On Sunday 12th March, women from all backgrounds and expertise levels came together to take part in a first-of-its-kind choreographed dance routine to raise money for We Love MCR Charity.
Over 50 women signed up for a high-intensity session where they were taught an original piece of choreography to Beyoncé classic 'Run The World (Girls)', which was performed at the end and will be showcased in a video soon. Including sponsorship and registration fees, the total raised was just over £1,300!
The event was masterminded by Danielle Collier, an accomplished SOS Dance Instructor who reached out to us for support in making her plans a reality, combining her passion of supporting Manchester causes with her top-class dance skills. Despite her years of experience with SOS, the amount of sign-ups made it the single largest group of dancers she's ever taught!
SOS Dance are a UK-wide dance studio with a mission to empower a generation of women to believe in themselves, using dance as a source of strength, power and confidence, which they can carry through into every aspect of their lives. The women in the room on Sunday definitely felt that strength!
We Love MCR's Grants Manager, Marie O'Neill-Steinegger, took part and said the event was fantastic:
"Exhilarating doesn't do it justice, Danielle made us feel pumped and ready to take on anything. We may have felt out of our comfort zone at first, but by the end it felt like we could take on anything! It was brilliant to be surrounded by so many powerful women, and perfect to have happened in the same week as International Women's Day."
Danielle said afterwards:
"Teaching the We Love MCR event was the most incredible and special event I've taught to date! The energy, slay and support in the room was NEXT LEVEL from my family & friends, SOS regulars and those that were doing an SOS dance class for the first time.
"It was an absolute honour to teach this empowering Beyoncé class to raise money for We Love MCR, empowering participants to go after their dreams whilst raising money for the charity, contributing to the dreams of Manchester's neighbourhoods and young people. I can't wait for the next one already!"
Huge thanks to Danielle and the SOS Dance team from all of us at We Love MCR! Support like this ensures we can keep supporting communities and young people across Manchester.
Watch the teaser video below, and keep an eye out for a full performance video coming soon!
[Video credit: Instagram @poluetka]
[all other picture credits: Dylan4Photography, one of our former Rising Stars!]
