What became apparent very quickly to Jo was that there was a large amount of good, young, tap dancing talent in this Country. The other point which struck Jo was the amount of young dancers that expressed the interest to train solely in tap dance. Having spent large amount of her career in America where she trained, worked in professional dance companies and performed, Jo had witnessed how successful the American youth companies were in giving a solid grounding to young American dancers.

Jo approached Tap Attack faculty member Tarik Winston, who had run his own Youth Company in America TWAPA, during the 90’s which a young Jason Samuels-Smith had been a member of, regards the possibility of setting up the Tap Attack Youth Company and together they held their first round of auditions in June 2008. Eventually 14 dancers from the ages of 10 – 19 were selected to become the first Youth Company and began regular training sessions before competing as the first ever England Tap Team in December 2008 at the World Tap Dance Championships in Riesa, Germany.

In 2009 Tarik returned to America and Jo was joined by resident director of Tap Dogs James Doubtfire. Three rounds of auditions were held for the 2009 Youth Company and the team increased to 23 dancers with 21 of them making up the England Tap Team who competed at the World Tap Dance Championships in December 2009, reaching the finals of the prestigious formation competition for the first time, eventually being ranked 7^th in the world.

In the spring of 2010 over 200 dancers from all over the UK took part in three rounds of auditions with an eventual 50 invited to the recalls.

As well as possible selection for that years England Tap Team the Youth Company have performance, corporate and television opportunities and up to 6 hours training every other week. One other very important part of being in the Youth Company, which is non dance related, that every member is actively involved in fundraising to ensure that all the dancers appreciate the cost involved in being part of the company and how hard it is to earn the money that is required.

Training sessions focus on technical and musical development, with the dancers having the opportunity to work with some of the best experts this country has to offer, and a varying style of techniques. In the first term the dancers spent the day working with the founder of the Jiving Lindy Hoppers, Warren Heyes, Jo and James were also joined on the coaching team by another member of the Tap Attack teaching faculty and former Tap Dog cast member Chris Ernest.

At the end of the summer of 2010 the 27 dancers from the Youth Company who would make up this years England Tap Team attended a week long residential choreography course where the foundations for this years entries would be laid. Rehearsals took the form of 10 hours days but the hard work was worth it as the dancers started to gel as a team for the first time. The vast majority of the company members don’t see each other outside of rehearsal as they truly represent England living in Yorkshire, Portsmouth, Essex, London, Kent, Birmingham, Surrey, Wiltshire, Gloucester, Somerset and even Scotland.

Jo had consciously aimed to start small in 2008 and build in numbers each year and in 2010 the team was at it’s biggest to date and Jo took the decision to include more entries in more categories. This was quite a gamble when rehearsals can only take place on every other Sunday in September and October and then each Sunday in November. Much of the responsibility is placed on to the dancers who are expected to put in additional hours during the week at home on their own or over the internet with additional team mates.

With the choreography on 3 adult small groups, 1 junior small group and 1 team formation well underway, rehearsals continued during the autumn term with the team fortunate to be able to perform at a cabaret evening and at their annual celebration dinner, both of which were excellent dress rehearsals for Germany.

An approximate cost of the Team competing for the week at the World Championships in 2010 was £24,000; this is without the cost of travelling to rehearsals in England or the cost of the rehearsals themselves, so amongst all of the dancing extensive fundraising is always at the top of the agenda.

This article originally appeared in the February 2011 edition of DancePlus Magazine