Phoenix dance theatre is on a high. With new purpose-built premises in Leeds, and a charismatic director in Sharon Watson, the 10-strong ensemble is ready to take on the world. On Tuesday night, with a cold wind slicing off the sea, a small but enthusiastic crowd bundled into the Connaught theatre to catch Phoenix’s latest programme, Particle Velocity.
Continue reading Phoenix Dance Theatre – Particle VelocityNadine Senior, Founder of Northern School of Contemporary Dance, reflects on the incredible success of her work as a dance teacher at Harehills Middle School in the 1970s and 1980s.
In 1970, I was appointed Head of Physical Education in an all-girls high school in Leeds. Many of the girls in this inner city, multi-cultural school had behavioural problems and one of them eventually burnt the school to the ground, though fortunately no one was hurt. Thereafter, we simply moved into the boys’ school which was on the same campus.
Continue reading Reflections on the dance phenomenon at Harehills Middle School by Nadine SeniorWith unemployment running at twice the national average, and further redundancies in the shipyards, the age of leisure has come early for many of Sunderland’s youngsters.
Michael is 16, on the dole, and buying a £300 guitar on HP. His recently-formed group – The Rejected – is receiving encouragement from the local community theatre, which also faces redundancies as government cutbacks begin to bite.
Continue reading Are The Kids Alright? Brass Tacks, BBC2 (1979)In Sunderland the problems of youth unemployment are writ large. There are 40 percent fewer small businesses than the national average. The shipyards and coalmines are threatened with closure. Dole queues and boredom are the lot of many youngsters in the area.
In Are the Kids All Right? BRASS TACKS (BBC-2, 8.5) talks to the young unemployed of Sunderland including Michael, a 16-year-old whose dreams of making it are all centred on his £300 guitar and his new band, The Rejected.
Continue reading Plight of the youngstersA SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD who’s on the dole and whose dream of making something of his life centres on a £300 guitar is one of the most interesting characters in tonight’s Brass Tacks film (BBC-2, 8.10).
Although the film is about Sunderland, much of what it has to say about youth unemployment and bored youngsters could just as well apply to Liverpool.
Continue reading NO JOB, JUST A £300 GUITARA BBC programme portraying urban decay in Chapeltown, Leeds, received a mixed reaction in the area today.
“City“, a 35-minute documentary on BBC 2 last night gave an extreme impression of life in the suburb, said a senior community relations officer.
However, he praised the prominence given to the pupils at Harehills Middle School rehearsing for their production of Paradise Lost.
Continue reading Picture of Chapeltown ‘unbiased’IT COULD have been down-town Harlem or even the Brazil Carnival, but it wasn’t. The opening shots of urban decay and the smiling faces that live among it took us nearer home to Chapeltown, Leeds, in “City” (BBC-2), the first of six programmes on life in our towns.
“Paradise Lost” was not the usual warts and all probe into the red light and twilight zones. Instead we saw the Tiger Bay of Leeds through the eyes of its youngest residents, the pupils of Harehills Middle School and in particular Orlando Weeks.
Continue reading Paradise Lost, BBC2Six films about inner cities now – seen through the eyes of those who live and work in them.
Chapeltown in Leeds. Back-to-back housing, high unemployment and low morale; a multi-racial, often violent, example of urban decay. A group of enthusiastic 12-year olds, encouraged and guided by dedicated teacher Nadine Senior, is preparing for the school’s Christmas production, this year Milton’s Paradise Lost/
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