Our latest updates

Dare to Move is still running and the energy has been incredible. We are currently delivering our weekly sessions across both Jarrow Focus and Monkton Stadium, providing free, creative movement and fitness activities for families in the community. It has been fantastic to see so many children and parents joining in, building confidence, and staying active together. If you have any questions about the sessions or want to learn more about our upcoming workshops, please don't hesitate to reach out!

Mondays have become extra special for families attending our Sport England funded Dare to Move Family Fitness sessions at Monkton Stadium. These classes are a way to keep active, but most importantly they are about confidence, engagement, and fun for children of all abilities.

One parent shared this about her 5-year-old, who is currently undergoing an ASD assessment:

“The instructor has been incredible. She remembered my daughter’s interests, suggested activities she loves, and made sure she felt included, even when she felt anxious. My daughter didn’t participate fully every week, but she still wanted to be there.”

Our staff's creativity, patience, and warmth make every child feel supported, engaged, and excited to join in, even if it’s just a little at first.

We’d love to see more children enjoying these sessions! Local families and schools, come along and experience the fun. Your child’s next favorite activity could start here.

Contact us or join the next Monday session at Monkton Stadium and Tuesday session at Jarrow Focus!

Families in Jarrow can now join our Dance, Fitness, and Wellbeing sessions at Jarrow Focus and Monkton Stadium, with fun, active sessions at each venue. Funded by Sport England, these sessions are already making a real difference for families, but there are still spaces available, get in touch now to join in and boost your family’s fitness, dance skills, and connections!

As 2025 draws to a close, everyone at Dare North East CIC would like to wish our community a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We are back January 5th, with more movement, fun, and community spirit.

We are excited to announce that, thanks to Sport England funding, Dare North East CIC will be delivering dance, fitness, and wellbeing sessions for families across the South Tyneside from 12th January 2026 to 13th December 2026. Find us at Jarrow Focus and Monkton Stadium. These sessions will provide 2 hours of fun, active, and engaging activities at each venue, helping families improve their health, wellbeing, and confidence while spending quality time together.

This is a fantastic opportunity for families to get moving, learn new skills, and enjoy inclusive activities designed for all ages and abilities.

Keep an eye on our social media and website for session schedules and sign-up details — we can’t wait to welcome you and your family in January!

Our ongoing dance project at St Margaret’s Centre in Durham continues to provide a creative and supportive space for adults living with mental health needs. The sessions, led by experienced dance instructors, bring together a variety of dance styles, from traditional ballroom to Latin dances like cha-cha and samba, as well as social dances such as line dance, swing, and jive. All steps are adapted to suit individual abilities, ensuring everyone can participate confidently and enjoyably. Thank you to Point North for making this project possible.

As Kids Together! just finished, we want to express our heartfelt thanks to Sport England for funding this impactful journey. Over the past 40 weeks at Fawdon Community Centre, we have had the privilege of working with two wonderful age groups—5–8 and 9–12-year-olds—delivering creative physical activity sessions that encouraged movement, inclusion, and joy. The enthusiasm and growth we witnessed in the children each week have been a true testament to the power of community-led sport. We are incredibly grateful for the opportunity to make a difference, and we’re proud of all that’s been achieved through this project.

Current funding at Dare North East CIC

Project: Active Together
Funder: County Durham Community Foundation NHS (Point North)
Sessions for adults with additional needs at Lisa Dixon centre.

Project: Steps for Change
Funder: Northumbria Police
Launched to counteract hate crime impacts, Steps for Change offers cultural dance sessions to youth aged 11–18 at Sandhill School. The weekly programme covers African, Asian and Eastern European dance styles and includes integration workshops to promote cohesion and understanding.

We are nearing towards the final of our Sport England funded project for children and young people in Fawdon Newcastle. Enjoying the last of our sessions delivered until the Easter holidays. We are forever grateful to Sport England for making this initiative possible and allowing us to support so many families.

We are proud to report that we have been successful in securing funding from the Northumbria Police for our ‘Steps for Change’ project that will be delivered at Sandhill School in Sunderland. We will offer cultural dance including Asian, African and Eastern European traditional dances for young people aged 11-18 to repair the effect of hate crime in Sunderland.

We are still busy delivering our Sport England funded project at Fawdon Community Centre in Newcastle. You can still join us, get in touch for more information!

We're excited to share updates on a variety of projects happening across the community.

At Fawdon Community Centre, we're running after-school sports sessions four times a week, targeting two age groups: 5-8 and 9-12 years old. This initiative, funded by Sport England, began in April and will continue until April 2025, providing children with a fun, active space to learn and play.

Through the support of the South Sharpley Windfarm Fund, our ‘Team Up for Change’ sessions are underway at Eastlea Community Centre. This 30-week programme, running from September 2024 to April 2025, engages kids and teens in a variety of team-building activities designed to foster leadership and positive social interactions.

We’ve also launched the ‘Active Together’ initiative funded by CDCF NHS fund. From October 2024 to September 2025, we're offering health and wellbeing sessions for adults with additional needs at the Lisa Dixon Centre. These sessions aim to improve physical fitness and overall wellbeing in a supportive environment.

Each of these projects reflects our commitment to inclusivity, health, and community engagement. We’re looking forward to seeing their continued impact!

We are thrilled to introduce our latest project, 'Active Together,' funded by the NHS Health Improvement Fund CDCF. This initiative aims to deliver tailored exercise sessions at the Lisa Dixon Centre in Haswell, specifically designed for individuals aged 19 years to 60 years and above who face a range of disabilities, including moderate learning difficulties and mental health challenges. Our mission with 'Active Together' is to bring participants together to improve their fitness and strengthen social bonds and skills.

We’re excited to announce the launch of our "Team Up for Change" project at Eastlea Community Centre, funded by South Sharpley Windfarm CDCF. This initiative is designed to engage kids and teenagers in a variety of multi-sports activities aimed at improving their health, fitness, and overall wellbeing.

By offering regular, structured sessions, we will not only helping young people stay active but also tackle anti-social behaviour within the community. Our goal is to create a positive, supportive environment where young people can build confidence, develop teamwork skills, and have fun while staying healthy.

We look forward to seeing the positive impact this project will have on our local youth and community. Stay tuned for session updates and join us in making a difference!

Contact our office for details of this delivery!

A brand new project coming to life in April! Funded by Sport England ‘Kids Together!’ aims to support and strengthen the community of Fawdon, we will deliver multi-sports and dance for children to alleviate family financial struggles and provide meaningful activity to improve children’s health and social abilities.

We are busy planning and working towards new projects and activities delivered to communities in the North East, keep your eyes peeled for updates and details coming soon. Meanwhile we are still delivering our Operation Payback project in Northern Saints Primary in Sunderland and very grateful for the work we have completed by now.

We're excited to see what new projects and ventures 2024 will bring! We're motivated to continue our work in the community, encouraging and promoting creativity across the North East! Hoping that this year we'll extend our reach even further and work with more and more wonderful people in our local communities! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Dare CIC!

Great news! Thanks to Operation Payback funding we are returning to Northern Saints Primary School in Sunderland with more dance and fitness classes for children in the area tackling the antisocial behaviour and supporting young people to learn about their place and impact on the local community. We are very grateful for this opportunity and can’t wait to share with you some snippets from our sessions.

We have been busy working on some new projects of activity starting just after Easter to improve and support our communities. We have plenty of options to strengthen your mental and physical wellbeing and help you achieve your goals with a vibrant range of sessions. Look out for more details coming soon! Meanwhile browse our brand new website to check what we’ve gotten up to in the past and details from our previous work.

We are delighted to welcome you to our brand new website. We invite you to browse through our articles, read more about our company or have a sneaky peek at our galleries to see what we got up to in the past. Get in touch to see what Dare can do for you!

Thanks to County Durham Community Foundation for supporting us with funding from the Community Safety Fund. This will enable us to start a girls only project in Shildon with first sessions due to begin October 2022 and finishing May 2023. We have planned a range of activities for women to create a sense of belonging and confidence and empower the local community. Sessions will consist of various dance and fitness activities as well as group discussions and peer support to achieve the best result in improving both mental and physical health.

We are delighted to share that we have been given funding from the Awards for All to start a pilot programme for a project of activity in North Tyneside. The project will be a chance for young people with a disability and their families to work together in interpretive dance sessions to improve both their mental and physical health and give them an opportunity to work creatively and explore new skills and abilities.

Our project ‘Happy Healthy Future’ has come to an end, finishing in May. We are so overwhelmed with the community response and the numbers of young people who got involved in the sessions and joined us on regular basis. We are so pleased to see that our work has such an impact and that we were able to work with so many young people to help them improve their mental and physical health as well as instigating a change for their future.

We can’t wait to see what other projects we will be able to bring to life to support our community.

North East Dance CIC are providing FREE Dance sessions over the Easter Holidays in various venues on the 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 19th, 20th, 21st and 22nd April. To book your child’s place please email clare@northeastdance.com

We are thrilled to announce another project starting thanks to the NHS Community Connector Fund! ‘Step Change’ will start in December and take place at the Lisa Dixon Centre in Durham. The aim of this project is to support our community’s mental and physical health through a range of fitness and wellbeing sessions. We are very thankful for this opportunity to keep up our work and continue to make a change for our community.

We are so excited to be back working in schools in County Durham and Sunderland

We have lots of exciting projects and sessions running throughout the North East this Summer for adults, kids and families combined!

With lots of different styles, activities and games on offer and all for FREE come along to a session that suits you.

Contact Emma@darecic.com for details of sessions in your area.

Another great month for our Happy Healthy Future project.

We love seeing how much the participants are improving and how much they are enjoying the sessions.

Our Dance Inclusion project and Showtime projects are off to a fab start lots going on this month. We are so excited to be working face to face with all our lovely participants again!

We had lots of fun delivering Easter workshops in Sunderland over the school holidays!

It was so great to see everyone!

We are so happy that restrictions are starting to ease and we can get back to some face to face delivery very soon!

We can’t wait to get started!

Our online sessions with the Southwick Community are still going great. For now come join us online and have some fun and stay supported. If you are interested in taking part in free dance sessions online please contact Emma@darecic.com for details as how to register.

We are really excited to start our face to face delivery again! Please keep checking our news page for up and coming updates.

We are pleased to announce that we have secured funding from Awards for all to run a new exciting project, Happy, Health Future.

This project is to support children and young people with disabilities and learning difficulties based in Belmont, County Durham. The project will focus on a mix of different dance styles such at different eras like the 70’s and 80’s and a mix of different dance genres such as Salsa.

The project will start in April 2021 and will be a year long project.

We can’t wait to get started!

Sadly our face to face delivery has stopped again due to the second lockdown. We will be providing zoom classes from next week so if you would like a copy of the timetable please email emma@darecic.com. We will be back to face to face delivery soon and we will keep you updated.

We hope that everyone is safe and well at this time and we are missing everyone very much!

We are really hoping that Government guidelines change soon so that we can start delivering again in whatever capacity that may be. We have updated our risk assessments and put procedures in place so we are ready!

Dare North East are currently unable to deliver any classes at this time however we are using the time to work on exciting new project and classes that we can hopefully have up and running in September!

We hope that everyone is safe and well!

Due to the effects of the Covid 19 Pandemic. All face to face and group delivery is currently suspended. We are now developing a range of online platforms for delivery to our most vulnerable groups and for those in isolation. All updates will be posted as soon as possible and can also be found on our Facebook page. We ask for your patience while we make all necessary changes. If you are already enrolled on one of our courses in County Durham we are looking at ways to enable those courses to continue and will have a further update by Monday April 6th. All participants will be contacted directly!

We ask all participants and clients to follow the guidelines set by the Government to support the NHS and save lives: Stay at home. Only go outside for food, health reasons or work (but only if you cannot work from home). If you go out, stay 2 metres (6ft) away from other people at all times. Wash your hands as soon as you get home. Do not meet others, even friends or family. You can spread the virus even if you don’t have symptoms.

Most importantly please stay safe

Lots of improvements this week! We are starting to see lots of improvements in our children this week, not just in ability but in confidence and self-esteem. It is lovely to watch people work hard and achieve their goals, well done everyone!

Dare North East are hosting a day of dance with a Christmas theme on Sunday 8th December! Come along to these family sessions of dance, fitness, hula hooping and for some mince pies! 10am-4pm at North East Dance Studio, 126 Church Street North, Roker, SR6 0DT. For more information about the day contact emma@darecic.com – See you all there!

Join Dare North East on November 26th for a Celebration tea party at North East dance Studios in Sunderland as we bring people together of all ages for fun, dancing, singing, activities and lots more. This event is free of charge and open to everyone so come along and join the fun. Contact 0191 5657270 for more details