News and Events

Matthew Keller - was offered 5 years fully funded at Tring Park School for the Performing Arts on the dancers course. In the Summer he travelled to New York for 3 weeks after being offered a full scolarship to the American Academy of Ballet Summer School. Matthew is now happily settled at Tring and thriving. At 14, he is now 5 foot 11 and an acomplished Ballet, Modern and Contemporary dancer, recently acheiving 95 percent in his Intermediate ballet exam.

Well done Matthew, We look forward to hearing what happens next!

Molly Walker – Molly will be performing at Sadler’s Wells Theatre on Friday 10th April, having successfully auditioned for a place with the National Youth Dance Company. Molly trains with the company during college holidays as well as training every Saturday in London with the CAT scheme at Laban Trinity.

Good Luck Molly!

Mirabelle Seymour is currently performing with THE ROYAL BALLET in their production of SWAN LAKE. Mirabelle, who is a past pupil of Turning Pointe, is now in her 3rd year at White Lodge, The Royal Ballet School. She was chosen to perform as a Cygnet this season and will take part in the live performance to be broadcast in cinemas across Europe next Tuesday.

Miss Canneaux and Miss Carter will go with Mirabelle's former classmates to the live screening at the Odean Cinema in Brighton at 7.15 pm on Tuesday 17th March. We are all very excited to see our former classmate on stage at the Royal Opera House.

Go Mirabelle!

William Bridgland - William recently successfully auditioned for full time dance places at both Laban Trinty and 'The Place' London Contemporary. He will begin the BA (Hons) in Contemporary Dance at London Contemporary Dance School in September. William has been training with the school every Saturday for the past 3 years as part of the CAT scheme.

William is a valued member of the Advanced Ballet class in Lewes, taking part in the Pas de Deux training with Miss Victoria.

We wish him all the best for the future. Well done William!

Daisy and Alex began Sunday training in September with London Senior Ballet. Daisy, Alex and Liberty Mills were all successful in competing for a place to study intensively at Arts Educational studios in Turnham Green.

Daisy, 14, is currently studying Advanced Ballet, Grade 7 Ballet and Intermediate Modern at Turning Pointe. Alexandra, 11, will take the new Grade 5 Ballet and Grade 4 Tap exams in a couple of weeks and also studies Intermediate Ballet and Musical Theatre at Turning Pointe. Both the girls will have various roles in Turning Pointe's 'The Little Mermaid' in July.

Well done and good luck to both of you!

Liberty Mills - Libby has succesfully auditioned for a full time place on the BA (Hons) in Contemporary Dance degree course at Trinity Laban Conservatoire for Music and Dance in London. Libby has been at Turning Pointe for 13 years and held an associate at Central School of Ballet as well as a place at London Senior Ballet. Libby is currently studying Advanced Ballet and Advanced Modern at Turning Pointe and training in London with English National Ballet Youth Company. She will begin full time training in September after performing a solo role in Turning Pointe's 'The Little Mermaid' in July.

Congratulations Libby and Good Luck!

SWAN LAKE WORKSHOP

Friday 21st March, 5.30 - 7.45pm @ Plumpton village Hall

Kate Snowden, former ballerina will teach students aged 11+ repertoire from Act II of Swan Lake.

£17.50 per pupil

Many of the seniors will remember Kate, who came to give a non-syllabus class last summer and is keen to be a guest teacher for Summer School this year.

Now is your chance to become a swan!!!

On Saturday 1st February, Turning Pointe dancers took part in a Chinese and English Cultural Festival at the Corn Exchange in Brighton to celebrate Chinese New Year. The event was well attended, including by the Mayor and Mayoress of Brighton, and as always our dancers rose to the occasion and performed beautifully on the large stage space. It was lovely to see some tradtional Chinese dancing just before our two pieces, and great fun was had by all backstage!

In the first term of this academic year, Turning Pointe students were treated to two exciting and diverse workshops. The first one in September was hosted by Zu Aerial, one of the founders of which is Naomi Giffen, a former Turning Pointe pupil and teacher. Our students were lucky to have the unique opportunity to learn to fly using Silks and Trapeze, and expertly guided by Naomi and Hazel Maddocks, were amazed at what they could achieve within a couple of hours, as were the parents who themselves seemed keen to have a go. Maybe next time!

The second workshop was a 'Grease' Musical Theatre workshop run by Daniella Crockford who appeared in the West End Revival Production of Grease, as well as several other West End shows including Singin' in the Rain. On the cold Sunday morning in November it was great to see how Daniella's infectious energy soon warmed up our dancers who learnt routines to 'Born to Hand Jive' and 'Grease Lightning.' A particular highlight was seeing some of our more balletic students let themselves go and rock out their air guitar moves!

This term Turning Pointe students can look forward to a Ballet Repertoire workshop and a Salsa Workshop from Island Dance Wizards (and Turning Pointe Royalty) Amanda Fyles and Basil Barrett. Our workshops are open to everyone, whether you are an existing Turning Pointe pupil or are interested in seeing what we do. For more information please use the contact form on this website.

On Tuesday the 3rd of September a group of students and Miss Carter headed to London to take part in a commercial jazz class at Pineapple Dance Studios. While we were waiting for the class to start we were all buzzing with excitement as some of us had never been to the Pineapple studio before. The warm up included lots of sit ups, stretching and leaps from the corner of the studio which exhausted us before the class had even properly begun! We then moved on to learn a dance routine; it was very energetic and involved crawling on the floor which made me feel like I was in a scene from the Lion King! The choreography was set to ‘Roar’ by Katy Perry which is a really up beat song; this really helped us put a lot of energy and enthusiasm into the dance. Although we were very hot and tired after the class we had all really enjoyed ourselves and were rewarded with a trip to Covent Garden to look around the shops and have some lunch. I really enjoyed my first trip to Pineapple and the experience of doing a class there. I would really like to go back again sometime soon!

Written by Izzy Moors.