BALLLERINAS from the English National Ballet joined leading dance world figures at the launch of the world s largest dance festival last week. The dancers joined flamenco dancers, lindy-hoppers, Bollywood and bhangra dancers at the Big Dance event in Spit

BALLLERINAS from the English National Ballet joined leading dance world figures at the launch of the world's largest dance festival last week.

The dancers joined flamenco dancers, lindy-hoppers, Bollywood and bhangra dancers at the Big Dance event in Spitalfields Market last Wednesday.

More than 60 dancers from all over London took part in a 10 minute extravaganza of ballet, hip-hop, jazz, contemporary, salsa and ballroom dance alongside the professional dancers from the English National Ballet East London Dance, Greenwich Dance Agency, Sadler's Wells and Siobhan Davies Dance on a specially designed mirrored dance floor in the centre of the market building.

The Big Dance will take place from July 3-11 this year and again in Summer 2012, just before London's Olympic and Paralympic Games, with hundreds of events already in London.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson said: "Anyone switching on the television lately cannot fail to have seen how enormously popular dance is. Big Dance is a terpsichorean feast that takes it quite literally one step further.

"We want to get as many people moving as possible this July and afterwards, to 2012 and beyond.