YOUNGSTERS were treated to a workshop from a globally-renowned dance theatre company.

Dance graduates and enthusiasts took part in an afternoon workshop by the Motionhouse Dance Company at the Swindon Dance studio.

The workshop came ahead of Motionhouse’s performance at the Wyvern theatre.

Junior Cunningham, rehearsal director at Motionhouse, said: “This is an exciting and expressive workshop. It is fantastic for the students to take part in this.

“Motionhouse is all about encouraging young people to take an interest and dance.”

The dancers were joined by Swindon Dance teachers for the two-hour session which included warm-ups and learning a choreographed sequence.

Emily Gibbs, 23, dance development coordinator at Swindon Dance, said: “I am excited about this workshop because it is nice to take time for myself and develop my skills further.

“This workshop gives you that experience of dance with presentation skills too.

Motionhouse teaches contemporary dance theatre and aims to communicate and convey emotion through dance.

“Their show Broken examines the fragile relationship humans have with the earth.”

Emily added: “This form of dance is like ballet in reverse. Ballet needs to be quite upright and opposed but still fluid. Contemporary dance is a little earthier because it is from the ground up and quite a free form of dance. You can feel a real connection to peoples’ emotions through the dance.”

Emily, who studied dance at Bath Spa University, believes dance encourages people to express themselves in different ways.

She said: “Swindon has a large dancing community and we are very busy here. Dance encourages people to try a different way of learning, a different behaviour and learn something new and feel good about themselves.”

Swindon Dance has recently received funding from the Arts Council for a further three years. Upcoming projects include the Boys Only weekend programme, aimed at encouraging boys of all ages to dance, with a course for disabled children also set to be launched in the coming weeks.

Students at the studio range from toddlers to an 80-year-old woman taking ballet The studio teaches urban, contemporary, Caribbean and classical dance, such as ballet.