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Carrie Chan

Youth Outreach is using a $1.7 million subsidy to train 100 professional dancers

A youth welfare group that has received a government subsidy to set up a street-dancing school says it hopes to improve the image of hip-hop and break dancers.

Youth Outreach has received a $1.79 million subsidy to establish the school and aims in its first year to train about 100 professional dancers, some of whom will be employed as teachers.

It also hopes to cater to about 1,200 people who want to learn various forms of street dance.

Fees could be as low as $10 an hour, although the pricing structure has yet to be disclosed.

Lawrence Tse Ching-yuen,  assistant executive director for Youth Outreach's 24-hour 'hang-out' centre in Sai Wan Ho, said they were close to signing a deal with the government but the opening date had yet to be determined.

The centre will contribute nearly $800,000 to the cost.

'Our centre's audience is mainly marginal youth. We realised that many of them feel motivated when they  pursue street dance,' he said.

'Through formalisation of this art form, we also hope to change people's negative impression of street dancers. A market for the performance can be created.'

A group of young Sheung Shui street dancers last month said they were forced to practise in public corridors because there were no venues. They said they often received complaints from residents because of this and attention from the police.

Mr Tse said: 'The lobbying efforts for street-dance venues will be useless if people still have misconceptions about the performance.'

He quoted examples of how the dancers could receive applause rather than complaints.

'We have about 20 veteran street dancers who practise in our centre's dancing room. The KCRC has allowed these dancers to perform at five of their stations in July and August. The positive impact is that more crowds are drawn to their stations.'

The centre is now contacting local dance schools, and even professionals in Taiwan, the mainland and Canada to train the 100 professionals.

They will also be taught gymnastics as well as various forms of street dance like hip-hop and break-dancing.

Mr Tse said they would have to become  self-financing  after the first year, adding that this could be made possible when society began to recognise the art form.



School will aim to boost the image of hip-hop 'art form'