A GROUP of teenage performers based in one of Edinburgh’s most disadvantaged areas is to embark on their first tour.
Greater Craigmillar-based Young Company will share their work with audiences at Capital Theatres in Edinburgh and Platform in Glasgow.
Young Company was established in 2014 by Lyra which runs Artspace – Scotland’s first and only performing arts venue exclusively for children and teenagers.
It aims to overcome socio-economic disadvantage by empowering children and teens to access their cultural rights, supporting them to engage in the arts as co-curators and collaborators.
Everything at Lyra is free and underpinned by detailed pastoral care, including food, transport and youth arts worker support, removing barriers to ensure that everyone can take part.
Young Company are a contemporary performance ensemble aged 12 plus, who work side-by-side with professional artists to make original and dynamic dance theatre productions with live music.
Their works are devised by the teenage members and explore diverse ideas and concepts. They ask questions about the world they live in, their experience of it and their visions for the future.
Their touring production is That Feeling When, a sensory dance theatre production with live music, which looks at how the seasons can be a guide to what feels good in the cycle of teen-hood.
Megan, a Young Company performer, said: “Young Company is really special because other places charge high prices and that’s not fair for the people who can’t afford it. You shouldn’t have to pay so much to follow your passion.”
Seventeen-year-old Deborah, another Young Company performer, said she was aiming to study at university.
“I want to be a singer-songwriter, so that’s what I’d like to study,” she said. “Being in Young Company is a new thing for me – it’s helped me to learn new skills and allowed me to make new friends. It’s very engaging.”
Young Company performer Reagan (13) moved to Craigmillar almost two years ago from Nigeria in Africa.
He said: “I got interested in keyboards a while ago – just watching people tapping the keys and making different sounds and then before you know it, I was playing. I was quite nervous to audition for Young Company but I thought it would be a good place to learn new skills, and also bring skills I already had.”
That Feeling When will be at Capital Theatres Studio on October 25 and 26 and at Platform in Glasgow on November 8 and 9.
