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British scream queen slips into some dancing shoes – Metro US

British scream queen slips into some dancing shoes

Nichola Burley is best known for her appearances in British horror movies and thrillers like Donkey Punch and Kicks, but on Friday audiences will be treated to a much lighter side of the actress in StreetDance 3-D (no points for guessing what it’s about).

For Burley it was an opportunity to finally play a role that was close to herself.

“There are a lot of gritty films in England and many of the scripts I read are quite twisted and dark,” Burley told Metro. “I’ve always wanted to do something positive and uplifting because that’s the kind of person I am naturally. I knew it would be so much fun to do something like this.”

The film is miles away from the bloody work she’s done recently, but not outside of her realm of experience. Burley actually danced for years before falling into acting.

“I studied dance until I was 18 and then went to the Northern School of Contemporary Dance,” Burley said. “I never wanted to act, I always wanted to dance, but a casting director came to the school to do general auditions for film and I got into it that way. I thought it was just a one off opportunity and went back to school after. But I got lucky and actually hadn’t even danced in five years before making this movie.”

The experience in dance and film acting obviously made Burley a prime candidate for the film, but she admitted to being unfamiliar with the street-dance style before shooting. A bit of a problem since she plays a character who trains a troupe of ballerinas in street dancing.

“It was very challenging. I knew absolutely nothing about it before we started and had to learn everything in six weeks,” admitted the actress. “I probably looked more like one of the struggling ballet dancers in the film to be honest.”