Diversity Dance Group

Diversity dance group won the 2009 season of Britain's Got Talent' despite stiff competition, such as that from the dance group Flawless and from virtuoso singer Susan Boyle. Diversity dance group wowed the audience and judges alike from the moment their audition began to the moment the last vote had been counted.

The dance group consists of 11 dancers ranging in age from 13 to 25 and is led and choreographed by Ashley Banjo. Three families have more than one member dancing in the troupe, Ashley's sibling, and two other family names are multiply represented: Craske and McNaughton. In addition to these three families, several members are unrelated; however, the bond between all the members is obvious.

Performing and practicing together since 2007, the group beat out singer Susan Boyle on May 30th, 2009 to win the season of Britain's Got Talent. Since winning the talent competition, they have made several public appearances both to dance and to chat about their future goals and wishes. The group has also appeared in a movie alongside, among others, the other dance group that got a standing ovation from judges of Britain's Got Talent; the movie has a release date of 2010.

The 11 members of Diversity dance group were looking forward to performing for the Queen at the Royal Variety in December long before their audition performance had even begun.

The troupe's performances on Britain's Got Talent can all be seen on YouTube. If you missed the original air dates, you'll very much want to check out these videos that rival television performances like Dancing with the Stars on US television.

It goes without saying that their performance was fantastic, but what exactly made it fantastic? In the YouTube video of the Diversity audition you can see their elements of surprise (especially one of their two youngest dancers popping out of a duffel-bag midway through their performance). According to the judges, the imagination in the choreography is amazing; for example the bit with the group 'running' in slow motion towards a finish line at the front of the stage. Brilliant, as the judges would say, just brilliant.

The Diversity semi-final, as with all semi-finals and finals on the show, brought in a lot of lighting tricks and effects. Again one of their young ones made a surprise appearance, being flown in from the rigging above the stage to 'steal' a diamond on a pedestal on the stage. Of course, the dancing itself was brilliant as always.

The Diversity final performance on May 30th, 2009 is what won the group their title as 2009 champions of the show. Like many national and international dance competitions, the votes for Britain's Got Talent's 2009 winner was a very close one. It was reported that only 24.9% of the votes went to Diversity dance group, and still they had the most votes. This does not mean that the dance group is not that good; it means that the show had so many talented individuals and groups performing that the competition was fierce.

Singer Susan Boyle was expected to win by many, and the dance group 'Flawless' was an audience favorite rivaling 'Diversity'. The young boy who sang a Jackson 5 song for the auditions, and sang it again at Michael Jackson's Memorial in July 2009, Shaheen Jafargholi, was also loved by local and television audiences alike. In short, 'Diversity' had to beat out some very talented acts to be crowned the winner.

Diversity dance troupe has been together for two years, and with their 2009 BGT win, they're likely to remain a hot item for years to come.

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