Who You Know: Christina Taylor

NAME: Christina Taylor

ROLE & COMPANY: Director at Aim Sky High

HOMETOWN: Manchester

CURRENT CITY OF RESIDENCE: Manchester

Describe your typical day to day at work:

I don’t have a typical day at work to be honest. I have a 3 year old and 5 year old so dependent on whether they are in school/nursery my days will be different. Typically I spend the daytime doing admin, attending meetings and running errands.

During the evenings I will be in the studio teaching students and overseeing the work going on.

Tell us about your career journey and how you got your current role:

To be honest, I created my career journey. I attended a youth centre age 13 and never looked back. Growing up in a deprived area this was the best way for me to stay safe during

a time gang and gun crime in Manchester was rife with the youth. I was a self-taught streetdancer and started teaching my friends. Between the ages of 16-19 years old I received £70,000 worth of funding to curate and deliver community dance projects for other young

people. I studied Business and Politics at undergraduate level and that is where I learned and became passionate about the idea of social mobility. During that time I taught and choreographed North-West, British and UK Hip Hop Streetdance Champions. Due to the work I was undertaking in my local area I received a full scholarship for a Masters in Enterprise at the University of Manchester. I wrote my MA dissertation on how to transition voluntary & community organisations into successful social enterprises and then shared it through my networks. I also consulted on a government review called ‘Be the Boss’ on how to help people from disadvantaged backgrounds successfully set up businesses..

Aim Sky High is a dance organisation focused on addressing social issues and aiding social mobility for children and young people. I set-up in 2014, Aim Sky High was born out of a need for continued provision for youth after David Cameron scrapped youth centres and introduced The Big Society and after my dissertation research.

The standard of excellence has seen Stormzy personally request our dancers to help him headline his Wireless Festival 2018 show and rapper Giggs request them for his headline Wembley show. They have opened for Anthony Joshua on his Victory tour and Justin Bieber has used 13 of their dancers on his UK purpose tour.

Aim Sky High was the first dance group that Manchester United allowed on the pitch as half-time entertainment during their legends game vs Bayern Munich which I choreographed. I have been series choreographer for several different CBBC & Cbeebies series due to my expertise working with children in streetdance. In July 2019 I launched a talent agency and clients already include: Manchester United, Manchester City, Kelloggs, NBC Universal, M&S and more.

I also approached a production company to do a piece on the positive young black role models they have in their company as TV often portrays them as being involved in gangs, drugs and violence. They managed to get a documentary commissioned on them by CBBC showing the journey to World Streetdance Championships where they placed 3rd and produced a very powerful piece on social injustice, police brutality and racism.

So in saying all of that! I guess it is all about being good at what you do as well as being proactive!

What’s your most memorable career moment?

Standing backstage at Wireless watching the screen go down as children that I had trained for up to 8 years were living their dream performing in front of 50,000 people with Stormzy.

What’s one motto that you live by?

It doesn’t matter if you are not confident you are good enough, have the confidence to try.

We don’t always feel good enough or confident in our abilities and naturally will question ourselves a lot. But we should always be confident in our ability to try because as long as we do that and persevere we can and will only get better.

Name three women creatives who inspire you:

J.K. Rowling – She was from a deprived background, a mother, and had a dream. She kept going and believed in her vision and now advocates for causes she believes in.

Beyonce – Her dedication to her art and building her own empire is inspiring. She is also the greatest female performer that has ever lived and you can see why in her work ethic.

Rihanna – Being from Barbados and creating the empire she has around being unapologetically who she is, and what she has done for black women by creating Fenty.

What advice would you give to someone wanting to get into your profession?

Train HARD and do your best to understand and learn business acumen. As a self-employed person and your own biggest champion, you are going to need it to be as successful as you want to be. Learn how to network and stay in touch with the right people. Don’t just take from people, the best opportunities I have had have been because someone has noticed how much I give to others.

Anything else you’d like to add?

I am a massive advocate for teaching business and entrepreneurship to disadvantaged and underprivileged communities. I think ownership is the key to everything.