Troubled teenagers learn hip hop

The dance course will last 60 hours and will involve choreography

Girls who cause trouble at school or are at risk of dropping out have been given an incentive to stay - hip hop.

A dance course teaching youngsters how to do ripples, butt spins and body pop to the music of 50 Cent, Flo Rida and Kanye West has been set up.

Angus College and dance charity Showcase the Street are running it.

The course was approved by the Scottish Credit and Qualification Framework (SCQF), and 15 pupils from Arbroath signed up for the pilot.

The 60-hour course, worth six SCQF points, teaches choreographing, performing routines - and behaving.

Teenager Chloe Henderson, who had been part of a gang getting into trouble with police and at school, said dancing had turned her life around.

I got involved with dance and it just showed us a different path that gave us different opportunities Chloe Henderson Dance student

"I would always be excluded from school, I was on the verge of being thrown out," said the 16-year-old.

"A lot of my teachers didn't think I'd come away with any Standard Grades. I didn't think I would have a job. But I got seven Standard Grades and a full-time job.

"I got involved with dance and it just showed us a different path that gave us different opportunities, it got us away from the wrong crowd of people and I made new friends here."

Showcase the Street chairman Fergus Storrier, said: "What we're using it for, initially within Angus, is to work with young girls who are perhaps not achieving at school, and it's giving them an opportunity to work at Standard Grade level, consider that as a qualification, consider teamwork, confidence, but also behaviour as well."