Trustees' Annual Report

trustees’ annual report for the Year ended 30 April 2020

/ Shaper Caper Limited Scottish Charity Number: SC047014 Company Registration Number: SC502566

charity details address

bankers

Telephone number: +44 (0) 1382 413 007

company secretary

Unit 6, Manhattan Works, Dundonald St, Dundee DD3 7PY

Email address: hello@shapercaper.com Website: www.shapercaper.com Twitter / Facebook / Instagram - @shapercaper

Bank of Scotland, 65-69 Murraygate, Dundee DD1 2EA Yolanda Aguilar

accountants

Ashton McGill, 25 Tay Street Lane, Dundee, DD1 4EF

chairperson’s statement Welcome to our 2019/2020 Annual Report which captures how Shaper Caper continues to shape reality through creative adventures in dance, from the beating heart of Dundee and beyond. I have been on the board of trustees for 3 years and watched the company go from strength to strength, growing a vibrant community of participants and audience members engaged on every level.

We believe that our report speaks for itself, and allow me to highlight some of the fantastic work our independent charity has done in just 12 months.

Audience and participation numbers reached 18,423 from creative learning projects, digital classes and productions.

We formed numerous new partnerships to allow the organisation to strive forward in connecting with the participants who benefit from us the most. Notably The Rank Foundations Time to Shine Programme, YDance Project Y and Dance for Parkinson’s in Fife. These were on top of our long-standing partnerships with NHS Tayside and the McManus Gallery.

2019/2020 saw us tour multiple works from Within this Dust taking on England through Bath, Stamford and Nottingham, onto Paper Moon stretching Scotland for a sold-out tour at Christmas and to London in March. Unfortunately, this part of the tour was cancelled due to the onset of the pandemic, however, this was not enough to stop us in our tracks and went on to reach a huge digital audience with Children’s Capers from March onwards.

The resilient nature of the organisation proved invaluable to families at this time.

None of the work in the following report would have been possible without a strong core staff team lead by visionary directors Thomas Small and Yolanda Aguilar. The small but resilient team keep participation, quality and excellence at the forefront of every project that is delivered. The large network of dancers, collaborators, partner organisations, youth advisory council and an extremely capable board of trustees, are committed to Shaper/ Caper’s inspiring work captivating audiences and participants for many years to come.

Hayley Durward Interim Chair

trustees • • • • • • • •

Hayley Durward, Interim Chair Janet Robertson Allan McIntyre Dr Aleksandra Webb Drew McCusker Dr Tracey Connelly Jenny Rutter Thomas Small

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Yolanda Aguilar

objectives & activities The company’s objects are:

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The promotion and development of the arts and culture, with the focus on dance, as entertainment, leisure pursuit or career; using creativity as a tool to connect communities and enhance social justice, encouraging appreciation and participation by all sections of society. and to provide and promote education and engagement of the public, both in dance and through dance, with a focus on creative learning.

The main activities of the company are touring dance-theatre productions and delivering extensive creative learning opportunities to people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds, with a focus on social impact and civic agency.

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structure, governance & management Description of the charity’s trusts:

1.

Type of governing document: Constitution 2.

How the charity is constituted: Limited Company 3.

Trustee selection methods: elected by the Trustees and senior staff members, appointed by the Chair and Chief Executive. Directorship is open to all and no application for directorship will be refused, other than on reasonable grounds.

There will be no discrimination on grounds of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex; sexual orientation, political or other opinions.

Application for directorshipAny person who wishes to become a director must sign, and lodge with the company, a written application.

The Board shall consider each application at the first board meeting which is held after receipt of the application and the board will, within a reasonable time after the meeting, notify the applicant of their decision on the application.

If an application has been refused, an appeal may be made in writing to the Board, who shall consider the appeal at its next meeting after the appeal is received, and who shall respond in writing to the applicant within 21 days of the meeting. The decision on such appeals is final.

4.

The structure of the Company consists of the directors who are also the Company’s only members and comprise the Board.

The Board have important powers under the constitution, take decisions on changes to the constitution itself, hold regular meetings, and generally control the activities of the Company. Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, the Board is responsible for monitoring and controlling the financial position of the Company and regularly reviewing the Risk Management Policy and the Risk Register.

The individuals making up the Board are referred to in these articles as directors.

Additional governance issues: • There are policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees; this includes the governance of our Youth Advisory Council, The Body.

• At the regular meetings and development days, the trustees consider all major risks and implement the system and procedures to manage them.

• The Company was formed in 2015 and incorporated as a limited company by guarantee, registered in Scotland, having no share capital and is governed by its Memorandum and Articles of Association. On the 25th of November 2016, we gained charitable status. We are confident in the constitution, relevance, and strength of our governing Board. In line with our strategic planning for the next few years, we will continue to invest in a Board development scheme, providing its members with the skills to cultivate new opportunities that will provide the expertise and knowledge that is invaluable to the future of the charity.

/ embodying vision, mission, and values Vision:

Shaping reality through creative adventures

Mission:

Dance with All

Values:

Kindness, Respect, Collaboration, Humour We work with long-term partners such as NHS Tayside and The McManus among others.

We engage with local and national creative and enterprising networks. We provide access to classes for people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds. We offer professional access opportunities to young people with training, work experience, and paid traineeships; central to this is our Youth Advisory Council, The Body, a group of 10 young and budding artists looking to get in and get on the creative industries.

achievement & performance • 2019-20 has been an extraordinary year for us, achieving the aims we had envisioned in our Business Plan: New Partnerships, an office in the community, UK-wide sector recognition • We were fortunate to be part of the Rank Foundation’s Time to Shine dual programme supporting young people into 12 months of paid employment whilst resourcing charities to thrive with the additional HR assistance. The learning has been extraordinary, and The Rank has offered continuous support for growth and sustainability.

partnerships • • • • • • • • • • •

NHS Tayside The McManus The Rank Foundation Royal Victoria Hospital in Dundee Aberdeen City Council Creative Learning YDance (Project Y) Citymoves Dance Agency Showcase the Street Spirit of Scone Parkinson’s UK: Dundee, Fife, and Angus groups Rossie, Young People’s Trust

touring We successfully toured: ●

Paper Moon in Scotland to sold-out audiences during the 3-week Christmas run, showing at Lyth Arts, The Barn, and Carnegie Hall. Unfortunately, the Spring tour to England with London dates was cancelled due to Covid-19, affecting staff, audiences, and impacting on new partnerships with venues.

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Within This Dust toured to Nottingham, Bath, and Stamford. The 2020 Spring/Autumn tour to England and Scotland was cancelled due to lockdown, as well as dates for the 2021 20th anniversary of the event.

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The Unwanted toured rural Scotland

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Cinderella toured Tayside, Fife, and Glasgow’s schools

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Silver City, Silver Lining toured hospitals and care homes

total reach at shows: 4,850 people

creative learning & participation Our Creative Learning work is extensive, reaching over 7,000 school children with the NHS Tayside ‘Well Good’ project alone, sharing smoking awareness through dance theatre.

This year we stopped short of a term due to Covid-19, yet still reached 6,440 P6 and P7s pupils across Dundee, Angus, and Perth & Kinross.

We established a new partnership with Aberdeen City Council’s Creative Learning Team with 2 new projects in 2020. Creativity, Writing and the Great Outdoors was focused on improving the literacy skills and writing attainment of the students.

We finished Ctrl_Shift, a three-year dance and digital project funded by the National Lottery Young Start working with Rossie’s Young People Trust, Braeview Academy in Dundee, and Harper during the last leg.

We continued to deliver the Dance for Parkinson’s Scotland Dundee Hub and have now started a new group in Fife.

We delivered Here.Me.Out, an LGBTQ+ oral history research dance project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund in partnership with The McManus, looking at LGBTQ+ representation in cultural and heritage settings.

Our Silver City project funded by the National Lottery Community Fund took dance classes and performances to local care homes and hospital and since we are still working with the Royal Victoria Hospital in Dundee.

Since March 2020 we started immediately delivery of free of charge dance digital classes for children and families, reaching 6,500 views in two months alone.

creative learning & participation reach:13,573 people

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/ creative learning & participation quotes

“That was fun... They’re energised to participate fully again... attention has been waning last week or so [due to lockdown]...

Brilliant work guys. You really are all very good at what you do!”

“Loving the digital classes, they’re brilliant.

Great exercise. I find a huge difference in my mobility after the class [compared to before dancing]. I have a frozen shoulder which is easier to move the next day after the class. The effects of dancing are not only immediate.”

“Thank you so much for all of this, really! You have given me something to really put my heart and soul into and for that, I can’t thank you enough. So to everybody who has helped with the project at shaper/caper, it’s the home stretch now!”

case study

Harper McBride, 14 years old The story of my short film project.

It was probably about 2 –ish years ago when I first had an idea about making a mini film that involved my two loves of music and dance, with my new love of making stop motion animation style videos for my own enjoyment.

I have been dancing since I was about 3 years old, although mum says I’ve been dancing since before I was born and was either going to be the next Lionel Messi or Adam Garcia!!

So back to how this all came about. The first time I ever encountered Shaper/Caper was at their anti-Smoking workshop at my primary school – which was also the first time I met Tommy.

The anti-smoking workshop required me and all my friends to dance, act and sing – (the last two I’m not so good at, but the first I have a lot of experience in). Luckily, I got a chance to show Tommy and Yolanda my skills and we started speaking about various projects. I actually changed one of the comedic smoking-related celebrity names from Kanye Breathe to Fleminem….and I believe they are still using it in the shows to this day.

A short while after this, my mum got in touch with Shaper/Caper curious as to whether we could pursue some projects that I had in mind. Shaper/Caper, being as supportive as they come, offered to help me with my project.

The next time I encountered Shaper/Caper was when Tommy & Yolanda asked me if I could come along to a short film showing at Abertay as part of the Project Hub-Bub to give a short presentation on my understanding of breakdance and hip hop. We later got into more detail about my project when I finally got a chance to speak with Tommy at the end of the presentation. The whole Shaper/Caper team gave me a lot of encouragement.

Our first meeting with Sarah and Dylan actually talking about the film brought up various issues that might come up. The first one being most important was the amount of money it would cost to fully carry out what was in my head……the final price was in the region of £10,000!!! So we decided to go with a slightly more affordable project but will hopefully pack the same punch.

We would later use this short film to kick-start our long term hopes of creating and releasing more short films in the future. I can’t wait to involve children in later films that may not have had the chance to showcase their skills, in other words, to give children an opportunity to do something.

The project we chose to start with was an idea I had for a while ‘2 Paths 1 Decision’.

The story is about a young man who has two choices, and the film showcases them both.

We can gradually see the effects of both the paths and how his life is affected. They both go through similar experiences but with a different outcome. The film also shows these problems don’t just happen to the protagonist it could happen to anyone. This is, of course, a dance film and I asked some of my close friends, who also danced, (Michael, Charley, Chloe and my brother Rosco who turns out to be a phenomenal actor) as well as some people from the Shaper/Caper team to help me with the group scenes. Without them all, I would not have been able to do this project.

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The film required hip hop music, so I decided to go all out and make my own rap song.

I surprised myself being able to do it all on my iPhone. I am happy with the way the rap turned out and can’t wait to see the finished result.

We have had many rehearsals and so far, we have made a rough version of what the final film will look like, but this was simply for our own references. On the day of the first draft, we expected to have the whole film finished, but as this was the first time Tommy had seen how much we had put into it, he suggested to make this the rough version and encouraged us to spend more time concentrating on the small details and not just brushing over it.

I was very happy to see how much commitment everyone was putting in. I can’t wait until we call it a (w) rap. https://youtu.be/xA3p9gc-eBo (Harper’s feedback on Shaper/Caper’s support)

youth advisory council The Body Our commitment to young people’s equalities is such that for the past 5 years we have run this programme of employability pro-bono and free of charge. We are committed to young people’s right to Get In and Get On with work in the creative industries to facilitate their entrance in the professional field, supporting them with practical advice and training, as well as with mentoring to address any specific needs.

Past and current members of The Body are developing into great cultural workers and young entrepreneurs, showcasing the necessary skills needed to effect societal change through cultural means. We run year-long programmes for members, which are re-elected yearly. The group is self-governing and affects the direction of Shaper/Caper.

financial review Income £186,434

Expenditure £185,565

Statement of the charity’s policy on reserves It is the aim and duty of the Board to comply with OSCR and best practice, ensuring that the charity has at least 3 months of reserves to cover the costs of staff and overheads. For this, we are currently working towards recovery aiming to reach the appropriate level, as reserves have been used in the past to address challenging times and we need to increase these.

Details of any deficit Not applicable. The Board is aware of the small surplus achieved and the need to gain financial core support to complement the project-funded activities in order to meet the Reserve Policy recommendations for good practice.

Donated facilities and services We operate according to the Scottish Government Place Principle and establish numerous mutually beneficial partnerships with organisations resulting in various in-kind exchanges of services.

‘There is such a broad scope to his work - it can span from mass participation events to high end performance at a major Arts festival. I was excited about spending time with Tommy on his amazing artistic journey throughout the year of events on BBC Radio 2.’

Claudia Winkleman, BBC Radio 2 Presenter

additional information lessons learnt Ending the year in lockdown six weeks after moving to our new first-ever premises proved challenging. Fortunately, we were already a paperless company and had just revised our systems, so we were ready to work from home. Supported by funders and partners to continue to deliver our work digitally, we immediately engaged with children and families to deliver free online dance sessions, a service that we increased with our Dance for Parkinson’s Scotland classes.

We learnt that we are resourceful, resilient, adapt swiftly, are innovative, quick learners, dynamic, collaborative, and caring. We aim to take this revelation of character forward as we move into the future, working in partnership to support our staff and participants with access to regular health and wellbeing professional services.

We would like to thank all our staff, stakeholders, and volunteers, as none of this would have been able for a small charity with no core support without their continuous encouragement and assistance.

Our young volunteers from The Body have grown into becoming assertive performers, dance facilitators, and novel entrepreneurs, with many currently opening their own businesses and creative adventures.

The trustees support the charity’s growth and continue to nurture, challenge, and direct the company to achieve excellence and a great purpose of service through dance and creativity.

future plans

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We are currently drafting our new Business Plan to ensure sustainability and growth during the recovery phase, embracing The Scottish Government’s Wellbeing Economy Principles and The National Performance Framework.

Taking into consideration the currently frail socio-economic situation and our purpose, we endeavour to continue to work alongside people in the community towards the recovery phase ahead. Our focus will be in Health & Wellbeing, Employability Access, and Youth Work.

Next year we will provide the Dance for Parkinson’s sessions in Dundee and Fife, digital creative learning resources for schools, wellbeing spaces for carers, workshops to increase employability skills for adults and young people, digital and face-to-face workshops for families, sessions in hospitals and care homes, digital resources and services for LGBTQ+ people and other minority groups, etc.

We will develop production and performance opportunities that can safely be enjoyed digitally, as well as research new ways to deliver face-to-face activities, aiming to work as well with international partners towards shared creative learning and engagement for a better world.

Declaration Signed on behalf of the charity trustees

Print name: Yolanda Aguilar Designation: Executive Director