Capital of Dance launch at Showtown Museum

Blackpool Gazette

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.

Transcript

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.

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