Tap Attack, the official England Tap Team have once again shown the tap dancing world that they are a force to be reckoned with by returning from the 2015 International Dance Organisation’s World Tap Championships with an incredible 5 World Titles – and young Island dancer Spencer Darlaston Jones was part of that team.
This was the eighth year England have competed in the Championships, held in Riesa, Germany, alongside nearly 1800 dancers from more 19 countries including the USA, Canada, Australia, Japan and a host of other European countries.
The 35 strong-team included junior Spencer Darlaston Jones of Whippingham, who competed alongside his team mates from all over England. The team had to dance their way through the qualifiers and semi-finals before reaching the finals. The dancers showed great ambition and determination as they fought to defend their titles.
The juniors successfully defended their 2014 Junior Formation title with a dance inspired by The Wizard of Oz and The Wiz. The 24 dancers bought a modern twist to these classic films, showing how versatile tap can be. For the third time in 5 years the juniors also won the Junior Small Group title, the piece called “Heartbreaker” showed a great energy between the 7 dancers.
Spencer, whose mum runs the Suzanne School of Dance, collected a bronze medal in the Junior Male Solo section and also won a gold int he Adult trio section.
The England team is filled by Tap Attack; a tap dance company comprised of the most talented tappers from around the UK aged 12 – 22. Dancers undergo a rigorous audition process for entry to the company and then further auditions to secure a spot on the team.
The team’s head coach and creative director Jo Scanlan said:
“Each year the competition gets harder, the level of preparation increases and the standard from all the competitors just gets better. As a country and a team we’ve had phenomenal success over the past 5 years but I am particularly proud of the way the England team have worked this year, showing a great work ethic and determination to maintain our high standards and proving above all that hard work really does pay off.”
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James Doubtfire, coach and artistic director and Resident Director of the world famous Tap Dogs, is also incredibly proud of their team. James said:
“This amazing team have worked hard to prove they are some of the best tap dancers, this year’s competition was extremely tough”.
