ST GEORGE'S CE Primary school, Clun are delighted to welcome back Dylan Davies, an ex-St George's pupil, who is returning to run a Street and Contemporary Dance club on Tuesday afternoons.

Dylan (age 15) first ignited his passion for dance in 2011 when he was at St George's, through the Boys Dance Project. This project, set up by the West Midlands Boys Dance Alliance, secured funding from the Cultural Olympiad fund to develop and celebrate dance for boys and young men, providing them with the challenge, exhilaration, discipline and fun of making and sharing dance. St George's pupils have been fortunate to be involved in this project every year since its inception and Dylan has always been a key performer in these performances (latterly, as a pupil at Bishop's Castle Community College). Dylan also now trains at the Centre for Advanced Dance Training at Dance Xchange in Birmingham. Later this month Dylan has been invited to perform alongside a cast of professional dancers as part of the International Dance Festival Birmingham in Cubes choreographed by Tamsin Fitzgerald artistic director of 2FacedDance.

Kay Miller, Headteacher, says, "It has been wonderful to witness a child seize an opportunity and find his passion. We are extremely proud of Dylan's achievements and thrilled that he has returned to St George's to share his skills and his love of dance with our children. He is an inspirational young man and shows true commitment to everything he does. Our pupils really see this and are already, two weeks into the club, engaging at a very high level."

The Boys Dance projects have been delivered by and funded through Shropshire Council, Arts Council and partner schools, in partnership with Warwick Arts Centre, Being Frank Physical Theatre and the West Midlands Boys Dance Alliance. Alexa Pugh, Arts Development Officer at Shropshire Council, echoes Mrs Millers comments, "Over the last four years over 1000 boys and young men from across the county have participated in the project, working with leading dance artists to produce high quality and inspiring performances. Shropshire Council are thrilled Dylan will be delivering these after school workshops and sharing his skills and experiences with a new cohort of boys. It's fantastic St George's continue to support Boys Dancing and understand the important role of dance in school".

This year, David McKenna, a professional contemporary dance teacher and the founder of the project, worked directly with ten boys from St. George's in seven weekly workshops to prepare them for their Boys Dancing performance. They worked tirelessly in these two hour sessions to produce an amazingly professional and creative piece which the boys then performed in 'The Collectors' at Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery, along with pupils from eight other primary and secondary schools in Shropshire, including Dylan who danced with a group of boys from the Community College.

Their performance was described as 'mature, inspirational and brilliantly choreographed, produced in a fabulous setting'.

Dylan, who is volunteering his time as part of his Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award, commented, "It is great to be back at St George's. Thank you for the chance to dance, you have definitely set off my dancing career'.