ballroom

Competition dresses to nurture local talent at The Dance Base

We are delighted to announce we’re supporting The Dance Base in the purchase of competition dresses to help their students compete at a national level.

Based in Great Yarmouth, The Dance Base teach Ballroom and Latin dancing, making the sport accessible to both adults and children, from complete beginners to more experienced levels. The organisation has over 200 members and offers opportunities for members to compete across the country and even internationally.

An increasing number of children are reaching competition level, meaning more competition dresses are needed to enable them to compete at national competitions, including the National Grand Finals in Blackpool. Megan Reeves, The Dance Base Director, is focused on supporting families who, due to limited finances, would otherwise not be able to afford to take classes nor compete.

From a young age, Megan from Gorleston, worked three jobs to help pay for her own dresses and lessons and has since achieved working with Strictly stars, appearing on national television, as well as competing nationally and internationally. Megan set up The Dance Base to support and encourage local talent, with a strong focus on keeping costs down so the sport is as accessible as possible to families in the area and to enable talented children to achieve their best at competition level. In order to keep costs down for dance students’ parents, competition dresses, usually £100 each, are currently purchased by Megan using her own personal funds. Megan sought funding to enable her to offer more places for children wishing to compete.

Megan said “We cannot thank Great Yarmouth Sport and Leisure Trust enough for their support. With their help, it means that we can share our love and passion with our community, as well as helping to cherish and nurture the talent of local dancers. This fund will allow us to financially support those with lower incomes to reach the highs of competing in the home of ballroom dancing, Blackpool Winter Gardens. We will be able to provide uniform and fabulous competition dresses for those who may not otherwise be able to participate in such wonderful events. We welcome everyone, from any background, to our studio and our fabulous ballroom world and funds like this help us to make it as accessible and inclusive as we possibly can.”

For the latest news on The Dance Base, visit their website and follow on Facebook and Instagram.

We wish The Dance Base continued success for the future and look forward to seeing their progress along the way.

If you are part of an amazing sport or leisure team and would like to apply for up to £500 of funding, we are taking applications for awarding in May 2023.