I Started training in Contemporary and Ballet at the age of 8 and I have loved it ever since. I initially joined a performing arts school where I first found my passion for dance whilst being taught by Ian Woolley. I then joined ‘theschool of contemporary dance and the theater arts’. Soon after, I began attending ballet lessons to support my contemporary dance training. Throughout my time training, I found a love for ballet and later I learnt how to incorporate it into contemporary dance, creating my own style of choreography for performance and teaching.
A significant moment for me was when I was invited to perform as a ballerina in the production of ‘Oliver’ in Portishead when I was 10, making me realize how enjoyable stage performing is. I began performing more on stage with productions such as ‘CATS’ in Birmingham, and participated in theschool showings, where I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to create a section of the choreography for the dance piece titled ‘Raven’ under the guidance of Ian. I also attended annual performances with The Bristol Russian Ballet School in the Weston Playhouse.
In the summer of 2018, Ian contacted the Joffrey Ballet school, (N.Y) and I attended their three-week summer intensive, that gave me the opportunity to perform on Broadway, where I had the pleasure of meeting world renowned ballet and contemporary teachers, including Africa Guzman (Nederlands Dans Theater and Escuela Ballet) whom I worked with daily, and performed in her choreography. I also attended The Rambert School for three days in their autumn intensive and received excellent advice from the then current students of how contemporary dancers train and important audition techniques building further on the knowledge provided to me by ‘theschool’. This was a turning point for me and I realized my joy and love was for contemporary dance. Returning to ‘theschool’, my focus was no more on becoming a ballet dancer but on becoming a contemporary dancer. In the summer of 2018, I went to London for two weeks with Trinity Laban and attended their summer intensive where I had the experience of living like a dance student, I enjoyed the daily classes taught by many reputable teachers and choreographers.
In 2019 I began to build on my dance skills as part of my new career path choice of becoming a contemporary dancer and therefore Ian allowed me, under his guidance to begin assisting one-to-one private lessons giving me further opportunities in the field of dance, rather than just training, and performing. I have found a joy in teaching the privates and enjoy improving students’ technique and confidence with the friendly relationship that comes from the one-on-one experience. Recently ‘theschool’, gave me the opportunity to teach full class workshops, and I fully enjoyed the experience, that I look forward to my returns from Trinity Laban, where I am currently studying a degree in dance, to Bristol, during holidays so that I may teach such positive independent students of ‘theschool’. Although I have found a love for teaching, I want to explore dance further and will continue to train and learn until I wish to carry out full-time teaching sometime in the future. Possible owning my own school!
Thank you ‘theschool’, for all the training, guidance, and opportunities you have given me over the years.
