The West Cornwall Youth Trust, a local enterprise that helps charities working with disadvantaged or disabled children, has funded a second project with local charity and dance school, The Big Dance Company, based in Penzance.

The Trust’s financial support of £3,600 will be used for a bursary scheme to allow children from any background to come to the school and have an hour dance class each week. Fiona Richardson, director of the charity and professional dancer, has seen some fantastic results from working with the Trust.

“We ran a similar project with West Cornwall Youth Trust last year and it’s great to see how many of the young people that got involved then have really integrated with the school already,” she said. “We really hope to achieve the same level of success - if not more - this year.”

The scheme in 2013 helped various young people from across Cornwall, many through Trelya, a charity aimed at supporting hard to reach young people. Emma Wilson from Trelya was delighted with the opportunities the scheme afforded to the children involved.

“All of the young people were thrilled with the opportunity of having a bursary to attend regular

dance classes,” she said. “This recognition alone increased their self esteem and confidence, as it made them feel ‘special’, ‘important’ and ‘valued’.”

The Big Dance Company also supports any students that excel in further training if their families aren’t able to afford more classes. They have had great success in not only offering support to local children, but also in terms of producing talent. One of the teams, Flava, made it to the semi-finals of Britain’s Got Talent and many of the dancers have also more recently competed in the UDO World Championships with great success.

“The best part of my job is when I can see that the projects we help to fund have been a success,” said Malcolm Woolcock, administrator for West Cornwall Youth Trust. “Fiona, Ben and the rest of the team at the Big Dance Company work hard to give as many children as possible the chance to get involved, and we’re thrilled we can be a part of that process.”

For more information on the Big Dance Company, visit www.thebigdancecompany.com. To find out more about how the Trust could help your charity, visit www.westcornwallyouthtrust.org.uk.