Hampshire Youth Dance Company (HYDC) supported by The Point Eastleigh, has a well-established reputation for the high quality of its work and the opportunities it offers talented dancers. Many past members have gone on to pursue full-time dance training and to embark on dance careers.

The company works in contemporary dance and rehearses weekly and during October and February half-terms in Eastleigh.

Carrie Whitaker of Lila Dance is the company’s rehearsal director and has been working with the group since September 2006.

The company has worked with a diverse range of professional choreographers including: Aletta Collins, Colin Poole, Bawren Tavaziva, Ben Wright, Keira Martin and Jonathan Lunn.

HYDC were successful in being selected to perform in the National Youth Dance Festival 2008 and have performed in numerous venues across the south east.

In 2004 the company took part in Innervations a ground-breaking collaboration with a neuroscientist supported by the Wellcome Trust.

Last year they took part in an exciting project with the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research at the University of Southampton as part of the VitaliSE regional tour in Spring 2010.

August 2011: Hampshire Dance has taken the difficult decision to stop running NoCo, the county hip hop youth dance company based in Basingstoke. This is due to low participant numbers at this year’s auditions and the on-going challenges of securing year-on-year funding for the company.

Hampshire Dance and NoCo’s former Rehearsal Director, Vikkie Steege of T21 Dance, are sad to see NoCo come to an end. However, young people will still be able to access high quality hip hop dance opportunities in Basingstoke through T21’s class programme. Hampshire Dance and T21 Dance will be working together to ensure that this provision continues into the future and that young people are signposted effectively to T21 classes.

Over the past seven years NoCo has developed a reputation for producing consistently high quality and innovative hip hop dance theatre. Previously commissioned artists include Kofi Mingo, Kenrick Sandy, Jake Nwogu, Hakeem Onibudo and Irven Lewis. Last year alone, NoCo worked with Tony Adigun (Artistic Director of Avant Garde Dance Company) and Simeon Qsyea (choreographer for JLS and featured on BBC's 'So You Think You Can Dance?)

The high quality of NoCo's work has been recognised at performances at Breakin’ Convention, YDE’s National Youth Dance Festivals and many other local and regional dance platforms.

Hampshire Dance would like to thank all of NoCo’s previous funders and the many dance artists who have contributed to NoCo’s success over recent years.

In 2010-11 Hampshire Dance ran a pilot project to set up the first regional South Asian youth dance company for the south east of England. EKANATYAM was a company of gifted young dancers working together with a shared passion for the different dance movement languages originating from India. Many styles, one dance - the next generation..

Auditions were held to find talented and enthusiastic young dancers to join the company under the artistic direction of acclaimed dancer and choreographer, Mayuri Boonham. Mayuri's work has been presented at The Royal Opera House, The Place, South Bank Centre, Italy and Spain. Widely known and respected for her role as joint Artistic Director and Choreographer of Angika Dance Company (1997-2008), her choreography is informed by her abiding passion for evolving the movement language of classical Bharata Natyam.

8 gifted young dancers aged 13-18 were selected from across the south east and rehearsed with Mayuri during spring 2011. Using a painting by Kandinsky and principles around the concept of revolutionary science, they created an exceptional new dance work entitled Paradigm Shift.

EKANATYAM performed Paradigm Shift at:
U.Dance South East 2011 in Surrey on 20 March 2011 and,
'An Evening of South Asian Dance' at The Haymarket in Basingstoke on 30 March 2011

EKANATYAM was managed by Hampshire Dance with support from The Big Lottery Fund (through the chances4change programme) and Youth Dance England.