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Latest Blogs
Autumn 2012 season dancers
This summer we welcomed 10 new dancers to the Company and saw a host of promotions. Below are the headshots of all our dancers this season (all taken by Simon Lawson except Hironao Takahashi's taken by Justin Slee) with links to their biographies. Pippa Moore Premier Dancer Martha Leebolt Premier Dancer Hironao Takahashi Premier Dancer Kenneth Tindall Premier Dancer Javier Torres Premier Dancer Tobias Batley Premier Dancer Darren Goldsmith...
A different kind of duck race
Hello again! Last week I left my friends at the duck pond and joined Northern Ballet at the John Charles Centre for Sport for another Breeze on tour event. Now, I'm not very good at sports (except for swimming, of course) so it was very exciting to be at a big sport centre and have a go at running on a real running track! Luckily Sophie didn't get any photos of me running as I can be a little ungainly and waddly, but here I am relaxing in the stands afterwards. [pic below] The weather wasn't...
Former Academy Students Dale & Joseph Visit
Joseph Poulton and Dale Rhodes were 2 of the original students we took onto our Professional training programme (CAT) in its pilot year in 2004. They both graduated from the Academy 2008. This week they have been back in to visit us all and I managed to have a quick chat with them about their training and their time at Northern Ballet Academy. So how come you are back? Dale: I have had a few weeks off between graduating and starting my contract with Hamburg Ballet so Yoko said I could come and...
Great weather for ducklings!
Hello! I am the latest addition to the Northern Ballet team and I've spent the last few weeks visiting parks around Leeds with Breeze on Tour, telling people all about our new ballet for children, Ugly Duckling. I am friends with the Ugly Duckling and while she is busy working on her new ballet I am helping her spread the word and encourage families to come and watch her ballet debut! At Roundhay Park and Temple Newsam we've had great fun playing games, giving out balloons and stickers and I'...
Ballet inspired Olympic success
We would like to congratulate our fellow Yorkshire men and women on their fantastic success so far at the Olympics! Yorkshire really is the place to be for sport and culture! We were thrilled to see Team GB Hammer Thrower Sophie Hitchon, who’s reached the Olympic final, trained as a ballet dancer and credits dancing as her secret weapon! In her honour we asked our very own dancers if they could turn their hand to any Olympic sport what would it be?! Ashley Dixon – High Jump because it looks...
Fun at the Academy Summer School
Aimée Stead and Emily Willis have just joined the Northern Ballet Academy. They wanted to share their experiences of Summer School with us... We’re both 10 years old and we’ve just started at Northern Ballet Academy in Level 1. Have been travelling from Barnoldswick in Pendle and Full Sutton to take part in the Summer School and from September we’ll start coming to classes three times a week. Over the past two weeks we’ve been taking part in Summer School and we’ve had a great time! Summer...
Mini Movers & Moving Minis
For the past year I have looked forward to Thursday mornings. On a day to day basis Northern Ballet is a pretty special place to be and I do enjoy coming into work each day but Thursday mornings are extra special - it’s Mini’s Morning - and as I come through the doors I'm greeted by our youngest generation of Academy students. Our Mini Movers class is for tots from walking to 3 years and our Moving Minis class is for children aged 3-4. The classes have been designed to introduce children to...
Northern Ballet & You - Social Media Numbers
Judith Mackrell has posted an article today on the Guardian Culture website about the importance of social media to dance companies. And because a fair percentage of people visiting our site comes from various social networks here's a few stats† about people visiting our site*. Going social Since we re-branded and launched our new site in September 2010 we've had 420,687 visits to northernballet.com from 298,983 people and they have looked at 1,527,616 pages! Our busiest month was March 2011...
Ugly Duckling visits Temple Newsam Park
This is the first week of the school holidays and so children and families are out in force at local parks and attractions, making it the perfect time to let people know about Ugly Duckling, our new ballet for children. Breeze on Tour, who hold free festivals across the city for young people aged 0 – 19, and the Learning team have joined up this week at Temple Newsam Park for some duck fun in the Play Zone. We’ve had Duck & Spoon races, Hook a Duck and Chuck a Duck games, as well as...
kokino-marvo capture the spirit of the dance
kokino-marvo ltd, Leeds-based Decision Science and Data Agency spent a day at Northern Ballet last week taking part in a team-building dance workshop with Dance Education Officer Leanne Kirkham. The team were celebrating their recent success in achieving ISO 9001 quality management certification. Throwing shapes with the boss wasn't exactly what the kokino-marvo team expected, but that's precisely what happened and there are photos to prove it! After an introduction to the language of dance in...
