Strictly Come Dancing-inspired event raises over £15,000 for Ipswich charity Inspire

A dance event inspired by Strictly Come Dancing has raised £15,500 for charity.

Returning for its seventh year, 20 dancers took to the dancefloor at the Royal Hospital School in aid of Suffolk youth.

The show was performed in partnership between the Ipswich School of Dancing and charity Inspire.

It paired 10 volunteers with 10 dancers from the studio and gave them 10 weeks to learn two dances.

Each pair was given one ballroom and one Latin dance to learn and drew themes inspired by musicals and artists out of a hat.

During the 10 week training period they spent time fund-raising, which helps provides the final pool of money at the end of the event.

In true Strictly fashion, judges ranked each dance which determines a winner.

Dancers wore outfits inspired by Abba, Hook, Aladdin and others and danced to an audience of friends and family.

The Ipswich School of Dancing considered the event a success and was proud and thankful to everyone involved.

Emma Hawley, from the school, said: "It's always a great night and it creates fabulous friendships, which is really important to us and is part of the reason we love dancing so much as it really brings people together.

"Boundaries go down and people love trying out new things."

She added: "From start to finish it was fab-u-lous, filled with great dancing, new friendships and wonderful people, all coming together to raise vital funds for Inspire.

"We are incredibly proud and thankful to every single person involved."

The event will be returning next year to raise money for the charity.

Inspire works with people between the ages of 16-26 across Suffolk and north Essex and provides them with education, wellbeing services and employment opportunities.

The charity has hosted the event seven times, with it having partnered with the Ipswich School of Dancing for six of them.

The popularity and atmosphere of Strictly inspired the event.

Sara Warburton, the fund-raising and event manager at Inspire, said: “We are always looking for new events people will love and enjoy coming year after year.

"Strictly has a fantastic fan following so we wanted to bring Suffolk a similar event where people can give back and have a fantastic evening at the same time.”

Outside of the volunteers' fund-raising, a huge raffle was held on the evening with prizes donated from local businesses.

She added: “We are amazed by the wonderful support we’ve received this year for the return of the event. The money raised will make a huge difference to the young people that we work with and help them move forward with their lives.

"I would like to thank everyone who has supported us and was involved in making the event a success. We would like to thank our incredible volunteer dancers and Ipswich School of Dancing for giving up their time and all the hard work they have put in over the past ten weeks.”

Members of the public can get in touch with Inspire to sign up as a dancer for the next event.