New Adventures announces CYGNET SCHOOL resident at the Marlowe Theatre

Photo credit: Alicia Clarke

New Adventures have announced a brand new training programme, Cygnet School, which will be resident at the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury for the next three years.

Principally funded by The Dorfman Foundation, Cygnet School is a dance training programme for young people predominantly from backgrounds with limited access to arts provision and has been developed as part of New Adventures commitment to increase diversity in the sector and provide equity of opportunity. This programme fills a fundamental gap between young people participating at a grass roots level through their engagement work and those who progress onto vocational training.  Believing that talent is everywhere but opportunity is not, they are committed to changing this through the launch of Cygnet School.

The first cohort of 12 young dancers aged 12 - 24 from across the country will take part in an annual programme of monthly workshops and holiday residencies at The Marlowe Theatre launching in July 2021. Cygnet School will harness raw potential, enabling participants to develop a breadth of creative performance skills and a passion for dance to equip them with a range of skills and training to progress into the second year of Cygnet School training or onwards. This might be through other New Adventures pathways including Swan School or other creative opportunities and vocational training across the dance sector.

Participants have been identified through New Adventures’ wider participation work including Sadler’s Wells Curtain Raiser, 2020 (residency and response piece to New Adventures’ production of The Red Shoes), Civil Blood, 2019 (performance partnership with Dance United Yorkshire and Studio 3 Arts, London), Romeo and Juliet auditions, 2019 (engaging 80 of the finest emerging artists aged 16-19 alongside professional dancers over 13 UK cities)  and Dancers in Residence, 2018 (entire school performance programme with William Patten Primary School).

Matthew Bourne said: “This past year has highlighted an ever more urgent need to address the lack of accessible opportunities to enter the arts. New Adventures is passionate about diversifying the industry and celebrating talent from across a broad spectrum of backgrounds.  The launch of Cygnet School is an important cornerstone in our commitment to increasing diverse representation within the arts. We are sincerely grateful to The Dorfman Foundation for their support and encouragement of this pioneering programme, and to The Marlowe Theatre for welcoming Cygnet School to their building.”

Deborah Shaw, Chief Executive of The Marlowe Theatre said today “We are delighted to be working in partnership with New Adventures on this project and we are very much looking forward to welcoming the first Cygnet School cohort to our theatre in July.  We are passionate about levelling up access to the performing arts and the impact of the pandemic over the last year has made this more important than ever.”