Dance South West

12 fabulous youth dance companies performed on Saturday at the Bristol City Academy as part of U.Dance England 2010. The regional platform in Bristol showcased some of the most exciting youth companies from across the region, including special guest performance from Swindon Dance Youth Dance Academy/ Urban.

The event was one of nine regional events taking place around the country, both as a celebration of youth dance in each region and as a platform to select one group to go up to the national performance event, U.Dance England in Birmingham in July.

The day was a youth dance extravaganza – each of the 170+ young people who took part attended a practical African dance workshop with Helen Wilson, yoga for performance with Vinnett Alvaranga, technical rehearsals, a dance careers surgery led by Katy Noakes, Marie McCluskey and Rachel de Garang, and a dance critiquing session led by Linda Jasper (Director of Youth Dance England) and Richard Parr (Performance Manager, Youth Dance England).

The panel were unanimous in their decision that Champloo Youth Crew will represent the region at U. Dance England, with So We Boys Dance and Kinesis highly commended. Thank you to all who took part and helped to make the day a success.

Groups taking part in U.Dance South West: Salisbury Youth Dance Company, Band of Lads (Cornwall), So We Boys Dance (Regional Group) Gloucestershire Dance Youth Dance Company, Kinesis (Bristol), Devon Youth Dance Company, North Devon Theatres Youth Dance Company, Swindon Youth Dance Company, Champloo Youth Crew, CAT Company (Cheltenham & Tewksbury) and New College Swindon. Special guest performance from Swindon Dance Youth Dance Academy/ Urban.