Rachel Gildea on a project that is looking to get fathers dancing

If you have a body and a pulse, you can find a way to dance. That’s our big ethos at Dancin’ Oxford; that dance should be and can be for everyone. I have a great job: I get to dream up projects and (funding permitting) make them happen. My role as festival projects manager at Dancin’ Oxford (Oxford’s annual dance festival) is to create outreach projects which bring dance and the arts to those who might not necessarily have as much access to it.

I see it as my mission to bring dance to the people of Oxford, especially those who don’t think it’s for them.

Last year I had an idea for a project to get dads dancing with their kids. I set about writing my first funding bid to secure money for it, in partnership with Barton Community Association, and, in the process, began to face my fear of budgets, spreadsheets and numbers.

Against the odds, we received the money from Awards For All and National Lottery England. Whilst the project is not exclusively for dads, we are particularly interested in making time and space for male carers and their children.

Our emphasis on this father-child bond is in celebration of what we believe to be changing landscape in childcare, one in which the care is increasingly shared between parents and carers.

The idea of dads and dancing is often thought of as a bit of a joke. But I have my reasons, so hear me out.

Firstly, I had been in conversation with family centres in Oxford , who the dance festival work with, and they had told me about their desire to get more dads through their doors.

Secondly, I was keen to develop the hugely successful Baby Boogie programme at Pegasus Theatre.

Finally, the more personal reason (cue violins), as a dancer I have always wanted my dad to take more of an interest in what I do. So here was the perfect project.

This spring saw the launch of the project, dubbed Disco Dadz. It’s a fun disco and dance session for dads and their children under 11.

The sessions are held monthly at Barton Neighbourhood Centre and Leys Children’s Centre in Blackbird Leys. They are led by an all-male team with a live DJ, dance tutor and two young male apprentices taking fathers and their children through a sensational experience, where playrooms are transformed into nightclubs and spellbinding disco lights and pop music fill the air.

Children (and adults) transform too: getting into costume, having their face painted and becoming clowns, tigers, snow queens and spider men. We also have party games, dance battles, prizes, refreshments, and time where dads and their children can get to hit the dance floor and ‘style it out’.

I’m under no illusions that dads can be a tough crowd. There’s much work to be done in finding them, getting them to come along, and only then to get them on the dancefloor!

Without wanting to presume that dads have two left feet, we think perhaps there is something less threatening about a disco setting.

The project has two other parts to it: a training opportunity for two local young men under 18 to become apprentices and work with the dance tutor and DJ. If you’re under 18 and interested in a career in dance or DJ-ing this would be great work experience. There is also the opportunity to complete the Arts Award which is recognised as half a GCSE qualification.

I hope this article has helped you to see that this is something for you: dad or not, disco fan or phobic. Disco Dadz is a disco with a difference and there are two rules: Everyone is welcome. Everyone can dance.