Dance classes for everyone: principal Karen Scott-Roe
teaches members of Bacup’s Dansworks Dance Academy’s
integrated dance class. Picture by Ruud van Ruitenbeek
Dansworks Dance Academy in Bacup secured a Lancashire Break Time grant from the county council meaning the tailored courses can now be offered at a minimum charge of just £1.

It is hoped that the success of the classes can lead to the development of a special needs dance curriculum that could spread across the country. Dansworks business development manager Dale Connearn has already been contacted by a school in Spain to see how they can learn from the Bacup academy.

Principal Karen Scott-Roe said: “We believe that dance is an experience to be shared by all regardless of age, ability or disability. I have extensive experience of working with children and adults with physical and learning disabilities and have a passion to make dance accessible to those who have previously thought it not possible.

“We have primary and secondary school age classes on a Saturday and people travel from all over Lancashire to attend sessions. We are hoping these will prove even more popular now we have the grant to help parents offset the costs.

“Our classes rely heavily on help from volunteers to provide one-to-one support when needed. We need places to be pre-booked to ensure we have enough helpers.”

Dale said: “From a business perspective it costs to put the lessons on but the pupils get so much out of it and we enjoy putting them on. This grant will make the sessions much more affordable.”

The lessons cover a variety of different dance genres from street dance to Irish dancing, which promotes working with partners. Participants complete exams and also take part in shows and performances put on by Dansworks.

One of the class members is five-year-old Catherine Christie from Bacup. Her mum Pippa said: “I am so proud of my little girl Catherine for getting her dance rosette, thanks to Dansworks Dance Academy for giving special needs children the chance to be like everybody else and do something normal for a change.”

Five-year-old Amelie Seedall suffers from ataxia, which affects her balance, co-ordination and speech and she needs a frame to get about independently; her brother Archie, two, has the same genetic condition but it affects him in different ways and he has little speech. Dancing dreams: Amelie Seedall and her mum Nylee Balls at Dansworks. Their mum Nyree Balls, 35, from Rawtenstall, said her daughter loves ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ and whenever it’s on TV she dances around the living room with her dad John Seedall. She said: “She adores dancing but we believed that because of her condition, Amelie would not be able to achieve her dream of attending dance classes. Then we heard about Dansworks Dance Academy. “Amelie started attending dance classes five months ago and already we’ve seen a vast improvement in her balance, speed, co-ordination and cognitive skills. It has also given her the confidence to believe in her own abilities and she is really happy and proud of her achievements.” Nyree said doctors had said the form of ataxia her children have is more common in older people, but she said they were both happy and lived life to the full. Amelie, a pupil at St Paul’s School, Constablelee, is just one of the success stories from the special classes held at the academy every Saturday afternoon. Members travel miles to attend and their mothers praised the patience and understanding of principal Karen Scott-Roe and the volunteers in ensuring each class is tailored to their children’s individual needs. Kay Kendall from Whalley brings her 10-year-old daughter Katie Buck for lessons. Katie is Down’s Syndrome. Kay said: “Katie is physical and is always on the go and although she has learning difficulties she is a healthy child. She needs someone to be patient and understand her needs and make her feel special and at Dansworks she feels wanted. “She had been coming here since October and she gets very excited when Saturdays come around because she loves the class.” Members have a variety of difficulties and are aged 5 to 18, but business development manager Dale Connearn said: “After age 18 members are welcome to continue attending our adult integrated class.” And that is just what Letitia Hurst, 17, and Jenny Parkin,18, are planning to do. Soon they are both moving into supported living in a shared-house in Colne, but they have no intentions of giving up the dance class they love. Dance is for everyone: Principal Karen Scott-Roe dances with Letitia Hurst at Dansworks. Jenny, who greets all visitors to Dansworks by dancing with them, has been coming to lessons for 18 months while Letitia joined a year ago and the two have become great friends. Jenny’s mum Diane, from Barrowford, said: “Jenny has autism but she loves music and she feels totally at home here. She watches what people do and copies. She loves it probably because she owns it and gets such a lot out of the lessons.” Principal Karen said: “We believe that dance is an experience to be shared by all regardless of age, ability or disability. I have extensive experience of working with children and adults with physical and learning disabilities and have a passion to make dance accessible to those who have previously thought it not possible. “Our Integrated Dance classes are great fun and suitable for everyone.”

Jacob Ainsworth, nine, and Heathcliff Howard, eight, both in Year 4, represented Britannia Primary School and won their section in the National School’s Street Dance Championships Final in the Winter Gardens in Blackpool.

Champions: Heathcliff Howard and Jacob Ainsworth with Twist and Pulse

They were even more thrilled when former Britain’s Got Talent runners up Twist and Pulse announced the result and also put on a special performance.

Both boys dance at Dansworks Dance Academy in the Pioneer Buildings and the academy also runs classes at their school.

They were among the youngest contestants as this is the first time primary school children have been eligible for the competition.

Jacob has been street dancing for 18 months and Heathcliff for two years but they have only been dancing as a duo for a year.

“I really enjoy dancing, it is a good way to make new friends,” said Jacob. While Heathcliff added: “It is good to work hard and have fun.”

Heathcliff admitted he was nervous before they danced but ‘screamed his head off’ when they were announced as the winners.

Headteacher of Britannia Primary School Mike Hull said: “I think it is an absolutely fantastic performance and we are very proud to have two national champions in school.

“They did a demonstration dance for the school at the start of the term and having seen them dance they are clearly very good. It is nice to have boys involved in dance and it creates a real stir in school.”

The boys earned their place in the final after winning their section at the UDO Yorkshire Street Dancing Championships held in Bradford.

Two other Dansworks teams in the competition both represented Thorn Primary School. They comprised Jack Leigh, eight, and Shannon Cokell, nine, and Regan Cokell, seven, and her sister Kirsten, six.

Principal of Dansworks Karen Scott-Roe said: “I am so thrilled for Jacob and Heathcliff they are fantastic dancers and put a lot of hard work into their training.

“We took about 30 dancers to the Bradford competition aged from six to 44 and Jack and Shannon also performed well and came third.”

The popularity of street dancing on talent shows has led to an increased the number of boys seeking lessons.
Karen said: “Our classes are excellent for boosting confidence, helping with focusing issues and improving boys’ school work.”

But it was not just youngsters competing in Bradford, the adult crew at Dansworks, Unhinged, made up of many of the parents of young dancers, entered their first competition and came in third.

Karen said: “The adult crew have only been dancing together for three months and they did excellently well. Before they went on I think they were more nervous than children who were competing.”

Two crews from Dansworks have now qualified for the World Street Dance Finals in Blackpool next summer – under 10s Slingshot and Unhinged.

Dansworks works in eight primary and secondary schools from Rawtenstall to Shawforth and any school looking to hold sessions can contact Karen on

YOUNG dancers from a studio in Bacup scooped an amazing 33 trophies and nine medals from a single competition.

The members of Bacup’s Dansworks Dance Academy, aged 6 to 16, competed in the Greater Manchester Street Dancing Competition at the Longfield Suite in Prestwich.

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TROPHY success: The street dancing crew from Bacup’s
Dansworks Dance Academy and teacher Lizzy Goodman.

Of the 18 children, some had danced in front of judges before but several were entering the solo and duo competitions for the first time.

Principal at Dansworks Karen Scott-Roe said: “I was not able to attend and so was receiving texts from the teachers and I could not believe how well they were doing.

“Their dance teacher Lizzy Goodman has only been teaching here since September 2010 and she choreographed all the routines. She is doing an amazing job for someone who has only just started teaching.”

Lizzy said: “It was really good and there was a really good atmosphere. I wasn’t expecting them to do as well as they did but as soon as the first trophies were awarded we just seemed to be on a roll.

“I don’t think about my role in their dancing when they are performing, it is just about the children enjoying what they are doing and about the effort they are putting in.”

Karen said: “We had children enter the break-dancing competition and electric boogie, which are both unchoreographed forms of dance. The judges did a small demonstration of electric boogie and the children just had to freestyle it.”

In the street dancing competition Dansworks seven-strong team Slingshot was first in the under 12′s while the nine-members of Hypnotize were second in the under 16′s.

In break-dancing, eight-year-old Jack Leigh was second in the under 12′s category and Declan Ashton, 14, who was entering his first competition, came fourth.

In the under 12′s competition for electric boogie Emily Rogers, 11, was third, Isabella Harding, 9, was fourth and Jack Leigh was eighth. Declan Ashton came third in the under 16′s.

Slingshot will also be performing in the World Championships next summer at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool after qualifying at an earlier competition.

Street dancing family... Jack, Jayden and Kelsey Leigh

Being born with the congenital deformity talipes or club foot, both his feet were put into plaster casts at just five days old to manipulate his feet into the right direction. At eight weeks he was then fitted with special boots and braces, which he had to wear round the clock for eight months, to stop his feet from further deformity.

Now the three-year-old has just passed his first street dancing rosette, after principal at Bacup’s Dansworks Dance Academy Karen Scott-Roe sought special dispensation for the toddler to take his exam early.

She said: “Children are supposed to be three when they take the exam, but Jayden was just a few days off his birthday.

“He attends classes with his four-year-old sister Kelsey and he wanted to be able to take the exam with her so we applied to the International Dance Teachers’ Association for permission. He passed the exam with flying colours.”

His mum Vicky, 30, of Rose Bank Street, Bacup, said: “When I went for my 20-week scan they identified that he had club foot and when he was born both his feet were like a banana shape, pointing the wrong way, and he had no ankles

“When he was a baby we used to say Jayden had funky feet, it was a way of coping with it. He couldn’t crawl like other children because he had to wear the boots and frame and he would drag his straight legs to move about. He was 18 months old before he developed a heel and 20 months before he could walk unaided.”

Now Jayden is just like any other child at Dansworks, performing an assisted handstand, playing air guitar, doing the splits and greeting everyone with a cheeky smile and a giggle.

Full-time mum Vicky said: “His older brother Jack, eight, also attends Dansworks and has been performing in street dancing competitions so Jayden was always copying him.

“Kelsey started lessons at 18 months and Jayden joined her six months ago.

“Karen has been brilliant with him. His muscles were wasting away because he was not able to use them for so long but thanks to the dance routines, and learning different positions, he has been able to stretch his ligaments and the hospital is amazed at how well he is doing.

“They were planning for him to have an operation on his tendons, but it looks like that now won’t need to take place.

“It has been a big thing for him to come dancing. It has brought him out of himself, made him more flexible, really improved his confidence and his social skills.”

Jayden starts at Bacup Nursery School in September. He is still under the consultant at Manchester Children’s Hospital and he will be wearing his boots and braces overnight for 12 hours each day until he is five.
His sister Kelsey was also born with club foot, but because her condition was less severe than Jayden’s it could be rectified by physiotherapy. Club foot affects one in 1,000 births.

Vicky added: “It is just amazing to see him now in the dance classes. I am very proud of all my children and Jayden is my little star.”

Charlie with her trophies

Charlie, 9, attends classes five days a week at Bacup’s Dansworks Dance Academy.  She took part in the Simmons Dance Festival in Ainsworth and won gold medals and trophies for the junior tap solo and junior song and dance.

Principal of Dansworks Dance Academy Karen Scott-Roe said: “Charlie was asked by the adjudicator to perform her tap solo again in the ‘best of festival’ at the end of the competition. She was then was surprised to be presented with ‘most promising novice’ for the whole festival which is open to both junior and seniors aged 7-16.”

Charlie, from Hoghton Avenue, Bacup, who said she enjoys tap and ballet the best, said: “I was not expecting to win and was delighted when they announced my name. My mum Julie and dad Michael were there and they were really pleased and proud.”

Julie said: “She just enjoys dancing so much and she has got a lot more confidence through going to the dance classes. We are very proud of her.”

Charlie now has so many trophies her mum said they were considering building a new shelf just to house them.

Her dance teacher Karen said: “She does every style of dancing from street dance to ballet and musical theatre. She is doing really well and just achieved a distinction in her Royal Academy of Dance ballet exam.

“We have worked very hard on improving her technique and especially her stage presence and confidence, which are all absolutely vital in order to compete. She has really risen to the challenge and has become an amazing little performer! She has only just started entering competitions and it was only the second time she had performed the tap solo. We could not have asked for a better result.”

And Charlie will be in another competition on October 9 when she takes part in The UDO Midland Street Dance Championships in Stoke. Her street dance crew from Dansworks go under the name Hypnotize.

As well as being a dancer, Charlie is also a skilful cornet player playing with Whitworth Vale and Healey Band, Rochdale Junior Band, her school’s band at Smithy Bridge Primary in Littleborough, and working towards her Grade 5.

When she is not playing the cornet or doing singing lessons Charlie is not the only dancer to have received an award recently, as Dansworks Dance Academy held its presentation night at Bacup Hub in September when 120 exam awards were handed out and dancers gave demonstrations of different dance styles from Irish dance to musical theatre.

The school is the only one to offer special needs dance for adults and children and class members also received exam awards at the Hub.

Dansworks Dance Academy was selected by the organisers of the Children In Need fund-raiser, The Performers’ Project, to help launch the tapathon event in June when Pudsey visited the studio to teach dancers the routine.

Tapping for Pudsey: Members of Bacup Dansworks Dance
Academy raise funds for Children In Need by joining the
world record attempt.

The organisers were aiming for the most dancers performing the same tap dancing routine at the same time at different locations.

Principal Karen Scott-Roe said: “We had 30 participants aged from two to 64. It was a fantastic fun event.

“People came in from about noon and we all practised the routine. Then we got the text through from The Performers’ Project and the countdown began.

“We had to have people witness the dance and we took photographs and videos of the performance and have uploaded them to our Facebook site.

“Everyone who came had a fantastic time and there were loads of happy smiling faces.”

Dansworks raised nearly £200 for the BBC appeal and will be participating in future Children In Need activities.

Slingshot is a junior crew of street dancers aged eight to 10 from Bacup’s Dansworks Dance Academy who performed in their first competition at the prestigious UDO Midland Street Dance Championships in Stoke.

Dancing to success: Slingshot

Business development manager Dale Connearn said: “We had two teams enter the competition, our under 18s called Hypnotize and Slingshot who were in the junior class. Considering it was the first time they had competed and they were up against more than 70 other groups who were of an incredibly high standard they did superbly well. There were 1,200 competitors performing routines in the sports centre.

“The juniors got fourth place and that qualifies them for the World Championships to be held at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool over a weekend next August.”

Slingshot has only been practising as a crew since May and astounded parents, and themselves, with their success.

Jack Leigh, eight, said: “I was quite excited and also nervous at the competition but when I get dancing it feels like I am in space and I can do whatever I want to.”

Jade Rawstron, 10, added: “As soon as we all got to dancing I didn’t feel scared. I have only taken part in one show before and I was delighted we did so well.

“Dancing is really exciting, it makes me happy and I enjoy it. I used to go somewhere else to dance but I didn’t enjoy it much; I love it here.”

Also in the crew were nine-year-olds Emily Biel, Jacob Ainsworth, Shannon Cokell, Isabella Harding and Heathcliff Howard, eight,

The academy, in Pioneer Buildings, also runs adult street dance classes and the adult team will be competing in a competition in November in Bradford and is soon to set up a tots class for three-year-olds.

Slingshot’s teacher Lizzy Goodman said: “They were going just for a practice run and so they surprised all of us with how well they did. We are now working on new routines for more competitions in November and working towards next year’s final.”

Last month youths, some as young as nine, ran amok in Bacup town centre smashing windows and property in a rampage which mimicked rioting in larger towns and cities.

Backing Bacup: Karen Scott-Roe, principal of
Danceworks Dance Academy, and Dale
Connearn, business development manager.

Dansworks Dance Academy, in the Pioneer Buildings, was founded in 2008 and moved into its town centre studio a year ago.

Principal Karen Scott-Roe and her fiance Dale Connearn, business development manager, run the dance studio.

Former borough councillor Dale is born and bred Bacup. He said: “I love Bacup and have always been involved with projects for young people.

“There is so much out there for youngsters to do they have no reason to be hanging about on a street corner claiming to be bored.

“Last Saturday I walked between our studio and the Post Office and there were smashed beer glasses outside the neighbourhood office, the kebab shop had a window put through and I passed numerous smashed bottles of alcopops. It just makes me feel so sad that this is my town.”

At the studio street dance proves popular with girls and boys with a number of teenagers busy in rehearsals for their first competition at The UDO Midland Street Dance Championships in October.

Karen, a dance teacher for 20 years, said: “In our junior street dance section, under 10s, we have more boys than girls in the classes and we also have many older teenage girls and boys in the senior section.

“We get a lot of children coming into the dance studios enquiring about classes; is it not better for them to be learning dance rather than hanging around in the town centre.”

Dale, who was also a postman in the town, a community development worker and former leisure hall manager, said: “It is all about achieving your potential. Any gang is only a few at the top – the rest are just followers.

“If you want to make a difference and take control of your life instead of following the crowd why not take up a hobby? We have lads who do street dance and after three to six months you see a real change in them. They are more confident and have something to aspire to.”

Karen added: “The feedback from parents is tremendous. They tell us how their children have more confidence and self-esteem and their school work has improved since taking up dance classes.”