Foundation

Marina Studios

Marina Studios Foundation is the new “front facing name” for Brighton Marina Studios, a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) founded in 2013 with aims to provide an extensive and quality timetable of classes to the entire dance community across the south east and to work hard to bring opportunities to people of all ages from difficult or deprived circumstances, who would not otherwise be able to access these activities.

Achievable Ambitions

Inspire &
Engage

Marina Studios, continues to successfully deliver these aims along with further achievable ambitions to broaden its reach both geographically and in terms of impact, working with partners to:

inspire, engage and empower – individuals, groups and communities, providing; –
participation, leadership, volunteering, teaching and entrepreneurial opportunities and pathways, by; –
leading, supporting and delivering, community projects, programmes and activity, and; –
ensuring good governance, infrastructure and partnerships are in place to achieve its aims.

Working with DanceHub CIC, a Community Interest Company, as the primary delivery partner for Marina Studios objectives and ambitions, enables growth and impact in a number of areas, with a number of partners, a range of funders and supporters and of course a wide range of beneficiaries.

DanceHub’s objectives are to advance, provide and promote the education, development and wellbeing of people and communities, through their active participation in and opportunities through Dance, Sport & Physical Activity and Arts.

Youth Empowered by StreetDANCE

Y.E.S

What is Y.E.S?

DanceHubCIC have been successful in securing funding from Active Sussex, Sussex Community Foundation and Arts Council England to deliver a large scale outreach programme: The Y.E.S Project (Youth Empowered by StreetDance)
Y.E.S targets young people from deprived or difficult circumstances, particularly those who are inactive and not engaged by traditional sport or physical activity.
The project offers regular after school sessions for a 30 week period, delivered by our high quality team of dance teachers. Alongside these sessions, we offer pathways including the opportunity to be mentored in gaining a Level 2 Dance Leadership Qualification.
Click here to see the YES Website, featuring our YESTV Channel – which have been set up for our young participants to develop and drive themselves!

What have we achieved so far?

Our pilot phase saw 324 participating in regular sessions in some of the most disadvantaged areas in Brighton. From this, we found:

36% participants taking part were inactive prior
Over 78% of young people claimed that StreetDance makes them feel happy

We have now launched in Brighton and Crawley with 9 partner schools/organisations.

The Response:

“I love dancing! This was so much fun!”
“I was having a bad day, but dancing makes me really happy”

– Student responses, vocalised to dance leader

“These have been fantastic. We have set them as an enrichment task for students as an optional assignment. Lots have taken part and have voiced really enjoying them” – Portslade Aldridge Community Academy

Our Partners/Supporters:

- As well as creating strong partnerships with local dance organisations, we look to work across art-forms to increase the way we engage young people. We have partnered with Crawley Film Initiative to offer participants the opportunity to learn about filming and content creation based on the dance sessions. click here to find out about CFI
- We have been working in partnership with Let’s Dance to offer performance opportunities for YES participants as well as other schools and groups. We are currently working towards a large scale dance event in Crawley in 2022. Click here to find out about Let’s Dance!
- Since the launch of DanceHubTV, we have hosted various events including the ‘Dance in Crawley’ film as part of the Creative Crawley ‘Right Here’ festival. click here to watch!