Posts Tagged ‘Kate Lawler’

IDFB Dance Challenge – and the winner is…

Well our brave group of dancers-in-training made it to the end of the IDFB Dance Challenge, and I’m pleased to say that there were no tears and very few tantrums!  Everyone put a lot of effort into learning their individual dance styles and they’ve all had fun trying to master the moves.  Attendance at classes has been very good, with Louisa James and Keith Gabriel both achieving ‘Teacher’s Pet’ status for managing to attend every single one of their classes.

Jodie Schofield had a great time in her final class – getting in touch with her inner hippy with a number from the musical Hair.  Paul Sargent can hardly stop his toes from tapping now, and he has even admitted to breaking into dance routines in his kitchen!  Fionnuala Bourke has been throwing some very funky moves in her Club Jazz classes and Satnam Rana attended some of her hip hop classes at The IDFB Shop in Pavilions.

Lastly, we unfortunately have a slight casualty to report – Kate Lawler had to pull out of the challenge due to an old knee injury flaring up again.  She’s been ordered to rest, although she’s such a busy person we’re not sure whether this is actually possible for her!  Anyway, we all wish her a speedy recovery and are very glad that she enjoyed the Capoeira classes she came to.

Several of our budding dance stars also performed at the grand finale of IDFB 2010 – Put Your Foot Down at Bullring on 15 May.  See Louisa’s brilliant nutcracker solo and Satnam’s hip hop performance (complete with stage invasion from hip hop star Salah!), plus Jodie and the Musical Dance beginners did a great rendition of a piece from Sister Act!

Finally, David Massingham (Co-Artistic Director of the Festival) was responsible for making the difficult decision of who made the most improvement over the last two months of classes.  I’m delighted to announce that the winner of the IDFB 2010 Dance Challenge is…Louisa James.

David Massingham with Louisa James, winner of the IDFB Dance Challenge

David commented: “Although Louisa still has some way to go before she joins BRB, I feel she made a huge amount of technical progress during this short period of classes!

“I’m delighted to hear that she will be continuing to attend ballet classes at DanceXchange.”

Thanks to all of our participants, the tutors and everyone else in the Festival team who helped to make this happen.

Dance Challenge Update

Well, our intrepid dancers-in-training have been attending their classes for several weeks now and we thought it’s only fair to let you see what they’ve been up to.

Satnam Rana from BBC Midlands Today has been throwing some funky moves in her hip hop class, whilst Paul Sargent from Brewin Dolphin has been mistaken on several occasions for Gene Kelly in his tap dancing classes! Kate Lawler from Kerrang! Radio is getting into the Brazilian spirit at her Capeoira classes, and at her last class joined in her first Joda (pronounced hor-da).

Louisa James from ITV Central News is really starting to look the part as a ballet dancer and Keith Gabriel from Citigate has been leaping about the studio in his Contemporary classes.  Fionnuala Bourke from Birmingham Mail is looking very cool in her Club Jazz classes, whilst Jodie Schofield from Smooth Radio has been learning routines from films such as Bugsy Malone, Guys and Dolls and Sister Act in her Musical Dance classes.

It seems to be neck and neck at the moment, so they’ve got everything to work for in the final few weeks to try and win the IDFB Dance Challenge!

First lessons – the aftermath

Now they’ve been to their first class, our IDFB Dance Challenge stars share their thoughts on how they got on:

*Fionnuala Bourke – Club Jazz*

*Paul Sargent – Tap*

*Keith Gabriel – Contemporary*

*Jodie Schofield – Musical Dance*

*Louisa James – Ballet*

*Kate Lawler – Capoeira*

*Satnam Rana – Hip Hop*

And so… they came, they danced, but will they conquer the dance floor next week? You can follow what happens to all our Dance Challenge participants here and on Twitter.