Image + Edit by Elly Welford Photography with additional editing for branding by Oli Bentley, Split Studio

 DISCO QUEEN - Community Engagement

The community engagement work in Disco Queen exists to:

  • authentically represent Freestyle now by including the voices & dancing of young people within the show (interviews & visuals)

  • invite Freestyle audiences into dance, arts & cultural spaces to see the work and improve access and understanding of the contemporary dance world for the private Freestyle sector

  • provide opportunities for young Freestyle dancers to be involved in a professional production and have workshop opportunities with Ella in which they learn how to tell their own story through using dance

  • introduce contemporary dancers to the Freestyle form and share approaches to working with Freestyle from a contemporary dance-making perspective

Scroll down to find out about the process so far

WHAT IS DISCO FREESTYLE DANCE?

Ella Tighe, Daisy the Dog, Anna Jones, Sarah Shead

Freestyle dance evolved out of the 1978 film Saturday Night Fever. The dances in the film were so popular that people fled to discos and clubs to learn the routines danced in the film and Disco dancing was born! Pioneered by Anna Jones and colleagues, Disco dancing over the decades since 1978 evolved into Freestyle dance. A competitive dance form practiced by young people across the UK. In 2024 Freestyle dance is divided into fast and slow dance; with fast being what Freestyle is recognised for - the routines consisting of drag runs, high kicks, illusions, barrel jumps, split jumps, acrobatics and intricate fluid transitions to ensure dancers get seen by every judge around the floor in the 40 seconds they have to compete against the other dancers in their category. It is practiced to hardcore dance/techno music featuring remixed pop songs at paces of 180BPM.

WHAT THE YOUNG PEOPLE HAVE SAID ABOUT DISCO QUEEN

“This workshop was very fun and doing creative tasks with Freestyle was very new to me. I enjoyed learning how to tell my story through dancing” Sophia, Bingley Dance Studio

“I realised how to feel my emotions in my dancing through the contemporary routine and I learnt that being a Freestyle dancer makes me unique” Millie, Bingley Dance Studio

“Freestyle dancing means everything to me. I couldn’t imagine my life without my dance school and teacher and I just want to make my dance teacher proud”, Freestyle Dancer’s written comments from The British Championships

BRITISH CHAMPIONSHIPS 2023

At the British Championships we spoke to approx 200 young people who told us about our experiences of being a Freestyle dancer and how they felt competing that day. They also “designed their dream Freestyle Costume” and filled a full wall with designs!

Trailer by Wayne Sables, Sound by MARF, Voiceover by Andrew Wilson, Produced by Spin Arts

TESTIMONIALS FROM DANCERS/WORKSHOPS ETC

Image by Christian Kipp, Moving Forwards by Movement Connect

"I enjoyed the disco freestyle as it was something I did when I was younger and it was nice to do something different to what I usually do which is creative/contemporary. It pushed me out of my comfort zone and made me question how my assumptions about dance changed when I went into contemporary dance" Moving Forwards workshop participant, January 2024

“I have never done anything like Freestyle before! What a style - high energy, thrilling, exhilarating - it made me feel alive and it felt important to own my body as a women and dance in ways that feel sassy and feminine” Moving Forwards workshop participant, January 2024

“I know that you yourself was a former freestyle dancer, so it's great that you are following through and doing this project to show , which I hope will be a great success” Anna Jones, Pioneer of Freestyle dance

Click here to read Disco Queen’s Children, Young People & Vulnerable Adult’s Safeguarding policy