Leanne Pero
Growing up on the notorious North Peckham estate in south London, Leanne Pero didn’t like what she saw going on around her. The area was known for its social problems and in the year 2000, it became even more infamous when Damilola Taylor was murdered there. 
Leanne was 15 at the time and was determined to do something more positive with her life than get involved with what she saw going on around her. “I wanted to do something for local kids that would allow them to put their energy to good use, I wanted to create a space where they could just let loose,” says Leanne, now 25.
With a £1,000 grant from Southwark Council she formed a dance club called Bruk Out (slang for dance), and put on a show at the newly built Damilola Taylor Centre in 2001. It was a great success.
Next, with support provided by the government’s local Youth Inclusion Programme (YIP) she created a performing arts programme, running dance and singing classes in her area. In 2002, while still at school, she also produced the award-winning dance competition ‘Get It On the Floor’ - which still runs annually.
The classes continued when Leanne started studying dance at Kingston College in 2004, but two years later as her course came to an end, the YIP funding dried up. She struggled for a few years, managing to keep things ticking over with fundraising events as well as money from her own private dance lessons.
And then in 2009 she received a grant of £10,000 from the National Lottery’s ‘Awards for All’ programme.
Mentor energy
The money helped her run more sessions, but what Leanne didn’t realise at the time was that she needed a mentor or two to really help her set the pace and direction of the business.
In 2010, a stroke of luck saw her approached by the Media Trust, who wanted to make a documentary about her work. The idea was that Leanne would be mentored on-screen by Debbie Moore OBE (pictured above with Leanne), the founder of London’s famous Pineapple Dance Studios.
“I’m very shy, so when they asked I wasn’t like: ‘Oh yeah, great!’,” says Leanne. “Doing the show would mean the cameras coming into my house, where I lived with my mum, so I needed to think about it properly. I eventually realised that it would be good for raising awareness of the business and that it was something I really shouldn’t turn down, so I went for it.”
Debbie made an immediate impact, suggesting that Leanne changed her business name. “She said Bruk Out wasn’t commercial enough – it wasn’t friendly. That’s how we changed to The Movement Factory,” says Leanne.
But this was much more than just a cosmetic change. Debbie and her other mentor, Emma Sinclair of Target Parking UK, helped Leanne reorganise her finances and business structure meaning she ended up with a much stronger, more efficient business. “Everything just clicked into place and I’ve found running the enterprise so much easier since,” she admits.
Moving on up
Today, The Movement Factory has come on in leaps and bounds. It comprises a team of eight dance teachers and one administrator, and in January 2011, Leanne opened three dance academies in London to help young people perform and compete at a semi-professional level. She is also considering opening further academies outside London in the near future.
Like a true entrepreneur, Leanne now runs an ever expanding portfolio of programmes and services, including dance training sessions for primary school teachers.
Looking back, she reveals that starting a business so young had its challenges. “I’d say about 60% of the reaction was negative,” she says. “It can be hard being different from the rest of your mates. You get a lot of jealousy from people when you try to better yourself.”
Older people could also be hurtful. “They could be patronising,” she says. “Telling me that I should enjoy myself, or that I was working myself into an early grave. Why would you say something like that?”
But these days, all she gets is praise. Leanne's won numerous awards for her community work and business prowess. In 2008, she earned herself the Black Business Initiative’s young entrepreneur of the year award, and in 2010, she collected Southwark Volunteer Centre’s Rising Star of the Year award.
Media attention has been plentiful too, with regular newspaper articles and TV shows featuring Leanne and the company.
The early days might have been a struggle, but Leanne’s hard work has paid off. The business is booming, bringing in a good amount of funding and every year thousands of young people benefit from what The Movement Factory offers. Leanne couldn’t be happier with how life is working out.
Connect:
www.themovementfactory.co.uk