‘The Big Dance Company’ is a local, family run dance company from Penzance, who have just returned flags ablaze from two incredible, international & life changing trips. Astounding considering some of their students are just 9 years old!!
The company were invited for the 6th year in a row to represent England at the ‘Dance Excellence: International Festival For Young Dancers’ event in Los Angeles, during March. Here they spent the week learning from some of the best choreographers in the world, including a workshop Nolan Padilla, Mark Meismer, Cody Green , Alex Little and Kathryn Mcormick, who shot to fame as the lead dancer in ‘Step Up Four’ the movie. The company also took part in a competition at Long Beach, California, with the Stateside trip culminating in a performance at Disneyland!
This was a dream come true for the students, especially for Chantelle Down (18), Cassie Brewer (16), and Emma Wilkins (15). The extremely talented Cornish dancers auditioned for the touring group ‘The Young Americans’ while they were in LA, and were successfully chosen to join the troupe. Chantelle, Cassie and Emma will be moving out to LA sometime over the next year to live their dream – but this will not be the first time dancers have made it into ‘The Young Americans’. Fiona has had over 15 dancers accepted into the amazing company over the years, who tour countries such as Japan, Europe and America.
Chantelle who will be moving to LA this year says:
“Its completely overwhelming – the thought of training and being a part of The Young Americans is just insane! I’ve been so inspired by The Young Americans ever since meeting them. I feel privileged that I now get to inspire others to go out an live their dream the way that the Young Americans have done to me.”
This year ‘The Big Dance Company’ have brought home 5 awards of excellence in the competition, the highest achievable award that is judged by top choreographers from LA.
“We are so honoured to be bringing these awards back to Cornwall and hope the local community will applaud these amazing children who are giving Cornwall such a great name in the dance industry.” – Fiona Richardson (Company Director)
Already on such a high, Fiona then took 17 dancers to the Philippines to be part of the ‘NCCA International Dance Exchange’ where, once more, they were asked to represent England. They spent a week on the island of Palawan sharing dance cultures, as well as partaking in outreach performances, where Fiona and her son Kyle led workshops to 875 Filipinos teaching them Hip Hop and Lyrical dance routines. The festival that is run by Shirley Halili CRuz then invited Fiona and ‘The Big Dance Company’ to teach at her studios in Manila where she runs the most successful Ballet Company in Asia.
“We then spent a day doing charity work, working on a dumpsite at Tondo with the families, who live their everyday lives without water and basic daily living needs that we all take for granted. We spend the day teaching them dance and performing for them in their church that has been built for them by a local charity. This trip is a real life changer and helps our young people really appreciate their lives, and the festival gives them cultural engagement from people from all over the world that they may never experience again in their lives.” – Fiona Richardson.
‘The Big Dance Company’ are now taking applications for dancers to attend ‘Dance Excellence’ and the Philippines trip with them next year, the events are open to all BDC dancers. If you are interested in auditioning for either of these events please emailfiona@thebigdancecompany.com
What an amazing weekend we have just had at the UDO British Championships held at Brean Sands Somerset. We took our 6 teams to compete at one of the toughest hip hop competitions in the UK, who hosts competitions in solos, duos, quads, teams and crews.
We had soem amazing results and most of our dancers at least made quarter and semi finals. Every year this competition gets tougher so we were overwhelmed to come back with such fantastic results. Congratulations to you all for working so hard and supporting each other.
solos
Paul McOwen 3rd u14 Novice, Alex Noronia 3rd under 14 Intermediate, Charley Mc Owen 4th under 16 advanced, charley Buckley 3rd Under 16 advanced, Jack Walker 4th under 16 advanced boys, Rebecca Luke 6th over 16 advanced girls.
Duos
Holli Darch and Tilly Brewer 4th under 10 advanced, Sennen Kevern and Sophia Clarke 2nd Under 10 novice, chloe Morris and Jago Mottart 3rd Under 12 intermediate, Katie Holding and Natasha Stirling 5th under 16 intermediate, Robyn Woolman and Georgia Drew 3rd under 16 Itermediate, Cassie Brewer and Jess Lavery 5th over 16 intermediate, Jack Walker and Emma Wilkins 1st over 16 intermediate, Georgina Buchanan and Bonnie Roberts 5th under 16 advanced, charley McOwen and Cattran Dugdale 2nd under 16 Advanced,
Teams
TRC 2nd under 18 intermediate, Debut 5th under 18 Novice, lil trixstars 8th under 10 advanced , NU flava 5th over 18 intermediate
BDC also made top 5 dance schools for overall points for the weekend.
We are now busy rehearsing for Aleishas street stars and our International trips to LA and Philippines.
It wont be long before two of our crews jet out the Philippines and Los Angeles to represent UK in an international festival of dance. During our week in LA we will take classes with some of the best choreographers in LA and at the end of the week present work for the judges to comment on and present us with an award according to our result in the event. We will also perform at Disneyland California.
When we visit the Philippines we will be taking part in the amazing dance exchange which is hosted by a beautiful Island Palawan this year. We will spend 5 days performing and teaching workshops and then back to Manila to spend time with the street children and families in tondo on the dumpsite, brightening up there day with lots of dance and laughter. Whilst in Manila we will also be spending time with our dear friends from the Halil cruz ballet school teaching hip hop workshops. This weekend on the 23rd February from 12-4pm we will be holding a table top sale in our studios in chapel street to raise money for these trips, here you can pick up so many bargains and cut price designer clothing and shoes , toys and refreshments and on the 9th March at Penwith college we will be performing a showcase of our work that we will be presenting Internationally, tickets only £5 from bdc office 01736 333 444. Hope you can come and support us !!
THis Sunday the Big Dance Company travelled to Newport Wales to compete at the United Dance Organisations Welsh Hip hop championships, which hosted the top dance schools in the country and this was their busiest yet with over 1000 dancers!!
The competition was very tough, attracting top schools from across the country, and started off in the morning with over 100 teams competing, our teams needed to be placed in the top five of their section to qualify to compete at the world Hip Hop championships next August that is being hosted by Glasgow.
We had a very successful start with Sweet dreams being placed 5th TRC (tricky crew ) were placed 2nd and Sweet Flava also placed 2nd so all teams qualified.
we had as much success in the solos with many of our dancers making the final 10 and in one of the finals 4 out of the 6 were from the Big Dance Company. Bonnie Roberts 6th, Georgina Buchanan 5th, Ben Thompson 4th and Charley Buckley 3rd.
Jack Walker 15 from Sweet Flava won the under 16 advanced section and runner up also from the Big dance Company was Charley McOwen 14.
One of our new dancers Joseph Hunter 10 who competed for the very first time not only made the final out of 70 dancers but finished 2nd place!!!
The duos division was also very successful with our under 10 couple Tilly Brewer 8 and Holli Darch 8 winning their section and now moving up to advanced.
other results – chloe morris and Jago Mottart 5th, Georgia Drew and Robyn Woolman 3rd, Alex Norona and Olivia Hewitt 4th, Billy Buckland and Tasha Stirling 4th, Ben Thompson and Charley Buckley 2nd, Cassie brewer and Jess Lavery 4th, Jack Walker and Emma Wilkins 2nd, Catran Dugdale and Shannon O Connell 3rd, Charley McOwen and Jonny Shapland 5th, Tiffanie Linzell and Becca Luke 4th
we are so proud of these committed youngsters, we are now working toward the British open championships in kent next weekend, and we now have tickets on sale for our christmas showcase Dance Dream Believe, at St johns hall Penzance on 13th and 14th December 2012
7-9pm This show always sells out so book early to avoid disappointment. 01736 333 444 office opposite the turks head pub chapel street.
For our 12 years the Big dance Company have been providing Opportunities to young people in Cornwall to give them the tools to make it it in the dance and entertainment Industry with many success stories. However the Big Dance Company is not just about training dancers to impress for auditions shows and competitions but to help them express and find self confidence and help them grow into confident young adults with skills that they can use in whichever path they choose to take.
Unfortunately there are alot of talented passionate youngsters out there that would love to have the opportunity to dance but with the current climate as it is many families can not afford to send their child to dance class, especially families that rely on benefits, dance classes would be on a non priority list. For the past 7 years the Big dance company have been personally supporting over 20 students so that they can dance and have a healthier, more focused life style and the results are so positive they have not been able to withdraw the scholarships. We see many children that were or could have been in a very bad place without dance as a focus and that gives us the inspiration to keep providing these scholarships.
West Cornwall Youth Trust recognised the positive effect that dance has on our local community and has stepped in to help. The trust was set up in 2009 to help charitable organisations in Cornwall who work with young people aged between 10-21 who are underprivileged, seriously financially constrained, and socially disadvantaged.
The trust have just awarded us with a cheque of £3600.00 to help support young people in west Cornwall and provide more opportunities for those that can not afford dance classes and that would benefit from the healthier lifestyle, positive surroundings and something to focus their energy on.
If you feel that your family would benefit from this bursary project please contact us at the office on 01736 333 444, and we would like to take this opportunity to thank West Cornwall Youth Trust for supporting this project and helping us to help keep the young people in our community focused, motivated, and Inspired.
This year proved to be bigger and tougher at the world udo hip hop championships blackpool where 25 countries from all over the world including japan, canada, usa and germany battled it out to be placed in a final at this prestigious event where over 130 crews competed and some solo heats with over 100 dancers competing.
The event held at the winter gardens blackpool attracted over 1600 dancers, and the big dance company penzance took 140 people along to the event including 70 dancers and family and friends .
We were so shocked when we learnt that in tricky crews section in under 18s as they have just had to move up to the older category as most members have turned 14, there was over 30 crews competing and they managed to score high enough to get in the top ten who had to then dance a final in front of table of 10 judges and were placed 4th!!! We were ecstatic as this was the b biggest category and the standard was so high!!! Sweet dreams with 27 in their section and lil trix with 8 also made the finals.!!
In solos the standards were so high, charley buckley and katie holding both 14 battled through 5 heats and over 70 dancers and both made it into the top 7 with katie being placed 6th and charley being placed 4th. Lee dunn 22 also made the final finishing 6th in adults and alex noronia was placed 4th in under 12 intermediates out of 70 dancers, natasha stirling 14 was placed 3rd in the under 16 newcomer section and charley mc owen made it into the advanced girls final and finished 4th after performing a 35 second solo spot!!!
Many of the other dancers made quarter and semi finals just missing that final spot.
In the duos section we had again great success with charley buckley and ben finishing second out of 60 couples and georgina buchanan and bonnie roberts finished 4th in advanced after performing their solo spot and tilly brewer and holli darch finished 5th place, amber harvey and maize jenkin 3rd out of 40 couples and olivia hewitt and alex noronia 4th out of 45 couples , brittany brewer and charley furze finished 5th in over 16 couples out of 40 .
And bdc made it to the quarter finals in crew battles
We were blown away by the results at the weekend and so proud to bring back final places for cornwall.
We would like to thank our teachers for all their hard work and to parents and students for their continued commitment !!
At the weekend bdc were also selling their this is me Danceaid t shirts at the competition supporting their Philippines project 2013 and sold over 250 t shirts!!!!
Bdc are now about to start working on their christmas showcase and if you would like to be part of this there is no audition just call the office and find a place that suits you and you will be dancing with bdc on stage this christmas. Show is on the 13th and 14th december, tickets on sale from , november from bdc office 01736333444
big dreams, big opportunities!!! www.bdc.me.uk
The Big dance company Penzance Cornwall have been representing England for the past 4 years now, representing their country in the most prestigious dance festival in the Whole of Asia.
The National Committee of the Culture and the Arts invited the Big dance Company this year to represent England at the 4th International dance Exchange held in Cebu City Philippines, where over 700 teachers, dancers, students and assistants from all over the Philippines come to learn from master teachers from all over the world including Korea, India, England, Thailand, Australia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, USA to name but a few of the 25 countries.
“I am so proud that a small dance company like us from a small town in Cornwall can have such an honor of representing the country at such a prestigious event, our name the Big dance company represents our ambition and dreams and determination and by being chosen to be part of such a prestigious event with such incredibly talented and skilled companies just confirms that believing means achieving”
This year we flew out to Manila with dancers aged from 11 years old to 22 years for three days early on our own expenses to help charities PCF, Danceaid and Hope.
The first day 26 of us visited the dumpsite on Tondo where 1000’s of families live without running water, electricity, sanitary facilities and very basic sheltering with up to 20 people sharing a very small space. We visited the community to allow our dancers to see the conditions in which they survive and to have more of an understanding or their daily lives and the work they have to do to provide food for the families. We then went to a centre that has been provided by the PCF where they have a feeding program and a church program that includes singing, education, and safe place to go, it was here that we led a dance workshop for the children aged between 5 – 25 followed by a performance from Tricky crew , that the children loved!!!
It was such a beautiful time, to see the children from the big dance company and the dumpsite communicating and sharing time together, they learnt so much from each other and I think we learnt more from them, seeing them smiling and appreciating every second that we spent with them, and seeing their gratitude for our time. The children bought them some gifts and some knitted toys that one of our parents made, and they loved them, we gave them pictures and stickers and treats and we had the time of our lives.
We then went on to street project run by charity Hope, that is financially assisted by fantastic UK based Danceaid, who raise money throughdance. Danceaid harnesses the energy, the passion, and the popularity of dance to transform the lives of vulnerable children.
Led by Kyle Richardson, We taught over 150 street children a workshop led by kyle Richardson, we had so much fun, if only for a short time the children had our full attention to show that people do care about their situation and that they do matter. The hope charity goes to the streets and helps educate children on abuse, drugs, alcohol and how to help improve their future by helping them get into education. The heat was reaching 90f but the Big dance company dancers kept pushing through making sure these children had the time of their lives.
We then drove to another centre, where boys are rescued and rehabilitated and provided with an eduction to help them become independant and have a future, we had dinner with the residents and teachers and Kyle then taught a breakdance workshop, the boys really bonded with Kyle and really appreciated the class, they then put on a show for us.
For next 5 days we took part in the dance exchange that was hosted by the City of Cebu, a beautiful place, they greeted us with local dancers of the plane in traditional dress, the BDC dancers were overwhelmed, over the next few days we taught a masterclass to over 300 company dancers from all over the world, led by Fiona we danced Lyrical together and what a powerful experience, we needed no language we just all shared the 2 hours together dancing and learning, we also led a workshop to over 700 workshop participants from all over the Philippines, hip hop taught by Kyle Richardson and Lyrical by Fiona Richardson, the place was electric, Filipinos are such amazing dancers and really worked so hard, we had so much fun!!!! We performed at some beautiful theaters over the next few days alongside some of teh best dance groups in the world and to close the festival we were taken on a cultural tour, visiting some of Cebu’s finest sights including the dancing inmates made famous on you tube at Cebu prison, the beautiful churches and provinces to meet the locals and experience the culture.
The team of dancers that we took worked so hard and really did represent not just Penzance cornwall but the UK in a very professional and honorable way. Thank you to our Team Shanon, Catran, Georgina, Meg, Jodie, Billy, Ben, Charley b, Charley Mc, Holly, Robyn, Brittany, Jack,Sophie, Hannah, Emma, Tilly and Kyle. Who worked hard fundraising all year to make this project a reality. These young people are great role models for the community and I am so proud of them!!!
We have already been invited back again next year, where the festival will be held on a different Province in the Philippines and next year The Big dance Company will be setting up a street project in conjunction with hope charity and dance aid by providing self esteem, confidence building and performance workshops and choreographing a show for the street children so they can perform in a theatre. We will also be working very closely with our new partnership with Halil Cruz Ballet company (the most outstanding ballet company in Asia) by bringing this amazing Manila Based company back to the UK to perform with the Big Dance Company in a number of shows across the UK.
We would also like to congratulate Sophie Walke 19 year old Student of BDC who was offered a ballet scholarship with the Halili Cruz Ballet company and is now in the Philippines starting her training.
Auditions for our Philippine dance team 2013 will be held on Friday 25th May.
If anyone would like to help by donating financially to the 2013 Manila Street project please email Fiona on fiona@thebigdancecompany.com
WOWEEE!! What an incredible, inspiring, motivating, exciting week we have just had together in Los Angeles, at the amazing Dance Excellence Festival, held at the Westin Hotel LAX, where 100′s of dancers from all over the world meet once a year to share their love of dance, to learn from some of the best choreographers in LA, to share, to inspire, to meet new friends from all over the World.
This year we took 20 from the Big Dance Company, 12 performers , 3 social students and 4 parents, and we had an absolute ball!!
Over the course of the week we performed in Disneyland, and Knotts Berry Farm and took 18 hours of dance classes in hip hop, african, ballet, Jazz, Lyrical, auditioning and performance then were judged by the weeks choreographers at a theatre performance where we performed a hip hop piece, a Modern piece and a variety piece. We were on honoured and overwhelmed to be awarded for our 5th year Excellence in all categories, the highest award that you can recieve.
The group that we had put together were not from the same crew and some not even the same classes, they worked so hard over the year and it paid off.
What an incredible group of young people we had with us and they really made me proud by representing not just the studio but the country in a very professional and respectful way. Congratulations To Emma Wilkins and Jess Lavery for representing the Big Dance Company on company show you were breathtaking!!! To lucy !!! you were my rock, and an amazing friend, cant wait to share the next DE experience with you.
Thank you girls for all your hard work, thank you Parents for being so supportive and making their dreams come true and of course to Annie McQuitty and all her amazing staff for such an incredible week!!! To all of our beautiful friends new and old from all over the world, thank you for sharing such an incredible week.
Auditions for our LA TEAM 2012 will be help on FRiday 25th May from 6pm, ages 8 + , see www.bdc.me.uk calendar for more information.
We had a blast this weekend at the British championships, the cold could keep us away from one of our favourite competitions of the year held at pontins Brean sands by the UDO.
I think most would agree that this was one of the hardest comps yet with up to 150 dancers in some sections. The weekend went of to an amazing start with our parent team reserrected winning the British title and Charley Mc Owen and Tiff battled their way through rounds with over 150 couples and finished 3rd place!!
In the solos section we had so many dancers that made the semi finals and Maddie, Chloe, Talia, Charley made the finals and in doubles we had chloe and Talia finishing 3rd, Charley and Johnny won the u14 new comer, Brittany and Charley 4th and in advanced we had 2 in the final of the under 14 advanced with Charley and ben 2nd and Catran and shannon 3rd, Billy and Jodie finished 2nd in Intermediate and first time in advanced Nicola and Jack finished 5th place!!
In quads ben, charley, bonnie and georgina battled their way to the finals in under 18′s!! and finished 4th place and our parent team entered over 18′s and finished 5th!! wahoo
In teams tricky crew danced for the first time in advanced and made the final and came 5th place, and finally in crew battles we made the semi finals.
It was such a great weekend, great company, great atmosphere and loads of fun!!! Thank you UDO <3
Hi guys on the 28th of January 2012 we will be showcasing our social classes at st johns hall, to let the parents see al the hardwork students have been putting in in class this term, they will be supported by our crews and elite dancers.
This will be the first time many of them have danced on stage so it will be very exciting for them, so we hope that you can all come along and support them on their big day. We will have a show at 1pm and 7pm, there are limited tickets left to book now to avoid disappointment on 01736 333 444 3-8pm daily.
The show will include hip hop, freestyle and slow dance, lyrical, breakdance and commercial with dancers from as young as 4 years old!!!
We look forward to seeing you at St Johns hall for a great night out for all the family! Drinks and food available , great raffle and win a barrel of booze to raise money for our charity danz@ction.
What an incredible year we have had!! so many amazing memories, travels and fun!! The Philippines and Los Angeles trips this year were amazing and we will never forget the day with families on the dumpsite with PCF, and the visit from our beautiful friends in the Philippines to England for our Love2dance show!! Our This is is it Summer school was a huge success this year and we were already 85% booked by the end of the week for next year! SO EXCITING. Kyle had his amazing experience with take that this year, working for 3 months on their progress tour and recently winning the Mr Cornwall Title!! while Flava were busy also at home working hard on their life changing binspired workshops helping children in london to find confidence and tackle bullying. Our groups TRicky Crew, Sweet Flava and soloist Sophie and KIanna made it through to the televised rounds of GOt TO Dance making the shortlists with fantastic comments from the Judges, and equally our Teams had huge success at the BRitish and World Hip hop championships, winning cash prizes and chalets, and qualifying for the European championships IN paris. Our under 14 Quad also won the the World championships so huge congrats to george, bon, Charley and Ben!!! Many of our students successfully auditioned and moved to study at colleges and Universities (we are so proud of you Charlotte, Lucy, Yasmin, Lucy, Sarah, ) Good luck to Jack from Flava who will be teaching drama in Italy next year , we wish you all the luck and are so proud of you!! Thank you to all that made it to our BDC Xmas Party!! Amongst the exciting events, challenges and travels this year we have come closer as a school and I have watched you all pull together and support each other through everything, which is so important and what makes you a family!!
We are all so proud of all of our students, parents and guardians, teachers Kyle, Tiff, Sophie, Dean and Becca, and our student teacher Chantelle who will be taking her teachers qualification this year, to our dear Tilly training in the office and to our friends and family who continually support us. We think back to ten years ago and how this all began and are so grateful to be able to have the opportunity to make a difference and provide young people with the tools to move confidently in the direction of their dreams. Happy New year everybody and we hope that this year will be filled with magic, excitement, friendships, support and love !!!!!! HAPPY 2012!!!
Hope to see you at our local School showcase at st johns Hall Penzance 28th January
Remember RAD Ballet starts on the 9th January 2012!!! Wahoo
The Big Dance Company are still celebrating after their amazing results at the Welsh UDO HIP HOP CHAMPIONSHIPS held in Newport Wales in November.
The group travelled 4 hours to Newport by coach to compete in one of the biggest regional qualifiers for the World Championships 2012.
This year you have to qualify by being placed top 5 to enter the World hip hop championships and teams finishing 1st or 2nd qualify to represent England at the European championships held in Paris next year, so as you can imagine there was a massive turn out with over 100 crews entering the teams sections.
In Sweet dreams section alone there was 22 teams competing and they managed to finish runners up qualifying for the world championships, the team of 12 trained by Tiffanie Linzell have gone from strength to strength and a result like that at such a huge competition was a great achievement for the team!! They will now along wit the other teams be training hard for the British hip hip hop championships in February 2012.
Fionas teams Tricky Crew and Sweet Flava both WON 1st place in the advanced section qualifying for both the world championships and the European Champiosnhips. Both teams had massive competition so were overjoyed to hear their names called out as first place! Sweet Flava also recently finished 2nd place next to France at the World Hip Hop championships.
The results did not stop there as the dancers worked so hard to get through sometimes 6 rounds to make a final, and celebrating double victory was Luke Crook and Emma Wilkins who were still celebrating their win at the World Hip hop championships, they had to move up the more advanced section at this competition and finished 1st place again!!
BDC teacher Tiffanie entered the professional advanced section and finished up as the only female to make the final and finished 2nd place!!
The results just kept coming and BDC are so proud when people ask where we are from and we say Penzance, these youngsters really are doing their county and town proud!!! the Big Dance company annual school showcase will be on the 28th January at st johns Hall Penzance, you can get tickets by calling 01736 333 444 or pop into our office on chapel street from 3-9pm daily.
Not long now until we greet our beautiful visitors from the Philippines to join us on stage for a collaboration of Ballet and Hip Hop!!
There are 17 Ballet dancers and their teachers flying all the way from Manilla to join us on stage at the Hall For Cornwall on the 28th November 2011.
The show starts at 7pm and tickets are available from the HFC box office, you will be treated to amazing performances from the Ballet company and we will be joining together for a Cinderella Story, AJ, a lyrical piece and a big finale !!!
The ballet company has been awarded the most outstanding ballet company in Asia and the Big dance company was awarded runners up at overall competition at the World Hip Hop championships so we promise to put on a great show for you.
The Ballet company will also be holding a masterclass at the Big Dance Company studios in Penzance on Friday 25th November from 5-9pm, further details in the BDC calendar.
We hope to see you at our show so you can enjoy performances from our award winning crews, the Halili Cruz Ballet company and AJ!!!
See you there
We would like to thank the following businesses for their support in the visit from our partners in Asia.
St Hilary School, Mounts Bay School, Boudoir, Apple Crumble, the Eden project, St Michael’s Mount, The new HOng KOng, Tavistock community Centre, Steckfensters, Merlin Cinemas and to our amazing host families Buchanans, Roberts, Simons, Buckley, and the Dugdales <3
HAVING been stranded in the Philippines after Iceland’s volcanic eruption, a Penzance dance group are hoping to repay their very own guardian angel and are appealing to big-hearted Cornish people and local businesses to help make it happen.
When Fiona Richardson and ten young dancers from the Big Dance Company found themselves stuck in Manila with little money and a potential two-week wait for a flight home early last year, Ms Shirley Cruz, founder of Halili Cruz Ballet saved the day.
Ballet teacher Ms Shirley Cruz.
The highly respected ballet teacher arranged accommodation and food for the group and followed that by building a schedule for the youngsters that involved cultural visits, painting lessons and day trips.
By the time a flight was available, 12 days later, the group almost didn’t want to leave.
As Fiona said at the time: “Without Ms Shirley we would have been in real trouble as we were in an area where hardly anybody spoke any English.”
Now Ms Shirley and her pupils have accepted an invitation to visit and perform with the Big Dance Company at the upcoming Love 2 Dance show on November 28 at the Hall for Cornwall, Truro.
They will be arriving next month for a ten-day stay and Fiona is appealing to local businesses to help out and show just how hospitable Cornwall can be.
Appeal
The ballet school will be staying with families of dancers from the Big Dance Company to allow them a real taste of life in Cornwall.
Fiona said: “We are asking that our local community can come together and help by offering anything that they feel could make their trip more memorable, to show our gratitude to their hospitality and generosity.
“We are hoping people can come forward and offer help with trips, transport, meals or anything they feel can show community support to this amazing woman.”
Ms Shirley is held in high esteem in her home country and her ballet school has won numerous awards in Asia.
During her stay she will be running an open workshop at the Big Dance Company studios, Penzance on Friday, November 25. Any businesses or individuals who can offer any sort of help, from the loan of a minibus to a hotel room to day trips and everything in-between, please contact Fiona Richardson on 07815 720895 or via fiona@thebigdancecompany.com
Hey guys, hope you all enjoyed that splash of sunshine!!
We can confirm that the big dance company will be teaching and performing at this years clothes show live on Sunday december the 4th , classes in Lyrical and hip hop and performances from Flava and Sweet Flava!!! you can book your place on www.clothesshowlive.com
Our Christmas party has been confirmed for Saturday the 17th December in Sound Nihtgtclub from 6pm -10pm, we hope you can make it! Invitation only from BDC in Chapel street. 01736 333 444 3-8pm Daily.
If you have not joined our facebook page already please do so for daily reports and news
The entries have come in their truckloads, and now Got to Dance winner Akai Osei has helped to choose the 10 finalists in Disney Channel’s online dance contest Shake It Up: Dance, Dance.
Now it’s the public’s turn to decide the winner. You have until Sunday 2nd October to head over towww.disneychannel.co.uk/dancedancevote to cast your vote and decide who wins a chance of getting their dance moves aired on Disney Channel, as well as a holiday to LA and a once in a lifetime dance master class with Akai!
Shake It Up: Dance, Dance is inspired by the smash hit comedy series Shake It Up, starring Bella Thorne as CeCe Jones and Zendaya Coleman as Raquel “Rocky” Blue, which viewers can watch everyday on Disney Channel.
Bank Holiday weekend 75 dancers from the big dance company Cornwall travelled in two coaches with 30 spectators to the infamous world hip hop championships where 15 countries from all over the world battled it out in popping locking breakdance house and hip hop to find the finest dancers in the world.
Organiser Simon Dibley said this was the biggest yet with over 2000 competitors and over 150 crews from all over the world.
Artistic director Fiona Richardson along with teachers Tiffanie Linzell, Nick green, Becci Gowers and Kyle Richardson have been working hard with the students preparing them for one of their biggest competitions to date.
“we were not expecting to comeback with trophies, we were going to do our best, to be a good representation for the west country, to be inspired and to learn.
So you can imagine the celebrating when BDC were announced UDO world hip hop championships in advanced under 14 quads on the first dAy. Georgina Buchanan , bonnie roberts, ben Thompson and charley Buckley trained by Fiona battled through to the final along with 48 quads from all over the world. We were overwhelmed!!! They were then approached by a britains got talent scout to enter the competition.
Charley and ben from that quad then went on to win the world championship title in under 14 duos and Luke crook and emma Wilkins won the under 18′s.
Charley then also went on to come runner up in her solos, just missing a hatrick.
Sweet flava who won the world hip ho championships in intermediate section in 2009 have now moved into advanced and were up against 9 crews from all over the world. Five crews were then selected for the finals the next day and sweet flava made it through, we were so happy as the standard was so high and were happy just to be placed, so when they had reached 3rd and not called their name out we were screaming, we ended up been placed runners up to the team from France winning a cash prize and free places for sweet flava to go to Disneyland Paris to represent England at the European championships. We were very honoured to be placed so high as the the judging panel consisted of judges on top of their game including Tommy and Lizzie from so you think you can dance , two and a half men from Britain’s got talent, turbo from got to dance, and guest international judges.
All of our teams battled it through the prelims to make it to the finals and tricky ended up finishing 5th out of 19 teams, pure finished fourth out of 18 teams, sweet dreams 5th out of 18 teams and mischief made the final 8 teams, and our parent team resurrected were crowned World Champions!!!!
All of our dancers came home with an award and we had so many amazing results.
Just when we thought things could not get any better, we were then award runners up in top dance school for the weekend winning 800 pounds worth of places for the British hip hop championships in February!!!
BDC are so proud to be representing Cornwall and bringing home so many amazing results, full story for the weekend can be found on our website www.thebigdancecompany.com new classes start back week commencing the 12th September, in hip hop, lyrical, break dance and jazz for dancers of all abilities from age 3 to adults. Our next show is at the Hall For Cornwall on the 28th November, where we will be joined by the Halili Cruz ballet company Philippines and AJ fame, featuring our award winning teams.
results
solos
Maddie Medlin – 3rd under 6
Talia Stephens – 3rd under 8
Georgia Drew – 5th under 14 newcomer
Charley Buckley 2nd – under 14 intermediate
Charley Mc Owen 4th – Under 14 intermediate
Luke Crook – 5th Adult Intermediate
Doubles
Tilly Brewer and Hollie Darch 5th – Under 8′s
Talia Stephens and Chloe Morris 3rd – Under 10′s
Ben Thompson and Charley Buckley 1st under 14′s
Jodie Edwards and Billy Buckland 5th under 16′s
Nicola Ladner and Jack Walker 7th in inder 16′s
Luke Crook and Emma Wilkins 1st under 18′s
Quads
Charley Buckley, Georgina Buchanan, Bonnie Roberts, Ben Thompson Winners under 14 championship quads
Talia Stephens, Chloe Morris, Tilly Brewer, Lennox Pearce 5th Under 10 Championship quads
Wow what an amazing week!! this is our second year and what an amazing one it was!!!
Over the week we had 52 students aged between 5 and 25 from all over the country come and spend a week with us in Cornwall at the big dance company studios…learning to dance, building their confidence and learning to fly!!! quite literally
During the week, we held classes in hip hop, breakdance and lyrical and taught the students a whole show that we all performed together at Flambards Theme park theatre.
We created a binspired workshop where the students were asked to write down their dreams and goals, and things that inspired them, then we all made hearts and plaques to remember our week together with our good friend from sparkleboom, who led the craft workshop. We had an amazing afternoon and the students wrote some very inspiring things on their worksheets and hearts.
We held beach Olympics at Marazion beach, where each group the bananas, strawberries and apples battled it out for our Olympic this is it title!! and performed at the skatepark in Penzance at the all together day run by the works Cornwall.
It was a beautiful inspiring week and we all grew from it, we already have 25 places booked for next years summer school that will run on july 31st to August the 3rd 2012. If you would like to book your place, their will be an advert on here soon showing you how to do it.
Thank you to all the beautiful students that danced with their hearts and to all our teachers and helpers that brought the magic to This is it 2011.
We are coming to the end of term now and would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your commitment and hard work!!
New Pay As You Go Scheme!!
We have some exciting news to share with you, next term we will be introducing a pay as you go system for dancers that have trouble setting up standing orders etc, the standing order scheme works great for most families as it saves you money and time, however after research it appears that some require another option. The scheme will start from 12th September when we return after the summer holidays, all you need to do is ring the office on 01736 333444 and register for pay as you go or email tillyadams.bdc@hotmail before the end of term Friday 29th July. When the new term starts you simply pay £4.70 at the office before you go to your class and you will be given a dance token that you give to your teacher…. Simple! Unfortunately we can not do a any I.O.U on classes so please do not put your teacher in an awkward position by attending classes without payment.
End of term open week
From the 25th – 29th July we invite parents in to watch your child in class so you can see what they have been working towards and see them working hard in the classroom.
Show Off January 2012
When returning in September we will be starting work on our January 2012 annual show off show held at St Johns Hall dates TBC
Summer classes pay as you go:
Introducing a pay as you go timetable over the summer including Break-dance and R&B with Kyle Richardson, Jazz with Sarah Pearce Mariner (this will be on the timetable every Monday in new term) Hip Hop with Tiff, Lyrical hip hop with Nick and Lyrical with Fiona/Jack/Sophie. No need to book just turn up and dance!!! Timetable available from the office or on our website under ‘What’s on’
Love2Dance _ Hall For Cornwall 28th November.
This show will include performances from all Teams, Elite crews and MTV classes break dancers, Jazz Elite with special Guests AJ fame and Halili Cruz Ballet Company,Philippines. Tickets soon available from HFC box office from £10.
Our website is there to keep you informed of exciting things happening in TheBigDanceCompany, please go online now to www.thebigdancecompany.com and register for a newsletter so you don’t miss out on changes or cancellations and exciting events.
Prof Elite Tuesdays 8-9pm
As we will be training for Hall for Cornwall Show there will be an audition for Prof Elite, to be part of an Elite team you must be Taking a Jazz/lyrical & Hip Hop class as you represent the Elite dancers in the School, you can not be part of Elite unless you are training to your highest ability. Dancers must also be available for all training sessions weekly and be available for The HFC dates including the Saturday 26th November for Dress rehearsal. We will be preparing joint pieces with the Halili Cruz Ballet Company so this will be a very exciting time. The audition will take place the last Tuesday of this term 26th July in normal class time; this gives existing dancers the opportunity to show that they adhere to the guidelines of continuing being in the team and new dancers to have the opportunity to join.
Live The Dream……. B Part Of The 2012 England Dance team.
Dear Students
We have had the great honour of being invited to Dance Excellence in Los Angeles again this year.
For the past 5 years we have represented England and have walked away with the highest awards for our performance and have danced at Disneyland every year with fantastic crowds.
We are now inviting you to attend an open audition to be part of the England team to represent the Big Dance Company.
Aside from your performances, you will spend the week learning from the best in their fields, meeting friends from all over the world and I can guarantee you will come back not only a better dancer but will have a new lease of life with cultural experience and great life experience.
The event is held in a 5 star hotel in LAX (amazing) and your performances are on some of the best stages in LA.
The cost of the trip can either be funded by yourself or you can, as many others do, seek sponsors to advertise on your tour tracksuits to help cost it. The payments are spread out over the year and there are opportunities to be chaperoned if parents can not afford to go.
The total cost of the trip includes all your classes, your trips TBC, transport in LA, all your food and drink for the week and your accommodation, Disney tickets, show tickets and packed lunches for trips and 2 extra nights in the hotel for shopping time, THIS INFORMATION CAN BE OBTAINED FROM THE OFFICE.
If successful at the audition you will be required to train with Fiona on a Friday to prepare the Disney show and competition entry and you will be expected to be taking a class in hip hop and lyrical/slow dance. You will need to pay a $100 non refundable deposit to secure your place.
AUDITION SAT 9TH JULY 9.30AM – 10.30AM PENZANCE STUDIOS
BE READY TO DANCE IN ANY STYLE. Dancers must be 9 when we travel.
Please book your audition on fionadancer@gmail.com confirming your attendance.
Good Luck and I hope to see you as one of my England team 2012!!! Check it out www.defestival.com
It had been at least 6 months until we competed in Freestyle and slow due to out heavy performance schedule so it has been a bit of a last month drive to get all the students ready for a freestyle competition held at the Langstone Cliff Hotel Dawlish, so we went on the attitude of lets just have a good time and not expect to much as we have been out of the loop for a while, well the determined Penwith youngsters did it again and came home with no less than 16 first places!!! Nicola Ladner from Goldsithney and Luke Crook from pool had a double hatrick with Nicola winning her slow. and hip hop section and doubles with Luke and Luke took the same places in his age category. We are so proud of these young people and are looking forward now to the world Hip Hop championships in Blackpool in Augustresuts Dawlish 2011
We had a fantastic day on Friday when Flava and performers from BDC visited UFDC Birmingham, we held a day of workshops then performed in their evening show, showcasing the routines they learnt with us during the day and showcasing their amazing talent!
The day started of a disaster when i left my purse in a service station, but an amazing couple found it and googled me to find me and travelled for miles to return it to me personally!! does that not restore your faith in people! Lucy did a fantastic job of the show and was a real pleasure to work with, we had so much fun (and Pizza!!) haha, so thank you Lucy for looking after us and we cant wait to see you at our summer School In August.
We wanted to take this opportunity to say a massive BDC Good Luck to Kyle Richardson. Kyle Richardson Fionas son, teacher and dancer of Flava dance group has been selected to perform on tour with Take that on their progress UK and European tour starting next week in Sunderland and finishing in Munich on the 29th July.
Kyle recently 21, has been touring the UK and world with dance group Flava performing and delivering their binspired message FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS, and Kyle is doing just that, supported by Flava members, Flava will keep going strong until August when Kyle will rejoin the group ready for their THIS IS IT! Summer school held in Cornwall.
We all wish you the best of luck Kyle and cant wait to see you on that stage living out your dreams!
Issac, aka Turbo recently shot to fame from his breathtaking performance on got to dance 2011, making the grand final Turbo now has an army of fans across the UK, we have been lucky enough to pin him down to come to the Big Dance Company Cornwall to share his expertise.
Turbo will be holding two master classes, one on Friday 20th May 6-9pm for the hardcore dancers that want a real challenge and on the Saturday 21st May a master class for all dancers from 10-1pm. Workshops will be held at the Chapel street Studios Penzance. Workshops are £22 per day or £16 per day for BDC premier members, or you can book both for an additional £10 to your price. This is going to be a great experience and opportunity to be on top if your game with the latest techniques and house combos!! BOOK 01736 333 444 after 3pm Mon-Friday.
PROFILE
Issac, aka Turbo, felt drawn to the dance floor at the tender age of four, encouraged by his African dancer Mum and Reggae drummer Dad. But school bullying in later years led him to give up dancing, but after watching the film Breakdance when he was 14, Isaac was inspired to try different dance styles including street and hip-hop. Dance has been a part of his life ever since, believing “Music gives me questions, I give it answers.”
Issac’s career has been on turbo speed after coming second in the grand final of TV dance show Bump ‘n’ Grind in 2003/4. Since then, Issac left the bullies far behind and became accustomed to the dizzy heights of showbiz dancing.
His impressive credits include appearances in music videos for Madonna, Jamelia, Will Smith, Mis-teeq, Shaznay Lewis and has also been a backing dancer for Whitney Houston.
Style:
New School Popping, house
Members:
Issac, 27
Hometown:
London
Ambition:
To be one of the greatest dancers and choreographers on the planet.
Influences:
J Dilla, Prepix street jam 2005, Prepix fantasy performance, Umin Japanese poppers and those around me at my classes and performances.
Hey its Launch day today of our branch in Exeter, called Fusion. Doors open at 9am and we have workshops on all day, with a showcase at 5pm!!!! FREE
The venue is St James School Exteter in Summer lane. we hope to see you there to enjoy this DANCE day with us.
Fiona
The big dance company have just returned from an around the world trip with 4 top of their class awards in Hip Hop, Jazz, Lyrical and variety from Los Angeles, an invitation to the Philippine International dance competition in 2012 and an invitation to the Kuching Mooncake festival 2012!!
We literally landed yesterday and we are on cloud Nine!
The competition was tough this year with some of the best dancers from all over the world and states in America. THe talent was through the roof and we loved watching the amazing performances from the other fantastic studios!!
We spend the beginning of the week in LA learning from some of the best dance experts in the world in hip hop, ballet, performance, jazz and lyrical and on the Thursday we performed at Disneyland California with a huge excited audience, you can watch our performance on our you tube Channel.
On the Friday was the competition held at Knotts berry farm California’s theme park and we entered four categories, hip hop, jazz, lyrical and variety.
and on the Friday night they had the awards ceremony and we were awarded excellence in each category, the highest award achievable. On the FRiday it was also announced that our dancer/singer Talia Harper had successfully auditioned or the world famous Young americans and has been invited to join them in Los Angeles. Our Company dancers Chantelle Down and Becca Short did an amazing job and did BDC proud!!
Then 12 of us flew out straight to the philippines were we took part in the ncca national dance exchange where we represented England , the week was full of exciting events such as press conferences where we performed live for national TV, we held a master class for philippine participants and took classes from other countries, we were part of outreach programs where we visit different parts of the philippines performing and during our trip we visited the children and families of Manilla dumpsite, where families are starved of basic living needs like food and water. We spent the day dancing, laughing and performing with them and we plan to go out for longer next year.
While we were in the Philippines we were selected to represent England at the Kuching festival next year. We are so honored and grateful to be able to provide these life changing opportunities to young people in Cornwall. If anyone is interested in sponsoring a dancer for the next dance exchange please contact Fiona, there are attractive advertising opportunities available to all sponsors.
Our next show will be on the 23rd November at the Hall for Cornwall joined by Halili Cruz Ballet company Philippines. The best Ballet company in Asia.
We would like to take this opportunity to wish Kyle Richardson, son and dancer of Director of the big dance company Fiona Richardson the best of luck as he has been selected to perform on tour with Take That on their progress 2011 tour.
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Your Hip Hop class on bank holiday Monday 2nd May is on as per normal
There will be no ballet or Adult bboyz which is now on a Tuesday evning with Eddy starting 3rd May – 7-11s 4pm, 12-15 5pm adults 6pm followed by R&B at 7pm with Tiff
Thank you to everyone who purchased raffle tickets at our recent show off 2011. below are the winners and you can claim your prize by coming into the office.
Patchwork Teddy – Number 646
Bottle of Chardonnay – Number 881….. MEGAN HARRIS
Sports Bra – Number 307 ….STEVENSON
2nd Sports Bra – Number 156 …MILLER
Yellow ‘This is me’ hoddie – Number 586
Kelly Anza £10 Hair Voucher – Number 902
The Honey Pot cafe Voucher – Number 845…..GRACE NICHOLLS
Walkers Jewellery Ear rings – Number 521…..SADLER
Sorcha Cubitt Beauty Therapy Voucher – Number 274…..MRS PAULA FURZE
2nd Kelly Anza £10 Hair Voucher – Number 378…….TORI
Bakehouse Resturant Voucher – Number 256…….MICHELLE
Alverton Spa Gift Voucher – Number 55…….LAURIE KELLY
The Big Dance Company Anniversary Tshirt – Number 236……..WILSON
FLAVA Matrix Hoodie – Number 607
Broken Rock Band Goodie bag- Number 460…….CHELSI
Beauty House Gift Voucher- Number 425………JAMELA
Blue Snappa Resturant Gift Voucher – Number 534
Sunday Lunch for two at the Budock Vean – Number 789……..PALMER
Winnie The Pooh Giant Teddy- Number 440……POOPY OBRIEN
Congratulations and thank you to all who donated prizes.
Its that time again the big dance company annual showcase at st johns hall penzance. 1st and 2nd April 7pm shows and sat matinee 1pm show.
This show is a sell out every year, and we hope that this year will not be an exception, we are so proud to show off the amazing talent that Penwith has!! Performances from our very own flava who are still working professionally full time including international performances and close work with the Home Office and national police forces. World championships winning team sweet flava and tricky also featuring new crews Pure, Sweet dreams, and Mizchief who were placed 2nd and the British hip hop championships. amazing breakdance from children from as young as 5. lyrical dance, hip hop, freestyle and singing acts from Shauna Payne and Talia Harper, also introducing our new areas to penzance, Penryn, Camborne, and Newquay. We will be showcasing the work of all of our dancers that they have been working on this term, with support from our championship crews. We promise to make it an exciting night for you.
there will be an amazing raffle and licenced bar with all proceeds going to our danzaction charity helping dancers achieve their dreams.
this is a busy month for the big dance company. where 25 dancers are jetting of to Los Angeles to represent England at the dance excellence festival and then 10 fly on to the Philippines to the dance exchange.
We have had an exciting month, this month we also have Cattran Dugdale 11 from mounts bay school and Sian Moyle 10 a student who travels from Exeter for classes filming for a prime time TV show soon to be announced and Kyle Richardson 20 has been selected and will be off performing with take that on their UK and European tour. Our previous student Ella whom you would all of been familiar with if you come to our shows who was previously in sweet flava made it to the got to dance live semi finals with gold stars from all the judges!!
the big dance company recently brought home over 52 finalists at the south west hip hop championships and won both British bgirl and bboy championships.
we are so proud of how hard our dancers work to achieve these amazing results…..
if you would like to catch the big dance company in their showcase tickets are available from the chapel street studios 3-8pm mon to Friday from only 6 pounds each. 01736 333444 limited seats are left.
www.thebigdancecompany.com
THE BIG DANCE COMPANY BRING BACK BIG TITLES FROM SOUTH WEST OF ENGLAND HIP HOP CHAMPIONSHIPS 2011
Competition south west championships 13 March 2011
Guildhall Plymouth
Last weekend, The Big Dance Company set off for the South West championships held in the Guild Hall Plymouth. Normally this event attracts around 500 dancers, this year over 1000 dancers from all over the country came to the south west to compete for the South West Championships Title, with over 50 teams competing.
We faced some rounds with over 80 dancers in them and as you can see from the results we managed to grab many titles and claimed a huge amount of final places, I am so proud of the young people for bringing so many trophies back to Cornwall. tHANK YOU TO THE UDO for a great day. The big dance company are now busy preparing for their Los Angeles and Philippines tour and their local production at St Johns Hall, Penzance Cornwall on the 1st and 2nd April, tickets are available from the big dance company in Chapel street.
Results:
Teams:
Tricky 1st Place. Sweet dreams 5th, Mizchief 2nd, Sweet Flava 2nd
Solos and doubles:
under 6 newcomer
Maddie medlin 4th
Leo walker 3rd
Under 8 newcomer
Lennox Pearce 5th
Lennox Pearce and Maddie Medlin 1st
Tilly brewer and Holly Darch 1st
Under 12 newcomer solos
Kiana Stephens 4th
Alex Norona 3rd
Shelby luke 2nd
Doubles
Alarna Langslow and Clodagh Mccodie. 3rd
Kiana Stephens and Emma Chamberlain 1st
Under 12 intermediate
Olivia Hewitt 1st
Olivia Hewitt and Maize Jenkin 2nd
Under 12 championship
Cattran Dugdale 2nd
Under 14 intermediate solos
Charley Buckley 5th
Charley mc Owen 2nd
Ben Thompson 1st
Robyn WOOLMAN 4th
Doubles
Bonnie Roberts and Georgina Buchanan 1st
Charley Buckley and Ben Thompson 2nd
Robyn Woolman and meg Barkham 3rd
Charley Mcowen and Sian Moyle 4th
Under 14 champ
Jack walker 5th
Under 16 Newcomer
Emma Wilkins 1st
Cassia brewer 4th
Doubles
Emma Wilkins and Brittany Brewer 2nd
Under 16 championship
Aimee Mitchell 6th
Doubles
Aimee Mitchell and Jack Walker 2nd
Adult newcomer
Luke crook 4th
Amelia Br3rd
Adult intermediate
Becca Short 2nd
Yasmin Cook and Luke Crook 5th
Adult championship
Becca Short Abbie Hoole Jackson 1st
we are so excited to announce the launch of a new company in exeter so you dancers dont have to travel to far to penzance now. Our new school will run on a saturday with classes in hip hop. lyrical and freestyle. pairing up our freestyle classes with wetern dance force exmouth we aim to provide you with great fun and challenging classes and lots of exciting opportunities. our launch day is on the 14th may at st james school exeter. starts at 9am. see more info on our calender.More info coming soon. classea commence the following week. see you soon. fiona
To ensure that we are always providing opportunities for new dancers we are holding auditions for dancers for our teams tricky and sweet dreams. auditions will be on tuesday 15th march at 430pm till 6pm in our penzance studios. dancers from 9 upwards welcome.
these teams will be performing at many exciting shows and competing at prestigeous competitions. please email me if you have any questions.
The big dance company based in Penzance have just come back from the british hip hop championships with not just one british championship title. won by fionas son kyle in the championship bboy section but kyles student catran dugdale only 11 years old won the bgirl championship and found herslef battling it out in the final two with friend and also a student of kyles jodie edwards aged 12. The competition started on the Friday night by selecting 8 dancers in each section to make the semi final on the saturday and then was finally battled out to 2 dancers, which was watched by 2000 dancers in the main arena on the Saturday night. On that night we were also treated to a performance from Akai, winner of Got To dance 2010.
The competition was held at pontins , brean sands holiday park with over 2000 competitors and judged by zoonation, Marqualle ward and dancers Lizzie and tommy from so you think you can dance 2010.
The results didnt stop there.. catran and kyle partnered together in and event where you dance with a dancer in a young age category. . they had 126 couples against them and the standard was very high and they battled it through 6 heats and made the final and finished 3rd place. Catran also went on to make solo final and doubles final with Shannon o Connel finishing 5th in both categories and with her team tricky they were placed 3rd out of 11 teams in a very tough section and with scores of 20/20 in some sections. Tricky are now going to be starting their new routine for the World hip hop championships in August 2011.
Sweet flava also had a great final and finiahed 3rd in the championship section against 8 high class teams, they had been working hard on a piece called BELEVE , about beleiving in yourself and your dreams and this piece will also be performed in LA and Philippines this year.
Mizchief our under 10 crew from newquay trained by our teacher nick green finished 2nd against 8 other crews, and has dancers as young as 6 years old.
kiana stevens from our newquay branch also made the final with over 90 dancers finishing 5th and Lennox griffin only 7 years old made the solo finals and finished 5th. Charley buckley aged 12 from Humphrey Davey School knocked out over 70 dancers and finished 3rd and with partner ben thompson aged 12 ffrom Mounts Bay school, finished 3rd in doubles. robyn woolman and partner megan barkham finished 2nd in the same section. robyns family have just moved from plymouth to penzance to allow robyn to do more training as she was having to travel over 4 hours a day to get to class. Robyn is now a full scholarship student and is working towards her dream of becoming a professional dancer.
We did really well in the doubles sections.. also making tthe finals were Jack walker and Aimee mitchell who also travel from plymouth to class. . they finished 4th in the highest class championship section and having to dance a 45 second spot. Abbie Jackson and Becca Short both from Sweet Flava team finished 4th and Tilly brewer and Holli Darch finished 2nd and Megan Harris and Chloe Darch 5th and Clodagh Mc coney and Alarna langstow 6th.
Also in the quad competition Sweet flava dancers Aimee Mitchell, Jack Walker, Chantelle Down and Nicola Ladner danced against at least 30 other quads and finished 4th Place, and we can not leave out our amazing Parent team choreographed by Nick Green in Newquay who finished 4 in the parents team section, throwing out Krumping, locking, popping and moves like there was no tomorrow! watch out Penzance as we will be soon recruiting for our parents team, so your dream of becoming a dancer is not over yet!!
We had an amazing weekend and were so happy to bring back to Cornwall some titles.
We are holding open auditions this Friday at 7pm – 9pm fror 2 dancers for our hip hop group sweet flava, who will enjoy enormous opportunities and competitions all over the country and some Internationally.
The big dance company have classes in penzance, Camborne, Newquay and Penryn, you can find more information on our website.
Pictures taken by Carolyn Oakley cornwallphotos.com
Once a year the ADFP associaition of freestyle disco professionals put on the competition of the year to find the best dancers in the area.
On Sunday 23rd January the Big Dance Company attended the west coast of England Freestyle and Sow championships in Newport in Wales.
We only took a handful of dancers as we had the British hip hop championships coming up, but we did really well. The competition was very hard, as the best schools turned up to compete for the titles. We were also concerned that we would struggle due to the fact that due to our Hip Hop commitments we had not been able to train as much and had not competed since last October. However our dancers done us proud again, by fighting their way to the finals up against some amazing competition.
In freestyle Nicola Ladner from Mounts Bay who was dancing her first time in Intermediates finished 4th place and Robyn Woolman 12 from humphrey Davey school finished 6th in her section, and Catran Dugdale also from Mounts Bay School finished 5th in the championship section.
Then it was time for the Slow dance section and Sophie Walke 17, managed to wow the judges with her one minute slow spot and was given the title of ADFP west coast champion and a sash and trophy. Catran Dugdale also competed in the highest grade championship section and won first place getting the under 12 Wales and West championship title.
Other finalists who managed to battle through round after round were Luke Crook 17, finishing 2nd in adult Intermediate, Nicola Ladner 5th in U14 Intermediate, Cassie Brewer 5th in U16 Intermediate and Bonnie Roberts 6th in Under 14 Championship, Emma loiuse Morgan 5th in Adult starter Slowdance final.
In the hip hop section Brett Bullock finished 2nd and Becky Short 3rd in the adult championship section and Megan Barkham 3rd in the under 12 championship hip hop and Robyn Woolman 2nd in under 14 championship hip hop.
Well done to all dancers and congratulations to your title wins to Sophie Walke and Catran Dugdale.
well done to all of our friends from other dance schools, you were all amazing !!
Once a year the ADFP associaition of freestyle disco professionals put on the competition of the year to find the best dancers in the area.
On Sunday 23rd January the Big Dance Company attended the west coast of England Freestyle and Sow championships in Newport in Wales.
We only took a handful of dancers as we had the British hip hop championships coming up, but we did really well. The competition was very hard, as the best schools turned up to compete for the titles. We were also concerned that we would struggle due to the fact that due to our Hip Hop commitments we had not been able to train as much and had not competed since last October. However our dancers done us proud again, by fighting their way to the finals up against some amazing competition.
In freestyle Nicola Ladner from Mounts Bay who was dancing her first time in Intermediates finished 4th place and Robyn Woolman 12 from humphrey Davey school finished 6th in her section, and Catran Dugdale also from Mounts Bay School finished 5th in the championship section.
Then it was time for the Slow dance section and Sophie Walke 17, managed to wow the judges with her one minute slow spot and was given the title of ADFP west coast champion and a sash and trophy. Catran Dugdale also competed in teh highest grade championship section and won first place getting the under 12 Wales and West championship title.
Other finalists who managed to battle through round after round were Luke Crook 17, finishing 2nd in adult Intermediate, Nicola Ladner 5th in U14 Intermediate, Cassie Brewer 5th in U16 Intermediate and Bonnie Roberts 6th in Under 14 Championship, Emma loiuse Morgan 5th in Adult starter Slowdance final.
In the hip hop section Brett Bullock finished 2nd and Becky Short 3rd in the adult championship section and Megan Barkham 3rd in the under 12 championship hip hop and Robyn Woolman 2nd in under 14 championship hip hop.
Well done to all dancers and congratulations to your title wins to Sophie Walke and Catran Dugdale
Ella Gilling aged 12 trained at the big dance company in Penzance Cornwall, has just made it to the last 28 acts on SKY1 Got to Dance and Teacher Fiona Richardson , hopes to get penwith and the UK behind her to help her win the competition as she knows first hand how hard she and her family have worked to help her achieve her dreams.
Ella joined our school when she was just 8 and trained so hard she ended up being selected as dancer for championship team Sweet Flava and as part of The big dance company performance team who represented England in Los Angeles. Ella danced whenever the studio was open, she was just so determined to be the best she can be, she notched up so many performances and experience probably more than alot of children twice her age.
Ella was found when Fiona was teaching an afterschool club in Mousehole school and spotted her talent right away and asked her mum if she could join her main school. After alot of convincing mother Elaine let us take ella to competitions and right way she started winning major competitions and titles including winner UDO world hip hop championships with Partner Aimee Mitchell, and with team Sweet Flava they won the world hip hip hop championships u18 section in the 2009. Ella also appeared alongside Flava in a music video for Phatts and Small.
Ella auditioned last year for Italia Conti in London and got in, with Fionas other student Hannah Everitt and was offered a scholarship to the Italia Conti performing arts school in London where she learns Jazz, Tap and Contemporary She was accepted onto the CAT (Centre for Advanced Training) scheme at The Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in Greenwich, where she dances every Saturday. In addition to this, Ella attends Pineapple Dance Studios on Sunday’s and rehearses alone for half-an-hour every day before school. year Ella was offered a scholarship to the Italia Conti performing arts school in London where she learns Jazz, Tap and Contemporary dance. She was accepted onto the CAT (Centre for Advanced Training) scheme at The Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in Greenwich, where she dances every Saturday. In addition to this, Ella attends Pineapple Dance Studios on Sunday’s and rehearses alone for half-an-hour every day before school.
Ellas family made huge sacrifices to leave their hometown Cornwall to take Ella to London and it has finally paid off.
Fiona and the Big dance company will be behind Ella all the way and hope that Cornwall will get behind and vote for her. She is a beautiful natured young girl who is just burning with ambition. Please vote for Ella, her live performance will be on Sunday February 6th on SKY1.http://sky1.sky.com/got-to-dance-meet-ella
So 2010 draws to an end , what a whirlwind year, this year we danced in LA, Dubai, Philippines and many exciting places across the UK, we saw Sweet Flava make the studio show and get three gold stars and amazing comments from the got to dance judges, Flava are busier than ever performing and teaching all over the country, and we have had some fantastic results at competitions this year. We had our packed out love movies love dance show at the hall for cornwall and of course our 10 year anniversary party at the Ritz penzance. 2010 was a very exciting year for us and 2011 looks to be filled with the same excitement. We wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of our students and parents for their dedication and commitment and to thank everyone who has supported and believed in us. We hope you all have a magical Christmas and a fun packed 2011!!!!!
Dance returns on the 10th January, with drop in classes over Christmas be sure to check the events page for more details.
flava have been booked to launch the new audi a1 tonight! ! we are so excited. I have edited a set of music and tailored the choreoraphy to launch this cool car!
we will be uploading photos and video of the event in the next few days so watch this space! good luck flava
With Live on Stage performances from winners of Move like micheal Jackson animaineax, Urban jokers , Flava, Sweet flava and Talia Harper.
The big dance company based in Cornwall have a lot to shout about this year, it was 10 years ago we opened our doors in St Hilary School with just 10 children attending and now we have over 600 students learning and growing into exceptional and successful young adults, a true inspiration and credit to their generation.Over the past ten years the big dance company have notched up endless World, British, and regional titles in many different styles of dance and represented our country at festivals in Los Angeles, Philippines, Abu Dhabi, Egypt and Dubai, winning highest awards for their choreography and performance, appeared on numerous TV shows, and are now working with over a dozen police forces across the country to help raise confidence and self esteem in young people in schools and lower anti social behaviour in their local communities.
We saw the rising fan base of Flava sweeping the country after the group made it to the live semi finals of Britains got Talent and the group who were presented with an honouary Philip Lawrence award by Sir Trevor McDonald are now working full time performing Internationally and delivering Binspired dance workshops across the country to thousands of children.
The past ten years has been full of fun, exhilarating and mind blowing experiences that many people only dream of, which is why this year we are celebrating the achievements of these Cornish young people by having a ‘Live The Dream’ charity ball. The evening will be celebrating achievements, thanking sponsors and supporters, and meeting potential partnerships with local businesses and community based projects. Many young artists/performers in Cornwall do not believe they can make it living so far away from the main cities and we have proven that with hard work, dedication and focus anything is possible. These young people really are a credit to our community!
The evening will be supported by the amazing animaineax (winners of this years TV show dance like Michael Jackson) who will be performing their winning set, along with performances from Flava and incredible Arial acts and stilt walkers. We will be showing film of our work internationally and clips from various TV performances we have been involved in over the years. Alesha Dixon who has recognised our work will be delivering a video message to wish us luck and we will have some words from previous students who have gone on to work professionally both internationally and regionally, amongst lots of fun and of course dancing!!!
black and white theme:
Tickets on sale from 1st November 2010 only £5
all proceeds pcf
on our way back now from a great day at the welsh hip hop championships, held at the newport centre Wales.
we started of with fantastic results in teams with tricky 2nd pure 3rd mizchief 4th and sweet flava 3rd- it was a big day for teams with over 65 teams competing.
in solos
under 8 newcomers holli 3rd tilly 4th and sydney
under 12 newcomers olivia 2nd maize 3rd and alex 5th
under 12 intermediate robyn 3rd
under 12 advanced catran 1st
under 14 newcomer 2nd jodie
under 14 advanced jack 3rd
under 16 newcomer 4th emma
over 16 newcomer james 3rd
over 16 intermediate yasmin 6th
many rounds had up to 50 dancers competing so they all did so well
doubles was as much a sucess with three couples winning titles
under 8 newcomers. tilly and hollie 3rd
under 10 newcomers 3rd clodagh and alarna
under 12 newcomer maize and olivia winners
u12 intermediate robyn and megan 3rd
under 12 advanced catran and shannon winners
under 14 newcomers jofie and natasha 2nd
under 14 ibtermediate charley and billy 4th and ben and charley winners
under 16 newcomers cassie and hannah 5th
under 16 advanced jack and aimee 4th
over 16 intermediate becca and abbie winners
what a great day, well done all dancers and look forward now to the british x
Hey guys dont miss this weekend coming Sweet Flava and Flava re performing at the world famous breakin Convention, coming to Cornwall.
Hosted by Hip Hop dance theatre pioneer JONZI D this action-packed event is guaranteed to be a totally exhilarating night out. Presenting work by some of the top Hip Hop artists on the planet, plus the best local dance crews, hit the stage with force and a thrilling set of performances. Featuring stunning work by SEBASTIEN & RAPHAEL (France and Germany), a B Boy duo who use dance and projection to create clever visual trickery and haunting images. Filling the stage with raw B Boy power are crew PHASE T (France) with a brand new show.
This action-packed event is guaranteed to be a totally exhilarating night out.
Local acts confirmed! …
Friday 12 Nov – ENCORE | FLAVA | STREET FACTORY
Saturday 13 Nov – BEAT- BREAKERS | STREET FACTORY | SWEET FLAVA
Plus workshops and activities in the foyers pre show and in the interval. This will include workshops by the Breakin’ Convention international artists.
We have just got back from working two weekends at Alton Towers resort, and we had sooo much fun!!!
Over two weekends we treated visitors to surprise flash mobs on the park and performances in the afternoon on Tower street. It was great for Flava and Sweet flava to work together and even better to see them dancing together. This is our second year working with Alton Towers, last year Flava held a street dance weekend with Britain’s got talent winners Diversity and previously with George Sampson.
If you check out our photo gallery you can see some pictures from our weekend and there are more to come soon along with new footage from our weekend. Thank you Alton towers for a great opportunity to work with you again and to our amazing driver Martin who drives us hundreds of miles across the country !!! well done guys and thanks to all of you who came and watched our shows on Tower Street!!! Hope to see you all again next year.
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