Professional dancer credits Ashton youth club for his success

Musician and dancer Dale Coleridge has said that learning dance at Broadoak Community Centre in Ashton put him on the right path - but worries that government cuts will stop kids having the same opportunity.

A professional dancer from Ashton has credited the local youth groups he went to growing up for his success, and is hoping more can be done to fund them.

Dale Coleridge, 27, who is a musician and dancer, will take on Manchester’s International Festival this July alongside home-grown and worldwide talent in a show called ‘Alphabus’.

The show, which will make its world-wide premier at the festival, been devised by New York-based dance company ‘FlexN’ joining Manchester's spoken-word group Young Identity – in a “synergy of transatlantic street dance and vital poetry… for a dynamic and ambitious show.”

But Dale says that if it wasn’t for Broadoak and Smallshaw Community Centre in Ashton, which introduced him to dance as an alternative outlet to being out on the streets, he would have gone down “the wrong path.”

He said: “I will admit that when I was 14/15, I was caught up in the wrong crowd… my Mum was working hard all day and I was a pain. But at least she knew that when I was at the Youth Club I was safe and had someone keeping an eye on me.”

“I ended up going to Broadoaks and saw they put on a dance class... I really enjoyed the five-week course and ended up going to Hyde Clarendon College to study BTEC dance and performing arts.

“After that we’d come back to the club to use the space to practise – it taught us how to be adults and gave us a lifeline.”

Once Dale finished college, in 2015 his tutors suggested he audition for FlexN, a street dance and ‘flexing’ dance group: the style is an offshoot of Jamaican dancehall that started on the streets of Brooklyn. He successfully got in.

Currently in intensive rehearsals for Alphabus, Dale says that government cuts to youth services are stopping other kids getting the same opportunities - and hopes that more will be done to keep them running.

“Broadoaks is where I spent huge, key parts of my life. Even when you’re naughty, you deserve to be guided by an elder figure and looked after… otherwise problems snowball.

“It’s about getting hold of these kids and letting them have an outlet and build a platform that’s targeted at everyone.

“I was so close to going down that wrong path, but at youth club, it was like a moth going to a light and I’ve come out of it OK.”

Alphabus will be shown at Manchester International Festival from Friday 5 to Sunday 7 July at Unit 5, Great Northern Warehouse. You can find out more here: https://mif.co.uk/whats-on/alphabus