Clarissa Sclafani – West End Kids Troupe

I’m Clarissa Sclafani, im 15 years old and i’m from Croydon.

My experience with West End Kids started in 2023 at the age of 12. My sister had started a year before me and watching her perform made me want to aswell which led me to audition for WEK.

My favourite performance so far was performing on the main stage at Elderflower as it was my first performance with Troupe and my first time performing properly for the public! I am most looking forward to performing at CarFest as it is such a big experience and there will be around 40,000 people watching us perform, which is much bigger than any audience I’ve ever performed for.

Apart from from attending in-person rehearsals for 8 hours every other Saturday, throughout the week I spend around 5-6 hours rehearsing my material. It can be hard trying to balance dance with other commitments at times, but I do however aim to go over all my dances and harmonies each night, atleast once.

I think what I find most challenging during my training is definitely my memory when learning choreography as I have always struggled with this, but I have 100% become a much better dancer since I first started at WEK. I’m so grateful for all the training I have received and can’t wait to carry on and keep improving.

My ambition in the performing arts is to perform in the West End. I would love to pursue in both dance and singing, but my main goal is to achieve being a professional dancer in the industry.

Outside of WEK I have been taking part in gymnastics since I was 5 years old and have now, for just over a year, been trying different styles of dance such as salsa, contemporary, commercial, hip hop, lyrical and jazz.

Something that people may not know about me is that I absolutely love horses and have a passion for horses riding. I also specialised in Muay Thai for around 2 years until stopping to focus all my attention on succeeding in gymnastics, which then also changed once I discovered my love for dance.

When I joined WEK, I started in WEK: Training, with my only goal being to move up to Troupe. After a year of being in Red, I got promoted to WEK Training Yellow, until receiving my first audition for Troupe. I auditioned for Troupe a total of 2 times before getting a 3 week trial in 2026 in which I then passed, making me a member of the West End Kids Troupe!

I will forever be thankful for the day I first joined WEK, as my improvement in the past 3 years has been unbelievable, and has given me so many unforgettable opportunities and experiences as a dancer, and I hope to see myself on stage dancing professionally in the future.

This interview with Clarissa Sclafani was published on 30th June 2026.