Various Acting Competitors

Debbie Moore founded Pineapple Dance Studios in 1979 in Covent Garden. Today Pineapple is a leading global global lifestyle brand and Pineapple leisure wear for adults and kids is available to buy direct online from Pineapple, Covent Garden and major online retailers and catalogues. Official Pineapple merchandise includes apparel, dance bags and fitness accessories. Debbie Moore OBE, founder of Pineapple Dance Studios, began her journey by winning the Honey Magazine modelling competition at the age of 15, becoming an international model and being the first woman to list her company on the London Stock Exchange. Debbie founded the Dance Studios in 1979 in a disused Pineapple warehouse in Covent Garden. Her aim was to make dance accessible to everyone, where absolute beginners could mix with professional dancers and celebrities. Inspired by the dancers’ style Debbie developed Cotton/Lycra with DuPont and was the first fashion designer to use the versatile fabric for dance wear, followed by bodies, leggings, dresses and skirts. These items revolutionised fashion and helped to create the global Pineapple brand that continues to be a staple of every woman’s wardrobe today. With her Hepburn range she became the first to produce outerwear using Cotton/Lycra. Originally as a fit model herself, Debbie’s first hand experience meant she was able to structure each piece she designed to be functional and flattering, whilst emphasising the female form. Pineapple dance wear was the first fashion and lifestyle dance brand to cut leotards in a way which emphasised waists and necklines and designing tracksuit bottoms to flatter hips and legs.

With 43,000 students, 5,100 employees and a global alumni community of 350,000 across more than 170 countries, Manchester Metropolitan is one of the UK’s largest and most diverse universities. Founded in 1824, today it is home to four facilities which deliver courses from Engineering to Art and Design, to business disciplines, to education and healthcare professions. Its international Business School is recognised by the major UK, US and European accreditation bodies. Manchester Metropolitan University received an overall gold status in the 2023 Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). Staying true to its core purpose of transforming lives through the power of education and research, in 2022 it embarked on a new strategy, setting a long-term ambition of achieving dual intensity for Research and Education. In academic year 2022-23, it was the UK’s top University for home undergraduate applications. Social mobility and widening access are at the heart of its educational mission. In 2020-21, just over 50% of undergraduate entrants were the first in their family to go to university and 33% of undergraduates identified as BAME. Its sector-leading degree apprenticeship programme, recently rated Ofsted excellent, provides a route into higher education for those wanting to earn while they learn from many educational and career backgrounds. In the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF21), 90% of Manchester Metropolitan’s research was rated ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent.’ It applies a broad spectrum of its research to address contemporary global challenges from health to social inequality. A top five provider of Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, it also leads the Government’s High Streets Taskforce and has leveraged £45million of funding to support SMEs. It has been a top three university for sustainability in the People and Planet League for the past ten years and principles of sustainability underpin its ambitious investment in campus development.

Founded in 1841, York St John University has been teaching people from across the world for 180 years and is now one of the top 20 universities in the UK for student satisfaction. Driven by a commitment to widen access to higher education, the University strives to give students and staff a safe, exciting, inclusive, and inspirational teaching and learning environment. The University has a campus in the centre of York, a York Sports Park and a campus in London. With approximately 10,000 students across both campuses, York St John University offers a range of subjects in arts, humanities, business, science, and health. York St John was named top university in the North for teaching quality by The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2023.