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Boys lead rush to studios in summer dance boom

Anna Davis, Education Correspondent
8 Jun 2009


More boys than ever before are joining dance troupes as a street dance craze sweeps London.

Thousands have signed up for classes after seeing all-male groups Diversity and Flawless on Britain's Got Talent.

Schools and councils are organising their own lessons to cope with the sudden rise in demand.

The number of boys and men going to classes at Pineapple, London's biggest dance studio, has risen by 850 a month and for the first time more than half of its 84 teachers are men.

It is building a new studio at its Covent Garden base to cope with the numbers.

London's most popular groups are rushing to put on extra classes. Zoe Aston, 22, whose troupe Interlude is based at Pineapple, said: "There is a massive boom in male dancing. Any stigma that was attached to boys dancing has disappeared."

Tekla Galova, 33, manages Hypnotick, the Brent-based British street dance champions. She said: "We only started Hypnotick last year and there was just one boy, but now eight of the 16 members are boys.

"When they first come they stand in the corner, but after a while they get really loud."

The growing interest in dance among young people is so strong that Brent council is organising a dance month in July.

Melissa Inman, Brent's arts and festivals support officer, said: "Brent is so diverse culturally we find dance is a way that people from all walks of life can share something active. We have one class that fuses Bollywood and hip-hop styles."

Jeremy Gill-Praba, an 18-year-old from Brent, started with Hypnotick two months ago.

He said: "I saw them at my local leisure centre and realised one of my friends was in the group and he told me to come along. Everyone I have told thinks it's cool."

Pineapple has 7,000 pupils every month and in May 2,800 of these were male, a rise from 1,950 a year ago.

Spokesman Caleb Newman said: "The studios are so packed sometimes people take a stereo on to the street and dance there. It looks like a scene from Fame."

Tamara Kramer, 28, from Watford, who runs a troupe called Masters of Movement, said: "Since Britain's Got Talent I have been getting about 50 calls a day, mostly boys."

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