Cartier: Pioneer of Modern Jewellery

We were delighted to welcome back Susan Rumfitt, Jewellery Expert, to our event on Thursday 13th March 2025 at Hardwick Hall.

After a welcome drink our Chair Yvonne introduced a video which showcases the lessons which We Can Dance provides and what the benefits are for the children who are lucky enough to take part.

Yvonne then welcomed Susan Rumfitt who (as the much anticipated Cartier exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum approaches) guided us through the genius of one of the most important jewellers in the world.  Founded in Paris 1847, what made Cartier's work stand out and who was buying their amazing jewellery?

Following Susan’s excellent talk she was thanked by one of our long term supporters Mrs Eilleen Davies and presented with one of the Cartier Floral Decorations and a bottle of champagne.

Each table was decorated with amazing floral decorations within Cartier bags. These sat within wonderful candelabras and were all provided bu our longtime supporter Lucy of Artichoke Flowers..These floral decorations were later available for purchase.

Hardwick Hall staff then served a marvellous two course meal followed by tea/coffee and biscuits.

To round off the day a Prize Draw was held with several wonderful prizes donated by various supporters including an afternoon tea for two at Hardwick Hall Hotel!

Early indications are that our profits for the day are totalling over £3,400 and we thank you all for your support.

Please let us have any photos that you are willing to share for our website etc. via our admin@wecandance.co.uk

Thank you to Marc from Photovideoworks for some of the photos

(Double Click to see the photos)

We Can Dance entered our second team of runners into The Great North Run, which took place on 8th September 2024.

We raised over £5k from the event in sponsorship!

We are so grateful to all our runners and to their sponsors. Special thanks and well done to our younger runners Felix Howells and Edward Chadwick who ran in the Junior races on the Saturday!

To view our page and all our runners please click on this link

A total of 19 people attended our recent workshop . This was made up of our own dance teachers and any others in our locality who were interested in furthering their career by gaining insights into inclusive dance. 

Date:  Friday 6th September 2024

Venue: Hippodrome Theatre, Park Gate, Darlington DL1 1RR

Dance Studio, the Hullabaloo Centre….. Entrance in Borough Road

This workshop explored:

• How to create a scheme of work from a theme or curriculum area

• Class structure including warm up ideas

• A range of approaches such as intensive interaction

• The role and impact of music

• Sensory play and resources

• The Committee thought the day was very successful and enjoyable and judging by the responses to our feedback questionnaire so did the teachers. Thank you to our wonderful tutors for the day

• Sophie Alder - Head of Inclusive Dance Practice at Northern Ballet

• Kim Hardy - Community Dance Artist (Northern Ballet)

  We Can Dance are very grateful to the Rank Foundation for sponsoring the event

A wonderful evening of music and dance was had on Friday 20th October at Richmond School hosted by the ever generous Graeme Danby, long time friend and supporter of We Can Dance and a fantastically entertaining international opera singer to boot.  He compered a varied programme of gorgeous songs from classical opera, to musical theatre old and new with the usual hilarious Flanders and Swann numbers from Graeme, always a highlight!  The wet and windy weather was spirited away by some gorgeous harmonies and melodies and  an exceptional standard of singing from all involved.

Alice Dix (Soprano), who is now Head of Music at Richmond School, performed beautifully, as well as coordinating a workshop day for some of the school’s students with Alice Johnston (Soprano).  Two of the school’s choirs also performed under her leadership.  The resulting performances on the evening were fantastic.  Learning and executing a musical theatre routine in one day was an incredible experience for the pupils and warmly received by the audience and many proud parents.  Alice, thank you again for your hard work in bringing this event to life. They were ably supported by Baritone Ben Noble who is studying with Graeme.  “People will say we’re in love” from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma, sung by Ben and Alice Dix (who are in fact married) had an extra special chemistry. 

A final thank you to all the performers: Ben Noble, Alice Dix, Alice Johnston, the pupils of Richmond School and Alisdair Jamieson for his deft piano accompaniment  Thanks to those who attended the evening which raised £1500, with one lucky audience member successful in bidding for tickets to see Graeme perform with Irish National Opera, including a backstage tour.   We also received some generous donations and sponsorship for which we are always very grateful.

Graeme - we can’t thank you enough for your continued support!

What a Fantastic result from the Great North Run!

We Can Dance entered our first ever team of runners into The Great North Run, which took place on 10th September 2023. Our sponsorship currently stands at £12.4k which is the most we have ever raised from an event!. We are so grateful to all our runners and to their sponsors. Special thanks and well done to 9 year old Henry Howells and also Imogen Jones! For full details of our runners click here.

Ascot Ladies Day was again fantastic and despite our numbers being less than usual, the weather was beautiful and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves in the sunshine.

Held once again at the Crathorne Hall Hotel in Yarm it was enjoyed by 47 guests. Guests were welcomed with a bucks fizz which was kindly sponsored by Novus Wealth Management.

Thanks to the hotel who served a beautiful lunch we were all able to enjoy the full day’s programme from Ascot via a large screen, commencing with the Royal Parade of course.Lucy and Debbie of Artichoke (Grange Road, Darlington) again supported us with her beautifully arranged flowers in what has become our traditional trade mark at this event – tea cups and saucers. These were given as gifts to one lucky person on each table.

Catherine Hart, milliner, provided the most gorgeous hats for many of our guests to try on, and hire if wanted, at just £10 for the occasion, with all proceeds kindly donated by Catherine to We Can Dance.

We enjoyed watching all the racing and the added spice of the racing competition which was generously sponsored by Firma Energy Some ladies did spectacularly well! Congratulations to them!

The day was full of fun with a spectacular raffle draw and a presentation of flowers to the winner of the Prettiest Hat competition Sallyann Hewitt.

We must thank everyone for supporting us and helping us to raise a magnificent £2,330 for We Can Dance!

Click on this event to see pictures from the day!

Ceremony, Symbolism & Love 

(Two Course Lunch with BBC Antiques Roadshow Jewellery Expert Susan Rumfitt)

A fantastic time was had by everyone!

As we approach the coronation of King Charles III, Susan guided us through the magnificent jewels and regalia that form the British Crown Jewels, as well as looking at a selection of other Royal jewels revealing the historical importance as well as the symbolism behind these magnificent pieces.

She concentrated in particular on the jewels of our late Queen Elizabeth II. Susan’s talk was very entertaining and extremely knowledgable. Everyone enjoyed the presentation immensely.

We Can Dance are so grateful for Susan’s support and for the very generous support of everyone who attended and helped us to raise over £2500..

The money raised will go a long way to supporting our students in their dance lessons.

Thank you!

Thank you to everyone who supported our event either in person or by the many generous donations which we received.

The night proved to be a glittering success (particularly the champagne bar!) with entertainment from a very talented magician and we are pleased to announce that we have raised over £2700 (donations still arriving!).

We Can Dance are so grateful to everyone for their support in these trying times. Our students will be so grateful for your help.

What a fantastic day we all had at our first Ascot Ladies Day event since COVID! Held once again at the Crathorne Hall Hotel in Yarm it was enjoyed by 62 guests. Thanks to the hotel we were all able to enjoy the full day’s programme from Ascot via a large screen, commencing with the Royal Parade of course. We all joined in with the National Anthem (led by Emma Howells) and had a special toast to the Queen to celebrate her Platinum Jubilee.

Lucy and Debbie of Artichoke (Grange Road, Darlington) and Wild and Dandy, King Street, Richmond again supported us with her beautifully arranged flowers in what has become our traditional trade mark at this event – tea cups and saucers. These were given as gifts to one lucky person on each table.

Catherine Hart, milliner, provided the most gorgeous hats for many of our guests to try on, and hire if wanted, at just £7 for the occasion, with all proceeds kindly donated by Catherine to We Can Dance.

We enjoyed watching all the racing and the added spice of the betting competition. Some ladies did spectacularly well! Congratulations to them!

The day was full of fun with a spectacular raffle draw and a presentation of flowers to the winner of the Prettiest Hat competition.

We must thank everyone for supporting us and helping us to raise a magnificent £2,230 for We Can Dance!

Mark Thorneycroft very kindly took some spectacular photographs of the group with the Hall as a magnificent background . Click on this event to see the pictures from the day.

What a fantastic lunch was had at Judges Country House Hotel, Yarm with our guest speaker, Susan Rumfitt. Thank you to those who supported us and helped us to raise the amazing amount of £3826 for our students!!

We are so grateful to Susan who is a well respected and knowledgeable specialist and lecturer on the history of jewellery and has been one of the specialists the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow for over 12 years. Susan is a Freeman of the Goldsmiths’ Company.

Her presentation was about the fascinating House of Chanel!

The House of Chanel

Chanel was a woman who brought a sense of freedom to fashion and jewellery design. She is seen as having invented the look of the twentieth century, taking women out of corsets and putting them into bathing costumes. With Chanel costume jewellery became acceptable not only when worn on its own but also when intertwined with gem jewellery. This presentation will delve into the character of Chanel so that we can understand how her romantic relationships helped to shape her style both in fashion and jewellery design, creating one of the most successful brands of all time.

What a fantastic evening was had by all!

Graeme Danby, bass and compere, Valerie Reid, mezzo soprano, Sarah Fox, soprano, Alice Dix, soprano, Austin Gunn, tenor and Ben Noble, baritone, accompanied by Jenny Martins left behind La Scala, Covent Garden and English National Opera to entertain us with an evening of songs to celebrate Autumn in the magical surroundings of the Georgian Theatre Royal. We are so grateful for the support of these kind artistes for our charity.
We are so pleased to announce that the grand total of £5,426.40 has been raised for We Can Dance!

Thank you to all who attended, bought raffle tickets, programmes, took part in the auction and paid for advertising. Also grateful thanks to the many who although not attending made generous donations

Fantastic lunch and shopping experience which was thoroughly enjoyed by all. The best news was that due to the wonderful generosity of our supporters we raised £1742.66 for our charity!

Sponsored by Alexanders Prestige

Fantastic time had by all. This was a learning experience as it is the first event of this type we have organised but feedback shows it was very successful and the amazing news is that our very generous supporters raised £1982!

.Double click to view photos.

Thanks to Shelly from Life & Soul Clothing for her fashion show. This was our chance to buy what the models were wearing. From 7pm with a glass of wine on arrival, the fashion show commenced at 7.30pm.

A donation from all ticket sales plus a percentage of the sales was made to “We Can Dance”. This along with a Raffle raised £263 for “We Can Dance”.

Another fabulous day returning to the  Crathorne Hall Hotel in Yarm was enjoyed by approximately 95 guests. Thanks to the hotel we were all able to enjoy the full day’s programme from Ascot via a large screen, commencing with the Royal Parade of course. 

Lucy Hope of Artichoke (Grange Road, Darlington) again supported us with her beautifully arranged flowers in what has become our traditional trade mark at this event – tea cups and saucers. These were given as gifts to one lucky person on each table.

Catherine Hart, milliner, provided the most gorgeous  hats for many of our guests to try on, and hire if wanted, at just £5 for the occasion, with all proceeds kindly donated by Catherine to We Can Dance.

Angela Stevenson again organised us with betting slips and worked so tirelessly to keep us all enthused and then finally announced to a very excited audience, the winner and runners up of the day’s racing.

The day was full of fun with a spectacular raffle draw and a presentation of champagne to the winner of the Prettiest Hat competition.

We must thank everyone for supporting us and we are so pleased to confirm that the final amount of  £2,630.58 was raised for the charity.

Mark Thorneycroft very kindly took some spectacular photographs of the group with the Hall as a magnificent background . Click on this event to see the pictures from the day including the winner of the Prettiest Hat competition pictured with our founder Sue Hewgill Peterson.

Thank you so much to Tennant’s and everyone who attended this event and helped to raise such a marvellous amount for our students x

Quote from Tennants

“A great night was had by all at Tennants Spring Fine Art Sale Charity Viewing. Thank you to everyone who came and helped raise over £1,000 for local charity We Can Dance.”

What a marvellous day at Hardwick Hall today! Great food and entertainment with singers from Yarm School and Anne Diamond. Our Chairman, Yvonne made a wonderful speech, the children danced beautifully and we received an initial cheque of £1000 from the day. Thank you to all at NELD and all our supporters. We Can Dance is very grateful.

Graeme Danby, bass and compere, Valerie Reid, mezzo soprano, Sarah Fox, soprano and Austin Gunn, tenor, left behind La Scala,  Covent Garden and English National Opera to entertain us with an evening of song including Mozart, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Quilter , Flanders and Swann in the magical surroundings of the Georgian Theatre Royal

Wow the workshop organised by We Can Dance  was a great success. We had 16 participants plus some wonderful helpers from Priory Wood School and the Committee!

Another fabulous day at the Hardwick Hall Hotel in Stocktonwas enjoyed by approximately 70 guests. Thanks to the hotel we were all able to enjoy the full day’s programme from Ascot via a large screen, commencing with the Royal Parade of course. 

A lovely afternoon was had by all who attended and helped us to raise £454 for our charity! A big Thank You to all attendees and helpers

Great news ! Thank you to everyone who attended our Après Ski Evening and helped us to raise the marvellous sum of £1200 which will help us to continue to fund dance lessons in our schools. 
In particular we would also like to thank Lucy from Artichoke for all the beautiful table decorations and Nathan and the Staff at the Croft Hotel for all their hard work in helping us to make the event a success!

Another fabulous day at the Crathorne Hall Hotel in Yarm was enjoyed by approximately 100 guests. Thanks to the hotel we were all able to enjoy the full day’s programme from Ascot via a large screen, commencing with the Royal Parade of course.