Here, Dance Informa invites Angela Rippon to share her update on the Let’s Dance campaign.
I have three important dates highlighted in my diary for the next several weeks: Saturday February 7th, Wednesday March 4th, and Sunday March 8th. Each one is a milestone in the progress of the Let’s Dance campaign.
On Saturday February 7th, we are staging the press launch of the Let’s Dance campaign for 2026. Ten dance groups will perform in the stunning marbled Grand Hall of the historic building known as The Old Bailey. Through the generosity of the City of London Corporation, the groups will represent a variety of dance styles, to showcase the “super power” that is dance and promote the nationwide event that brings thousands of dance teachers and new dancers together on Sunday March 8th.
Our press launch has become a fabulous showcase for dance. It’s being covered live by BBC Television in their Saturday morning Breakfast show and highlights the way in which dance is so much more than brilliant entertainment or an exciting career pathway. It’s also a fun and dynamic way of keeping fit throughout your life and provides incredible support to people with specific health conditions.
Alongside dancer groups ranging in age from 12 to 80, we have a group dancing with Parkinson’s to show how dance can transform their lives by strengthening their core, their balance and improving their coordination. My co-director, the internationally famous choreographer, Dame Arlene Phillips, has created a whole new work for Parkinson’s teachers and dancers, which will be premiered at the launch. It will then be made available to every Parkinson’s class in the country.
Men from The Big Movement collective will show how dance has helped them combat mental health issues. They will be dancing out of their darkness, and showing how collectively their “Men Moving for Mental Health” programme confirms that what really matters is togetherness, bravery and knowing that support is always there.
These are just two of the projects we are working on with the National Health Service to improve areas of our nation’s health. Our dancers are collectively providing a powerful argument for the inclusion of dance in so many areas of our Health Service.
But there’s more! We have unbridled fun and “girl power” from the Mum’s da Word group of mums whose ages range from 30 to 80, and who are European streetdance champions. Our young Black in the Ballroom dancers will show that the ballroom does not have to be “all white”. And our Silver Swans throw out preconceptions about ballet with their version of a “Ballet Howdown” from the musical Oklahoma!
With Bollywood, jazz funk, and contemporary dance all stepping into the spotlight, our Press Launch will be a spectacular demonstration of the pure joy that dance brings to people, regardless of age, ambitions, and physical conditions.
It all helps to promote our Let’s Dance! message to non-dancers in the country – that dance really is something they should think about if they want to get fit, have fun, meet new friends, and think about living long and healthy lives well past retirement.
The dance teachers who are affiliated with Let’s Dance are brilliant at getting this message across to new dancers. But over the past two years, since founding Let’s Dance!, I’ve recognised that we also have to work hard at getting the power of dance recognised by various government departments. For example, our National Health Service, where we hope to help save money through our medically-based dance programmes. But also in education, where we have a constant battle to keep some form of physical activity as part of the curriculum in our schools. We are constantly demonstrating the way in which dance in particular, can reduce classroom disruption, bullying, and lead to fewer exclusions and less absenteeism. As well as improving concentration and team building.
Which brings me to the second of my important dates: Wednesday March the 4th.
On that day, the Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, has agreed that we can have a dance session in Portcullis House, which is the building that houses most of the MP’s offices. He will be sending out invitations to all 600+ members in the House of Commons over the next few weeks, encouraging them to join me.
For half an hour on that morning, a group of six dancers from the television programme Strictly Come Dancing will join me for a presentation to the MPs outlining the ways in which dance is brilliant for the health and well-being of mind and body, as well as being a great way to get fit. Then, led by my Strictly partner Kai Widdrington, we will teach them the basic cha cha cha and waltz, then have a disco-style session of whatever they want to dance, before they all go off to prepare for Prime Minister’s Question Time.
I already have MPs saying they are keen to take part – so it should be a blast!
But most importantly, it will help to promote the third of my important dates: Sunday March 8th.
That is our National Day of Dance for 2026, when over 20,000 dance teachers all over the country will be opening their doors and inviting people in to discover what dance can do for them. They are all doing something different. Some will give free lessons, workshops and demonstration classes. Others will join in one of our “Hubs” and get together with other teachers to give a variety of classes. Once again, The Eden Project in Cornwall will be one of the largest “Hub” days. But there will also be events in Scotland at Dumfries House, in Northern Ireland, during a massive competition weekend involving over a hundred schools. The Royal Ballet School had such an incredible response last year, with over 600 people attending classes throughout the day, with a waiting list of almost a thousand. So they are planning to be even bigger this year to accommodate the huge interest in their programmes.
We have Bhangra all day in Birmingham, free classes at the wonderful purpose-built dance theatre at Sadler’s Wells East in Stratford. And so much more.
Along with Kai Widdrington and Dame Arlene Phillips, we plan to get to as many of the events in central London as time and traffic will allow. And be online to other groups throughout the country.
So, the next few weeks are going to be pretty busy for everyone involved with Let’s Dance! But what a joy, to see it all coming together as the nation turns up the volume, and says, “Okay. Let’s Dance!”
Find out more and how you can be involved with National Let’s Dance Day on Sunday 8th March at lets-dance.org.uk.
