Kate Jordan
an outstanding fourteen year old pupil has had a run of amazing dance
successes over the past few months. Kate gained high Distinctions in both
her Royal Academy Grade 6 Ballet and Intermediate Foundation Royal Academy
Ballet Examinations after only studying the syllabus for one term. In
November Kate went to Germany with a Tap dance group called Tap Attack who
were placed second in the World Tap Dance Championships and who also made it
through to the semi finals of Sky One's “Got to Dance” Competition.
Kate was also a resident senior dancer in Peter Pan and she has just
finished competing at the Exeter and Devon Dance Festival where she won
numerous classes and awards.
In March 2011 Kate appeared with the rest of the school in Everybody
Dance 2011 which raised over £1300 for local charities.
In June 2011 Kate
auditioned and was awarded a full scholarship to attend the Laban
Conservatoire of Dance and Music in London where she will take classes on
Saturdays in Ballet and Contemporary Dance, Choreography, Creative Dance and
Dance Fitness and Health. Most recently Kate gained an incredible 82%
Distinction in her Intermediate Royal Academy of Dance Ballet Examination
after having studied the syllabus for only one term !
Former Pupil Caroline Rees becomes a Ballerina
Pictured is 20 year
old Caroline Rees a former pupil of The Helen Laxton School of Dance who has
just been offered her first professional work as a Ballerina with The Vienna
Festival Ballet and The European Ballet Company
Caroline began
dancing in Yeovil with Helen at the age of 3 years, she passed all of her
Royal Academy of Dance Examinations with excellent grades and at 16 she was
awarded a place at London Studio Centre to complete her classical Ballet
training. Since graduating last summer, Caroline has been working, training
and auditioning in London, hoping for the chance to dance with a Ballet
Company in the UK. Caroline is now fulfilling her dreams of becoming a
professional Ballerina.
Ellen
Welch is awarded a place on the Pre Senior Course at The Central School of
Ballet
Pictured is 14 year
old Ellen Welch from The Helen Laxton School of Dance who has just been
accepted as an Associate of The Central Ballet School in London. Each year
hundreds of dance students from all over the country apply for a place at
the prestigious Ballet School and only the most talented and promising
children are accepted.
Each Saturday Ellen
will travel to London where she will take classes in Ballet,
Contemporary, Pointe work, Repertoire,
Pilates and Creative dance. The Associate programme offers invaluable
preparation for full-time dance training. Many Associate students move into
Central's Senior School, and other leading ballet and dance schools once
they reach 16. During the week Ellen will continue her training with Helen
Laxton in Yeovil, Crewkerne and Sherborne working towards her Advanced level
Dance Examinations.
Ellen has always been
a very promising pupil and has been training with us since the age of 3
years. Ellen has performed in numerous stage shows, competitions and
festivals winning many prizes and awards. For the last 6 years Ellen has
also been successful in auditioning and gaining a place as a Helen Laxton
Juvenile in the Professional Pantomimes at The Octagon Theatre, Yeovil.
Examination Results
Congratulations to all
pupils who took Ballet Examinations in the summer.
Once again we had a
100% pass rate in the Royal Academy of
Dance Children's Grades with all pupils gaining Merit or
Distinctions. A special well done to the six Grade 8 girls who managed to
find the time to learn and take the examination in just one term whilst also
taking GCSE's, AS and A levels!
Congratulations also to
all of the Vocational Graded students who worked extremely hard after the
school show and took their examinations in Exeter in July. At Intermediate
Foundation level 17 students passed at first attempt with Brittany Baker and
Lola Francis gaining Merits.
At Intermediate level
Chloe Burton and Lauren White both gained high Merits and Kate Jordan was
awarded an incredible 82% Distinction, a new school record!
At Advanced 1 level
Charlotte Burton was awarded a Merit. Charlotte is our youngest pupil to
date to pass this examination, generally students who are entered for Royal
Academy of Dance Advanced 1 and 2 level examinations are at full time dance
training schools. Charlotte managed to pass her Advanced 1 Ballet with a
Merit, her Grade 8 Ballet with Distinction and all of her GCSE's with
excellent grades all within the summer term.
Well done to everybody,
I am very proud of you all.
Alexander Burton dances with The Royal Ballet Company
at The Royal Opera House
Alexander Burton aged
10, has had an extremely successful year. He was awarded a place as a Junior
Associate of The Royal Ballet School where he began Saturday classes in
September 2010. At Christmas and Easter he was chosen to perform at the
Royal Opera House with the Royal Ballet Company. Alexander also gained a
Distinction in his Royal Academy of Dance Grade 3 Ballet examination after
studying the syllabus for just one term and most recently he performed a
Ballet duet with 17 year old Jo Wyatt at the school's 6 show production,
"Everybody Dance"
