Dance groups competing for place in final of UK’s largest national youth dance festival.
This week seven local youth dance groups will compete in U.Dance West Midlands, with winners of the regional competition earning a chance to perform at the national youth dance festival U.Dance 2017.
U.Dance West Midlands, produced by Birmingham-based dance house DanceXchange, takes place at mac birmingham on 19 February, and is an exciting opportunity for youth dance groups to perform on stage, hone their dance skills by taking professional dance workshops, and meet and work with other young dancers from across the region.
The seven chosen groups, ACE Youth, Ignite Dance Company, Motionhouse Youth, Next of Kin, RDC Youth, Translucent Youth, and Versus Dance Company, will all be competing for a coveted place at U.Dance 2017. The prestigious national event, run by One Dance UK, is now in its 11th year and will be held at the Birmingham Hippodrome from 13th-16th July.
Natasha Massie, Programme Manager for Pre-vocational and Recreational Dance at DanceXchange says: “We were overwhelmed this year with more than 20 applications from youth dance groups from across the West Midlands region. The standard was exceptionally high and each group can consider themselves winners, having come as far as the regional event.”
After the performances at mac birmingham, three groups will be selected by a panel of expert judges to travel to Birmingham for U.Dance 2017, joining up to 300 young dancers from across the country for a three-day national youth dance festival, which always captures the imagination of the host town or city.
Andrew Hurst, Chief Executive of One Dance UK says: “The U.Dance national youth dance festival is an important event on the national dance calendar. From the regional platforms to the Festival itself, U.Dance engages with more than 2,000 young dancers, encouraging them in the pursuit of excellence in dance and embarking on careers in dance, highlighting one of One Dance UK’s key aspirations – to get as many young people as possible dancing.”
