Tangled Feet, one of the UK’s most innovative theatre ensembles, bring a season of ambitious outdoor performances featuring a spectacular world premiere, One Million; which will be the finale of Greenwich+Docklands International Festival.

We are delighted to announce that the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation has awarded Tangled Feet a grant towards our core costs over the next 18 months. We will use this grant to develop new theatre productions and a programme of innovative and inclusive activities for young people. Ultimately, we want to get more people involved with Tangled Feet!

Esmée Fairbairn Foundation aims to improve the quality of life for people and communities throughout the UK both now and in the future. We do this by funding the charitable work of organisations with the ideas and ability to achieve positive change. 

The Foundation is one of the largest independent grant-makers in the UK.  We make grants of £30 – £35 million annually towards a wide range of work within the arts, education and learning, the environment and social change. We also operate a £21 million Finance Fund which invests in organisations that aim to deliver both a financial return and a social benefit. www.esmeefairbairn.org.uk

Thank you to everyone at The Foundation – we are looking forward to working with you.

Guy Connelly gratefully acknowledges financial support from PRS for Music Foundation:

We are delighted to announce that Guy Connelly’s work in the Tangled Feet production of One Million this summer is being generously supported by The PRS for Music Foundation.

PRS for Music Foundation is the UK’s leading funder of new music across all genres.

Since 2000 PRS for Music Foundation has given more than £14 million to over 4,000 new music initiatives by awarding grants and leading partnership programmes that support music sector development. Widely respected as an adventurous and proactive funding body, PRS for Music Foundation supports an exceptional range of new music activity– from composer residencies and commissions to festivals and showcases in the UK and overseas.

In June 2013 the number of unemployed 18-25 year olds in the UK will reach One Million.

The early years of adult life are a fragile and vulnerable time, but simultaneously, explosively powerful and filled with enormous energy.

Identities are carved and pathways into the future forged.

What does it mean for a generation to face the start of their working lives in atime of uncertainty? How do you get onto the career ladder when all the rungs are broken?

With live music, ingenious staging and breathtaking pyrotechnics the spectacular One Million is powered by the hopes and aspirations of young people in 21st century Britain.

Tangled Feet’s dazzling performance will evoke the spirit of youth, the untapped potential, and the ambitions and hopes of the next generation. Guy Connelly of a Clock Opera and Nick Gill of The Monroe Transfer create a live-scored soundtrack to this immersive experience, which with a mass cast will bring GDIF 2013 to a barnstorming climax.

28-29th June, 10pm, Royal Arsenal, Woolwich SE18 6ST (outside Firepower Museum)

Come and experience One Million at the Greenwich & Docklands International Festival – click here for all of the details.

In January and February, Tangled Feet collaborated with Rainbow SIBS and STEP in two exciting Dramatherapy and performance projects, working with children and young people who have autistic siblings.

The STEP project (part of the STEP Festival) worked with six young people in Southwark who had never previously been part of a support group, exploring (over several weekly sessions) shared emotions, responses and challenges to having an autistic sibling. The project culminated in a workshop/training session for other Drama practitioners at the STEP conference on using dramatheraputic methods with children.

The Rainbow SIBS project, funded by Awards for All, worked with an existing support group for young people with autistic siblings, based at the Rainbow autistic unit at Greenwrythe School, Sutton. Over five weeks, four of the Tangled Feet team joined the group to create a piece of performance addressing the young people’s shared experience, using a blend of dramatheraputic techniques and Tangled Feet’s usual playful approach to creating moments of performance from games, images and personal stories.

The sold-out performance, at the Charles Cryer Theatre in Carshalton, was a fantastic success. The group grew in confidence over the course of the project and, together, created a brave, moving and funny show that shared their experiences with family, friends and local people.

The performance, which brought together many families affected by autism, was also the launch event of a new branch of the National Autistic Society in Sutton. This group will provide a network of long-term support in the area.

Tangled Feet had a brilliant time working with Rainbow SIBS and hope to work with the group again in the future.