Dance Ihayami’s outreach programme covers our social and community work, and links directly to the audience development objectives for our performance work. The purpose of our outreach work is to develop audiences and introduce people to Indian art forms, and making them more accessible to a wider audience.

Our community engagement work uses South Indian art forms to create imaginative, enjoyable and artistically inspiring projects for people of all ages, ethnic origins, backgrounds and abilities.

We create workshops and residencies to suit the specific needs and interests of each group we work with. These take place in a wide range of settings - including schools, youth clubs, day centres, residential homes, hospitals and community centres, and are led by highly skilled and experienced professional artists.

MONDAYS AT THE ROYAL HOSPITAL FOR SICK CHILDREN - we visit the hospital wards performing for children and their families, and engaging the children in Indian dance activities (run in partnership with the Edinburgh Children's Hospital Charity)

WEDNESDAYS AT CAMHS (Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services) - indian dance related activities with teens (run in partnership with the Edinburgh Children's Hospital Charity)

FRIDAY CARERS INDIAN DANCE CLASS - we run a free dance class for older carers and ex-carers with mental/physical health issues

In addition to this, we run a number of community engagement programmes during the year, with grant support from our funders (Awards for All, Robertson Trust, Garfield Weston Foundation and Henry Duncan Fund)

REGULAR SESSIONS AT MILAN SENIOR WELFARE ORGANISATION - we run free dance classes for elderly people with physical health difficulties in Lochend, Edinburgh.