smiles at the camera with sparkling eyes.

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There was an activity in the group of children with Autism where the adult and child sit back to back feeling the pressure between two backs; this was to support development body awareness. Sam Heaney (Teaching Assistant) mentioned this in her feedback: 

‘At the start lots of them struggled with it but by the end of the project many of the students were initiating the movement more and more and happy to sit back to back.’

[description] BLINK’s placement student Emily (and author of this blog) a red haired young woman sits with her knees up back to back with a young boy who leans his whole body completely relaxing into her. Emily peers over her shoulder to watch the child with a smile on her face.

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Week on week the students were getting use to sitting back to back and becoming more aware of their bodies. One parent also commented that her child was spontaneously initiating this movement with her at home.  

Working with BLINK on this project has been a real pleasure and I really enjoy working with this age group. I got to obverse the children making progress week on week and watch their parents enjoy being creative with them; which is a real magical moment. 

Many of the students responded particularly well to working with BLINK Co-director Delson Weekes, who has learning disabilites. Nursery teacher Julise said:

 ‘The Way Delson worked with the children was brilliant, he did not try to make them do anything, they came to him and Delson responded with no expectations of what they “should” be doing. They could relax and be themselves and I think this was why so many of them seemed particularly relaxed around him.’ 

[description] Our Co-Director Delson, a young black man with short hair, interacts with a small boy who is lying on the floor smiling and looking at him. They both have a red feather in their hand.

BLINK Dance Theatre is a company that you need to keep an eye out for, what they are doing is very exciting and the only way is up from here. Although I am sad this project is over, I will be working with BLINK in the not too distant future and I am really looking forward to this.

description: Co-Director Kat sits opposite a small boy who looks directly back at her. She is smiling at him and he is mesmerised by her. They are doing the same dance move towards each other with their arms forward bent at the elbows.

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