‘Northampton’s finest dance school’ to travel to Prague to represent England for an impressive fourth time

Thirty students from “Northampton’s finest dance school” are set to travel to Prague to represent England at the Dance World Cup for an impressive fourth time.

Oncore Dance Academy, in Footshape House, Kingsthorpe Road, was first set up by sisters Odette Newman and Naomi Crofts in 2004.

They went on to open their studio in Kingsthorpe in 2013 and were proud to celebrate a decade open last year.

Having left their former dance teaching jobs to set up their own venture, Odette shared this was “absolutely the dream” for them as sisters.

“It was a passion,” said Odette. “We’re living the dream and doing what we set out to do. We always train and produce very technical dancers who have a lot of opportunities open to them.

“With the evolution of the dance school and our oldest senior students having moved on, we’re pleased to say they’re very well trained with lots of opportunities and are doing really well.”

This is not the first time Oncore will have represented England at the Dance World Cup, having taken different groups of students in 2019, 2022 and 2023.

The “new generation” of students jetting off this year, aged five to 14, have never represented the country on behalf of Oncore before.

There are two separate groups that have qualified – one with a musical theatre performance from Whistle Down the Wind, and a modern group performing a jazz-modern number called ‘let’s go crazy’.

Though they have performed these numbers at local and national festivals with great success, Odette says the “gruelling task” of learning a different version for the Dance World Cup lies ahead.

“It’s going to be really hard work for them but they’re super excited,” she added, also mentioning how proud the dance school is to have a ballet soloist and ballet trio competing too.

When asked how the children reacted when they found out they were going to Prague, Odette said: “They were extremely excited.”

After letting the parents know first, the studio founders called them into one of their children’s sessions to see the news broken to them – which left several students in tears of happiness.

“It was wonderful to see,” said Odette. “Their passion and dedication all leads to this. They just want their England kit and they want to work hard.

“We’ve come fourth and fifth and just missed out on a medal before. It was incredible but to just miss out on that medal, I know that’s what the children want.”

To put into perspective just how much of an achievement this is, 120,000 young people tried to qualify and just 8,000 were selected to represent England.

The competition begins on June 28 and the Oncore team has started their fundraising efforts, to minimise the outgoings for the dedicated students and families travelling to Prague this summer.

Odette said: “We’re doing absolutely everything we can. We’re getting the children involved so they have an understanding of how committed everybody has to be – that’s the dance world.

“The family commitment is huge and we’re trying to make sure everybody is involved.”

Bake sales are ongoing, a raffle and pop-up pre-loved shop has been launched and they will be doing a bucket collection at the Northampton Saints match on March 15. There will also be bucket collections at Tesco and Morrisons over the coming months.

March 23 is a big day for fundraising as Oncore is hosting a fate in the daytime and a whole-school disco in the evening. During the day, the dedicated students will also be cycling for four hours – which is the equivalent of the flights to and from Prague.

“The children are extremely happy when a few pounds come in,” said Odette. “The reality is there are so many children going that split between them all, it doesn’t work out to be very much. We have to keep going.

“The money would ease the pressure, and the children would be elated to know their efforts had been rewarded and they had done a good job.”

The money raised will be spent on additional rehearsals, uniform and costumes, and other costs including food, drink, entry fees and accommodation.

If you would like to make a donation to Oncore Dance Academy as they prepare for the Dance World Cup in the summer, visit their online fundraising page here.