Street Beat celebrates a decade of dance

It was ten years ago that the first weekly dancing classes were opened and the organisation has gone from strength to strength since.

Director Kim Oakley explained: “The story all began back in 2000 when I decided to run day workshops on my visits back home from London with just ten local children under the name of Yorkshire Street Beat.

“On my return back to the Isle in 2007, following the completion of my solicitor exams and sadly leaving my London dance crew, I decided to open a few classes whist working in a law firm full time. On May 17 2007 I opened the door to my first regular weekly dance class - little did I know where this would lead.

“I decided to leave the legal profession to take Street Beat on full time. Now, ten years down the line, I could never have anticipated we would be where we are now.

“The growth of Street Beat has been a huge learning curve, figuring out many things as I went along, making mistakes and also achieving many successes. There have been low points, sad times and times when I wanted to jack the whole thing in but there have mainly been amazing times, times that made all of the struggle worth while.”

The company now has over 250 students and runs on average 45 sessions per week crossing Doncaster, Scunthorpe and the Isle teaching many different styles from ballet and tap to urban dance, contemporary, cheerleading and multicultural dance within the community and in education. The dancers have appeared on many TV shows, performed at charity functionss, festivals and corporate events and competed all over the world, coming third in the World Street Dance Championships in 2015 and fourth in the European Street Dance Championships 2016.

Kim added: “I am so proud of how the company has developed and I could not have done it without an amazing team of staff behind me and the support of friends and family - so I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for all of their dedication, hard-work and talent.”

A special tenth anniversary show takes place at the Plowright Theatre in Scunthorpe on June 30 and July 1, visit http://www.plowrighttheatre.com/ for more details and tickets.