The Government has announced plans to invest £100,000 in a youth dance scheme to deepen links between schools and dance providers as a way of increasing dance opportunities for youth.

The scheme, called Dance Links, is in its third year, and is being managed by Youth Dance England (YDE) with the intention of encouraging more young people to participate in dance as part of the DCMS' PE and Sport Strategy for Young People (PESSYP) – an initiative to get children exercising five hours a week by 2012.

The popularity of dance has risen by 86 per cent over the past four years, according to Arts Council England, and has become the second most commonly used sport in schools - next to football. "The project will enable more schools and specialist colleges to build links with local dance schools and professionals to increase the amount of high-quality dance activity available to young people," explained Linda Jasper, chief executive of YDE.

The scheme will include training programmes, called Making Links, for dance practitioners to learn how to adapt their work for schools and to expand the amount of dance professionals in schools.

The £100,000 is in addition to the £5.5m recently given to YDE, by the DCMS, DCSF (Department for Children, Schools and Families) and Arts Council England, to develop a national youth dance strategy inside and outside of school. Jasper said: "The funding will be focused on School Sport Partnerships that have still to meet the Government's requirement of five hours of sport a week."

Dance Links is funded by the DCMS and will be executed in partnership with the National Dance Teachers Association, to ensure the programme is integrated into the school system. However, as the PESSYP now includes five hours of sport a week as opposed to two, the strategy extends outside of school and involves getting community providers to work with schools and local authorities to increase the offer of sports to youth up to 19-years-old, whether they are in school, FE college or not in education, employment or training.

The £5.5m national youth dance strategy will include the appointment of dance co-ordinators in schools to support the activity both as an art form and school sport. In addition, six new Centres of Advanced Training will open between now and 2011, to train and support around 1,500 more young people who are inspired to become dance professionals. The DCMS and DCSF will also form the first Dance Review Programme Board, made up of stakeholders, agencies and funders from education and dance sectors as well as young dancers.

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