27 September 2017
Four eager Marden girls attended their first integrated dance class on Monday evening at The Orpheus Centre in Godstone. Originally set up by musician Sir Richard Stilgoe in his former family home, The Orpheus Centre helps its students to develop greater independence through performance skills and the arts.
This is a new venture for both The Orpheus Centre and us, and our keen Mardeners attended a dance lesson designed to include everyone, regardless of age or ability. The girls, many of whom had never danced before, displayed surprisingly good aptitude and balance! It was a delight to watch them teach some of the choreography to the Orpheus students with gentleness, compassion and patience.
This is set to be a weekly activity and an ambitious project through which we hope our Mardeners will be able to develop their rapport with our new Orpheus friends. Fr Gerry and I were very impressed by the girls, very proud, and also very humbled; I’m so pleased that the girls are willing to give this a try, as I think it so important that they have an awareness of the difficulties experienced by those around them, whilst we are so privileged to spend our days in this glorious valley, otherwise known as Woldingham School.
Miss Charlotte Owen, Head of Marden