09 Dance: Talented dancers showcase their skills

By thindmarch

Hundreds of amateur dancers from across the county will take to The Regent stage this month for a taster of how life is for the professionals, writes Tamzin Hindmarch

A STAGGERING 80 local dance groups step into the limelight on The Regent's magnificent stage this month when they take part in the 09 Dance festival.

In total they will perform 240 pieces of dance which they have created especially for the annual event.

Among the organisers are Regent Theatre and Victoria Hall creative learning officer John Coughlan, who together with his manager Jo Blagg, has been involved in the festivals since they began in 2002.

John says: "Over nine nights, there will be something like 1,800 dancers taking to the stage, the youngest being primary school children right through to university students and older ladies who belong to the Fit For Living group for over 55s."

Each year, themes are chosen as a guideline for participants and for 2009 they are Art Deco, Love, and Legends, Art Deco having been introduced because this year marks the 80th year since the building that houses The Regent, with its 1920s-style decor, was built. As usual, the groups have come up with a hugely diverse range of ideas.

John says: "Springfield Special School have adopted the Legends approach, and have based their performance around the story of Burslem witch Molly Leigh, which is nice.

"For Love, one of our own in-house summer school groups who first got together in the half-term holidays last autumn have thought about how young people see love and what it means to them.

"Meanwhile, St Margaret Ward Catholic High School have taken on Art Deco, and we will be seeing their pupils doing The Charleston.

He adds: "It's good to see so many groups now really embracing the themes.

"One of the nicest things for me is to see people coming back year on year, and seeing how they have developed and improved over the last 12 months each time. It's always nice to see a handful of new groups too."

Jo says: "And it's not just a case of us plopping the dancers on stage. We aim to make it a big experience for them. They are able to learn about theatre etiquette, they are assisted by the technical crew, they get to see inside a dressing room with the bulbs around the make-up mirror, and as each show is recorded, they can go home and watch their own performance afterwards.

"The festival is something of a big beast to organise, but what's most overpowering for me is when I'm standing in the wings watching, and I see one of the youngest children getting ready to go on stage for the first time with a tear in their eye, saying, 'I can't believe I'm doing this!'."

Jenny Brennan, who runs Kidsgrove-based Jenny Brennan School Of Dance, has been entering her own students into the festival for the last five years. This year their pieces have been specially choreographed by one of her teachers, Gareth Ridge.

"It's such a big thing for them to do," she explains. We do put on our own dance shows, but it is a very different thing to be performing at The Regent Theatre.

"For dancers with aspirations to become a professional performer, to be able to appear on the same stage upon which they've seen their favourite shows being staged makes it a more special experience for them."

The reason this opportunity exists is all down to The Regent Theatre's long-standing chief executive Richard Wingate, for whom the festival remains a highlight of the arts calendar.

"It goes back to my fundamental belief that a theatre like The Regent is embedded within the community, and that's what it's there for," he says.

"It's main role is to bring the best quality shows you can see to the people of Stoke-on-Trent, but there's another incredibly important role it plays, and that's to be used by the community. It was my aspiration in the first place that we should have something like this, but it has been very much down to Jo and her team to make it work.

"The pleasure I get out of it is in seeing all the work that goes into it now, and how what was originally a little gem of an idea has grown into something amazing."

09 Dance is at The Regent Theatre in Hanley from Thursday, January 22, to Saturday, January 31. Call the box office on 0870 060 6649.