Wirral youngsters set for bright future after winning Alesha’s Street Dance Stars

Sep 5 2012 by Tina Miles, Heswall News

A DANCE group from Wirral are set for a bright future after winning a nationwide television talent show.

Anamal Dance Company’s Future Pride celebrated coming first in Alesha’s Street Dance Stars with a huge party.

The crew of 11-15 year olds have now set their sights on performing on other TV shows after being named champions of the Alesha Dixon series.

Choreographer Anna Malone is predicting more big things for the winners from her Hoylake dance school.

Anna, who has owned Anamal for eight years, said the victory was a major achievement for the dedicated youngsters.

She said: “It was a bit surreal because we just thought we’d have a go. We aimed to do our best but our guys didn’t expect to win.

“The kids put their heart and soul into it – that’s all we ask for – but their confidence and their skills increased at every stage.

“They were really humble. They just took each stage as it came and went from strength to strength. They were so committed and worked for it so we are just over the moon to have won.

“The kids are ecstatic and still can’t believe that out of all those teams they got to bring the trophy back to Merseyside.”

The CBBC series showed former Strictly Come Dancing judge Alesha scour the nation for Britain’s most original, entertaining and accomplished young street dancers.

Anamal’s Future Pride squad competed in a series of auditions, rounds and finals before winning a “money can’t buy prize” for their Alice In Wonderland-inspired piece.

Anna, 29, from Upton, said: “The show was an amazing experience and they were up against the very best of the UK street dance talent.

“Last year’s winners were asked to perform on other television shows and they went to Las Vegas to compete in a big competition.

“The judges said they were even more impressed with the talent and effort this year so hopefully something will come along.”

Anamal were champions of Now That’s What We Call Culture talent show at the Echo Arena in 2008. Earlier this year they were named runners-up in the Liverpool Unites In Dance show.

The eight performers on Alesha’s show represented of a team of 14 who as a 14-piece crew then went on to win the under-14 advanced United Dance Organisation (UDO) World Street Dance Championships 2012 on Sunday, August 26.

Anamal’s Cubs-Crew also battled through heats and finals to become the UDO under-10 newcomers in the championships.