Pupils prepare to dance their hearts out at competition

SECONDARY school pupils say they are '˜100 per cent ready' for an upcoming regional dance competition.
Pupils from Brune Park Community School in Gosport prepare to take part in a forthcoming national dance competition in Bournemouth. 
Picture: Ian Hargreaves  (181107-1)Pupils from Brune Park Community School in Gosport prepare to take part in a forthcoming national dance competition in Bournemouth. 
Picture: Ian Hargreaves  (181107-1)
Pupils from Brune Park Community School in Gosport prepare to take part in a forthcoming national dance competition in Bournemouth. Picture: Ian Hargreaves (181107-1)

Dancers from Brune Park Community School in Military Road, Gosport, will be taking part in the U.Dance south west regional competition on Sunday, with the hopes of making it to the national finals in Leeds.

Many of the entrants in the competition are from established dance academies, rather than schools.

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The team of 16 dancers has been rehearsing since the start of the school year, and students are looking forward to the event.

Emma Merchant-Locke, from Year 9, said: ‘Our dance teachers told us about the competition and we decided it would be fun to enter.’

She added: ‘I really do think we can make it to the finals – our rehearsals have gone really well and we’re really looking forward to it.’

Nick Nutt, also in Year 9, said: ‘We have done some performances outside of school in the past, but we have never done anything like this.

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‘The performance we are doing is quite an emotional dance due to the nature of the music – so as a group we have tried to avoid doing anything too gimmicky and have kept it serious.’

The students will be performing a piece called Aberfan ‘A Generation Wiped Out’ – a piece that marks the Aberfan coal tip disaster, when 116 children were killed in a collapse near Merthyr Tydfil in Wales.

Teacher Emma Godsall has praised the dedication and energy of the school’s dancers.

She said: ‘U.Dance is a national competition – we’ll be entering the regional finals in Bournemouth at the end of this week.

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‘All of these students either study dance or performing arts – some even do both – but this group of pupils was put together specifically for the U.Dance competition.

‘Collectively we are both excited and nervous about it at the same time, but above all I am absolutely thrilled for these guys.

‘They have all worked incredibly hard on the performance and are a genuine credit to themselves, to their parents and to the school.

‘Whatever the result is for us on Sunday, we are so proud of what they have achieved.’