Brimming with self -confidence as she spins and twirls to her favourite Beyonce song, six-year-old Natalia Wogawoda gets full marks for confidence from Strictly judge Alesha Dixon.

"I think she needs to come out of her shell a little bit more," Alesha jokes, raising her eyebrows and flashing the dance teacher a smile.

The little girl seems oblivious to the fact that an army of journalists and camera crews have invaded her small dance workshop to film BBC Children In Need. She just wants to dance – and this project has obviously given her the self-belief to do it in front of anyone who will watch.

"It’s just fantastic to see kids like that," sighs Alesha. "She’s so passionate and she’s got so much self-belief. When I was younger, I would have given my right arm for something like this."

There’s no mistaking the sincerity in Alesha’s voice. Like many of the kids here today, things were tough for her when she was growing up.

Alesha’s father walked out on their family home in Welwyn, Hertfordshire, when she was four.

"I know what it feels like to be part of a dysfunctional family," Alesha says. "I was one of the lucky ones to even know who my father was."

As a teenager, being bullied at school left Alesha with little confidence. "I would have been so much stronger and more confident if I’d had a dance class like this to go to," she said.

"My mum certainly couldn’t afford lessons for me and there was never anything like this in my area."

Today, dancing has made Alesha a household name. Since fronting girl band MisTeeq, then going on to win dance show Strictly Come Dancing she has become a household name after being a judge on the panel. She has managed to emerge quite well from the howls of derision that greeted the Beeb’s decision to axe Prestwich-raised dance expert Arlene Phillips and replace her with the younger, far less experienced model. Alesha is now riding high on her success juggling a solo pop career and presenting jobs.

Filming for Children In Need, to be screened tonight, Alesha cuts a glamorous figure in the modest surroundings of the Zion Community Arts Centre in Hulme.

Tall, manicured, luminous-skinned and glossy-lipped, she towers above the kids in her high-heeled ankle boots.

One of the older girls in the class shyly motions her over to dance with them.

"Are you joking?" she cries, giving a loud, snorting laugh. "There’s no way I’m joining in, you girls would show me up!"

And she’s not kidding. The ability of some of the young dancers in the class has provoked some impressed murmurs. The kids are drawn from deprived areas of Manchester and can attend classes here for as little as £1.

Project leaders say that without a class like this they’d be unlikely to realise their talents – and many would fall into gang culture and drug use.

"If it wasn’t for this place, I would be locked up by now, simple as that," says Simeon Malcolm, aged 20. "I think it saved my life."

Simeon started dance classes at the centre when he was 10. In Hulme where he grew up there was little for children to do and many ended up in trouble with the law.

"Before I came here, I was getting in trouble at school, bunking off and things like that," he says. "But then when I started coming here I was working towards things like the dance performances and that gave me more confidence.

"Where I grow up there is a lot of gang culture and having someone to talk to here just got me out of that. It showed me there are other things I could do."

Mentoring other kids has now become Simeon’s passion – and provided him with his first job as a duty manager at the centre.

"A lot of the kids here are missing the role models in their families," he says. "Their dad’s not around so they look to the older generation."

The issue of absent fathers is close to Alesha’s heart and she has recently finished filming a documentary exploring the impact of young people not knowing their fathers.

"It is an issue I feel really strongly about," she said. "You can become very insecure if you don’t know where you come from. It can be really hard.

"But a project like this can give kids in that position some of the structure they are missing at home, if they know they have to come to a dance class every week."

Presenting Children In Need is a new departure for Dixon.

"I have the easy job on Strictly now," she laughs. "I just sit down and chill out, and they do all the hard work. There’s none of the madness that goes on behind the stage."

She said that she was "honoured" to be presenting Children In Need.

"And it’s great fun," she adds. "Completely chaotic!"

Children In Need donates over £3m annually to 67 projects for needy children across Greater Manchester.

Alesha wants Mancunians to give generously this year to raise as much as possible to keep projects like the Zion Arts dance workshops going.

"Whatever walk of life you come from, children come first," Alesha says.

"That’s something everyone agrees on. We all want the best for children, we all want kids to fulfil their potential and that is what it’s all about."