Spot the dancers a mile off! A meeting of hearts and minds through dance, sparkles, smiles, two honorary Doctors of Arts from the University of Salford in 2024 communicate through their shared passion. From the moment we arrived at the
Drs Jen Blackwell and Ria Meera Munshi
prestigious Cholmondley Room Jen was on the look out for Dr Ria Meera Munshi. Her excitement was palpable. Yet again they demonstrated the power of being able to connect through dance whatever the occasion.
The tables are turning. Now Jen opens doors for us. And invariably she makes bit of a splash! Jen had invited Malcolm and me to accompany her to a wonderful drinks reception with the University of Salford at the House of Lords where we had the honour to support her as she confidently connected and networked.
Hosted by The Rt Hon Lord Keith Bradley,
The Social and Economic Impact of Civic Universities: It Starts in Salford was presented by
Professor Nic Beech, Vice-Chancellor, who painted a visionary picture of Salford working hand in hand with and in the local community, creating opportunities for powerful inclusive innovation across the geographic area and far beyond, impacting diverse areas from the creative arts to industry, education and research, with alumni in over 200 countries. With Jen as my daughter, ‘
We’re not trying to change people, we’re trying to change inclusivity by changing ourselves’ resonated powerfully.
Dr Jen Blackwell BEM and Prof Vicky Halliwell
These past 24 hours have been filled with the joy of witnessing Jen being her own person, connecting and contributing as her confidence blazed through her engagement with other invitees to the event including academics, students, sponsors, philanthropists, donors, alumni. I smiled as she always made the point – ‘I would love to bring dance into your lives’ – whether speaking with an engineer or the Dean of the school.
Living her own life with appropriate support Jen is thriving, Malcolm and I are thriving, we are all empowered, enriched, seen and valued as the unique individuals we each are. In
Down’s Syndrome Awareness Week this message is doubly important and pertinent.
When attending a forum on CSR, my takeaway was that we shouldn’t be approaching them, rather that we needed to make ourselves, the charity
DanceSyndrome visible and they will find us. To date, we’ve yet to achieve this.
But this has been achieved with Salford University. Jen’s work with
Sarah Kennedy and their Joint programme for over a decade made Jen visible. Salford saw fit to bestow an
Honorary Doctorate on Jen at a graduation ceremony at the Lowry where her moving
acceptance speech and subsequent standing ovation brought DanceSyndrome and what’s possible when we think differently to the attention of 1600 academics, graduates and parents alike.
I believe that Salford is at the cutting edge of powerful development of the role of universities in the UK ‘Universities need to be having an impact on the world around us’. I believe that we have been found by the perfect university for us and for DanceSyndrome to partner with as we voyage into the future. There is much excitement in both camps about the possibilities of working more closely together.
Our sincere thanks to Nic Beech for embracing Jen and her need for support at a wonderful event, to
Professor Victoria Halliwell and
Nicola Whyley for their warm welcome and to all the other wonderful people we had the pleasure of meeting last week.
If you’d like to be part of the next steps of sharing what’s possible through inclusion please
get in touch or leave a comment below.
