Hampshire Youth Dance Company (HYDC) 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, where it is supported with rehearsal space by The Point.

Hannily Bendell of Replica Dance is the company’s new rehearsal director.

The company has worked with a diverse range of professional choreographers including: Yael Flexer, Leon Baugh, Ben Wright, Jonathon Lunn, .Keira Martin and Bawren Tavaziva.

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

In 2010 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 August 2011: Hampshire Dance took the difficult decision to stop running NoCo, the county hip hop youth dance company based in Basingstoke. This was due to low participant numbers at this year’s auditions and the on-going challenges of securing year-on-year funding for the company.

Over the past seven years NoCo developed a reputation for producing consistently high quality and innovative hip hop dance theatre, working with artists like Kofi Mingo, Kenrick Sandy, Jake Nwogu, Hakeem Onibudo and Irven Lewis.

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, which was performed at U.Dance South East 2011 in Surrey and at The Haymarket in Basingstoke.

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