World Cup competition has city dancers on their toes
Forty pupils at The Worx – Dance Theatre Arts are set to join another 120,000 competitors from 62 different countries at the Dance World Cup as part of Team England.
Students at The Worx – Dance Theatre Arts on Sunderland’s High Street West will be competing in the final of the Dance World Cup on Saturday, August 14, in Telford, Shropshire – with the aim of winning gold, silver and bronze medals, as well as points, for Team England.
In doing so, the dance school will be the first from Sunderland to take part in the competition, which will be held at the Telford International Centre.
Sisters Keeran Greener and Bethany Coyne set up The Worx 11 years ago after dancing themselves from a young age – and even launched a two-year Btec course as part of The Worx Academy last September.
Co-principal Keeran has revealed her pride at how many pupils have qualified for the competition after such a difficult year caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
She said: “We’ve got six solo performers, two duets and then a group of 40 all competing which is just great.
"It is really huge to make it to the final due to the ridiculous amount of numbers that audition for it and then only five acts are chosen for even genre so we’re quite lucky to have as many in the finals as we do.
"It has been a really difficult year so I’m really proud of everyone, especially after 18 months worth of training on Zoom.
"Other than having a photo in their Team England outfits, the finals will be the first event since the pandemic started that they will be competing together as a team.
"So on the back of all the challenges that they have faced, it is an exciting way to come back and I wish them all well.”
The Sunderland dance school hit the headlines last year after North East schoolchildren Lily and Joseph, who trained there, made it through to the finals of the TV programme The Greatest Dancer on BBC One.
Lily is set to be a solo performer at the Dance World Cup.