Mar 11 2010: Hype Dance workshops explore mental health

SHEFFIELD hip hop dance specialist Anna Olejnicki is working with experts at the University of Derby to create a series of workshops tackling mental health issues.
Anna, the director of the acclaimed Hype Dance Company and one of Britain’s leading exponents of hip hop and street dance, has already used her knowledge and experience to create workshops on such themes as teen crime, gangs, peer pressure and anger management.
But she believes that this latest project - believed to be the first time the hip hop genre has ever been used in this way - could be one of her most important to date, using street dance to create a greater understanding of the problems of mental health.
“Even today, nobody wants to think they have a mental health problem because they feel embarrassed or think it’s wrong and what I want to do in these workshops is break that stigma down,” Anna explained.
The project is a collaboration with the University of Derby’s Psychotherapy Department and will see the creation of two workshop packages.
One will be specifically for people working within the area of mental health and the other will be aimed at schools and will raise awareness of the problems surrounding mental health issues.
“The University of Derby has never worked with a company like Hype so this is a very exciting project for us both,” said Anna.
We have discovered from our previous workshops that dance is an excellent way for people of all backgrounds to think about issues and express themselves more freely.
“For a really clued-up teacher or youth worker, these new workshops should prove invaluable.”
www.hypedance.org.uk

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