Our Story
INK's story starts when I was still a training dancer myself. There wasn't much here in the steel city back then, and I spent a lot of my time travelling to different cities from Sheffield to Manchester to London to access dance training on a weekly basis for a number of years. As a dancer myself, accessing classes that were fun, positive, inspiring and challenging, with opportunities to progress was always the aim. I had the bug to train so much, I even booked myself flights to visit the commercial dance capital of the world, Los Angeles, to invest in my craft as a dancer and see more of the industry world. Those trips lasted months at a time, and has shaped me to be the dancer, choreographer and teacher I am today.
Training in the states opened my eyes to more than what I had originally arrived for. Aside from incredible dance classes and training opportunities with inspiring teachers, I saw a dance community, a supportive dancer network, opportunities for dancers and a city filled with passion for the arts.
Returning home to Sheffield, was definitely my wake up call. I knew then, it was my time to tackle the task of building Sheffield’s dance community and to create something to fill the void that Sheffield always had for dance - and to help other people that were seeking the same type of dance training I had always searched for.
And so, INK Dance was born in 2013.
INK Dance specialises in commercial and street dance styles, providing dance classes and dance training programmes that are 'current and relevant' for todays dance industry, and making them accessible to those in Sheffield. Our INK dance collective is made up of aspiring dancers and dance enthusiasts of all ages, who experience dance in a positive, supportive and inspiring environment with experienced and passionate choreographers.
Along the INK journey, I've witnessed not only success within our growth rate of dancers and seeing the dance community rapidly grow within the city, but also, some epic transformations to the individuals who have joined INK. INK has helped others through progressing their ability and skills in dance, building self-confidence, battling with them through personal struggles and supporting dancers to progress on to further dance education or dance on a professional level.
As a collective, the dancers have been able to spread their passion through performing at various local events, as well as music videos, national competitions and performing in front of crowds as big as 20,000!
Currently, INK has evolved into hosting weekly open classes and a variety of training programmes dedicated to different ages, levels and dance specialisms, as well as inviting guest industry standard choreographers to come to Sheffield from around the UK to share with our dancers. INK has partnered with local education providers to deliver a Performing Arts Dance BTEC and are also proud supporters of the 'This girl can' campaign.
The INK family continues to grow, and the story continues.
I hope you can join us and be apart of it,
Suzy
