Forty talented young dancers from Hampshire recently embarked on a regional schools' tour of the south east to great success, receiving excellent audience feedback and engaging over 635 children.

VitaliSE was an innovative platform for young people to share their skills and inspire other young people to dance.

A premiere at The Point, Eastleigh, launched the tour before performances in Reigate, Hastings and Windsor. Young audiences at each venue not only watched the performance but also took part in a range of contemporary and hip hop dance workshops.

VitaliSE featured Hampshire Dance's youth dance companies Hampshire Youth Dance Company (HYDC) and NoCo. They worked with professional choreographers and film makers to create exciting original pieces of film and dance.

Esteemed contemporary company HYDC worked on Bounce, a pioneering collaboration with the University of Southampton's Institute of Sound and Vibration Research. They also premiered a new piece created by Leon Baugh (dancer with Hofesh Shechter) called ‘Sight Unseen’.

HYDC member Connor Harris, 17, said that working with the choreographers as part of HYDC has been an educational and exciting experience; “Contemporary Dance was a new area for me, and I’ve learnt so much, it’s so varied and free and enables me to express everything through dance. The choreographers have been amazing. Both pieces we’ve worked on are very different and it’s been brilliant experimenting with different styles”.

NoCo, a creative street and hip-hop company, performed pieces by Simeon Qsyea  (choreographer for JLS and featured on BBC’s ‘So You Think You Can Dance?’) and Tony Adigun (Artistic Director of Avant Garde Dance Company).

Clare Neave, 18, a member of NoCo, was thrilled to work with JLS choreographer Simeon Qsyea; “Working with Simeon has been incredible. The experience has been amazing; it’s gone beyond all my expectations. The work is so clever and I’m very excited to be performing it”.

The launch premiered BOXBEAT, a new conceptual dance film performed by NoCo. Directed by Gary Cassey of CASS Productions and choreographed by Vikkie Steege, the film follows two young people as they make the transition to adult life, confronting and selecting the different pathways presented to them. You can watch BOXBEAT below:

Lucy Frazer, Director of Hampshire Dance, was delighted with the success of VitaliSE.

“The performances have been fantastic. It is great to be able to provide performance opportunities for these talented young dancers, and promote dance in the region through positive role models.”

One of the highlights of VitaliSE was a ground-breaking dance / science collaboration with the University of Southampton’s Institute of Sound and Vibration Research (ISVR).

HYDC worked at the ISVR with choreographer Rachael Mossom (shortlisted for The Place Prize 2008) and composer Pete Wilson.

The resulting work, Bounce, explores the links between dance and acoustic science.

HYDC participated in workshops at the ISVR to learn about how sound works, experimenting in reverberation and anechoic chambers. They took part in a film documenting the making of Bounce, which explains the creative process and science behind the dance.

The performances of Bounce  on the tour captivated the audience through a creative investigation of sound transmission waves, reverberation and how sound travels through space.

Dr. Steve Dorney, Schools Science Communicator & Co-ordinator at the ISVR said “The Bounce project, our first exciting arts / science collaboration with Hampshire Dance, has been a very positive experience for everyone involved and we were pleased to co-host the cross-disciplinary workshops for schools that accompanied Bounce across the region."

You can watch a video about the research carried out at the ISVR by Rachael and project collaborator, musician Pete Wilson.