On Saturday 5th April 2025, our Anchormen cadet team travelled to Worcester to take part in the WGUK Dance Finals—a celebration of colourguard in the UK, where teams from across the country come together to dance, spin, and perform with incredible energy and passion.

The excitement was high as our cadets took to the floor at 4:30pm, ready to show everything they’ve worked so hard on this season. With smiling faces, confident moves, and vibrant energy, their performance was a real crowd-pleaser, earning plenty of cheers from the audience!

After their performance, the team joined the retreat to await results—nerves were high, but the hard work paid off. We’re so proud to share that the Anchormen cadet team were awarded 3rd place, making them bronze medalists in their class!

A huge congratulations to all our performers for their dedication and enthusiasm. Thank you to the parents, volunteers, and supporters who made this journey possible.

Here are some photos—capturing just a bit of the magic our team brings to the floor.

Keep dancing, spinning, and smiling—on to the next!

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On Sunday 16th March 2025, The Anchormen proudly hosted their very own dance competition at Leeds Beckett University’s Headingley Campus. It was a fantastic day filled with energy, excitement, and community spirit as 15 groups from across the North of England came together to perform.

The event welcomed a vibrant mix of colourguard teams and Sound Sport bands, each bringing their unique style and passion to the floor. The atmosphere was electric, with the audience showing their support through enthusiastic cheers and heartfelt applause for every single group.

We’re thrilled to share that our very own Anchormen cadet team took 1st place in their class, delivering a brilliant performance that made us all proud!

A huge thank you goes out to everyone who helped make the event such a success—from the performers and volunteers to the supporters in the stands. Thanks for coming along and supporting our event. See you in 2026!

Here are some photos from the Leeds competition:

Well done to all involved—and congratulations again to our amazing cadets!

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The Anchors family had a great evening at our awards night. Fun, laughs, certificates, flowers, cards and lots of food.

Here are a selection of photos! Well done to everyone for a fabulous and fun 2023 season.

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It was fabulous to see everyone back together, smiling (through a mask), hugging (virtually) and having a catch up.

Our Cadet team were placed 3rd. And we secured two 1st places for our Junior team and ‘A’ dance team.

Congratulations to all the members. We did the Anchormen proud today. And we did Mick Moss proud!

The day still threw headaches at the instructional staff with 2 dance members from the Cadet team testing positive the night before, so were unable to attend.

Here are a selection of photos from the competition.

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I hope you will join us to congratulate and thank Michael for the 55 years of amazing voluntary work at the Anchormen supporting the youth and community of Calderdale.

In 1953 Michael joined the 5th Elland Boys Brigade marching band which later became The Anchormen Drum & Bugle Corps. As Corps Director Michael steered the Anchormen to win countless band and dance competitions throughout the UK and Europe. In 1998, in recognition of outstanding services to marching bands for 40 years, Michael was awarded a Fellowship from Drum Corps United Kingdom.

When the Anchormen purchased the Former Wesley Church and Savage Hall in Elland for rehearsals, Michael formed the building into a social enterprise for use by the wider youth and community of Elland. Currently 3 Anchormen Dance Teams use the facilities every week. As well as Karen Binns Stage School, Judo Excellence, Anchormen Jazz Orchestra, Elland & Greetland Royal British legion and the Elland Old Boys Brigade Band use the building. Over 100 young people use the premises each week.

Over a 55 year period, Michael has helped thousands of young people in Elland and made a positive impact on their lives. And because of his kindness and generosity Michael has had an enormous influence on their lives.

In April 2020, Michael was initiated into the Anchormen Hall of fame for devoting 55 years to the organisation and the youth and community of Calderdale.

Thank you Michael 

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Due to the lock-down, the 2020 WGUK finals competition was cancelled. Although they have still produced a digital version of the 2020 WGUK Year Book.

In the Year Book you will find information about our 3 dance groups as well as every other dance group throughout the UK and Eire.

There’s a special mention to two of our dance members who receive their long service award, for being a member of the Anchormen Dance Teams for 5 years. Congratulations to Lily-May Freeth from our Juniors and and Tiler-May Marsden in our A guard. Well done to you both 

You can download the Year Book here. (PDF 17mb)

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Friday we headed to the airport and after a slightly bumpy landing arrived in Eindhoven. We then travelled to Almere for a couple of hours rehearsal and a show and tell with our new Italian friends at Truggio.

This was a great opportunity to get prepped for the Saturday and make new friends ahead of the competition! Saturday morning we were up and ready to hit CGN Almere!

The members gave a great performance in the morning and hoped they had done enough to make finals.

After much anticipation it was revealed that they had made finals in 4th place! We were ecstatic with the result and couldn’t wait to perform again in such a large arena!

Anchormen A felt confident after this boost and excited for finals. After some sparkle to the members the evenings performance came and the members had one of their best shows to date, they performed their hearts out and you could feel the emotion from the floor.

The staff were so pleased with them and felt so proud of what they had achieved.

Once the results came the members found out they managed to gain 2nd place overall!

After this icing on the cake the members and staff team headed back to the hotel for celebrations!

Anchormen A had a great experience throughout the whole weekend, giving them a chance to bond more as a team, have fun and experience a performance in Holland!

The staff couldn’t be prouder of what the members achieved, and cannot wait for the next 4 weeks leading up to UK Championships in Worcestershire!

Lauren Pimblett
Anchormen A Designer & Instructor

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It all started on Friday 30th March 2019 when unfortunately having come down with an ear infection, I wasn’t sure I would be able to go to the morning training session, but I managed to go a bit later than everyone else.

When I walked through the door, the girls on the team all ran towards me and we had a group hug. Then, I felt happy as I knew they all had my back.

After our training session, we all got on the coach, which was late and we travelled down to Birmingham. The A Guard girls all ran to the back of the coach but I think the Junior team got the best seats at the front.

Firstly on the coach, we looked through everyone’s food bags for the best snacks then filled our time doing loads of Tick Tocks!

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We have 3 different dance groups for boys and girls from aged 5 upwards. Our Cadet group are the youngest set of children aged 5-10. They meet every Tuesday evening from 6.30pm for an hour. Sessions are £4 per week.

All the kids get to make new friends whilst learning new dance routines. One of the main benefits of joining a dance class if for the little ones to build up their confidence. It’s amazing how some children that start dance classes with the Anchormen are shy and very quiet. After a few weeks, and more noticeable within a few months, we are always getting very positive feedback from parents to say how much their child has developed and become much more confident in themselves.

Here’s a picture of our cadet group at our dance championships in Worcester.

A bronze medal was a momentous result for such a young and talented group of dancers.

Where abouts in Halifax are the dance classes?

Dance classes for our cadets are held at the Savage Hall, Eastgate, Elland, Halifax. HX5 9DQ. We are in an old Methodist church next door to Morrison’s pedestrian entrance. There’s a side street you will see a car park and then the entrance to our building.

Who to ask about dance classes?

You can find us on Facebook ‘Anchormen Dance Teams‘. Or you can email us at info@anchormen.org.uk.

What to expect?

Every child is different. We try to encourage the new member to jump in straight away and try out a few dance warm ups. We make sure they have fun at their first dance class. Also, the first dance class is free of charge.

We love the Anchormen Dance Teams

Our members love coming to the Anchormen. One of our dance members is Joycelyn. She created a poster to help with the recruitment. It’s amazing! Joycelyn wasn’t asked to do it, she created the poster in her own time and presented it to her mum Amanda. Fabulous!

We have 3 dance teams

As well as our Anchormen Cadet group we have our junior and senior groups. The Anchormen Juniors are a little older aged 10 to 13 years old. A very, very talented group of dancers, who absolutely love coming to the dance classes.

The Anchormen Juniors train on a Tuesday night too. But their dance class starts after the cadets at 7.40pm until 9pm. Sessions are £4 per week.

This year, the Anchormen Juniors performed their show to a cover version  famously sung by S Club 7 called ‘Reach’. A stunning song, poetic lyrics and very suitable to the age range of members. A costume design and colour palette was chosen to compliment their show music.

These amazingly, talented, superstar, awesome, super group of dancers earned themselves a silver medal at their dance championships in Worcester, held on Saturday 30th March 2019. That’s so impressive since they all took a big step up from the cadet class to juniors.

Our senior group are the Anchormen A guard. A little odd calling them the A guard, but that’s the naming terminology used by our umbrella organisation WGUK, who the Anchormen organisation are members of. WGUK also manage and host dance championships. where most of these photos on this blog are from. We also call them the A Team.

So, our A team are our eldest group of dancers aged 12 to 15. Which is actually not much older than our Junior group. Go back 12 months and all the A team were in the Junior team! But their dance routine last year was so advanced and superior to everyone else in their class, the juniors were promoted to the A class.

Again, another super talented set of dancers eager to improve and the best they can be. Their 2019 program was called ‘The Power Of A Breath’ using music from Florence and the Machine. It was a tough battle having started the dance competition season in 7th place. At dance championships they had worked so hard, they were rewarded by making 4th place and getting into a finals spot! A great result for such a young group of kids!

My aim was to write a short blog about recruiting for new dance members to join the Anchormen family. It’s a long blog, apologies. But there’s so much to write about. It’s so much fun. There’s so much to offer the membership.

All the teaching staff, and all the parents who help out, dedicate their own free time to keep the Anchormen organisation ticking away. The Anchormen is a registered charity (516209). One of the main reasons we can keep our subscription costs down. That’s just £4 a week for cadet and junior classes.

Got Any questions?

You can find us on Facebook ‘Anchormen Dance Teams‘. You can email us at info@anchormen.org.uk.

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