This week, 10 people with disabilities performed in the Dance Westminster grand final held at Porchester Hall, hosted by Westminster City Council in partnership with award-winning dance company Step Change Studios.
The Strictly-esque initiative provides free dance workshops where participants can learn an exciting new routine. This year, we saw 103 disabled people take part in the workshops.
Auditions then took place to search for the 10 finalists who would compete for the 2025 Dance Westminster Champions’ Trophy and the 2025 DW People’s Choice award, chosen on the day by the audience.
Judged by our three fabulous celebrity judges (Wayne Sleep OBE, Angela Rippon CBE and Flavia Cacace-Mistry), finalists showed off their impressive dance moves to a wide variety of dance styles in front of over 230 audience members.
The age of the 10 finalists ranges from 13 to 92 years-old, and includes people who have dementia, autism, learning difficulties and varying mobility needs. A variety of dance styles was represented, including Latin, Bollywood, Contemporary, Ballet, Musical Theatre, and Hip Hop.
After an incredible showcase of talent, the winner of this year’s Dance Westminster was Daniel and dance partner Liam, who danced to ‘Take me to church’.
Daniel said:
“I felt very impressed with myself. It was such an honour to dance in this year’s competition and I was supported by all my family and friends.”
The winner of the People’s Choice award was June and her dance partner, who danced to ‘Swan Lake’.
June said:
“I’m still in shock I won people’s choice champion. I can’t believe I didn’t believe in myself to be able to dance still. I’m just so happy that I was able to it. I’m so thankful for the whole experience”
Cllr Cara Sanquest, Cabinet Member for Communities at Westminster City Council said:
“Dance Westminster is an amazing opportunity to celebrate the talents of people with disabilities who live, work and study in Westminster.
“Congratulations to everyone who took part, and to all the staff and volunteers who work hard to bring our communities together. Everyone who put themselves forward to take part has done themselves proud – and well done to our winners!”
The full list of winners and finalists can be found here.
Since Dance Westminster started back in December 2019, it has:
- Engaged 554 disabled participants in live workshops
- Provided over 430 hours of free dance training
- Attracted over 950 live audience members from the community
- 1,624 views of the Dance Westminster highlights film on the Step Change Studios YouTube site
- Delivered 170 hours of inclusive community classes for disabled people.
Dance Westminster has become a key programme for Westminster City Council, included in both its Cultural and ActiveWestminster strategies to support residents’ (both participants and audience) physical and mental wellbeing.
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