Anyone else feeling the heat?! We’ve been hot on our toes here at Elevate Arts this summer term keeping busy with various performances and events and we haven’t quite finished just yet with our Urban Dance Camp this week too! You know you’ve been busy when you need to scroll back through your Insta so you can remember it all! Read on to find out everything our Acton urban dance club has got up to this summer.
It all kicked off back in May when we attended and competed at UK Street Dance Challenge at Alton Towers. This was our first 3 day event as a crew and it was amazing! Not only did the children compete as a crew, but also in solos and duos (which they choreographed themselves) and trios/quads (which they helped choreograph) Parents also partnered up with their children to create a piece and competed which was one of the best parts of the weekend! We walked away with a number of trophies and even those who didn’t place amazed us with their sportsmanship, support for their team mates and effort over the weekend. As well as the competition we had fun at a party, crazy golf, the water park, dance workshops and the various shenanigans we got up to! We could talk about it all day, but we thought why not show you the best bits visually? Go check out our journey here: https://youtu.be/uPBhocTIRek
We then celebrated the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in June with a little party for each of our classes and a twist on strawberries and cream at the end followed by competing at UDO in Bracknell where we walked away with more trophies and also experienced all style battles for the first time ever. The standard was crazy!
Next up was Acton carnival in July. We took a small group of our students to perform which consisted of various ages and abilities. We put our whole piece together in under 6 hours and they absolutely smashed their8 minute performance in the crazy heat! It was lovely being back in person at Acton park (previous 2 years we have performed for their live streamed event) feeling the vibes again was fantastic. The following week we attended Summer Slam for the first time ever and absolutely loved it. They had a first timer category for those dancers who had never competed or made a final in beginners sections. This enabled one of our young dancers to place for the first time and really helped build up our beginners’ confidence and self belief. Great vibes at this competition and we will definitely be returning next year or maybe for Winter jam. We then had our end of term showcase which everybody always looks forward to and loves. Being the end of year we also had our annual awards to give out. This was such a hot day we had doors open and enough ice pops for the whole estate we think!
Next week it was the Young Ealing Foundation awards at the University of West London. We had originally nominated a couple of our young dancers. Unfortunately they never made the shortlist this time, however we did get invited to perform as special guests closing the ceremony. This was a brand new experience for our young dancers and they approached it with passion, enthusiasm and professionalism both on and off stage. The DJ playing at the afterparty was just asking for some post ceremony entertainment from our guys (They hear music they dance!) so we ended up providing some impromptu after party entertainment too (Think the kids were trying to pull and all ighter, we didn’t leave until 9pm!) It was a lovely evening with some amazing young local talent. Well done to everyone who got nominated, shortlisted and won!
At the Young Ealing Foundation awards we got talking at the after party/networking session and to cut a long story short were invited to perform as backing dancers for an artist at NewGen Festival. This was another brand new experience for our young dancers as they danced for local artists Niisey and Tazzi on a massive stage at Warpole park. Time was super tight so we didn’t have time to rehearse, we literally heard the track a couple of days before and the kids done one of our routines they already knew. We communicated via video to see what did and didn’t work, then showed up and performed. The talent performing here was incredible, it was a great festival by young people for young people.
To celebrate all Square 1’s hard work, achievements, growth and just being amazing this year, we treated them to a crew trip at FlipOut Brent Cross and Base pizza on Gunnersbury Lane. We had lots of fun, celebrated a birthday but sadly also had to say bye to a crew member which is always sad. However we welcomed a new crew member too and look forward to seeing him flourish in the crew!
It’s been a crazy term, a crazy academic year for our Acton urban dance club and now we have a fully booked dance camp too whoop whoop! This week is going to be a movie, literally, check in after a few weeks for our Urban Dance Camp “best bits” video!
Enjoy the rest of your Summer and we will see you next term at our Street Dance Academy on Saturdays PLUS our BRAND NEW Thursday classes starting in Northolt soon.