English National Ballet's Appeal for Funds for its Parkinson's Classes

I should have mentioned this earlier (and would have done had I kept up to date with my emails) but English National Ballet are raising money to fund their classes for persons suffering from Parkinson's disease (see The Big Give: Dance for Parkinson’s 27 Nov 2015 English National Ballet blog). Their main fund raising effort took place on 4 and 5 Dec 2015 but members of the public can still contribute up to 17:00 on 14 Dec 2015 through the Big Give website.

Readers may remember one of the company's classes on World Ballet Day. These seem to be adult ballet classes just like any in that they start with barre work, continue in the centre and end with a reverence for the instructor and musicians. The students may not be able to do everything that takes place in other adult ballet classes but they clearly do a lot. These are rightly described as high quality dance classes and the company's artistic director has every right to be proud of the initiative.

Classes take place at Cardiff, Ipswich, Liverpool, London and Oxford and English National Ballet hope to open a sixth venue with the funds that they expect to raise. They bring considerable benefits for the students which are mentioned in Dance for Parkinson’s study results announced 30 Oct 2015 English National Ballet blog.

I congratulate English National Ballet and wish them well with this project. I hope other companies will undertake similar initiatives in other parts of the UK and overseas. I wish the instructors, students, musicians, management and everyone participating in these classes a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.