The Last Word – from our CEO
I wanted to take the opportunity today, to thank each and every one of you for your support and solidarity over the past 30 years of our existence.
I have had the pleasure, and the tremendous hard work, of leading this organisation through the last five of those years. I have said before that the history of Greenwich Dance and its significance within the sector is not my credit to take – that is reserved for leaders previous to me: Amanda Davey, Kat Bridge, Brendan Keaney and the founder Richard Blanco – who each made the most incredible dance happen anchored from within those beautiful four walls of The Borough Hall.
My tenure has had a different flavour. We have been an organisation without a home of our own. So instead we turned countless community centres, parks, high streets, doorsteps and even your own living rooms (a legacy of Covid zoom classes) into our dancing spaces. And we have loved bringing dance to where you are and dancing with and alongside you.
You can enjoy the journey by taking a nostalgic tour through our archives on our Digital Stage but there are some people you won’t see featured as you do. People who have been working tirelessly alongside me to make all of this incredible work happen. People who have chosen long, busy hours for relatively little remuneration because of their belief in the change organisations like us can bring about.
I’m talking, of course, about The Greenwich Dance Team of producers, coordinators, finance managers, marketing specialists and strategists, PR experts, photographers, film makers, interns and work experience students who have done everything in their power to shine a spotlight on the artists, teachers, assistants, performers, choreographers, musicians and communities in our dancing family. And these very special people, by the very nature of the work they do, so rarely get a mention in our storytelling. The thanks happens more quietly: in a pat on the back in the office or a thumbs up on Zoom. Today I’d like to do it more loudly.
I’d like to thank each and every one of the Greenwich Dance Team – whether they have been with us for a day helping out or for years on payroll – and tell them just how much it has meant to me to have them on the journey.
And I’d like to show you who they are in a short collection of photos I have called Memories of Moving.
To gather these pictures I’ve trawled our social media and WhatsApp groups to find selfies and team shots so that you can have a little ‘behind the scenes’ look at the people who have made my world go round. And I know, given your overwhelming support of us and our work, that they have helped make yours go round too.
So today I would like to have the last word on behalf of us both – and it’s for the Greenwich Dance Team.
Thank you
Click the photo to see a memory book of our last five fabulous years at Greenwich Dance
