Can Streetdance make Preston hip? Lara doubts it.
Last Wednesday night I went to a Streetdance class in Preston. There are many things I love about Lancashire. Preston isn’t one of them. Nearby Bolton has its civic pride, Blackpool has its tongue in cheek charms, but Preston?
Preston’s biggest claim to fame may be the Battle of Preston, when Cromwell beat the Scots. But a hundred years later Prestonites were cheering on Bonnie Prince Charlie and his mates as they passed through the town heading south. I don’t think Prestonites really cared much who won. Because Prestonites are essentially sheep people, weavers of wool. In the 19th century the town was churning out clothes faster than you can say ‘Primark’ and Dickens reputedly used Preston as inspiration for the town in his book ‘Hard Times’. Today the factories of Dickens’ day sit like huge red brick mausoleums round the edge of the town, while on the high street girls buy miniskirts (made in India) which they wear as they queue up for the disco in the northern drizzle of a Friday night.
To get to the dance studio I drive past Preston Prison and down London Road. (Does London Road really end in London? I suspect it circles back on itself to take you back to Preston. A cruel trick the town planners have been playing on Prestonites for years to stop them from thinking that better places exist.) I eventually find the studio above a second hand car sales garage on a dark stretch of dual carriageway. The studio’s newly furnished with floor to ceiling mirrors, a sprung dance floor and surround sound yet something about it’s depressing. A sunbed-leathered woman takes my money at the door while she talks to someone else. I creep past her, round the edge of the dancefloor where a streetdance class for teenagers is taking place. Sitting at a table at the dancefloor’s edge I watch the adolescent females strut their stuff. Only there’s not much strutting going on. They look insecure and unsure of their moves. This is what it’s like to be a teenager, I remind myself. But it’s more than that. The teacher, a London Streetdance star with elastic limbs patiently repeats: ‘Onetwothreefourfivesixseveneight’. But still they’re not getting it. Why?
A few mums watch on from neighbouring tables. One of them has brought a little dog with her, the sort that would bite you if it got the chance. It frees itself and runs across the dancefloor behind the teenagers who are too busy concentrating on their moves to notice.
Then it is our turn, the adults. We are fourteen women and one man. Why? We’re mostly white, even though Preston is pretty ethnically diverse. Why? But most striking of all: we’re mostly miserable. Why?
We start with star jumps. I am knackered after five minutes but notice that the teacher isn’t joining in. When we start the routine he’s good at explaining the moves but interrupts from time to time to talk about the fashion show where he was made to wear embarrassing shorts, or about his mate who’s got a recording contract, or about some song I’ve never heard. He’s trying to reach out to us, the dancers, but no one speaks or laughs. Why?
Why didn’t streetdance in Lancashire do it for me? Perhaps there’s something odd about going to a studio to be taught a dancestyle that was improvised on the street. Perhaps it’s the aggressive music. Or perhaps it’s because Preston hasn’t made streetdance its own yet. The streetdance class has yet to develop its equivalent of ‘The Lancashire Cuddle’ and the talented teacher from London could do with understanding that. We’re not from the hood here, we’re not that angry, we don’t really fight, we just go to work, come home, watch tele and get on with it. This is Preston, luv. We may have crap streets but if you want to understand us you need to come inside, have a chat, a cup of tea and a hobnob. Hobnob: that’s a biscuit, luv, not a dance move.
Thanks for clarifying what a hobnob is!
Much love, Shaira xxxx
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