Medway sees 10,000 dancers waltz their way to the International Dance Festival

The performers come from around the world, with hopes of winning qualification to the prestigious Royal Albert Hall finals.  Finn Macdiarmid reports.

Transcript

00:00This week, Medway SportsCenter has been hosting tens of thousands of dancers from 60 different

00:05countries around the world in the International Dance Festival, where the performers can qualify

00:10for the prestigious finals of the Royal Albert Hall.

00:13And one dancing duo have come all the way from Ukraine to compete, but it hasn't been

00:17an easy journey.

00:18And I would like to tell about what happens in Ukraine now and the country we're living

00:24now, where we came from, and it's really hard to train as we do.

00:31Actually every night, every night we hear like booms and we hear that the drones, the rockets,

00:43they fly somewhere near and yes, and that's really hard, every night is hard.

00:50Maria and Kostiantin are 10 and 11, joining one of the many groups of young dancers, with

00:55other groups of different styles, ages and abilities also taking part.

00:59I'd almost call it the Battle Royale of Dance, and that's because, as you can see, the performers

01:04have to strut their stuff in large groups, vying for the judges' attention and for their

01:09high rankings.

01:10Anyone who says dance isn't a sport certainly hasn't seen it done like this before.

01:15And with thousands of people here for an event lasting from the morning until the late hours

01:19of the night, volunteer translators have been called in from across the Medway towns to

01:23help the participants.

01:24I think Saturday there was a couple of people that came along, they were looking really just

01:30to prepare themselves for the following day.

01:33So it was good just to be able to converse with them, just make them feel at ease, just

01:38be able to bring them down to the reception, the main reception area as well, just to welcome

01:44them into the front entrance or so, and also just to, just pleasantries, it's just nice

01:50to be able to welcome them in from that perspective as well and just to make them feel at ease.

01:55This marks the fifth time that Medway have hosted the event, all starting with a coincidental

02:00meeting.

02:01This got started through one of our actual council officers here having a chance conversation

02:06with a local dance coordinator and it's just built from there.

02:10And this is, it's growing from two days a week to now this festival's five days and

02:15it's so popular.

02:17It's really good for the local economy, but you need to go inside and have a look for yourself.

02:22The event runs from 6am until 1 in the morning, so even though the dancers are only on stage

02:26for a few minutes, some could be there for up to 19 hours, making it more of a marathon

02:31than a moonwalk.

02:33Finn McDermid for KMTV in Medway.