My daughter loves dancing and performing at home with us but can be quite shy. During the summer school holidays she did a holiday workshop with Flex Dance, they learned a musical to showcase in 3 days (she did Willy Wonka) to perform back to the parents at the end and she really enjoyed it, so we started her at their regulars weekly classes in September. Since she started they have been working towards their winter showcase, a weekend show at Wyke College which they performed in December 2019.
Flex Dance do classes in musical theatre and street dance so she was working on 2 routines for the showcase. Her musical theatre was Alice in Wonderland and her street dance was a funky dance to a popular song I know but couldn’t tell you who it was as I am not ‘down with the kids’ enough to know the artist! Flex Dance run classes at lots of venues across Hull and West Hull villages and the showcase is made up of some of the different venue classes, they rotate and do other classes at different times so all students get a chance to show their parents what they have been doing.
As the show approached my daughter was really excited, practicing the routines at home and talking about it none stop. I was worried she would panic last minute, go very shy and not want to go but I was completely wrong! On show day she dropped off with her teacher without any clinging, came out on the stage with a big smile, looked like she thoroughly enjoyed performing and couldn’t wait to do the next performance!
The showcase was just done on one day, a Sunday, so didn’t take up all our weekend. There were two shows in the day, then she came home for tea, and went back for a final show early evening. The venue at Wyke is quite small so not intimidating and really easy to get to, park at and watch from. They had chaperones and extra helpers brought in so none of the parents needed to help backstage and miss out on watching. It also didn’t cost a lot unlike other dance shows I’ve heard of. We just bought 1 costume for the Alice in Wonderland routine, the street dance routine she just wore her usual Flex dance uniform of black leggings and Flex T shirt.
The showcase and all of the classes seem very relaxed and fun, the focus is on the child enjoying their time there and making friends and having fun. The show wasn’t perfect and it wasn’t polished but it was fabulous to see so many children all enjoying what they were doing and having a blast. I feel we have found the right place for my daughter to improve her confidence, develop a love of dancing and most importantly enjoy herself.
My daughter started back at Flex Dance classes last week after the Christmas break and came back buzzing with the news that they are now working on the summer showcase, which will be Wizard of Oz!
If you’d like to try Flex Dance you can find all the venues they run classes from in East Hull here and in West Hull & Villages here. Or visit their website here for more info. Suitable for ages 4+ years and first class is free. They also have options for children to progress into youth groups that are more advanced, plus training and coaching for those that want to continue to progress to an advanced level.
