Yesterday (4th December 2025), between the hours of 9am and 7pm, the BYMT Core Team danced non-stop for 10 hours.

It was a task they undertook to raise money for their Big Give Christmas Challenge, a campaign taking place over a week long period (from 2nd-9th December) where they are aiming to raise £20,000 for their Access to the Arts Programme, enabling young people to access BYMT arts provision free of charge.

Within the BYMT Core Team there is a range of creative disciplines, some are actually trained dancers and choreographers, whilst others are writers or directors, or even illustrators. However, despite some of them having never completed a dance class in their life, the whole team banded together and completed 9 different dance classes in 9 different styles, over a period of 10 hours, led by dance artists and choreographers from across Leeds.

Before the dancing even began, BBC Radio Leeds came along to speak with BYMT’s Creative Director Emily Gray about what was planned for the day, as well as the importance of BYMT’s Access to the Arts Programme.  You can listen to the full interview here by skipping to 3 hours and 22 minutes.

The day took place at Dance Studio Leeds and began with an upbeat dance fitness class led by Alex and Meg from DECODANCE. The pair led the team through an upbeat fitness class, soundtracked by 70’s/80’s classics such as Kylie Minogue’s Locomotion and Tina Turner’s Proud Mary. Movement-wise the session was a high energy dance fitness class combining disco, rodeo and cardio moves that started the day off on a high!

After that was a ballet class, led by BYMT’s very own Marketing Assistant Charlotte Brown, a dance graduate from both Falmouth University and Northern School of Contemporary Dance. The ballet session was entirely at the barre and focused on the foundations of ballet such as alignment of the body, feet positions and ballet terminology.

Following this was a class led by BYMT’s Head of Development Frances Nicholson, who alongside her role at BYMT is a choreographer and teacher of bespoke first dances for weddings with The Next Step Co UK. This session split the team into pairs as they learnt a disco-themed couples routine to Boogie Wonderland, involving lots of spins and learning how to dance in a ballroom hold.

Once this session ended it was time for an Indian Bollywood class led by dance artist Zoobin Surty, Artistic Director of Zoobin Surty Company. From the vibrant hues of Indian classical dance to the dynamic energy of Bollywood and an addition of more contemporary elements, this class left the team feeling enriched and proud that they’d learnt a new style for them all.

Reaching the halfway point meant it was time to slow things down a little, and that was done perfectly by the calm improvisational contemporary class led by Leeds-based dance artist Sylvie Holder, also a graduate from Northern School of Contemporary Dance. This session allowed the team to reflect on their day so far, how their bodies felt and also how to playfully connect with one another.

The afternoon sessions began with another session lead by Charlotte, except this time it was in Flying Low. This technique focuses on a person’s relationship with the floor. Flying Low uses the metaphor of spirals, fractals, and interconnectedness to build sustainable agility getting in and out of the floor, including moving upside-down and backwards – a challenge for some but not one they backed away from!

After this it was time for Emily Gray to lead the team in a tap class. This class was full of musical theatre classics but ended in a choreographed number to Hoochie Coo, an upbeat, jazzy track from BYMT’s very own The Naughty Carriage on the Orphan Train, which was directed by Emily. The show, originally performed at Dundee Rep back in 2023, before returning to Birmingham Hippodrome earlier this April, was written by Carl Miller and composed by Luke Saydon, with choreography from Ash Mukherjee, some of which Emily used in her own routine.

It only seemed fitting to have a class in the day that was a musical theatre class, and so that is what choreographer Virag Zengo bought to the penultimate session. This class was fun, jazzy and focused on learning a lyrical routine to Bangkok / One Night in Bangkok from the musical Chess written by ABBA members Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson.

To finish the day, BYMT’s Casting and Young Company Manager, Cerys Jones, led a dance yoga session to allow the whole team to stretch out their bodies before finishing the day. As they had to switch studios for the last hour, the space became cramped, but they still managed to end the day in Shavasana, allowing themselves to reflect on the whole challenge they’d completed and how much of a positive impact any donations will have had.

As the team packed up their dance shoes and took off their leg warmers they checked the Big Give donation page and were delighted to see that over £2000 had been raised, meaning that with the Big Give’s match funding over £4000 had been raised. A huge accomplishment that will have a huge impact on all the young people who need financial support to take part in a BYMT project.

If you’d like to donate to BYMT’s Big Give Challenge, you can do so until 12pm on Tuesday 9th December 2025. Any donation you give will be match funded, meaning your money will make twice the difference. You can donate to the campaign or find out more here.