We have a handful of teams who have achieved the greatest honour you can achieve in the Allstar world: winning worlds.

There was a Scottish Pom Duo from Stephanie and Natasha Trainor who won in 2012, plus our Paracheer Pom and Hip Hop (Adaptive Abilities as they are called now, but not then) teams have a handful of gold medals each.

Those are ICU medals. USASF worlds has only ever been conquered by one team and

one team only: ADA Dark Angels, who won once again in 2019 having previously taken

the gold medal in 2008.

ADA was founded by Tracy Bedford in the 1990s. ADA Dark Angels are arguably the

flagship team at Angels Dance Academy in Bristol, although they field worlds teams in

Hip Hop, Jazz and Lyrical. You might remember them from The Greatest Dancer on the

BBC last year (although I highly doubt anyone reading won’t remember)!

We spoke to their head coach, Charlie Bedford, who has been co-owner of ADA for

sixteen years, and two of their athletes, Becky (who was previously featured in our

Freelancing article) and Ruby about how it felt to win worlds, the mindset and work

required to get there and what their take away moments were from the experience of

winning worlds.

Charlie Bedford, Coach

1. Describe the moment you realised you had won worlds?

Winning worlds was a feeling I can’t really explain! I always knew that if I won worlds again

I’d take every minute of it in! The feeling of relief was the most overwhelming feeling! As

weird as that sounds… I always new I would win as my mindset is that way, but although

you’d think joy would be the biggest feeling for me it wasn’t… I felt so content and

relieved.

2. How long had you waited for it, and how did you manage expectations of the team in the year leading up to it?

Winning is always our mindset…. it takes a lot of training and coaching to mentally prepare

my athletes to manage that expectation but also to know that the possibility of losing is a

lot bigger than winning. The year before we placed 8th in worlds and had a really bad year,

not just because of placing but because of team moral, certain Athletes not being at the

level they needed to be and also a massive learning curve for me as a coach as I didn’t

manage the team how I should have, I let things slip and I took full responsibility! As a

coach it’s your job to dot the i’s and cross the t’s and I didn’t! The 2018 worlds although

being a bad year had to happen… the learning for me was so valuable and we’re the team

today because of 2018! You need set backs!

3. Is there anything as a coach you feel was different in this specific year? (ie. new way of choreographing, different conditioning or just team dynamic?)

I took a completely different approach to coaching, more of a professional way… training

was/is brutal. I am completely open with my team… everyone needs to know where they

stand! Knowing weak links and addressing them straight away. In my teams, everyone

knows who’s the weakest and everyone knows who’s the strongest! You need to all know

this as we all need to be as one on the floor. I also have higher expectations in athletes….

making them accountable as well as myself. Training to win rather than training to

compete, there’s a huge difference between the two!

4. If you could relive one moment again, aside from the announcement you had won, what would it be?

Getting my scores in semi finals, it was just me my wife Steph and my little girl Bea!

Finding out your sitting in first with them two was special and I’ll never forget that moment.

5. What in your mind makes a successful team?

• Honesty from your coach… no matter how uncomfortable it may be.

• Putting the team first always rather than the individual.

• A team that’s willing to give you everything!!! I know I’m biased but my team are beasts

and will go through walls for me and their team mates.

6. Who behind the scenes would you like to thank?

My wife Steph! She’s my absolute rock!

7. What can we look forward to next season?

An absolute showcase!! I’m pushing my team to better themselves every rehearsal!

I cannot wait for you all to see what we’ve been doing.

Athletes Becky Mancini and Ruby Gardiner

1. Describe the moment you realised you had won?

Becky:

WOW I remember the whole team crumbled to the floor! So overwhelmed with

emotion and just so happy! It was literally euphoric!

Ruby:

The moment they called out 2nd place and the realisation hit that we had won was

AMAZING. You could physically see the whole team crumble and then erupt!! I will never

forget that moment.

2. How did you celebrate?

Becky:

With the team and all our other worlds teams and family! We won together 1 team

dream! And I got a tattoo to mark the occasion.

Ruby:

With the team and the whole academy. We are one big family, so we celebrated

altogether. (And got a tattoo of the worlds finals date!!)

3. What did you do that you feel most prepared you for worlds – mindset and in training?

Becky: We never train like we’ve won – never complacent. Train like you have nothing to

lose but everything to gain!

Ruby:

You have to find the balance between believing in your self and your team and not

becoming complacent – and I think that we found that perfect balance. Hard work pays off.

4. How often did you train and what was your favourite part of training?

Becky: We train around twice a week however as athletes nearly all of us train in multiple

teams! My fav part oddly is the really tough stuff the being majorly pushed to the point of

exhaustion.That’s where athletes are made!

Ruby:

We trained as a team twice a week but most of our athletes train in multiple teams

as well – I think the team moral is so special in a team. Training is hard and can be

challenging but that’s what makes a difference!

5. What would you most love to relive from that worlds year, aside from placings?

Becky:

Being back stage after winning getting sized up for our rings – before we walked out

to greet our family’s we had a moment as a team where we huddled in and just soaked it

up! I’ll never forget that moment with my team! My family!

Ruby:

Being backstage day 2 was one of the best experiences when I think back to worlds

2019 sitting in 1st place. You could see in every single persons eyes how much we wanted

this, and it just felt really different, I didn’t feel nervous at all, I just felt so excited and

wanted to get on that stage and perform and hold our spot!!

6. What – to you – makes a winning team?

Becky:

Teamwork, discipline and accountability!

Ruby:

Hard work, dedication, trust, (and an amazing coach)

7. Now you’re a world champion, what are you focussing on now for the future?

Becky:

Being a returning world champ of course 🤷

Ruby:

Keeping our spot !! The hard work never stops, if anything we need to work even

harder now!!

You can watch the 2019 world champion routine here:

You can keep up with their next season on their instagram @adadarkangels or @angelsdanceacademy. 

Written by Emma

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