Exeter group selected for national youth festival

A group of talented young dancers from Exeter have been selected to take part in national youth dance festival U.Dance 2018.

Exeter Youth Dance Company, from Exeter, will perform their successful dance piece at the nation’s largest national youth dance festival, taking place this July at the beautiful Jerwood DanceHouse in Ipswich.

They join an impressive line-up of twelve dance groups, selected from over 290 entrants nationwide through a series of 20 regional heats.

One Dance UK’s Head of Children and Young People, Claire Somerville, comments: “We were overwhelmed this year with hundreds of applications from youth dance groups from across the country. The standard was exceptionally high and each group can consider themselves winners, having come as far as the regional platform.”

Coming to the East of England for the first time, One Dance UK’s national youth dance festival this year partners with regional agency, DanceEast. Based at its home, Jerwood DanceHouse, U.Dance 2018 will present an exciting opportunity for youth dance groups to perform on-stage, hone their skills in professional dance workshops, and meet and work with other young dancers from across the region.

Exeter Youth Dance Company’s piece is entitled May I Be Many. Exeter Youth Dance Company (EYDC) strives to offer dancers an insight into the multidisciplinary, intercultural and diverse ways of working as a professional dance artist. Classes are primarily contemporary based, but dancers will engage with a range of styles, including Bharatanatyam, Kalaripayattu, African forms, folk dances and contact partnering. EYDC is based at Exeter Phoenix and supported by Dance in Devon and Exeter City Council.

Andrew Hurst, Chief Executive of One Dance UK says: “The U.Dance national youth dance festival is an important event on the national dance calendar. From the regional platforms to the Festival itself, U.Dance engages with more than 2,000 young dancers, encouraging them in the pursuit of excellence in dance and embarking on careers in dance, highlighting one of One Dance UK’s key aspirations – to raise the profile of dance teaching and practice in all its diverse forms.”