The City of Swansea lies on Swansea Bay, which runs the length of the south side of the city. On the north side there are extremely steep hills. What a beautiful setting for a city - a beach on its doorstep, with a series of hills that the city nestles in between - a perfect blueprint for town planning. In the 1940s & 50s with the increasing need for good, inexpensive domestic housing, and because of blitz damage, the surrounding hills were used to cater for urgent housing needs. So the communities of Townhill, Mayhill and The Gors were developed. They were regarded as "superb" and came to be known as "The Hill".

The first steps up onto The Hill were into light and airy houses, with front and back gardens, parks and open spaces, with sweeping panoramic views of Swansea Bay. Here developed close-knit communities with their own identities, enjoying their sense of a new community with fetes, social events and an annual carnival.

But in common with many developments of its kind, primarily due to the economic downturn of local industries and businesses and years of lack of investment in communities, there developed increasing social problems. The Hill was listed as the second most socially and economically deprived in South Wales. With territorial divisions, feudal disputes, and increasing crime, depression, anger and alienation, a gradual imploding occurred in these once-model developments. But recently there has been a regeneration that has been successful in alleviating many of the issues, which overshadowed the potential of the people that live on The Hill. The first steps onto The Hill in the form of regeneration came via European Structural Funds. Community revitalisation projects were mounted and the physical environment was upgraded, including the building of a new community centre, appropriately named The Phoenix, which the community oversees.

For the past three or four years TAN Dance has played an important part in the social rekindling and enhancing of community interaction. TAN Dance is a company that opens its doors for participants of all ages, regardless of ability or any other potentially limiting factors. It provides high quality community art, and is very expansive in including related arts in its programme. The process is as important as any product - it forms a bridge for social and cultural interaction. Creative production is formed by group-led input. Although high quality community art is the bedrock of TAN's ethos, art is not seen as just a thing in itself. It provides an important tool in contributing to regeneration and, most importantly, its continuation, by way of encouraging a re-emergence of the enjoyment and social involvement in creative events for communities such as The Hill.

One aspect of TAN's work is the revived Hill carnival, which in itself has helped create bridges across generational barriers and territorial differences. The community is pleased to have this neutral focus where all are involved in a spirit of inclusion. It also provides an opportunity for meeting outside participants of various cultural backgrounds beyond The Hill. A synergy is formed. TAN is not, however, confined to encouraging, organising and supporting events; its role includes offering training opportunities for residents of The Hill. These trainees are being constituted into a group to sustain community arts, with TAN acting in a support and consultancy role. The cultural and training programme is primarily dance-based, but is flexible enough to stretch from drumming to healthy eating.

Going that step further in changing communities and lives is already evident. One of the current development workers, Rosalba, was originally a trainee in the first year of the project.
"I have been part of the community of The Hill for all of my life. My role as Development Worker for TAN Dance has improved numerous aspects of my professional and personal life. It has helped me to attain my ambition as a dancer. It is great to be employed doing something you like. Confidence in my own abilities as well as the complex skills involved to make a good development worker have improved enormously. All in all, a definite turning point in my life".

The regeneration programme is on course, but this has been a big challenge for an organisation as small as TAN. Handling European funding was a huge learning curve. The first two years of the project, Step Up The Hill, was funded by European funds and Arts for All Lottery Funding. The third year, Over to the Hill, is funded by Arts for All Lottery and the Welsh Assembly's Local Regeneration Fund (LRF) - a much more user-friendly combination. This LRF money will also pay for TAN to support the trainees for the first 15 months in their new posts.

During its first steps onto The Hill, TAN were warned that no one would turn up, as apathy was so prevalent. But turnout has exceeded all expectations, all predicted outcomes being over target, strongly supporting TAN's belief in the programmes, and putting the company in a strong position to repeat the process in other deprived areas in and around Swansea.

It is good to see an alleviation of the dark days of The Hill, with positive qualities resurfacing and being built on. Is it not time that community arts lost the question mark that inevitably surrounds it? Proven projects such as Step Up The Hill and Over to the Hill have been a vital ingredient for regeneration and revitalisation. Community arts consistently proves that it is an effective vehicle for re-training and employment in its own right. It is not some whimsical luxury addition. It has the strengths truly to regenerate communities and individuals and to enable interaction beyond those communities.

Contact:
TAN Dance
Tel: 01639 813428
e-mail: tan.dance@virgin.net