Twist and Pulse

Twist and Pulse are an English street dance duo based in London. They were the runners-up of the fourth series of Britain's Got Talent in 2010, second to Spelbound in the live final. In 2012, they presented and performed at every date of the 70-day Olympic Torch Relay Tour and also at the basketball, badminton and volleyball events at London 2012 Olympic Games.

Ashley Glazebrook (aka Twist) was born 28th March 1991 in Sidcup, in a family of two brothers, four step-brothers and seventeen cousins. From a young age he loved music, especially by Michael Jackson. At the Business Academy Bexley Secondary School, Ash began to show an interest in dance and joined a local street dance group, performing at events such as The Streetdance Weekend UK Championships and The World Hip Hop Championships in Las Vegas. He went on to study dance at The BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology.

Glen Murphy (aka Pulse) was born in 1990 at Guy's Hospital and brought up by his father in south east London, where he still lives. He also has an older brother and one younger brother who aren't British but Canadian. He attended Dalmain Primary School and Forest Hill School.

Glazebrook and Murphy met at the BRIT School of Performing Arts and Technology where they were both studying for a BTEC National Diploma in dance, training in ballet, tap dance, contemporary and jazz dance. Ashley was also studying for his A levels as well.^[1] They discovered they had an equally wacky sense of humour and quickly became best friends. With college coming to an end, they formed a duo called The Cheeky Boiz,^[2] and began rehearsing their "streetomedy" performances – a blend of streetdance and comedy^[3] which led to the finals of Britain's Got Talent in 2010. They performed on the Daybreak morning show on ITV, in the week leading up to the 2011 Britain's Got Talent.

Britain's Got Talent

Billed as "streetomedy", their dancing to the EastEnders theme and The Cheeky Girls' "Touch My Bum" received three "Yes" votes from the judges at their London audition.

Declan "Dec" Donnelly said, "These two guys come on and dance to the EastEnders theme tune. That's clever and new." Anthony "Ant" McPartlin laughed, "It took me back 15 years ago to when me and Dec were PJ and Duncan but they could actually dance!" Dec chimed in, "If they can present a TV show we're screwed!"

Ant and Dec were heard to say: "With their bright hip hop outfits and body popping moves, they reminded us of ourselves back in our P J & Duncan days with one small difference, they could actually dance, and we um couldn't".^[4]

2010

Twist and Pulse toured with BGT Live, visiting 14 towns. Since then, they have been all over the country performing, including at the Midlands Music Festival where they were watched by an audience of 20,000. They did a summer tour of all three Butlin's holiday camps and were booked for celebrity weddings and private parties.

Twist and Pulse's TV appearances included ITV's Magic Numbers where they did a dance that was made up from music from blockbuster films such as The Matrix, Titanic and Pirate of the Caribbean. They also appeared on The 5 O'Clock Show, This Morning, Teen Nick, and The Seven Thirty Show on UTV.

In December, BBC NI invited Twist and Pulse to perform live on Children in Need 2010 in front of a large crowd at the Odyssey.

2011

In April 2011, Twist and Pulse were guests on Keith Lemon's ITV2 show, Celebrity Juice.

In June, they performed at many schools in England to promote their new single "Jump" and helped the charity Fairbridge to raise money with two flash mobs at St Katharine Docks and Marble Arch.

They supported Jedward on their fourth Irish tour in August, called 'The Carnival Tour'. This included ten dates.^[5] They performed at Bluewater Shopping Centre on 18 December as part of the Children in Need events.

They performed and won on CBBC The Slammer as well as performing on the main stage at T4 on the Beach.^[6]

2012

They returned to Britain's Got Talent in 2012 with their own dance troupe, 'Twist and Pulse Dance Company', which reached the live semi-finals.

They helped launch Renaults new electric car "Renault Twizy" in Covent Garden.^[7]

In the week of the live finals, they appeared as contestants in Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, where they won £15,000 for the Danceaid charity.^[2] They had been touring with the Olympic Torch for 67 dates and performing every night at the torch stopovers, playing to crowds of up to 70,000 per night.^[8]

They were invited to perform at the basketball, badminton and volleyball venues during London 2012 Olympic Games.

They appeared on Jodie Marsh Brawn in the USA TV show as special guest choreographers, choreographing her world championship body building routine which she won.

They then hosted a Summer Dance School for budding and experienced movers at Glow in Bluewater.^[9]

2013

In February, Twist and Pulse renewed their Ambassador Role with the Diana Award youth charity.^[6]

In March 2013, Twist and Pulse appeared on BBC One's Let's Dance for Comic Relief with Lee Nelson. They danced to a "Swan Lake Hip-Hop Remix". They were saved by the dance panel and were into the final.^[10]

For a part of 2013, Twist and Pulse travelled over to China to perform on their biggest streetdance TV show on CCTV News, which aired to over 400,000,000.^[11]

Twist and Pulse earned themselves a Guinness World Record for the most synchronised moves in 30 seconds with 130 moves.^[12]

They appeared in Canons latest commercial for the new Canon Legria Mini.^[13]

Twist and Pulse opened the Children's Bafta's with a performance and presented the award for 'Learning – Secondary'.

Twist and Pulse were special guests in ALADDIN! a production in the Theatre Royal Windsor and played the two Chinese Policemen.

Recording career

Having spent a year writing and producing their own records, the duo released their first single, "Jump", on 3 July 2011.^[14]

References

External links

• Official website
• Facebook page
• YouTube videos
• Report in The Sun
• Digital Spy report
• Metro report
• Tellymix report