A NIGHT of huge celebration took place on Monday evening at Belfast City Hall in honour of West Belfast’s new All-Ireland Hip-Hop Champions. 

Multi-award-winning dancers from Studio 5, based in the heart of Poleglass, were hosted by Lord Mayor of Belfast Christina Black at Belfast City Hall for a celebration and recognition of their achievements. 

The young dancers involved in the club are from the north and west of the city. Dancers from the studio attended the All-Ireland Dance Champions leaving with three all-Ireland team win. Three crews – under-14s ‘Street Mates’, under-16s ‘Street Dollz’ and under-18s ‘Street Kidz’ – won first prize while the under-12s ‘Street Up’ came second. One of the dance groups, ‘Street Kids’, has won the All-Ireland Championships for the sixth year.

Speaking with the Andersonstown News, Studio 5 owner Rachelle McCurry spoke of her pride at the groups being recognised for their huge success.  “They had a ball, for most of them that was their first time, so it was quite exciting,” she said.  “It’s important to celebrate achievements and being recognised because they’re kids from local communities in West Belfast and it’s good to see more creative and arts being promoted as well as girls and women.”

Colin Councillor Caoimhín McCann, who arranged the visit, spoke of his delight at celebrating the achievements of local talent.  “It was great to have the dancers in last night. They have won not only this year but the last six years at the All-Ireland finals so I think they were more than overdue a celebration of their success. I’m delighted that our Ardmhéara Tina Black accepted that invitation and brought them into City Hall, because they were more than deserving of it.

“We are going to be working very closely with the group. I was surprised to find out that Sport NI don’t recognise dancing as a sport considering break dancing is going to be an Olympic sport here in 2024. We will be working alongside them to help them gain that recognition and hopefully put some support in place from the community end,” added Caomhín.

The dance groups are available for events and performances and details can be found on their social media accounts.