The Red Cross charity has been running a national dance competition for the past 11 years with great success. This week on Sunday 8th of July, they will hold their 12th and final national competition.The event is called Dance: Make Your Move. An average of 2000 children and young people have entered this competition each year, which averages about 24000 children and young people in total.

Dance groups (juniors and seniors) who have won dance heats all over the country, will wake up in the early hours of Sunday morning and travel to London to dance, compete and raise awareness of the work the Red Cross do. Each group has created a dance that represents people in a crisis around the world and shows how the Red Cross are able to help. It is a very touching and moving event that celebrates how people are supported within tragic circumstances.

Many of the dance groups not only use dance moves, but also use a selection of music as well as visuals to tell their stories. This is a powerful way to convey the plight and victory of many people around the world to a huge audience of hundreds of people (expected up to 700 people).

For example one of the participating groups who won their local heats consists of ten primary school children, aged 8, whose dance presents the story of children escaping Syria by boat. During rehearsals, the 8-year-old dancers learnt about the war in Syria, and why people, including children their age, take decisions to get on unsafe boats to come to Europe. Rehearsals have been a wonderful journey of exploring the story of other people’s lives and how to creatively convey that to an audience. These children go on stage not to win but to tell an important story and move their audience. Like a number of other groups, they have choreographed dance steps in sync with the images behind them as a backdrop resulting in great creative and emotive impact.

Sadly, the Red Cross do not have money or sponsorship allocated to hire the projector, screen and visual technician at the venue. The Red Cross hire the venue at a charity discount price, which does not include this very basic feature. This is very unfortunate for 4 of the competing groups who have choreographed their dances and won their heats with a backdrop of images that are part and parcel of their choreography. The children and teachers have worked very hard, and it is highly disappointing they will not be able to present their dance, at the Grand Finale, as it was designed, due to the lack of this very basic standard feature.

It is the last year The Red Cross will do this event and it would be really appropriate to show a video to all of the participants and the audience, of the work they do, as well as of the history of this amazing dance event that has spanned 12 years. An average of 2000 children and young people have entered this competition each year, which averages about 24000 children and young people in total that have been inspired to dance, raise awareness of other people in crisis, fundraise for others and cultivate empathy for others. The Red Cross are also unable to show their video due to the lack of projector, screen and technician.

Due to policy at the venue, the projector, screen and technician must be from in-house. The cost to hire the projector, screen, and technician is: £1500 plus VAT, totalling £1800.

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