Three dancing grannies from the Black Country have built a huge online following with routines to unexpected songs, and they say the point is simple: make people smile and get moving.
Deb Nicholls, Jacky Fellows and Sue Hawkins, also known as Hilda, Letty and May, have racked up millions of views for their dances. Over the years, the women behind Fizzog Productions have toured with singer Diljit Dosanjh, met Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton at the Bahrain Grand Prix and worked with presenter and actress Alison Hammond.
“We just want people to be themselves, we want the world to dance, why not with everything else that’s going on in the world,” Fellows said.
She said “laughter and fun is contagious” and that having a good time helped people “tap into another version of yourself” while forgetting about topics like politics.
The trio are known for dancing to songs including Don’t Cha by the Pussycat Dolls and for public performances such as a Bhangra flash mob at Birmingham New Street station.
Nicholls and Hawkins, both 54, and Fellows, 63, met at drama college more than 20 years ago. They later set up a production company to bring theatre to people who rarely experienced it.
They were drawn to the idea of “three people in an old people’s home reminiscing” and first performed as grannies in Stourbridge town centre in 2008 to raise money for a charity run. Nicholls said the audience roared with laughter when they got on stage and “everything went mental from there”.
“It’s really freeing, once we put our costumes on, there’s a switch in the brain and we are Hilda, Letty and May and you don’t have to be you anymore,” Nicholls said.
The group appeared twice at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where they were told their Black Country accent “wouldn’t travel”, but Hawkins said that was quickly proved wrong.
“I love the Black Country accent and we had people there from all over the world in hysterics, no one had a problem understanding us,” Hawkins said.
Nicholls said dancing did not need to happen in formal settings.
“You don’t have to go to a fitness class or the gym, you can dance in your living room or kitchen, and that can help spur you on to do whatever you want to do,” she said.
The group said they have received messages on social media “for years” from people saying the dancing made them laugh or smile “for the first time in a long time”.
“To know that, that’s what you’ve done to somebody, just by having a laugh at ourselves, is amazing,” Hawkins said.
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