Blogs

The adult open classes running this week are...

I'm currently travelling back from Leeds to London after a week of very successful and enjoyable performances of Perpetual Motion. This has been a new endeavour for Northern Ballet as, for the first time, the mixed bill was interspersed with musical interludes... as performed by me!

I cannot believe that half a term has passed already – the time has flown by. I have worked with over 500 young people across15 schools over the last 3 weeks for the START project. It has been such good fun working with so many young people, helping them to discover the magic of dance. I will be returning to most of the schools after half term to deliver dance workshops based on Northern Ballet’s Madame Butterfly which all of the participants will see at Leeds Grand Theatre in March.

We are delighted to announce that we will be working with International Puppet and Physical Theatre Artist, Rebekha Caputo during our Easter Course. We will work towards a final dance performance based on Northern Ballet’s Beauty and the Beast using puppetry to inspire our creative dance tasks and choreography. If you have an interest in dance and want to challenge yourself this Easter, this is the course for you. There will be a ballet class every morning followed by a fun-filled day of creative workshops and choreography.

Andrew Tomlinson is in Level 6 of the Professional Programme. Last summer he received a full scholarship to train with National Ballet School in Canada for 4 weeks.  Andrew told us more about his experience.

One of our original Professional Programme students Courtney George has been awarded a scholarship to Laine Theatre Arts School just two days after her first audition. Last month she won the Young Dancer of the Year at The Dance Show in Birmingham. Well done Courtney! Your tireless enthusiasm, dedication and hard work have reaped the rewards you richly deserve.

My name is Leanne Kirkham and I’m the new Education Officer at Northern Ballet, I’m here for six months and will keep you regularly updated on my time and experiences here. I’m very excited about working with such a well established professional company and am looking forward to meeting lots of new people in Leeds through my outreach work. My job is mainly to promote Northern Ballet as an accessible, friendly place where you can watch the amazing company in their performances and experience dance yourself, even if you’ve never danced before!

On Sunday 15 January at 5pm Sky Arts 2 premiered a film about Northern Ballet.

Click here to see when Sky Arts at Northern Ballet is on next.