Mayor calls for 3m dancers by 2012

The mayor of London Boris Johnson has announced a drive to get three million Londoners dancing by 2012 and to get the rest of the country involved too.

His call came as he launched the T-Mobile Big Dance 2010 at the Palladium theatre yesterday (July 1st) in a show attended by 2,000 people.

Dance captains from 13 hit London shows turned out to perform a routine from Hairspray's You Can't Stop the Beat.

Big Dance runs from tomorrow until July 11th and will feature 850 events, reaching an estimated 1.2 million people.

Highlights will include the Big World Dance on July 10th, featuring thousands of professional and amateur dancers making their way through the streets of London.

Mr Johnson commented: 'London is one of the world's greatest centres for dance, with enormous creative talent to be found here.

'But it's also about getting more active, or simply having fun – and it's a brilliant way to bring people together.'

Yesterday saw the launch of the first ever free online dance directory by the Dance Champions, which provides information on local classes.