Northern Ballet's blog

Today is New Year’s Eve but as the dancers have not had class or rehearsal for 2 days it was essential that they got back into routine before our opening performance of Romeo and Juliet tomorrow. The Company assembled in the lobby of the hotel at 9am and were marched through the arctic winds to the theatre – just over 1Km from the hotel.

The BA flight from Manchester to Heathrow was an hour late departing but only reduced the time to wait for the Beijing flight so did not create any problems. We can now stop worrying about the weather for a week until it is time to return home on 6 January! Almost as soon as check in was complete at the hotel, it was time for the Press Conference.

We have set off on our third international tour of the year. This time to Beijing where we will be giving three performances of Romeo and Juliet and two performances of Madame Butterfly in the state of the art National Centre for Performing Arts. As always the Technical Department has gone one day in advance to start the fit up. All went well with the flights and despite the recent bad weather the flights from Manchester to Amsterdam and then onwards to Beijing were close to the scheduled times.

Hawksworth Wood Primary were the first school to come and visit us for a creative workshop in our new building. The workshop consisted of different elements such as a warm up, learning dance steps, creating their own sequences and performing the pieces.

Well what a term it has been! I can’t believe that tomorrow we are breaking up for Christmas.

So much seems to have happened in 4 months - starting with the move to the new building.

Why not add some fun to your list of New Year’s resolutions and sign up for a class with Northern Ballet?

Whatever your age or ability you can develop your passion for dance in our new state-of-the-art facilities in central Leeds.

We offer classes in ballet, contemporary and jazz at all levels, as well as a range of movement classes for children and tiny tots.

Northern Ballet returns to China this January with two of the Company’s best-loved productions: Madame Butterfly and Romeo & Juliet . The Company will perform at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing from 1 to 5 January 2011.

Northern Ballet Premier Dancer Martha Leebolt has been nominated for an award in the Outstanding Female Performance category by the Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards 2010.  

We're very excited today as Gok Wan is in the building filming for his upcoming series of Gok's Fashion Fix. We managed to sneak in and get some snaps of the set being put together, and we'll be back later so check back to see Gok in action!