A Salford dance team have been able to make themselves recognised all over the world, competing in national and global competitions.
The Salford team the ‘Red Hot Flames’ were found in 1996, and have been able to fill their shelves with countless golden trophies and award banners hanging from the ceiling.
The group was set up by former England team coach, Suzanne Roberts who has been able to grow success from her Salford based dance studio.
The team that originally started their journey as cheerleaders at the “Salford Reds Rugby Club”, and have been able to win over 60 awards throughout this period – with the 2023 and 2024 awards yet to find a place.
The success of the team has been gradual but they have been able to hold their place as one of the best for many year.
And this was shared by the founder Suzanne who reminisced on the origins of the team, she said: “I stayed there 14 years, at first it was just seniors but then loads of children wanted to dance on the pitch and that’s how we grew in the community and began to offer classes for all ages.”
During this time Suzanne and her team also began to compete nationally, going to the European dance competitions and competing at a world level.
Suzanne shares how the decision to stop performing at the rugby leagues wasn’t easy: “we were growing and growing, it just became too difficult to juggle match days and competing”.
Next year will be the 10th time Red Hot Flames competes at the Dance World Championships, facing huge teams from America, Japan, New Mexico and more.
Suzanne highlights how challenging these competitions can be, she said: “These teams are unreal and most of the time the teams from America and Japan are dance college teams, so they dedicate their careers to these competitions.
“The team meet once a week for one and a half, maybe two hours when preparing for these world competitions.”
Last year, Red Hot Flames placed 8th in the world competing against major players like Japan and America and the junior team came 6th in the summit competitions.
She continued: “We were the only European country to be in the top 6th last year.
“The girls need recognition for how hard they work.”
The Dance World Championship is the highest accolade for pom dance, but the next step is competing for the Olympics.
As Suzanne excitedly said: “Cheerleading has been accepted into the Olympics as a sport, we are still waiting to find out if our discipline falls into that category but that is our next goal”.
Although Red Hot Flames is extremely successful Suzanne said: “Its not all about the trophies, its about family and building that community and bond with everyone, its about creating a family.”
Suzanne shares how there has been a lack of support from the community in Salford, as she mentioned that a lot of the community don’t know they exist.
“We are here, we have the biggest dance studio in Salford, its fully equipped, it has outstanding coaches, 28 years on and we are still successful at all levels.”
The success and size of the club has felt unnoticed by Suzanne, but she has encouraged as many people in the community to get involved, as she said: “I know there is a lot of interest out there and I want it to be affordable for the children who would like to go somewhere,”
Acknowledging the financial strain competitive dance may put on some families, Suzanne created recreational classes for children of all ages to attend.
She continued: “There is a place for everybody to come, for the children that want to do this, they want to aspire to be a dancer and they want to like do performances, their classes are like £3.50 to £4.50.
“The studio 96 is the big company and Red Hot Flames is only a part of that so we can offer something for everybody.”
Suzanne also shares the possibility of starting SEN classes again, as she said: “In the new year we want to start our SEN classes again, we have a teacher who works in a learning disability school and two girls who have experience coaching for the Team England learning disability group coming to teach.”
The club will look to continue the success that they have built up over the last 28 years, and will aim to establish themselves as a well-known name in Salford.
Find more info about Red Hot Flames here
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