Protein’s 2024 highlights!

Dear Friend

2024 is coming to an end and it’s time to look back and celebrate some highlights from the last 12 months. It has been one of the busiest and most incredible years for Protein. Thanks to the passionate work of our small team and the support of all our funders, partner organisations, promoters, venues, artists, participants and audiences we have had an amazing year full of inspiring performances, transformational projects and participatory activities.

We started the year with the revival of May Contain Food May Contain You, our food related, immersive show which toured around the country, visiting theatres, village halls and arts centres. Supported by both the Rural Touring Dance Initiative and Arts Council of England, with this tour we supported local food banks thanks to the generosity of our audiences.

As part of the tour, we also performed the dementia-friendly adaptation, May Contain You. We loved connecting to residents, families and staff in care homes and we greatly benefited from two days of specialist training as part of Embrace, our ongoing professional training programme, which this year focused on working in care and dementia settings.

From April to June, we returned to our award winning, biannual project with and for refugees and people seeking sanctuary, There and Here. After a series of meeting and taster workshops with participants and clients from Families4Peace, Young Roots, Care4Calais and Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants, we embarked on a three-week project hosted by long term partner, The Place. 21 participants from Congo, Iran, Cameron, Ukraine, Colombia and Afghanistan collaborated with Protein’s artists to work on a piece featuring traditional dances, singing, live music and spoken word drawn from lived experiences. The full length show launched Refugee Week 2024 with two impressive and moving performances at The Robin Howard Theatre.

In collaboration with Greenwich Borough of Sanctuary, our annual There and Here – A Celebration returned to our home base, Woolwich Works in June, to close Refugee Week. Featuring extracts from There and Here and Protein’s show Border Tales, two new short pieces made with participants from Creating Ground and Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants, live music from Del Band, fashion show from Lenna’D and singing from acclaimed Citizens of the World Choir, this full day of refugee led performances, dances and arts & craft brought together people and families to celebrate the resilience and contributions of refugees and migrants in our Borough and beyond.

The Summer saw the revival of our popular Woolwich based promenade experience, En Route. For its third iteration, we created En Route Together, featuring an intergenerational local cast of performers from Sing Together, Pulsar UK and Trinity Laban. Together with our dancers and musicians, they animated public and iconic spaces with singing, live drumming and dances, bringing Woolwich to life.

In October, we were pleased that our latest short film, But I Am, made with and for young people in alternative education in 2023, had its premiere at Inspired Dance Film Festival in Australia. Part of our inclusion programme, Real Life Real Dance, the film was created during an intensive project hosted at Woolwich Works and filmed in different locations in the Royal Arsenal. But I Am was later selected for the first Richmond International Screenwriting and Film Festival, receiving two nominations.

The year ended with our beloved and most festive production to date. Made in 2018, and with 6 incredible years of national and international touring, in December our acclaimed adaptation of The Little Prince returned to enchant children and their grown-ups at DanceEast, Ipspwich and The Place, London. We thank our original commissioners and Arts Council England for this revival, which also incorporated more access, such as relaxed performances, touch tours, captioning, audio described and signed shows.

Throughout 2024, we were also able to continue our popular and accessible weekly dance classes at Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants, with Creating Ground – Greenwich based group of migrant women and at Woolwich Works.

Following a successful year of weekly dance classes for adults, facilitated by Protein’s dance artists, will are pleased to announce that classes will return to Woolwich Works in the January from 16 Jan – 03 Apr 2025. These sessions are free for residents of Royal Borough of Greenwich and booking will be opening soon.

Whilst rounding up the year, we received the good news that Protein has been shortlisted for Made in Greenwich at the Best in Greenwich Business Awards 2024. We are so incredibly proud of all the work we have been making and sharing, and of the many collaborations with local organisations and communities we have established in the Royal Borough of Greenwich since 2012.

With a total of: 58 public performances; 191 workshops and classes; over 2500 attendances; 54 freelancers including artists, crew, designers, fundraisers, work placements and access specialists; an estimated live & digital audience of 15,000, 2024 has been a truly impressive year we wish to celebrate with everyone who took part and made it possible.

Please continue to support Protein by following us and by considering a one off or regular donation to help us achieve another year of empowering and exciting work.