The first ever ballet class for hip hop dancers

Monica Loughman, Ireland"s most famous ballerina, is taking on the challenge of a lifetime: to turn six Irish hip hop dancers into ballet stars for one night"s performance of The Nutcracker to an audience of a thousand people. The six-part weekly series follows the progress of her protégés over four months of training: from the audition stages to their final days of rehearsal. Before they take their places on stage with Monica and her company, The Irish Youth Russian Ballet Company, at The Helix, Dublin, in December. Week by week we"ll see the six hip-hop movers put through their paces by Monica as she attempts to tame their free-styling ways with rigorous ballet training. Can she teach them the discipline and grace it takes to become elegant ballet dancers? Will they let her? This is a huge gamble for Monica; The Nutcracker will be her company"s annual performance and if her dancing trainees don"t make the grade, she will not put them on stage. Assisted by Patricia O"Riordan (co-director of the Ballet Company) and Grant McLay (choreographer), she is taking a chance on six young streetwise hopefuls. Can they deliver the goods? In programme two the six hip hop dancers are in for a shock to the system as they take their first ever ballet classes. They must learn a routine to perform for Monica"s youth company. Will they learn enough ballet in time to impress and be accepted into the company? Or has the bar been set too high? Ballet Chancers is on RTÉ One on Sunday at 7.30pm.