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Diversity
Background information
Origin	East London and Essex, England
Genres	Street dance (urban, electronic, pop)
Years active	2007-present
Associated acts	Flawless [[1]]
Members
Ashley Banjo Jordan Banjo Mitchell Craske Sam Craske Ike Ezekwugo Perri Luc Kiely Ian McNaughton Jamie McNaughton Matthew McNaughton Warren Russell Terry Smith

Diversity is a street dance group that is best known for coming in first place in the third series of Britain's Got Talent. They also won Families United Positive Role Models at the Spirit of London Awards. The group, initially known as Swift Moves, formed in 2007 and performed at JUMPOFF dance battles. In their first year together they won the Street Dance Weekend 2007 competition before deciding to enter Britain's Got Talent.^[1][2]

Members

Formed in 2007,^[3] the troupe are made up of members from East London (Dagenham, Leytonstone), and Essex and comprise three sets of brothers and four of their friends. Some are still at school or university but the older members include an IT solutions, a bathroom installer, and a telecoms engineer.^[4]

The group, ranging in age from 13 to 26 during the filming of Britain's Got Talent, are: Ashley Banjo, Jordan Banjo, Sam Craske, Mitchell Craske, Ian McNaughton, Jamie McNaughton, Matthew McNaughton, Perri Luc Kiely, Warren Russell,Ike Ezekwugo and Terry Smith. The Diversity reserve dancer is Oscar Fedz. ^[5] The group's leader and choreographer is Ashley Banjo, at university studying natural sciences (Biology and Physics). He said "from the age of 14 I started to teach myself routines".^[4]. They also have a twitter account 'DiversityBGT' where they constantly keep in touch with fans by exchanging quick messages.

Britain's Got Talent

In 2009, the group won the third series of Britain's Got Talent. All the judges heavily praised their performances throughout the competition, with Banjo's choreography being described as 'genius' by Amanda Holden.

After receiving 'Yes' votes from all three judges in their audition, Diversity went on to compete in the first semi-final on 24 May 2009 winning the judges' vote against Natalie Okri.

In the final, on Saturday, 30 May 2009, Diversity were announced as the winner, beating Susan Boyle and Julian Smith (who came 2nd and 3rd respectively).

As winners of the competition Diversity went on to perform before the Queen at the Royal Variety Show on 7 December 2009.^[6] Subsequently, Diversity was nominated in the Dance section of the final South Bank Show awards and won an award at the pride of britain awards^[7]

2009

After winning the show, Diversity appeared on Larry King Live on 6 June to talk about their future plans. Diversity also became Patrons of Dance Aid^[8] organised by the UK Registered Charity, Hope for Children ^[9][10] They performed at the Wireless Festival in Hyde Park, London on 5 July,^[11] and appeared at T4 on the Beach on 19 July at Weston-super-Mare. They also appeared in the 3-D film StreetDance alongside fellow Britain's Got Talent dance group Flawless and previous winner George Sampson.^[12][13] The film is due to be released in May 2010.^[14]

On 31 August they performed at Blackpool's Winter Gardens in a Michael Jackson tribute alongside George Sampson and Aidan Davis. This performance was on the same weekend as the World Street Dancing championships.

Diversity have also performed in London's Covent Garden to launch the new Disney Channel Disney XD.^[15] They also performed outside 10 Downing Street in front of prime minister Gordon Brown, during which Perri fell on his head after attempting a back-flip. He did not sustain any serious injury.^[16]

Diversity also appeared in the Gracious K music video "Migraine Skank" along with dance group Flawless.^[17] In January 2010 Ashley Banjo will appear as a judge on the Sky1 reality show Got to Dance, alongside Adam Garcia and Kimberly Wyatt.^[18]

Diversity switched-on Christmas lights at a shopping mall in Norwich on 5 November 2009 ^[19] and then in Meadowhall Shopping Centre in Sheffield the next day on 6th November 2009. ^[20] and also in Watford on 12th November.

On 11 November 2009, whilst they all proudly wore their poppies, Diversity conducted several hours of signing autographs and posing for photographs with thousands of their fans at 'The Galleria' Shopping Centre in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Afterwards they hosted a prize giving ceremony on stage with further opportunities for photographs. Their visit culminated in a performance of their legendary 'Michael Jackson' dance routine.They also performed another Michael Jackson tribute at the MOBO award ceremony.

Diversity launched Christmas at Lakeside on 1 November 2009, where they took two members of the audience on stage for a dance off. They then spent an hour signing autographs for fans.

There was a competition held in November 2009, and the 100 lucky winners won a meet and greet with Diversity on 19 November at The Glades in Bromley.

On 7th December 2009 Diversity performed on the Royal Variety Performance, hosted in Blackpool and shown on the TV station ITV across the UK on the 16th December 2009.

Diversity are touring in Spring 2010; their first dates sold out in 24 hours, which led to further dates being announced, kick starting it off at the manchester apollo on the 27th of March.

On Got to Dance Warm Up show, they presented their Westfield Shopping Centre FlashMob, sponsored by T-Mobile^[21].

2010

Diversity have teamed up with Change4Life to promote street dancing as a means of getting kids and families more active. They provide a series of simple routines that anyone can follow. Change4Life is an initiative run by the British NHS. ^[22]

References

{{Reflist}

External links

• Team Diversity
• Official website
• Diversity Street Dance

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