Lanarkshire dance school celebrating 20 years in business picks up top gong

Daily Record

23-05-2025

Starlight Dance has nurtured the talents of generations of children in East Kilbride.
Success was in the stars for a Lanarkshire dance school as it scooped a prestigious gong while celebrating its 20th anniversary.
Starlight Dance was crowned Best Dance School for Community Engagement at the Scottish Dance Awards this week, proving that hard work and excellent teaching pays off.
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The school has been established in East Kilbride for two decades and has grown from a handful of pupils to a full school nurturing the talents of generations of kids.
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Starlight is non-competitive and as well as exams and shows, offer classes in tap, modern, freestyle, cheer pom and street for boys and girls from walking to adult - so there is something for every age.
Jennifer Connolly, who runs Starlight Dance, said: "We pride ourselves on experienced teaching, offering a fun, friendly environment for dancers with progression, teaching technique and building dancers confidence and letting each individual shine!
"Our school ethos is: Commit, Set Goals, Do Your Best, Respect, Encourage, Be Kind, Teamwork, Have Fun, Shine Bright and we embody this in all our classes and have Recognition Awards for dancers who really display these values."
The school likes to carry this forward into the wider community and does a lot of charity work. Last year Starlighters raised over £4000 for local and national charities including EK Dementia Carers Group, Kilbryde Hospice, Children In Need, British Heart Foundation, Young Minds and Target Ovarian Cancer.
Through show programme donations, students take part in Tapathon for Children in Need each year and have pyjama classes for this too. They wear yellow to class for one week to support Young Minds whilst also teaching kids about good mental health.
Starlight also run a charity show and split all the proceeds between two nominated charities and have an annual food bank donation in February each year. This year over 40 bags of donations were handed in to Loaves and Fishes charity in the town.
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Jennifer added: "We believe that we all have an incredible opportunity to come to class each week and do such a joyous things such as dance that we should give back to others where we can and display kindness always. I think this is a great mindset for our dancers to have too.
"We also engage with our dancers, not only in classes each week but through fun events such as Halloween classes, annual Family Fun Day, Christmas parties, Share the Love Week and Break the Rules days. We have a planned calendar of events throughout the year."
This year the school were finalists in the Scottish Dance Awards in two categories: Best School for Community Engagement and Exam Excellence, scooping Best School for Community Engagement.
The accolade topped off a milestone year for the club which is celebrating its 20th anniversary in the town.
Jennifer went on: "This really shows how we engage with the community in and outside of the school and we have such amazing results from our exam sessions and fab feedback from examiners each time.
"We have our anniversary show coming up in September this year and are doing a week at the Village Theatre to celebrate. We have also had parties to celebrate with all our dancers and our special group photo taken.
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"I really feel like I've built something special at Starlight. Lots of dancers tell me it's their happy place and it's mine too. I'm really privileged to see my dancers grow up and many have been with me from the beginning. Our dance family is a little community and I love what we stand for.
"I hope we can continue to offer great fun classes that build skills that can be taken from the class into life, for many years to come."
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