Christchurch Dance Festival

One of our largest events of the year, The Christchurch Dance Festival, brings together over 400+ children from across Christchurch to explore, create and perform at the De La Salle Theatre. The event is split into two parts, the first being the Festival Day; a supportive and inspiring environment for children to watch each other perform. The second being the Evening Showcases; where 800+ family members are invited to watch their children perform within a professional theatre setting.

Christchurch Dance Festival 2025

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Christchurch Dance Festival 2026

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The 2026 Christchurch Dance Festival was a huge success, with over 350 children involved, 3 secondary schools, 11 primary schools and more than 650 audience members joining us across the two evening showcases. The festival continues to highlight the power of dance to bring schools, young people, families and the wider community together, creating opportunities for children to be creative, build confidence and celebrate their achievements on stage. This year’s Beyond the Book theme perfectly captured the imagination, creativity and joy that the festival inspires, and we look forward to continuing to grow and develop the festival in the years to come.

Keep your eyes peeled for the Christchurch Dance Festival 2027 theme announcement… more to follow very soon!

"The dance festival provides the perfect platform for children to gain greater confidence, respect, leadership and physical development in a fun exciting and engaging way. At SIS we have seen a great number of children develop as a person during the process of the dance festival in particular showing an increase in confidence, resilience and creativity. It has also lead to children becoming more interested in dance and wanting to continue in school once the festival had finished. In 2024 the dance festival was performed to parents and family for the first time which created a perfect evening of dance. The children were bursting with excitement and pride on the evening, as were the parents and family members. As a school we were in inundated with positive feedback from parents regarding the success of the event, the impact it had on the children and when is the next festival! The dance festival has already created an incredible amount of special memories for so many children and hopefully this will continue for many years to come."

Daniel Metcalfe
PE Coordinator at Stourfield Infant School

"The Christchurch Dance Festival is one of the highlights of the Christchurch Competition and Festival Calendar. It’s a chance for a whole class of children to engage in physical activity in an artistic way whilst representing the school. A theme is set each year and our brilliant dance teacher, Christina, visits each school to deliver a dance workshop to the selected class with their teacher to start the rehearsal off. The class teacher then develops the dance to performance standard. All the schools then perform to each other at a dance morning at the De La Salle theatre at St. Peter’s School. This year for the first time we held an evening showcase so that parents could watch the show. The theatre holds 450 and it sold out within hours! The evening was a resounding success and one which the children and myself will never forget!"

Nathan Rickard
PE Coordinator at Twynham Primary School

"The opportunities the festival creates for all children is truly amazing. We had so many children in our class who had never danced before or even been to a theatre, and seeing their faces as they watched the performances, and then seeing them take to the stage themselves, really highlighted just how important this festival is. What the project promotes is so special, and it was wonderful to see the children’s confidence, excitement and joy throughout the day. "

Laura Tiley
Highcliffe St Marks Primary School

The intention of the festival is:

To provide high quality dance opportunities for children to learn through a physical and creative medium about a theme or topic
To offer continued professional development to teachers on the delivery and implementation of dance in primary schools
To present opportunities for children of all abilities to experience rich, fulfilling and inspiring events, no matter the circumstance

To provide dance opportunities for pupils in local primary schools to perform in a professional theatre setting
To create a supportive and inspiring environment, where children are able to celebrate their own creative journey as well as others
To present the journey children can experience with dance throughout their education, through the inspiration of secondary students who also choreograph and perform at the events

Are you an SEN school in Dorset? We’re delivering the Dorset SEN Dance Festival 2027 and would love to hear from you! Click here to find out how you can get involved.

Two Rivers Institute (TRI) CPD Training

The School Improvement Network

Christchurch Dance Festival 2025

Christchurch Dance Festival 2026

Keep your eyes peeled for the Christchurch Dance Festival 2027 theme announcement… more to follow very soon!

The intention of the festival is:

To provide high quality dance opportunities for children to learn through a physical and creative medium about a theme or topic

To offer continued professional development to teachers on the delivery and implementation of dance in primary schools

To present opportunities for children of all abilities to experience rich, fulfilling and inspiring events, no matter the circumstance

To provide dance opportunities for pupils in local primary schools to perform in a professional theatre setting

To create a supportive and inspiring environment, where children are able to celebrate their own creative journey as well as others

To present the journey children can experience with dance throughout their education, through the inspiration of secondary students who also choreograph and perform at the events

Are you an SEN school in Dorset? We’re delivering the Dorset SEN Dance Festival 2027 and would love to hear from you! Click here to find out how you can get involved.