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Report: Dance2HelpHaiti fundraiser at Sadler’s Wells

Money raised: £1991.20, £236 online. - Discuss this on our blog

Words: David Barros

If there was an example of when street dancers came together as a community for a good cause, Dance2HelpHaiti, in aid of the Haiti earthquake will be remembered as the one that was turned around the quickest.

Organised little more than a week before the all-day event took place, the organisers, Impact Dance’s Hakeem Onibudo and Zoonation’s Kate Prince phoned some of street dance's top names to round them up for this special fundraiser at Sadler’s Wells.

“We actually had space booked in this studio for a rehearsal for our youth company,” said Hakeem, “so I knew we had the space, so it was a case of whether they’d (Sadler’s Wells) agree to use the space for the all-dayer. They were very supportive, in fact they were quite amazed by how quickly we turned this around and got people here.”

For Hakeem it was an impulsive moment when he decided the event should happen.

“I was at Euston station, eating a sandwich, drinking a cup of tea, getting ready get on a train up to Northampton, and I took a casual glance to my right hand side and saw images of pain and suffering,” said Hakeem. “Without even thinking, I thought, ‘let’s do something about this’ ... I called up a network of teachers and said ‘let’s do an all-dayer.’”

Dancers keen to learn from the high profile choreographers and contribute to the cause rose early on a Sunday morning to turn up and register for the classes which were in demand, ranging from street dance to New Jack Swing for variety.

Boy Blue's Kenrick “H2O” Sandy and the Move Like Michael Jackson finalists Plague appeared fresh faced despite performing and partying until the early hourse at Serious About Streetdance on Friday night. Some choreographers, including Kate Prince herself and Birdgang's Simeon Qsyea had to take a break from choreographing for So You Think You Can Dance to make it. As a treat, both taught routines from the show.

Hakeem chose soca for his class.

"There were a lot of street dance classes today" he told me after his class. "Soca was something fun and different."

Kymberlee Jay chose the party style of New Jack Swing for her class.

“People see all this New Style stuff and they think it’s all about detail,” she told her class, “It’s not. It’s about feeling the music and having a good time - if you feel stupid doing it, you’re doing it right!”

It was fun, but it wasn’t just alternatives to street dance. Simeon Qsyea previewed his lyrical routine from next week’s So You Think You Can Dance, and not forgetting the message behind the day, Flo’Ography’s Neo dedicated his piece to those who lost their lives in the earthquake.

Nathan “Neo” Gordon choreography to Beyonce’s Halo

£2,227.20 was raised by the end of the day, combining the total money collected before classes and online contributions. At time of publishing, the total stands at £2,458.20. City University London managed to donate £442 from collections alone.

Afterwards, Hakeem said: “People that passed through today, whether they’ve done one class, no class or just passed through and put money in the bucket, you need to give yourself a pat on the back and raise your own self esteem to know that you are a good person.

“I think it’s really important that every single person that has turned up today goes how and goes ‘yeah, I’ve done something positive.’”

You can still donate and help achieve the target total of £1,000 JustGiving.