Hear from Tyrone about his volunteer experience with us at U.Dance 2024 West Midlands regional platform.

I am a professional performer with Spectra arts Company who has been acting, singing, and dancing for 12 years.

I first worked with FABRIC in 2021 for Birmingham International Dance Festival (BIDF), I made my first dance film called ‘Passing Time’ with Spectra Arts Company that was premiered as part of the festival . I then started doing workshops and volunteering with Jamaal O’Driscoll, FABRIC’s Participation Lead at Bishop Vesey grammar school PE class with year 7 – I loved it!

I was most recently a volunteer for U.Dance WM on 20 April at FABRIC, Birmingham Hippodrome.

The first part of my day was taking part in three dance workshops alongside the U.Dance participants. I did Humanhood, Vasillki Pappapostolu’s FUSION & Chantelle’s Krump class.

My favourite dance workshop was FUSION because I got taught a lot of moves and how fast the energy was and also the class was really nice.

The workshops made me feel really proud that I was part of them and very happy I was taking part.

The tutors were nice and made me feel very welcome and encouraged me to join even though I had never done the styles before. One tutor gave me a big hug and told me they were proud of me especially as I was the only disabled person in the class.

For the dress rehearsal, I sat right at the front by the stage I was very impressed and chuffed, and it made me feel very proud.

I enjoyed all the performances in equal measure so I can’t really pick a favourite as I loved all of them.

I like volunteering because of all the different dance classes and different ages of people and the experience I gained from the day as it made me feel proud!