Glasgow youth charity YDance set for performance at Tramway Theatre

A youth charity in Glasgow is giving young dancers a look into life at a professional company.

YDance works with young people between 16 to 25-years-old who want a career in the arts.

Its two-week summer programme, Project Y Evolution, comes to a close on Saturday – with a performance at the Tramway Theatre.

It has been running since 2005 – dancers take part in daily technique classes and work with two highly respected choreographers to create new dance pieces.

The project combines different dance styles and has technical and creative workshops each day to develop two new works for the premiere at Tramway.

Speaking to STV News at Clyde College’s Anniesland campus, the young people say its been a life-changing experience.

“It’s gave me a lot of responsibility – you can come up with your own type of work, and put your own spin on things,” Claire, 17, said.

“If you’ve got thirteen dancers in a room, the same piece of choreography can look so different because you get the opportunity to do your own thing with it.”

Gargi, 23, is studying dance at college – she says Project Y has helped break her out of her bubble: “It makes me feel like I’m on a professional job, working with different people and choreographers, getting used to their styles.”

Their choreographer, Kemono Lebe Riot, is a YDance alumni. He attended as a 13-year-old, and has returned over a decade later – Kemono said the charity was instrumental to building his career.

“We were just dancing in the park, dancing at school – dancing whenever we could. We never did any shows, never competed, and never thought we could take it serious as a job.

“When YDance came along, and you saw people coming to teach you dance, you’re like, ‘you’re an adult – this is your job…so this could be my job.'”

He added: “My style is a little bit different, especially from what a lot of them [young people] do.

“So the fact they were ready to do it, that let me know we could push. There’s a new generation of dancers, and they want to take it serious.”

YDance’s Project Y Evolution will be joined by The National Youth Dance Company of Scotland (NYDCS) and two of YDance’s international exchange programme dance companies, Jugendtanzensemble from Germany and the Confederation Nationale de Danse, Luxembourg on stage at the Trmway Theatre.