HLSD Press Release 2

Congratulations to Louisa Cary (centre front), Left to right middle row, Danika Gawronski, Amy Page, Imogen Ryan, Aimee Brine and back row left to right, Mollie Birnie, Jordan Parks, Marie-Kate Mackinnon, Jess Stephens, Lauren White, Rebecca Palmer who were all winners of the 2010 school chorographic competition. The students who ranged in age from 5 to 18 years created their dances from scratch, they chose their own music, created the ideas, choreographed the routines and performed them to family, friends and a panel of judges. The winners above will all be performing their dances in the next Everybody Dance Show at the Octagon Theatre in March 2011.

Also from the competition several students, Jenny Ellis, Rosie Hadfield, Caitlin Symms, Danika Gawronski were chosen on their performance ability to join the New Hip Hop Crew which is being run by Rhiannon Watkins and 8 year old Charlotte Hamlett was chosen to perform a solo.

Several groups of students took part in the first Yeovil Streetfest Competition in July 2010. The groups performed Street Dance/Hip Hop routines and took part in Workshops with many famous Hip hop /Street Dancers including Nemesis and Akai. A great weekend was had by all!

Pictured are some of the budding Ballerinas from The Helen Laxton School of Dance who have all excelled in their Royal Academy of Dance Ballet Examinations in March 2010
   The girls in the front row aged 12 and 13 were all successful in their Intermediate Foundation Vocational Examination which they had to travel to Bristol to take and the girls standing aged from 15 to 18 years have all gained top marks in their Royal Academy of Dance Ballet Grade 7.
   An exceptional pupil, Charlotte Burton aged 15 years (second from left standing) has just gained a Merit for Advanced Foundation Examination after only studying the syllabus for one term. Charlotte is also very excited because she has been accepted by The English National Ballet School in London to train during the summer holidays.
   As well as taking examinations the girls have been very busy with performances so far this year. Many of them appeared in the professional pantomime at the Octagon Theatre at Christmas followed by performances with The Somerset Youth Dance Company and most recently the girls were selected to perform with the professional Strictly Come Dancing Tour.

Congratulations to all pupils who took part in "Everybody Dance 2009". This was the most demanding show that we have ever produced with the senior pupils performing extremely demanding dances in six consecutive shows. Pupils from the age of 3 to 25 appeared in the show which raised thousands of pounds for The South West Children's Hospice.

Congratulations to Emilie Woan, Amy Barlow and Becky Spooner who have all been offered a place to further their dance training at The Stella Mann College of Dance. Emilie has also been offered a place at Performers College. Kirsty Biggeneden who has been awarded a place on the PGCE course at The Royal Academy of Dance and Alex Jackson who has been awarded a place at The Urdang School. We wish them all luck in their further training.

Congratulations to all pupils who have taken examinations in 2009.Once again we are very proud to announce a 100% pass rate in ALL Children's Examinations. Over 200 pupils were entered in 2009, aged 5 - 20 years, many gained top marks at Distinction / Honours.

Congratulations and Good Luck to 12 year old Kate Jordan, a former pupil of the school who went to Italia Conti to train in September 2007. Kate has just started performing in Billy Elliot at The Victoria Palace Theatre in London.

Congratulations to all children who took part in the school's bi annual choreography competition. The standard was extremely high this year with a record number of entries. Everybody had obviously put a lot of thought, effort and time into their dances. Well done to you all!

There were 4 winning dances this year choreographed by

Rhiannon Watkins and Alex Jackson,

Emily Davies, Caitlin Symms, Hannah Lury and Fiona Wyatt,

Vicky Rolley, Sammy Gardiner & Holly Downing

Mischa Parks.

The winners will perform their routines in Everybody Dance 2009. Rhiannon Watkins and Alex Jackson have been put forward to audition their dance in the next series of Britain's got talent.

Congratulations to Hannah Crichton – Smith who has just finished taking part in the filming of Tess of the D’urbevilles, a four part dramatisation by the BBC. Hannah auditioned for a dancing role in April and just managed to fit the filming in before her A levels began.

Congratulations to Lauren who has gained a place at Dartington to study choreography. Lauren was one of our 2007 Choreography Competition winners with her partner Hannah Crichton-Smith.

Congratulations to Kirsty who has been accepted on The Royal Academy of Dance PGCE Teacher Training Course after completing her university dance degree

Congratulations to all pupils who took Royal Academy of Dance Ballet examinations in June and July. Once again we achieved a 100% pass rate

Twelve pupils took their RAD Grade 6 Ballet, Hannah Ingham, Caitlin Symms and Fiona Wyatt all gained Distinction, all other pupils gained high merits. Nine pupils took their RAD Grade 8 Ballet, Hannah Crichton-Smith, Katie Hodgson Maria Kneafsey, Natalie Tulloch, Sophie Weston, Lauren Ward all gaining extremely high Distinctions and Eleanor Smith, Emma Sims and Emma Mc Connell gaining high Merits.

Nine pupils traveled to Exeter to take their RAD Vocational Graded Examinations. Anastasia Kavvadia, Sarah Fudge and Danielle Dawson all gained Merits in their Intermediate Foundation Ballet.

Kirsty Allen, Julie Fudge, Penny Brace and Eleanor Smith all passed their Intermediate Ballet Exam and Charlotte Baker passed with Merit

Once again pupils achieved 100% pass rate in Royal Academy of Dance Ballet Examinations. In the Graded Syllabus, 2 students gained merits for their Grade 7 Examination and 5 gained the top mark of Distinction. Caroline Rees took her Grade 8 to complete the syllabus before she goes to Ballet School in September, she gained a Distinction with an amazing 91%.

In the Vocational Ballet Grades all of the girls were successful. In the Intermediate Foundation Examination 2 students gained a pass and 3 students gained a Merit. In the Intermediate Ballet all three students gained a Merit and in the Advanced 1 both students gained Merits.

Pupils performing at Everybody Dance 2007 which took place at The Octagon Theatre in Yeovil. Children from all branches of the school were included in the show, their ages ranged from 3 to 25 years. The dance styles included in the show were Ballet, Jazz, Contemporary, Hip Hop, Character, Modern Theatre, Musical Theatre, Tap and Street Jazz.

Pictured are Abigail Matthews (left) who successfully gained a place at The Doreen Bird College of Dance and Performing Arts, The Guildford Conservatoire and Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. Abigail was offered scholarships to attend all three schools and has decided to go to Mountview.

Anna Soughton (kneeling) has been offered a place at The Royal Academy of Dance to study for a BA Hons in Ballet Teaching.

Caroline Rees (right) was offered a place at The Northern Ballet School and also a place at the London Studio Centre. Caroline has decided to go to London Studio Centre to study Classical Ballet.

Pictured above are eight of the lucky children from The Helen Laxton School of Dance who were chosen to appear in the professional pantomime "Cinderella" at The Octagon Theatre in December 2006. A total of 18 junior dancers appeared during the run of the show plus two senior dancers, Hannah Ingham and Emilie Woan. The pantomime is always a great experience for the children, they have lots of fun and get to experience a real working theatrical environment.

All children entered for Royal Academy of Dance Grade Examinations from Primary up to Grade 8 gained Merit or Distinction.

In Major Ballet Examinations, Katie Hodgson, Rebecca Cregan, Eleanor Smith, Fiona Wyatt, Charlotte Baker, Hannah Lury, Julie Fudge, Sophie Woan, Kirsty Allen, Jade Clarke all passed their Royal Academy of Dance Intermediate Foundation Vocational Examination and Caroline Rees, Amelia White, Emma Hicken, Rhiannon Watkins and Joanna Brace passed their Royal Academy of Dance Intermediate Vocational Examination.

In Major Modern Theatre Examinations Anna Soughton, Abigail Matthews, Emilie Woan, Kim Tulloch, Amelia White, Rhiannon Watkins, Joanna Brace, Katie Hodgson, Natalie Tulloch and Rebecca Cregan all passed their Intermediate Examination.

Pictured above (sitting) is 19 year old Kim Tulloch who has been offered a place at The College of The Royal Academy of Dance to train as a dance teacher. Standing is 18 year old Emma Hicken who has been offered a place at Laine Theatre Arts to study Musical Theatre.

Pictured above standing from left to right are Rhiannon Watkins, Hannah Crichton - Smith, Hannah and Danielle Ingham, Lauren Ward and Emilie Woan and kneeling left to right, Danielle Doble and Jessica Harris.

All of the above pupils created and choreographed dances for the bi-annual school competition and will perform their works at the next school show in March 2007. Over 70 pupils aged between 6 and 18 years took part in the 2006 competition, all kinds of dance styles were performed, Ballet, Jazz, Disco, Tap, Contemporary and Song and Dance.

Outstanding Royal Academy of Dance Ballet examination results for all of the above Grade 6 and Grade 7 students.

Caroline Rees, aged 16 who was awarded a scholarship to The English Youth Ballet. Caroline has also been given a place on the pre senior course at Central School of Ballet in London where she attends extra lessons at the weekends. Caroline's latest achievement is to gain a second audition for Elmhurst Ballet School and for Central School of Ballet to begin full time training in September 2007.

Pupils performing in the school show "Everybody Dance 2005 at The Octagon Theatre in Yeovil

Pictured above is 16 year old Charlotte Gardiner who has been studying Ballet , Jazz, Modern Theatre and Tap Dance classes with Helen Laxton for 12 years. Charlotte has just been offered a place at the famous Laine Theatre Arts School in London. Charlotte will begin her professional training in September 2005.

Catherine Laine an 18 year old pupil of the Helen Laxton School of Dancing will also begin training professionally from September 2005 at the Millenium Theatre School in London

Primary and Grade 1 Ballet pupils proudly displaying their certificates and medals after successfully passing their first school examinations.

I.S.T.D. Modern Examinations - Pupils were recently entered at Grade 2, Grade 3 and Intermediate level. All pupils passed with extremely high grades

Pictured is twelve year old Sophie Weston who was lucky enough to be chosen to dance with The Royal Ballet Company at The Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. Sophie also successfully auditioned to become a Mid- Associate with the Royal Ballet School and attends extra lessons on Saturdays in Poole

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