FIDGET - Dance at the School of Sport and Service Management

FIDGET dance company was formed in 2005 by principal lecturer Fiona Smith.

FIDGET seeks to promote dance and raise the standard of dance teaching within Physical Education. Through a series of performances and school based workshops, the company aims to inspire and engage pupils whilst simultaneously providing training opportunities for students and continuous professional development for teachers.

Members of FIDGET are Physical Education teacher training students from the School of Sport and Service Management.

The work of the company is based on three core beliefs:

• dance is a distinctive area of experience which offers unique and valuable learning opportunities
• physical education teachers are significant and influential role models with the potential to impact on attitudes and participation in dance
• a high quality dance experience is one that challenges pupils artistically as well as physically

School workshops and residences

The company receives invitations to perform and lead workshops within schools, locally and regionally. They perform to individual classes, year groups and entire schools. Teaching work ranges from singles classes, designed to motivate and inspire groups, to residences where the group work on reconstructions of the company repertoire or the creation of new work for performance, with extracurricular clubs and school performance groups.

Conferences and events

In addition to the school work, FIDGET perform at art festivals, regional dance platforms and educational conferences.

After FIDGET

Since graduating from the University of Brighton, company members have gained employment in schools and colleges across the UK as physical education teachers or school sport coordinators. Many are employed to either build-up or introduce the profile of dance in the curriculum within their fields.

Some have become subject specialists with responsibility for promoting dance as an examination subject. They work to provide a wealth of exciting and rewarding performance opportunities for their pupils.

"The workshops were fantastic and a great input for our unit on creativity. The students were organised, patient and motivating and their enthusiasm brought out the best from our pupils. My class absolutely loved the workshop and we really appreciated the opportunity to be involved in the project."
Teacher, International School of Zug, Switzerland

FIDGET Gallery

Unleashed and Fierce