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A former banker who helped bring the Lindy Hop to London is to open a West End dance school after impressing the Dragons’ Den judges.
Scott Cupit, who moved to London from Australia with his company Swing Patrol five years ago, is working with Deborah Meaden — and a £65,000 investment — after appearing on the BBC2 show last night.
His school will have a new website and a venue in Leicester Square. It will also work with local swing dancing groups on a national tour.
Before Mr Cupit founded Swing Patrol, the Lindy Hop and other dances from the Thirties and Forties were taught by only a handful of troupes in the capital.
But Cupit’s dance school has helped bring the movement into the mainstream. It teaches around 1,200 students every week at 27 venues across the capital.
It has featured on television shows including Blue Peter and Call The Midwife, and at festivals including Secret Garden Party and Latitude. Mr Cupit, 48, who lives in Forest Gate with his wife Laura Knight, won three of the five dragons over by giving them a dance class — even though they did not go for his original proposal.
He was trying to obtain funding for a warehouse space where they could hold classes in the week and open a speakeasy at the weekend. But Meaden, who appeared on Strictly Come Dancing last year, was against the warehouse idea. Instead, with Meaden as a 20 per cent shareholder, the firm will focus on strengthening and expanding the brand. Mr Cupit said he was extremely nervous about his pitch but delighted with the outcome, adding: “I never expected it to get this big.”
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He said: “It’s really hard to know where we’re going to go with this ... We’ll just be a stronger brand. Doors will open to more things. For example, we didn’t have a sponsor.
“Universally the group is absolutely thrilled but we don’t know where this is going to take us. Everybody is just so excited. They can’t believe our little school is getting all this attention.”
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In 2009 he danced on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square for Antony Gormley’s One & Other project. He was joined by 100 Swing Patrol dancers at ground level, which resulted in an impromptu swing dance class with spectators. He was named by the Evening Standard as one of the project’s top ten performers
But he said it was a “hard” journey to get the school where it is now. He added: “I was just going outside Tube stations (to promote classes) five years ago and if we had 10 people at a class that would be great for us.
“We’ve had so much good growth, especially in east London, we have 160 people at our Angel class now. It’s amazing . In east London in particular the whole fashion, all the ingredients were there to facilitate and it’s such a fun thing that people come back and bring their friends.
“London also has lots of good swing bands. When I got here salsa was on every street corner, I couldn’t believe it, but now swing has taken over. I’m really proud of that.”