Street dance craze sweeps Shropshire

It is the new craze sweeping Shropshire – and has been hailed as a positive force for good among young people.

Street dance is being embraced by thousands of youngsters, sparked by the success of Britain's Got Talent winner Diversity and a string of hit films.

It spreads the message of healthy living and also brings together children from as young as five working together with young adults in their late teens or early 20s.

It is also a multi-million pound industry, feeding TV programmes like Got to Dance and So You Think You Can Dance and British films like Step Up and StreetDance3D that have often defied the critics to become big hits at the cinema.

Street dance is a particular style that originally came from styles developed outside the dance studio, giving it its name.

It encompasses moves from break dancing and hip-hop and is commonly seen in modern pop music videos.

Across the county, more and more youngsters are starting to get involved in this new dance style, with a number of clubs offering classes in street dance and many of them beginning to do well in both national and international competitions.

Schools are also embracing the craze with after-school clubs being organised and competitions held.

What many groups are finding is that street dance is not only a great work out for children of all ages, but is also encouraging more boys to get into dancing.

One such club is Street Dance Telford, a family-run club which specialises in offering street dance classes to children of all ages.

Street Dance Telford is run by Sarah and Laura Gibbons, two sisters who have 18 years experience between them in teaching street dance and performing the dance competitively.

In April, Street Dance Telford led their under-14 dance group Recess to become UDO European Street Dance Champions at a competition in Kalkar, Germany – the first UK dance crew to win the award.

Street Dance Telford has been running since October 2010.

Sarah said she decided to run the group as this was the main style of dance that she has worked with since she began dancing at 13, going on to do GCSE dance.

Most of the group are girls, although boys are also getting involved.

She said: "It is really popular, there are 60 people in our under 12s class and 40 in our under 14s.

"They love it – it's something where they can have fun, it's not so set like other dances. Even when we've got to do routines for competitions, they can still be a bit more free."

The youngest dancer with the group is four, so in their under 12s group, Sarah and Laura split the pupils into two, one working with the older group and one with the younger.

They then do the same routines to the same song but with the younger pupils doing slightly easier moves.

Sarah said: "I think it gives them a lot of confidence. We let them play with the style and if they want to change things, we don't mind.

"A lot of the parents say they've noticed changes in every aspect of their children, particularly in their confidence, after they've taken up the dancing."

TV companies have been quick to pick up on the popularity of street dance. Sky One's Got to Dance brings it some of its biggest ratings. BBC's children's channel CBBC is currently running a new series of Aleesha's Street Dance Stars, starring Britain's Got Talent judge Aleesha Dixon.

British film All Star has lingered in the top 10 for several weeks after being the big half term hit at the end of last month, despite some sniffy reviews, and has taken £2.4 million at the UK box office and is expected to make even more through DVD and merchandise sales.

The exposure on the small and big screen has helped feed the popularity of street dance and ensure that clubs across Shropshire have healthy memberships.

In the Telford Street Dance class, the girls are dancing to modern pop music like Beyonce and between the routines are constantly practicing and having fun together.

The girls come from all over Telford and have a chance to meet people with a similar interest, which they may never normally do.

Though the girls in the classes are young, they are able to pick up and memorise quick and difficult routines, and remain synchronised.

Telford has a history of success in street dancing, crews DNA and D*FY both had major successes in competitions across the country, with D*FY also appearing on Sky's Got to Dance.

Elsewhere in the county, Jane Ridgewell who runs a school of dance at The Studio in Coney Green, Oswestry said: "Street dance is very popular at the moment, at our dance school we do a lot of classes and competitions.

"I think it's because of things on the television, groups like Diversity are doing it and it's something that they can relate to maybe more than other kinds of dance.

"There are definitely more boys than would be in other forms of dance.

"It's very good as we're always trying to get boys into the dance studio and it's good that this form of dance doesn't make them feel to out of their depth.

"It's great for increasing fitness levels, there's a bit of discipline and a bit of team work, it's a combination of things."

Sarah Davies from Revel in Dance offers classes for everyone, both children and adult classes in towns across Shropshire.

Sarah, who will be showcasing some of her pupils' street dancing in The Square in Shrewsbury on June 29, with two performances at 12.30pm and 1.30pm, said: "I think things such as Diversity have certainly helped because that's what children relate to.

"When I deliver a class, it helps them to identify with it and they love the music because it is current.

"There are more boys for sure, especially if you add a bit of breakdance.

"My class in Bishops Castle is about half and half but most of them are mostly girls.

"It's great because it's hard to get a style that boys want to do and will commit to."

Gayle Gilbody, who runs Galaxy Dance and Gymnastics in Bridgnorth, teaches street dance to children from the age of three right up to 16.

She said: "We first started teaching street dance two years ago, it was really popular then but it had a bit of a lull and now we can see it coming back.

"We first started teaching the classes because there was a lot of it on television, we were enthused by programmes such as Got to Dance and we wanted to recreate that sort of thing.

"We do have more boys doing street dance, though it is still a girl majority. What we've started is a boys only breakdancing class because we've found that boys feel more confident dancing with other boys."

Megan Scollan from Silhouette Dance in Holinswood, Telford, said: " I started this group nearly two years ago and purely just do freestyle and street and this was the one style that kids really seemed to enjoyed.

"It also allows kids to be really expressive which is key in their development skills.

"In my classes we do a semi circle each week, which is where I put music on at the end of their class and it allows them to go in the middle and be creative without being judged or criticised.

"I have boys in my group, and street dance has become much more accepted in society. Now if you can street dance you're cool."

Ross Wigley, from Get Your Wiggle On in Shrewsbury, said: "Because we have male instructors, I think we have more boys than other companies do. Our street classes are quite popular.

"I think that programmes like Britain's Got Talent have made it hip and cool, and it's quite a cool dance.

"The benefits of any dance are excercise and meeting new people but street dance can help with building choreography and practice but also allows a lot of freedom and improvisation."

Shropshire Council has started running a boys dancing project as part of the Cultural Olympiad surrounding the Olympics, during which, their focus was dance.

The council recieved funding from the Arts Council which it has used to bring dance to boys within schools.

Alexa Pugh, community arts officer for Shropshire Council, said: "This is a West Midlands-wide project which we manage in Shropshire.

"It's about raising aspirations for boys and showing them that dance is not just for girls. We bring male dance artists into the schools who are really great role models for the boys.

"The boys love it, it's a really nice thing to see as this is the third year we have run it and now we have some boys from the first year who have come back and are still involved.

"We've seen real progression in them.

"In the schools we've run the project in, dance is now much more positive.

"None of the boys have to have any previous dance skills, in fact many of them won't have danced before."

The scheme allows the boys to explore a variety of dance styles, including street dance, contemporary dance as well as physical theatre.

Almost all of the street dance clubs across the county have quoted the success of Diversity, winners of the third series of Britains Got Talent, for being part of start of the craze.

Ashley Banjo, the mastermind and choreographer behind Diversity who is now also a judge on Sky's Got to Dance , said: "I've always believed street dance is for everyone.

"It is an incredibly powerful force and I am not surprised that the whole thing has exploded with its popularity."

Another real advocate of street dance is former Mis-teeq singer and Strictly Come Dancing judge, Alesha Dixon.

Alesha currently runs her own CBBC programme – Alesha's Street Dance stars where dance crews of young street dancers compete in a series of auditions, rounds and finals with one crew winning both the title of Alesha's Street Dance Stars and a fantastic prize.

The aim of Alesha's programme is to show off what young dancers can do, and give them a spring-board into potential success.Telford Street Dance themselves will be continuing to showcase their skills across the country.

Four of their crews, Recess, Hashtag, Havoc and AWOL, will be competing at the West Midlands Championships in Birmingham on the 7th July.

In the meantime, the craze for street dancing shows no chance of slowing down any time soon.