POWYS Dance has been part of the cultural fabric of the county for 35 years.

It works with people from a wide range of ages, social backgrounds and abilities. and, according to director Amanda Griffkin: “The fundamental thing is that we want to encourage more people to dance for joy.”

In 2015 the organisation transitioned into a charity with a renewed vision to get more people dancing.

The Arts Council Wales’ revenue-funded organisation also receive support from Powys council.

Amanda said: “We are funded by Powys council and we have a five-year agreement with them so we’re in a really healthy position actually.”

Following this transition it has recruited a highly-skilled board of trustees who are responsible for the governance and strategic development of the charity.

The organisation has several exciting things lined up for the coming year and are looking to expand their dance class programme to more places across Powys.

“We run classes for children and young people as well as for older people. Our senior momentum class is aimed at over 50s and we also do classes for adults with learning differences,” Amanda said.

Alongside these classes Powys Dance also runs educational programs in schools. 5x60 classes, which offer an alternative sports curriculum, are a part of this and these sessions often lead to pupils becoming members of the Powys Youth Dance group.

It also has performances that tour schools to integrate creativity into the curriculum. Touring projects for schools were the “bread and butter” of Powys Dance since its beginnings 35 years ago.

Amanda said: “Flying Atoms and Llandrindance are our main education programs at the moment. Schools is just one strand of the Llandrindance project.”

The whole community is invited to take part in 20 days of Llandrindance. Two primary schools in the town have been involved in the schools strand of the project.

There are also family sessions where people are invited to come along with their families and join in a session of dancing.

Lead dance practitioner, Jemma Louise, has choreographed a dance called The Llandrindance which will be on Youtube soon. Powys Dance wants to encourage people to film a 20-second clip of themselves doing the dance or another dance of their choice and send them in.

Amanda said: “Llandrindance is a project that celebrates the people and the dancing that goes on in Llandrindod.”

A celebration of Powys Dance performances will be held on May 15 in Llandrindod. This will mark the culmination of Llandrindance as a project.

The performance they are working on and will be touring schools with this year is called Flying Atoms.

Powys Dance is working in collaboration with a professional ariel dance company who just happen to be working in the county.

The idea for this performance came out of the Lead Creative Schools scheme.

“There’s a great momentum in Wales at the moment for integrating creativity within the school curriculum,” Amanda said.

She hopes Flying Atoms will help to engage children in primary schools in science and particularly in physics.

She said: “Our aims are multiple for this in a way. On one hand we want to challenge ourselves to make a really artistically ambitious work that is of such a high standard. Hopefully the kids won’t have seen anything like it before in their school setting. But also we want to excite and create that spark of interest in physics before this cohort go off to secondary school.”

The themes of gravity and centrifugal force are central to this performance helping to engage children in physics.

Amanda said: “We’re hoping to be able to light that fire and keep it burning by injecting a bit of glamour into physics.”

Amanda said there are many things that people get out of dancing and it’s different for everyone.

She said: “Fundamentally at the heart of what we do, we want people to dance for joy and get that good buzz out of dancing. There are a myriad of things that people get from it though.

“For our senior momentum classes and our classes for adults with learning differences it is very much about mobility, fitness and living longer healthier lives.”

She hopes to see the organisation continue for another 35 years. She said: “What’s really important about the board that we have here now is that we see being responsive to the wants and needs of our community as a fundamental part of who we are and what we deliver.

“Hopefully we will go on for years to come because we continue to be responsive and stay at the forefront of what’s going on with dance.”

The main aim of Powys Dance over the next three years is to give people from all over the county the option to take part in different kinds of dancing.

It also wants to stay rooted in the community while it expands further across the county.