TO HELP CHILDREN DREAM

Financial support from Morley Glass has now enabled more than 100 young people to develop their dancing abilities with professional training through scholarships provided by a West Yorkshire dance school.

The company has funded the scholarships since 2018 at Castleford-based Freedom 2 Dance, a thriving community-focused dance school which is dedicated to increasing accessibility to dancing. One of the ways they do this is to ‘level the playing field’ by offering scholarships to children, which means they can benefit from professional dance tuition regardless of background or personal circumstances.

Freedom 2 Dance was first introduced to Morley Glass managing director Ian Short after he took the plunge into dancing himself by signing up to a Strictly Come Dancing style challenge to raise money for charity. Ever since, Ian has remained passionate about dancing and the power it has to be able to build the confidence of young people, improve their well-being and even transform lives.

In addition to the 100+ scholarships funded to date by Morley Glass, the company has confirmed its backing for a further 24 students this year. This will enable Freedom 2 Dance to reach out to children who may otherwise be unable to access additional dance training to support their development, according to director, Michelle Dickinson.

“We’ve seen the far-reaching benefits that the scholarships bring to children so it’s fantastic to be able to continue them in 2023,” said Michelle.