Young people have been transforming an ordinary basketball court into a space of further creativity, colour, music and dance.

Supported by regional project Urban Alchemy, a group of 30 young people have created an outdoor urban art space and produced an outdoor musical performance, which was staged at Parks Leisure Centre at the weekend and watched by the Elected Mayor of North Tyneside, Linda Arkley, and members of the community.

Urban Alchemy is part of NE-Generation, a Legacy Trust UK funded programme which develops high quality, cultural activity devised and delivered by young people for their peers.

Five weeks ago, over 30 young people from Meadow Well, The Pheonix Detached Youth Project and Norham Community Technology College came together to decide what art forms they wanted to work with and which outdoor space they would transform into a creative place. Their performance, ‘On Our Doorstep (Creative Place)’ involved elements of street dance, music, drama and urban art; creative activities that the young people want to remain in North Shields and within a space they can use and call their own.

The group have been working with hip hop theatre company Bad Taste Cru from Dance City and other professional artists from the CoMusica team based at The Sage Gateshead and from Northern Stage.

Steve Jinski, CoMusica Director, from The Sage Gateshead said: “It’s really impressive to see how the group identified the space they wanted to use and approach Parks Leisure Centre with their vision to use the basketball court in a more creative way, using urban art and music, as well as keeping its use for sport. Parks Leisure Centre’s management were more than happy to support the idea, seeing the benefits this would have for the community.”

The participants have all taken pride in turning the basketball court into a dual purpose space, now becoming a place of colour, music and dance, something that this project has introduced. Beth McKeen, 17, from Meadow Well said: “"The performance has been a great motivator to get back on with dancing again. The fact that we've come so far with new people, working with the Bad Taste Crew has been amazing." Marshal Siziba, 16, from Meadow Well said "It has been really creative, mind-blowing, freeing and .....lethal!"

Mike Burgess, Project Manager, Phoenix Detached Youth Project said: “We are incredibly grateful to the Parks Leisure Centre staff for having the vision to work with us to create this space and facilitate this performance, as well as to North Tyneside Council with whom we have been working closely.”