Dance Factory was a children's television show which ran for nine weeks from March to May 2005 at 10.30am on BBC One. It was simulcast on the CBBC Channel. It was hosted by Reggie Yates, better known as the host of Top of the Pops, with co-presenters Camilla Dallerup and Nigel Clarke. Camilla paired with David Dickinson and Roger Black in the BBC series, Strictly Come Dancing, while Nigel was better known as a host from Nickelodeon and professional dancer with the Stomp company.
The aim of the show was to pair six non-dancers with experts their own age in Bhangra, Irish dancing, pop, tap dancing, hip hop and musical theatre styles. The contestants were drawn from all over the UK, and auditions were held in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow and Belfast.
The next phase of the show saw the experts teaching their new partners how to dance, and also saw them meeting some showbiz stars to pick up tips along the way. These included Michael Flatley, of Riverdance fame; Rio Ferdinand, the England and Manchester United star; Denise Lewis, Olympic gold medallist (also seen in Strictly Come Dancing) and the cast of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in London's West End.
After six weeks of intense training and rehearsal, the contestants were thrust into live semi-finals, each of which saw one pair eliminated from the competition by CBBC viewers. The musical theatre pair of Stacey and Josh were eliminated first, followed by Teejay and Tom, the Bhangra pair, the week after.
In a specially-extended final, the Irish dancing pair of Claire and Gavin went away with the title of Dance Factory Champions and won a dream trip to New York. The runners up were Naoimh and her partner, dancing tap.
Famous quotes containing the words dance and/or factory:
“Yes, dance. Dance and dream. Dream that you’re Mrs. Henry Jekyll of Harley Street, dancing with your own butler and six footmen. Dream that they’ve all turned into white mice and crawled into an eternal pumpkin.”
—John Lee Mahin (1902–1984)
“I am not a suffragist, nor do I believe in “careers” for women, especially a “career” in factory and mill where most working women have their “careers.” A great responsibility rests upon woman—the training of children. This is her most beautiful task.”
—Mother Jones (1830–1930)