Blackpool Illuminations Team To The Rescue of Dance Company

Blackpool Council’s Illuminations team came to the rescue of a fundraiser for a local youth theatre school by providing a light show in support of a day long neon dance-a-thon.

Class Act Theatre School hosts weekly sessions for a range of kids ranging from 5-18 years of age, with many children hailing from some of the most deprived communities of central Blackpool.

School Director, Rachel Sykes, explained: “We have a wonderful range of talented children attending our weekly dance, drama and singing sessions, but we recognise the financial strain many families are under in the current economic climate. We aim to keep costs to a minimum which means we are constantly on the lookout for low cost options for props and costumes needed for our shows.

We came up with a fundraising idea of a day-long neon dance-a-thon, a sort of 70’s disco throwback. A great idea at the time but we underestimated the cost of supplying a lighting system to bring to life our hall at Holy Family Church, Claremont. That’s where the Illuminations team came in with special thanks to Steve Shaw who gave up his time to install the lighting rig. The kids loved the special effects and danced till they dropped – helping us raise over £800! on the day. We can’t thank them enough. Even the parents joined in.”

Michael Wilcocks, Head of Blackpool Illuminations said, “We heard Class Act were in need of some special disco and ultra violet lights for their fundraiser and were only too pleased to help.

“We don’t often get recognised for the work we do in the community and this is an excellent example, albeit fairly last minute where we were able to support a really worthwhile cause with around 100 children helping raise funds for their theatre school.”

Website: www.classacttheatreschool.com