Our pupils have been super lucky this month to receive online workshops from 3 industry professionals.

Our Patron, and West End Choreographer, Andrew Wright, taught choreography from two of his shows, Joseph and The Witches of Eastwick.
Jake Halsey-Jones, cast member of the West End production of Hamilton, taught a routine from Hamilton and told pupils exactly what it is like to learn a West End show as a Swing.

And finally, Lauren Drew who plays Catherine of Aragon in the hit musical Six, taught a routine from the show and gave pupils an insight into her training and life as part of a musical.

Thank you to Andrew, Jake and Lauren for spending time with our pupils and keeping them inspired during Lockdown.

We are so proud of our 43 pupils who did their Royal Academy of Dance Ballet exams in March. With hardly any notice, they took their exams a week early so that we beat the impending Lockdown, and they all achieved fantastic results. 

In the Graded exams pupils received 5 Distinctions, 13 Merits and 9 successful Class Awards. 

In Vocational exams pupils received 1 Distinction, 13 Merits and 2 Passes. 

Congratulations everyone.

We are delighted to announce that senior student Bethany Lewis has been accepted to Northern School of Contemporary Dance from September to study her Certificate in Higher Level Contemporary Dance. We are so pleased for her and wish her all the best in her future training.

The World Dance Challenge may be postponed due to Covid-19 until December but the kit has arrived and our girls look fabulous in it. We are so proud of these girls for their hard work and know they cannot wait to wear it to Portugal in December.

We may be in Lockdown but you can't stop us dancing!

Our pupils have shown great creativity and resilience practising their weekly online videos, taking part in our Live classes in their kitchens, sitting rooms or gardens and completing their dance and choreography challenges. Well done everyone.

Our Competition Team has competed at the Exeter, North Cornwall, Cardiff and Highbridge Festivals recently and once again did us proud, bringing home 7 Gold Medals, 11 Silver Medals and 8 Bronze Medals. They were a credit to the school and showed great support and sportsmanship.

2020 has got off to a great start with all of our exam pupils doing us proud.  Our Modern and Tap pupils achieved a staggering 41 Distinctions and 3 Merits in our recent ISTD session, plus all of our Ballet exam pupils achieving Distinction, Merit or a successful Class Award.

Top marks went to Jessica who was awarded 96% for her Grade 2 Modern exam.

Exciting news for 9 of our pupils who have been selected to represent Team England at the World Dance Challenge in Portugal in April 2020.

The 9 pupils have qualified to compete in a total of 18 different dances between them, to include ballet solos, lyrical solos, modern solos and a modern quartet.  Good luck to Elizabeth, Florrie, Lottie, Bethany, Lola, Fenella, Elsie, Jessica and Martha.

We had a wonderful array of jumpers during our annual Christmas Jumper Week and are delighted to  have raised £148 for Save the Children.

The residents of Southlawns were thrilled to invite some of our pupils to their home in the run up to Christmas.  It was a festive evening of song and dance and all were thoroughly entertained.

We had a brilliant festive disco and party with our junior pupils at the weekend.  There was dancing and games galore, pupils enjoyed hot dogs and cakes, festive nail varnish and glitter and a great time was had by all.

We always love hearing from our former pupils and are delighted that our recent leavers are settling in well on their performing arts courses around the country.  We are particularly delighted that Toby Turley (currently in his second year at Guildford School of Acting) has been cast as an actor in Birmingham Royal Ballet's production of The Nutcracker at the Royal Albert Hall this Christmas.

Our Competition pupils have had a busy few weeks competing in festivals in Wales and the South West and have brought home 68 Gold, Silver and Bronze medals, 16 Teacher Awards for choreography and 17 trophies.

We are thrilled to announce that Jake Halsey-Jones, who was part of our Cats cast and who sang in this summer's show You'll Be In

My Heart, has been given his first West End break.  Jake will be a member of the Hamilton cast and will be understudy for two Principal roles, including the role of Hamilton.