Echo Performing Arts
Echo Performing Arts is an inclusive company dedicated to transforming lives through performance, specifically empowering individuals with learning disabilities to become role models within their community. Founded by Sarah and Lydia, who bring 20 years of experience supporting diverse needs, the organisation provides a fully inclusive and safe environment across all its sessions. They prioritize a relaxed atmosphere with adaptable communication methods (including Makaton, BSL, and activity boards) and mindful attention to sensory differences, ensuring every participant feels comfortable and engaged. Beyond their regular weekly dance, drama, and singing sessions, Echo Performing Arts also offers external dance workshops, striving to make creative expression accessible and empowering for all.
Who We Are!
We are Echo Performing Arts, an inclusive company that provides performance sessions
tailored specifically for people with learning disabilities but we welcome anyone.
Our main passion is supporting disabled people to be role models for their community. Disabled dance leaders are certainly under-represented in what we have seen on offer in Brighton and Hove, and we are seeking to change this.
We have 9 trained leaders
who are supported to lead 3 out of the 4 weekly sessions. Sarah and Lydia run the Wednesday session. Our Wednesday dancers are role modelling in a different way, working on performances in the community.
What's It All About?
Having worked with people with a wide range of disabilities for 20 years, Sarah and Lydia are well equipped to enable all sessions to be fully inclusive and safe for this community.
The environment needs to be just right for everybody in the room. We
provide a relaxed atmosphere - people can come and go as they please, no pressure to join in for the whole session.
We use various communication methods, simple language,
makaton, BSL, and also we have a board of activity symbols and pictures so that
everyone in the session knows the plan and can predict what is happening. This activity board shows the whole plan for the session, ensuring everyone can tell what is happening now and next thus reducing any anxiety.
Our work over the years has
enabled us to be mindful of people’s sensory differences and we have worked with people with a range of different bodies, so we can tailor our sessions to fit (hopefully)
anybody!
What's On?
Wednesdays - Jazz Hands Dance - dance and drama session run by Sarah and Lydia.
Thursdays - Dreams - a singing and dancing session led by Ella, and run in conjunction
with Vanessa from Rhyme N Shine.
Fridays - Fabulous Stars - led by 5 of our leaders, in this session we look at dance
routines from musicals and work on dance techniques.
Sundays - The Far Far Away Musical - Harry, our original leader manages this group,
creating performances from different musicals.
As well as the 4 regular weekly sessions, we love to go out to events and to
organisations to run dance workshops, please do email us on
echoperformingarts@gmail.com for more details about this or any of our sessions.
Check out there Insta here