Harlequin Tempo dance floor transformed three hard floor studios for workshops at the recent National Youth Dance Festival - NYDF 2007. The residential workshops, held 6th to 11th July at the Alsager Campus of Manchester Metropolitan University, culminated in a performance, which also used Tempo, at The Lowry's Lyric Theatre, Salford.

Rather than seeking to create edge-to-edge flooring in the workshop spaces a decision was taken to provide safe-to-work-on floors of 10 x 8 m, in each of the
three areas. Harlequin Tempo is a floor particularly suited to the requirements of contemporary or barefoot dance and as a multi-purpose performance surface is also thick enough to provide added protection against hard sub-floors.

Eleven groups and over 140 dancers from across England performed in what has been described as ‘an outstanding evening of dance at The Lowry’. In the run up to the performance the dancers took part in a five day residential programme using the Tempo dance floors at the MMU’s Alsager campus. Workshops included sessions on creating site-specific work, physical theatre, African and street dance, ballet, contemporary work, careers in dance and healthier dancer sessions.

Running alongside the National Festival, the North West Regional Festival gave local youth dance groups the opportunity to work alongside the groups participating in the national event. Youth dance practitioners were also given hands-on training by the National Festival's Artistic team.’

Email: rebecca.conway@harlequinfloors.com