Scottish Arts Council Young Scot Action Fund Films: Justyle Ms Style

Justyle Ms Style, Edinburgh. Sabrina Gali (16) received funding towards workshops for hip-hop dance group Justyle Ms Style.

My name is Sabrina Gali. I’m 16 and l live in Edinburgh. I’m a jazz hip-hop body popping dancer. 

It started off as a little joke me and my little cousin 8 years ago started dancing. I wasn’t really keen cause l was a tomboy so l wanted to do the football however my mum wasn’t too happy about that so she got me enrolled into dancing classes. Well l thank her because l realise how good it is and how important dancing is for me. I express loads of things when I’m dancing, things that l can’t express through words and speech. Its how lm feeling inside. It’s really hard to describe, you would have to try it. 

Working with Scottish Arts Council Young Scot Action Fund

I wrote to Young Scot and l explained my ideas and my goals what l was planning to do, why, seeing as I’m pretty young l didn’t think they would take me serious but l found they treated me like l was an adult. They obviously trusted me with the grant so l thank them for that. It means a lot. It was good.  They weren’t too pushy they didn’t ask for big information they just wanted to know how their money was spent and l think it was spent in a good way and for a good cause. 

Impact of Scottish Arts Council Young Scot Action Fund

I’ve always wanted to do something with young people around my age group. I found the SACYS in a newspaper advert. I had to find the dancers so l went around local youth clubs so l got some adverts on the internet, some posters. I got loads of friends to help me out looking for people but, yeah, l found the kids, they were great, they were having fun while they were learning. It boosted my confidence. I learned a lot from that experience. It’s something I’ll definitely add in my C.V. 

Next Steps

It was a great experience now l can finally say l did it. It was a big responsibility but it paid off. I felt really good. I learnt a lot, l learnt how to communicate with others. I think l grew up from that experience to be honest. 

It was a start point and I’m pretty sure it will not be an end. My future plans are to get into the dance industry but not as a performer as a choreographer. I can be pretty shy so that’s why l prefer backstage work but I’m hopefully looking forwarding the future to host a show in a venue hopefully The Playhouse if l get there, but yeah. 

Young Scot gratefully acknowledges the support of the Scottish Arts Council and all the young people that helped make this film.