10069463Hippocampe: the creation of an LGBTQIA+ youth dance groupClosedCollaborative R&DInnovate UKRendez-Vous dance is a North Tyneside based contemporary dance company focussing on engaging with LGBTQIA+ communities and their allies through the productions they create and the outreach activities they engage people with. After identifying the need for more visibility for underrepresented communities within the dance industry on and off stage, Rendez-Vous dance will launch a new youth dance group in North Tyneside: Hippocampe. At Hippocampe, dance will be taught away from its traditional gendered codes. Movement will be used as a medium to improve physical and mental wellbeing as well as generating a sense of connection with the other participants. Following an initial development stage of workshops delivered throughout North Tyneside in Summer 2023, Hippocampe will launch in September. Participants will meet bi-weekly at The Exchange Theatre in North Shields (at the heart of the redeveloped Cultural Quarter). Throughout the first term of practice the young people will prepare a curtain raiser performance which will be performed on the 30th of November at the Queen's Hall in Hexham before the performance of "The Monocle" by the professional Rendez-Vous dance company. Hippocampe will be about connecting young people around the empowerment that only movement can provide. Hippocampe is a project that has many ambitions, becoming an outlet of freed expression for young people, an inclusive and cohesive project creating new pathways towards unconsidered professional routes.