Blog Archives

UK Dance Class Championships – Preston

23/9/2018

Congratulations to our Junior students who competed in the UK Dance Class Championships in Preston.

The standard was incredibly high with schools competing from all across the North.

With three elimination heats, each student had to learn and perform a short dance in front of a large audience and three adjudicators.

We are very proud that since the UK Dance Class Championships were introduced, we have won the age 6-7 Ballet section at all five competitions in the North.

Ages 6-7 (33 entrants)
1st place

Ages 8-9 (54 entrants)
1st place
4th place
Finalist

Ages 10-11 (73 entrants)
5th place

Elmhurst Ballet School Junior Associate

21/9/2018

Congratulations to one of our students who has been accepted as an Elmhurst Ballet School Junior Associate in Manchester.

After only four months of ballet classes, demonstrating such potential and progression in this short period of time, she was offered a late audition and accepted onto the scheme.

Elmhurst Ballet School in Birmingham (in association with Birmingham Royal Ballet) is one of the top ballet schools in the country. Each year, thousands of children from all across the country audition for just a handful of places as a Junior Associate.

In the last four years, we have had seven of our students accepted on to this prestigious programme.

ISTD Dance Magazine

16/9/2018

We had a fantastic year at the ISTD Imperial Classical Ballet Junior and Senior Awards winning multiple prizes in 2017/2018.

We were delighted that photos of our students were featured in both the January-March 2018 and September-December 2018 issues of the ISTD official dance magazine.

Dancewear Modelling

15/9/2018

Congratulations to five of our current students, and two past students (now in full-time ballet training) who feature in the latest catalogue from Dancewear Central. Their photos feature alongside professional dancers from English National Ballet, Northern Ballet and The Royal Ballet.

There is also an article on adult ballet featuring interviews with three of our Silver Swans®.

Silver Swans® 1st Anniversary

12/9/2018

Today marks one year ago since our very first Silver Swans® ballet classes for the over 55s. We were very fortunate to be the first school in Lancashire to offer the Royal Academy of Dance's Silver Swans® classes, and one of only 120 teachers licensed throughout the world.

We began our Silver Swans® in September 2017 with two classes – this has now expanded to five classes, and has over 75 people attending each week.

In this first year, our Silver Swans® classes have been featured on BBC North West Tonight, BBC Radio Manchester, That's Manchester TV, and in The Times, Daily Express, This is Lancashire, Bury Times and Bolton News. The social media video created by BBC North West Tonight has been shared all over the world and currently viewed over 380,000 times.

We were also involved in Manchester's first Festival of Ageing at Manchester Library, Bury Millgate and The Midland Hotel, and The Royal Voluntary Service's 'First Time for Everything', sponsored by Prudential.

Our Silver Swans have appeared in Matthew's Bourne's New Adventures 'Cinderella: A Museum Project' at the Imperial War Museum North, and balletLORENT's Rumplestiltskin at The Lowry.

We've enjoyed a Christmas party, a summer party, trips to the cinema, trips to the theatre and many ladies meet up outside of classes for lunch and coffee!

We look forward to returning to Silver Swans® classes next week and warmly welcome our new Silver Swans® joining us.

Farewell!

8/9/2018

Today we said a very sad farewell to a gifted young student as he begins full-time ballet training at Elmhurst Ballet School in Birmingham. His training will include academics alongside intense classical ballet training. Elmhurst Ballet School is in association with Birmingham Royal Ballet.

He only began dancing two and a half years ago, and his progression in this time has been astounding. He is such a determined and driven young dancer and we're sure he has a very bright future ahead. In this short amount of time he has achieved so much – successfully auditioning and performing in Birmingham Royal Ballet's The Nutcracker at the Royal Albert Hall, successfully auditioning as an Elmhurst Ballet School Junior Associate for two years, winning awards at the ISTD Imperial Classical Ballet Junior and Senior Awards in 2017 and 2018, being awarded the title of an ISTD Imperial Classical Ballet Scholar for 2018, progressing from a beginner to Grade 5 ballet and gaining a Distinction for all his ballet exams (marks ranging from 91/100 to 98/100 for all ballet exams), and modelling for the Dancewear Central 2018/19 catalogue.

Above are two photos: on the left, this was only a few weeks after starting dance classes back in 2016. On the right, aged eleven in his final class before going to full-time ballet school, showing what a talented and mature dancer he has become.

He has been an absolute pleasure to teach and we hope all his dreams come true.

Associates return to Elmhurst and Moorland

8/9/2018

Wishing all our Elmhurst Ballet School (in association with Birmingham Royal Ballet) Junior Associates a fantastic first day back. We currently have three students who are Elmhurst Ballet School Junior Associates.

In the last four years we have had six students accepted as Junior Associates of Elmhurst Ballet School – two of whom are now studying at full-time ballet school.

Also wishing one of our senior student's a great first day back in her second year as an associate at Moorland Ballet International Ballet Academy.

Our student who was very excited on her first day as an Elmhurst Ballet School Junior Associates

Latest News