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Where are they now?

50% of the young people that come through Ludus Youth Dance Company (LYDC) go on to study at prestigious conservatoires across the country and almost all go on to take on further dance training within a Higher Educational institute.

Here's what previous members of LYDC have gone on to do...

Ian Garside came from a non-dance background and through attending a dance session with a friend became a regular and committed member of Preston Youth Dance. Ian then auditioned successfully for LYDC, and the experience gained within the company inspired him to pursue dance further. Ian received a place to study dance at The Laban Centre in 2004 and is now touring across Belgium with a Dance company. Being a member of LYDC gave Ian a strong passion for dance and gave him the platform to pursue dance professionally on the world stage.

Lucy Starkey joined LYDC in 2000 when she was 14 years of age. The training gained by Lucy equipped her to study at The Place from 2005-2008 and then perform as a member of The Verve.

Hal Smith, joined Rambert in 2007

Phil Turner joined Rambert in 2006

Jenny Reed joined LYDC in 2002 when she was 14 years old and then studied at The Place from 2007.

Kip Johnson was a member of LYDC and his experiences within the company gave him the skills and enthusiasm to study dance further. Kip was accepted into the Northern School Of Contemporary Dance in 2006, and since graduating, he has performed in The Bare Bones piece, Protein piece and was invited back to work with LYDC in 2009 to create a piece on the company. This work was then toured nationally in many professional venues including The Nuffield Theatre, Lancaster, The Hippodrome in Birmingham for U.Dance England 2010, The Lowry and the Heron Theatre.

This year Lilly Turner, Rosie Bates and Josh Hawkins have all been accepted onto further training programmes at The Laban Centre, The Arts Educational and Northern School of Contemporary Dance to begin in September 2010.

Two previous members of LYDC currently work for Ludus Dance. Andy Strachan and Sarah Hall have both come through LYDC and have progressed through to teaching for Ludus as part-time Community Dance Artists.