The History of Ludus Dance
A snapshot history of Ludus Dance...
Lesley Hutchison, Micheal Merwitzer, Chris Thomson, Pauline Marshall, Netta Quainton and Julie Culshaw formed Ludus North-West Dance in Education Company in October of 1975. The Company registered as an Industrial Provident Society in 1976 and operated as a co-operative. The company of professional dancers and teachers worked in schools across North-West of Englad whilst the touring company performed nationally and internationally going to places such as Canada and Hong Kong!
But Where and why did it begin...
In Lancaster, the early summer of 1975, Lesley Hutchison and a small group of fellow artists including Julie Culshaw, Netta Quainton, and Pauline Marshall meet to discuss creative ideas that will form part of a project for Lesley’s postgrad Arts Education course at Hornsey College of Art. They make a show based on Punch and Judy and perform it at local village fairs, the traditional tale of domestic violence, sausages, a crocodile and a hangman enhanced by live dance.
Lesley then had a bigger aim: to take dance and movement to children, young people and the community, performing not in theatres or at village fairs but in schools,
hospitals and even custodial settings, presenting powerful non-verbal stories that will be relevant to their audience and to the issues of the time.
In autumn 1976 the first professional Ludus production ‘Rosie and the King (Who Wanted Everything)’ takes the theme of selfishness and sharing into special schools. Over the next 50 years Ludus will create over 35 productions as well as one of the earliest community dance development projects, and employ over 160 artists and other staff, including 56 dancers on full-time permanent contracts.
What next...
While the touring company was enjoying considerable success in the UK and abroad, three other members of the company – Anthony Peppiatt, Gil Graystone and Joan Ewert – initiated the Ludus Community Dance Development Project. These posts, often solo workers, aimed to develop dance in local communities. The company had always offered dance classes for children on Saturday mornings as well as a few dance styles for adults in the evening. This project was to continue and develop the existing offer alongside a new initiative of introducing dance activities to people of all ages within the local communities.
The aim was to provide accessible dance classes and projects where local people could become more physically active, and develop social skills, creativity, problem
solving and communication skills whilst also becoming more connected as communities. It was important to the company that dance could be made available to everyone, where money wouldn’t be inhibitive and stereotypes of who can and who can’t dance were challenged. The project’s creative contemporary dance style was an alternative to the very successful and popular private dancing schools in the Morecambe area. Initially the project targeted schools, youth and community centres and the young unemployed, in and around Lancaster and Morecambe, as well as developing a wide range of dance classes for adults and children in the Ludus centre. As these sessions became more established, they began targeting the rural communities in the surrounding district.
