Burscough dance group win big at Variety Stars 2012

Nov 7 2012

Titanium 1st

SINGERS and dancers from the Kelly Shirley School of Dance, sponsored by Booths, based at studios in Burscough have once again been performing for a local crowd at the Ormskirk Civic Hall.

On Saturday October 27, 12 soloists and groups from the school successfully got through the first round of auditions to perform a range of different talents in Variety Stars 2012 held at the Ormskirk Civic Hall. Performances ranged from ballet, through to jazz dance, acrobatics, singing and even a musical theatre medley.

Following the earlier success this year of her Northern Stars Dance and Singing Competitions, organiser Amanda Baldwin launched a new competition aimed at budding new variety stars aged between 6 and 16. After a well attended round of auditions in September with over 40 variety acts auditioning, the judges managed to narrow the field down to 15 competitors who performed in a fantastic show on Saturday evening which included everything from classical violin and piano through to juggling!

The judges of the competition, Joan Durham, previous principal of her own theatre school, and Adam Christopher, proprietor of Adam Christopher Music in Burscough, agreed that “The standard of the competition was extremely high and very varied, all those competitors who performed were excellent and it made for a very entertaining competition”

The title of Variety Stars Winner 2012 was awarded to Titanium, a troupe of dancers from the Kelly Shirley School of Dance in a unanimous decision by the judges. 2nd place was awarded to Olivia Karalius, aged 11, who performed a song by Adele, also from the Kelly Shirley School of Dance, and 3rd place was awarded jointly to dancer, Bradley Rimmer and Abi Singleton, aged 13, once again from the Kelly Shirley School of Dance, for a Ballet solo.

Variety Stars organiser Amanda Baldwin was delighted with the performances of the competitors and said how wonderful it was to host such a varied event.

The Kelly Shirley School of Dance can now also claim a hat trick of victories in all three genres of this competition, with their routine ‘Latin Fever’ winning the Dance competition in early 2012, other dancers from the school taking both 2^nd and 3^rd places. Solo singer Ben Darcy from the school took the Song Stars title later in the year with Ella Hicks, also from the school taking 3^rd place, so adding the Variety Stars title crowns the school official Northern Stars Champions for 2012!

Dance School Principal Kelly Tobin said ‘I would like to say huge congratulations to all of our competitors who performed brilliantly; it was wonderful for the school to come away with a clean sweep of winners trophies! The standard of the competition was fantastic and I would also like to congratulate all of the other performers who did themselves proud.’

The Kelly Shirley School of Dance offers classes in Ballet, Tap, Modern, Jazz, Show work, Competition classes, Acrobatics, Pas de Deux, Drama, Vocal Coaching and Irish dance classes for boys and girls of all abilities aged 18months – 21years.

The students are in training at the moment for a full programme of shows and competitions during the remainder of 2012 and 2013. For more information please contact Kelly on 01704 824918, or 07772 490430.