JABADAO › History
History
JABADAO began in 1985, when dancers working anywhere but performance venues was still quite a rarity.
Starting as a Yorkshire-based company, over a period of twenty-two years it has grown into a national development agency with a leading edge reputation for forging links between arts and health practices.
1985 – a Yorkshire company
JABADAO was founded by Penny Greenland, convinced that dancers have a body of knowledge and a way of working that can make a significant contribution to education, heath, social care and community settings. This was never going to be a company concerned with performance dance, but about working with the felt experience of the body. Projects with physically frail elderly people and people with severe learning difficulties informed how the work would develop. The team set technique and steps aside and learnt how to dance wholeheartedly and fully with only the tiniest of movement. The JABADAO band formed and led specially adapted Tea Dances and Ceilidhs in day care, residential and community settings.
1986
The team led the first dance project, funded by the Arts Council, to work with people with learning disabilities. Set in two learning disability settings – a long-stay hospital and a Gateway Club – this project brought together dance therapy and community dance practitioners in a new relationship for the first time in the UK. JABADAO hosted the first conference in Britain about Dance Therapy and Community Dance. Interest in forging new practice from a synthesis of the two practices was cemented. The first Summer School offered an innovative range of courses drawing on both disciplines. The JABADAO band toured across the north.
1987
Humberside Social Services requested a twelve-week course for care workers in day centres for people with learning disabilities. This sowed seeds for the development of future longer courses. The Second Summer school continued to offer innovative courses to people working in education, health and community development.
1988
JABADAO devised a two-year Diploma training course – a completely new kind of training, exploring dance as a part of community development and health work. The JABADAO band undertook residencies in residential settings for older people with dementia.
1989
Kirklees Local Authority commissioned a ten-week training course for workers in health and social service settings. Here we met two Physios who, through a strong and enduring partnership, helped the company to develop links between dance and physio practice – in learning disability services and, especially, with people who have profound and multiple disabilities.
1990
An expanded team ran a three-year residency in Calderdale Local Authority, in a cross-sector partnership with Social Services, the Youth Service and the Arts Service. This project aimed to pass on skills so that new practice might develop across the boundaries of these services. Projects were undertaken with users in nurseries, day centres, residential homes, youth clubs, child development units and family centres.
1991 – 1992
The second Diploma trained ten more practitioners. The JABADAO team worked closely with Occupational Therapists in a range of projects forging and developing links between these two practices.
1993
First major project in early years settings offered training for workers with children of five and under. Courses and hands-on work in playgroups, nurseries, family centres and family service units ran throughout the year. Penny Greenland and Sandy Crichton wrote a detailed handbook for practitioners.
1994
– the work goes fully national
The annual course programme focused on training for physiotherapists, speech therapists and occupational therapists. Courses were full and instead of always drawing people to Yorkshire, the team began teaching all over the country. The mail order catalogue was launched in response to abundant requests from users. Project work focused on Working Creatively with Conflict, and especially working with children on issues of bullying.
1995 – partnerships in the South
The team developed partnerships with Suffolk Dance and Suffolk Artlink and ran projects in residential and day care settings throughout Suffolk.
1996
The third Diploma trained a further ten practitioners. A new modular course programme offering ninety-six hours of training was offered to health workers.
1997
The company received one of the Arts for Everyone Lottery grants to begin the action research project that underpins the current Developmental Movement Play work.
1998
A new team of practitioners led over 1,000 workshops throughout the UK, as the basis of a national consultation process with users.
1999
A partnership began with the Seattle Developmental Movement Centre, leading to the JABADAO team making links with developmental movement theory and the existing theories and methods that underpin it.
2000
'Hopping Home Backwards – body intelligence and movement play' was published along with ‘What dancers do that other health workers don’t’. These are JABADAO's first major publications consolidating the practice to date.
2001
Penny was awarded an MBE in the New Year's Honours list. It represented the hard work and commitment of the whole team over sixteen years. Members of the team set out to fly to the States again on 9.11. The trip finally took place in November and we made a film with young people who have used a developmental movement approach to address learning and wellbeing issues.
2002
Cycle 1 of the early years action research project began (The Thriving Child), with fourteen partner centres joining us to test the new Developmental Movement Play course and to gather evidence on the new practice they were developing with children as a result. JABADAO also pioneered a new course, in partnership with The Foundation for Community Dance, on duty of care issues for dancers – especially those working in health settings. After a long break, the JABADAO band toured again and ran four residencies in residential settings for older people.
2003
The Developmental Movement Play course ran four times across England with over 15,000 children involved in new movement opportunities as a result. The team ran a project designed to support ‘hard to reach’ families and began a project supporting physically frail older people at risk of falling.
2004
As Cycle 1 of the action research project continued to strengthen, we were increasingly delighted by the impact emerging in the evidence from practitioners. Practitioners were reporting progression in speech and language skills as the earliest, consistent signs of improvement when challenged children became involved in movement play. Also, it proved to be an ideal medium for children who find social settings anxiety provoking – the language of movement allowing them to participate on their own terms. One setting noted that the movement play is significantly beneficial to emerging writing skills after an Ofsted inspection asked how they have achieved particular results.
The ‘Sociable Exercise’ programme – a new approach specially for physically frail older people - began with a tea dance tour and a training course involving health workers, social care workers and – crucially, volunteers. This is an approach designed to train more volunteers to support over-stretched health and community services. Duty of care and safety lie at the heart of the training, which equips people to take a new, spontaneous, sociable approach to exercise.
2005
In March we held a 20th birthday party at the new office base in Leeds. Over the spring and summer we gathered together the evidence generated over the three-year research project, analysed the data and wrote a full report. In November we held a national conference sharing the findings to date with early years practitioners from across the country. This event redoubled interest in Developmental Movement Play.
2006
We re-organised the company in preparation for growth adopting an outcome-led approach. All projects focus on change and are closely linked to national strategies. Thus we aim to maximize our contribution to specific education and health aims.
The first Developmental Movement Play Journal – a selection of action research projects, observations and stories from early years practitioners using a Developmental Movement Play Journal approach – was published.
A firm partnership was formed with Rosetta Life – the hospice arts project – to develop a portfolio of 35 projects across the country in a 4.8 million pound bid to the Wellbeing Fund. It is the most significant opportunity to date to create the kind of ‘joined up’, innovative work across health, education and community. Both companies put a huge amount of effort into creating the portfolio, when we were invited to make a second round bid, as it would allow us to generate the evidence that is essential for development of work of this kind. Twenty-six organisations were competing for ‘twenty or so’ grants.
2007
In June we were turned down for the Wellbeing bid but we seek ways of continuing the strong partnerships we have developed. The work is so completely in line with government key strategies – increasing physical involvement (with especially worrying statistics about lack of involvement amongst children), addressing obesity and supporting children’s mental wellbeing.
Our partnership with Rosetta Life remains strong and we aim to plan joint work in future.
Eight new associate practitioners have joined the team each with a regional remit and three with a national training role. Demand for the early years work is growing and we are beginning research in primary and secondary schools as well.