Board members of Herefordshire’s 2Faced Dance Company are high-kicking out of the board room – and their comfort zones - to dance a fundraising Can-Can in aid of a special production – MOON – which the company will tour to hospitals and children’s wards across the UK next year.

“It will definitely be a challenge” says board member Diana Johnson, “but it’ll be worth every strained muscle. We are asking all our friends, relations and the general public to support us”.

The Can-Can will be performed on Saturday, December 8 at 12 noon at the dance company’s annual Christmas Sharing event in the glamorous ballroom of the Green Dragon Hotel, Hereford.

The Dowager Countess of Darnley, Lord-Lieutenant of Herefordshire is backing the campaign: “We are very fortunate to have internationally recognised 2Faced Dance Company based in Hereford. Not only do they tour throughout the world but they also work with children and young people in local schools and community settings to share the fun and health benefits of dance. I am giving the Moon Can-Can project my whole hearted support because the funds raised will ensure that children in hospital - some of them too unwell to leave their wards - will be able to enjoy this new dance and circus production made especially for them.”

MOON is an interactive walk-about dance and circus production specially designed to be performed in hospitals and specialist children’s wards. Children, siblings and families meet the characters at individual bedsides as well as interacting in waiting rooms and play areas. British Sign Language and Audio Description is used to make the show as accessible as possible.

MOON was piloted very successfully in Birmingham Children’s Hospital in June 2018: “We were really pleased to be able to bring Moon to Birmingham’s Children’s Hospital. The performance was very well received by patients, visitors and staff alike. There were a number of patients who were too unwell to leave the wards, who could look out of their windows to see and enjoy Moon. The smiles on their faces showed just how much they enjoyed it! Performers also visited a number of ward areas to take their magic to the bedsides," added Rachel Evitts, Patient Experience Sister, Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust.

To enable MOON to be performed next summer at five different hospitals around the West Midlands and beyond, 2Faced Dance is aiming to raise £8,000. To support the can-can appeal, donate online at wonderful.org/appeal/wecancan-e856d751 or make a donation by cheque made out to 2Faced Dance Company Limited and send to the Can-Can Appeal at 2Faced Dance Company, The Courtyard, Edgar Street, Hereford HR4 9JR.

Or, if you have a group or organisation that would like to perform their own can-can, take a short video and add it to your social media channels with the hashtag #WeCanCan and tag @2FacedDance to show your support.