TV triumph for resort’s top street dancers

​The urban dancers from school FY Wingz were invited by acclaimed artist and choreographer Tim Noble to perform alongside other groups from across the North West during filming for Dance Mums.

The TV programme, starring actress and dancer Jennifer Ellison, follows her dance school as it takes on the best in the competitive world of dance – and this time round it was a competition called Stars Of The Future.

More accustomed to meeting other ballet, tap and modern dancers, producers of the show decided to invite more modern urban dancers to add a new element to the programme, which was aired on channel Lifetime, and enlisted the help of the Blackpool-based troupe.

Dancer Ryan Fenton, 19, from Layton, said: “We were the only street dance school, and it’s quite a different style, but they wanted a street style to compare to contemporary ballet and tap on the show. It was a bit of a new world for some of our dancers. We definitely held our own.”

The group’s younger dancers, 13-year-old Sam Wise and Callum Adamthwaite-Smith, 15, took home third place in their first competition outside of the urban dance circuit.

And Ryan took home first prize in his category, after judges said he “left his heart on the dance floor” and topped all the other acts.

He added: “The judges said I danced like I meant it. It felt weird to win, I didn’t expect it because we did a different side to dance.”

Deborah Wise, Sam’s mum, said: “It was like the street dancers were going into an unknown world.

“They were up against jazz, ballet and tap dancers and people doing musical theatre, they were there to shake it up.”

The FY Wingz dancers are now practicing for the finals of Stars Of The Future, to be held at Viva Showbar Blackpool on May 25, after qualifying while filming for Dance Mums.