We went to Showtown Museum to the launch of Capital Of Dance - a month-long celebration of the dance heritage in Blackpool.
Lucinda Herbert speaks to those involved in the festival, and meets an instructor who teaches an over-50s ballet class.
From community workshops and taster sessions to theatre shows and an art exhibition, visit capitalofdance.com to find out how you can get involved.
Lucinda Herbert speaks to those involved in the festival, and meets an instructor who teaches an over-50s ballet class.
From community workshops and taster sessions to theatre shows and an art exhibition, visit capitalofdance.com to find out how you can get involved.
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NewsTranscript
00:00We are building on the amazing dance heritage that Blackpool has, which we believe is unrivaled
00:05anywhere in the UK. If you remember back from the Victorian era, dance trains used to bring
00:10people into Blackpool to dance on the piers. Then during the 1930s and 40s, we had swing
00:16dance in the Tower Ballroom and in the Empress Ballroom with the big bands. Then we went through
00:21the years of heyday of variety with lots of showgirls in every theatre, twice nightly,
00:26disco, Northern Soul, super clubs, and now of course it's everybody's aspiration. Every
00:32Strictly Come Dancing pro wants to get to Blackpool with their partner and celebrity
00:36partner. So there is nowhere quite like Blackpool for dance, and this month we'll celebrate that
00:41dance heritage with over 140 events across the month. The last count for visitation annually
00:47to Blackpool is 20 million people. It's the UK's most popular seaside resort, so we just need to
00:53keep reinventing ourselves and creating more reasons to come. So Capital of Dance is perfect
00:58for that. Everybody watches Strictly. It's in our beautiful Blackpool Tower Ballroom in November.
01:04They've heard of the ballrooms at the Winter Gardens, Ice Dance at the Pleasure Beach,
01:09creating more and more reasons for people to come to Blackpool. But also, and more importantly,
01:14it's about getting the local community involved, getting those guys out into the town centre,
01:19and to engage with all of the activity. Blackpool and dance are synonymous,
01:24and it's now about celebrating that. And I'm immensely actually proud to be here today,
01:30because I'm bringing all these people, and when it's dance actually, it doesn't matter what your age,
01:39you can enjoy dancing movement. And when you're dancing, you're actually not only exercising,
01:45it brings a whole lot of joy, and you're emotionally, you're there with the people,
01:50like-minded people, and creating community where we can offer those classes for all the people,
01:58where it's friendly, inclusive, and that's what they can do when they're retired, or they have
02:04a time to revisit what they've been doing before, or it was a dream to do it sometime in their life.
02:11I'll be delivering a few workshops in the town centre, as a part of a capital of dance,
02:16workshops when my dancers will come, and then we're delivering some workshops that can enjoy
02:22and get involved, not matter what age, or, you know, if you had to try it again, or is it something
02:29you wanted to do, just try it out, and it'll be amazing, I think, for everybody. It's all ranges,
02:35whether you want to dance and you're trained, or you want to just watch and enjoy,
02:43there's lots going on, it's a four-week programme, people need to go to the website,
02:48capitalofdance.com, there's a full listing on there, it's across all of the major venues in
02:53Blackpool, and also outdoors as well, lots of activity for all ranges, for all ages.