APPLY TO BE PART OF SPRING FORWARD 2025

Sign up your dance group to be part of the most exciting and inclusive platform in the Somerset dance calendar, bringing together hundreds of dancers of all ages to perform on one of three professional stages.

Spring Forward 2025 will be returning on the following dates:

Friday 7 March – Tacchi Morris Arts Centre, Taunton
Friday 21 March – Tacchi Morris Arts Centre, Taunton
Thursday 27 March – McMillan Theatre, Bridgwater

Applications for these shows are now open, please see the guidelines and application form below. If you have any questions about the application process, please email springforward@takeart.org

Application Guidelines 2025 shows

Spring Forward is an annual dance festival offering unrivalled opportunities for Somerset and South West based dancers to perform on a professional stage, participate in workshops and watch world-class dance performances.

The festival, has been running for 20 years, and traditionally takes place throughout March and April, aiming to provide dancers of all ages and abilities the opportunity to engage with dance as an audience member, a dancer, participant and student in one of the wonderful venues we work with.

Anyone can join in, it doesn’t matter what level or style of dance you practise, there’s something for everyone at Spring Forward Dance Festival.

Spring Forward is a highlight of my dancing calendar! It's a big celebration of the talent we have here in Somerset and a fantastic chance to support local and champion the dance world.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Natalie Hyde - SYDC and Somerset Graduates

The Spring Forward Story

Spring Forward first sprang into the Somerset dance calendar in 2005 and has been a feature for 20 years, growing exponentially year on year to support more and more young and professional dancers.

In 2005, in partnership with the Tacchi-Morris Arts Centre, Take Art organised the first Spring Forward ‘platform’ – a countywide opportunity for youth dance groups to come together and perform on a professional stage to an audience and to each other.

The platform, originally called Spring Loaded, became a hugely popular annual event and soon attracted hundreds of entries, expanding to span three and then four nights. This allowed Take Art and the Tacchi-Morris to join forces with The Octagon Theatre in Yeovil to accommodate all the performances. 2018 saw the addition of a third platform venue, The McMillan Theatre in Bridgwater.

In 2014, to celebrate ten years of Spring Forward, Take Art expanded to become an annual Youth Dance Festival to support the development of young dancers in Somerset.

In 2019 Spring Forward welcomed community dance groups of all ages alongside films shown at The McMillan Theatre. Both proved to be incredibly popular and has continued to feature at other Spring Forward platforms.

Spring Forward paused in 2020 after the first platform of the year and in 2021 due to covid-19 but has since bounced back in 2022 and 2023 where we have seen more youth dance groups, schools and community groups come together to perform to record audience numbers at Tacchi Morris Arts Centre, Octagon Theatre and The McMillan Theatre.