Teenage entrepreneur Sophia Elias officially opens her Nexgen Dance Academy with some unexpected help from the East Grinstead Town Mayor

East Grinstead's Town Mayor, Cllr Julie Mockford, with Nexgen's dance students 

East Grinstead - Last week, 18-year-old Sophia Elias from East Grinstead officially opened her dance academy called Nexgen with a little unexpected help from East Grinstead's Town Mayor. 

Nexgen Dance Academy operates out of Solan Fitness, the award-winning gym within the Atrium in King Street, East Grinstead.

In this video just released by Sophia to mark the launch of Nexgen, Cllr Julie Mockford is seen cutting the ribbon to what appears to be another business within the Atrium when she suddenly hears music coming from inside Solan Fitness, so she goes to investigate.

Click here to watch the video: https://t.co/TZQc07FxOu

She is drawn towards where the music is coming from and when she pushes open the doors to Nexgen's dance studio to satisfy her curiosity, Sophia takes the Mayor by the hand and starts teaching her the dance moves of the dance class she is in the middle of. The Mayor irresistibly joins in with great gusto and has a great time with Sophia and the kids.

Sophia Elias with Cllr Julie Mockford, East Grinstead Town Mayor

Sophia started Nexgen in May 2017 when she was only 17 years old. She has been dancing since the age of 2, starting with ballet, contemporary dance and tap. She later attended local dance schools, notably Hayley Bullock's Street Dance classes and then trained at Sarah Benton's Step Up and Sing Academy where Sophia learned musical theatre and singing. She started Nexgen to inspire others with the same passion for dance as her to get dancing.

Sophia has danced and acted in local theatre groups, appeared on Hellenic TV, and been on stage at the Hawth Theatre in Crawley and at Chequer Mead as well as performed in front of some 8,000 people at Saint Hill Manor, East Grinstead. She has a very positive go-getter attitude to life and her passion to help youngsters through dance and her love of children led her to create Nexgen.

"One of the reasons I wanted to start Nexgen is that I see too many kids with their heads buried in social media 24/7 or watching TV, and no longer interacting with others. Some kids mix with the wrong crowd and sadly get into drugs and alcohol. Nexgen gives them something really positive to do in the real world and teaches them a useful skill too. But most of all, it's great fun! So I say 'Nexgen not Netflix' and 'Dancing not Gaming'!" 

"I would like to thank the Mayor so much for her support and for helping us officially open Nexgen. We had such a good time dancing with her when we were filming the video!" said Sophia.

Nexgen started with 3 students in May but now has around 30, which isn't bad, especially when you take into account the fact that dance classes only take place 2 days a week at the moment. The company is growing fast and is proving to be very popular with local young people due to the fact that Sophia has a fantastic relationship with her students, and their parents are extremely happy with the results too. 

Sophia will soon have to start looking for bigger premises to operate from! Here's one of Nexgen's many Facebook reviews: 

Facebook review of Nexgen

"My daughter had tried other classes but didn't like them. First class with Sophia at Nexgen, she was hooked! She always has lots of fun and [the dancing] has built her confidence enormously! Sophia is fantastic with the children and a great teacher. I would recommend to anyone."

Nexgen is so called because Sophia is teaching the Next Generation how to dance. 

Recently, the very talented dancer and Brit School graduate, Adison Austin, who used to be part of the well-known dance troop, Khronos Agoria, joined Nexgen to teach the upper academy (16+ age group). He is a great asset to the academy. 

Adison Austin with Sophia Elias

Sophia's plan for the business is to, soon, introduce performing arts and singing to the academy and so create the next generation of artists and enable them to gain enough confidence in life so they can adopt a positive attitude in order to reach their goals in the arts.

Sophia's mother, Minie Elias, helps Sophia run the business and has played a big part in its success to date. Minie is an entrepreneur too who owns Aspiring Angels Professional Ironing Service and has run other self-built businesses in the past. 

Minie also introduced Sophia to the work of American sales trainer and best-selling author Grant Cardone. Sophia loves the advice Grant Cardone gives and, in fact, attributes much of Nexgen's success to following the advice that Grant gives in his books such as "The 10X Rule", and on his TV show called "Whatever It Takes".

Sophia's plans for the future include taking Nexgen to London and all over the UK as a franchise, modelled on her first academy in East Grinstead.

Fees are paid termly and are very reasonable, starting at only £100 for a 3-month term, with some classes lasting 1.5 hours each, rather than the usual 1 hour.

Sophia Elias

For further information, please contact:

Sophia Elias

Solan Fitness

1st Floor, The Atrium

King Street

East Grinstead

West Sussex

RH19 3DJ

www.nexgendance.co.uk

07538 971862

Teenage entrepreneur Sophia Elias officially opens her Nexgen Dance Academy with some unexpected help from the East Grinstead Town Mayor

The Drug Attraction hits Best Seller Lists on Both Sides of the Atlantic

The Drug Attraction - What parents need to know to keep kids out of trouble

Simple ebook for parents hits international button on drug prevention

East Grinstead - Since its recent release on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, "The Drug Attraction - What parents need to know to keep kids out of trouble" has risen to the top of Bestseller lists in parenting categories. In late February 2012, it was in the top 0.1% of ebooks downloaded on both sides of the Atlantic and is fast becoming a social media phenomenon. The reason it is successful, is because it is simple, truthful and practical.

Dialog Publishing, based in Sussex, England, have produced an ebook which really does help parents to keep their kids drug-free.

The key message throughout the book is that increased knowledge facilitates greater responsibility and more control - for both the parents and the kids.

Young people are growing up faster than ever, fed on a diet of images and messages from TV, films, magazines and social media/internet. Parents can sometimes feel the adverse effect of all this and wonder what they need to do in order to avoid failure.

How can parents protect their kids from the dangers that are out there from drugs and alcohol? What can they do to prevent their kids from making the same kind of mistakes that are too often spread across the pages of newspapers? Teenage drug use is so often a topic for the media and makes it looks like everyone is doing it, which is just not true.

The Author, Gary Paul Byrne, is a Drug Prevention Lecturer who has spoken to enough young people, during a decade of talks in schools, to fill the National Football Stadium at Wembley in London, England.

In writing this book he wanted to give parents the knowledge and ideas that have been successful for him in his talks. What keeps him motivated to continue is that he knows from constant feedback that the information and the way it is presented does get through to young people. They are less likely to make mistakes if they have understanding and certainty on this subject.

Teenagers and drugs – it is a volatile mix which ruins lives and the efforts of parents to take responsibility for their family’s drug abuse prevention will be rewarded.

In the words of the kids who have heard the Author’s talks:

"My thoughts did change because I just thought drugs were bad but now I know understand why." 

"I can use what I learnt because it gave me the self confidence to say NO!"

"I had been worried that one day I would be bullied into having them, but now, when I think of the talk, I think that I will never take them."

"I understood how actually bad drugs are and what their effects are. I understood that drugs were actually something serious and not just a joke."

"I thought that when I was older I might take some drugs at a party but now realize the seriousness of drugs and how it could kill people."

As a Primary (Elementary) school teacher recently commented on the author's style: "I liked the way you were in dialogue with their reality."

This book increases reality and facilitates better communication. The result is greater understanding and resolution of the drug problem - for kids and adults alike.

Visit http://thedrugattraction.com -  The Kindle app can be downloaded for free onto any computer or smart phone.

About dialog publishing

dialog publishing is an online agency which has the purpose to educate and empower people to solve their own problems. The agency evolved out of many years of providing quality information to the general public.

For more information, please contact:

D. Eicker
dialog publishing
3 Pannell Close
East Grinstead
West Sussex
RH19 1DA

01342 326486
publishing@dialog.im
http://thedrugattraction.com

The Drug Attraction hits Best Seller Lists on Both Sides of the Atlantic