RARE PHOTOS: The battle to keep london s youth dancing | Rare Historical Photos

Hali Warsame had never taken a single dance class when she auditioned for the National Youth Dance Company last year. The east London teenager’s k-pop obsession had turbo-charged her love of dance. In 2023, someone from the NYDC team saw her self-taught Victoria Monét routine and suggested she audition. Warsame still looks happily amazed: “I'd never done dance outside of my bedroom.”

Now she’s about to debut on one of the world’s iconic dance stages, when NYDC perform at Sadler’s Wells in the first YFX Festival of youth dance. NYDC’s guest artistic directors are Kenrick Sandy and Mikey Asante from the storming hip hop company Boy Blue: Warsame’s dance journey begins with the best.