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| Author Marek Szczepanek Licence Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported |
The top item of my RAD newsletter features Angela Ripon in a dance studio above the headline "Silver Swans Take Flight". The article announces that the RAD is piloting ballet classes for the over-55s in the UK and elsewhere to be taught by specially trained instructors under the SILVER SWANS trade mark and that Angela Ripon is promoting them. No classes have been arranged just yet but the RAD's website shows a map of the UK where those instructors are located. The most northerly is in Billingham and the most southerly in Helston unless you count Jersey which also has a teacher at Saint-Ouen. The RAD map complements Sophie Rebecca's more comprehensive map of adult ballet classes in the UK some of which also cater for the over 55s.
The RAD's initiative seems to have been a long time in the making. I reported on three taster classes in Haslingden, Richmond and Glossop marketed by the RAD under the SILVER SWANS sign as long ago as 12 Feb 2014 (see Migrating Swans - Dance Classes for the Over 50s in the North 12 Feb 2014). Interestingly, the first use of the words SILVER SWANS to refer to dancers of a certain age appears to have been by the BBC. Those words appeared in the headline for an article about a Scottish Ballet class for older dancers by Emma Ailes as long ago as 18 Oct 2013 (see 'Silver Swans' taking to the barre later in life for ballet lessons 18 Oct 2013 BBC).
If you are over 55 and want to return to dance after a gap of many years or even take up ballet for the first time, you do not have to wait for the RAD. Northern Ballet Academy has been running several beginners and improvers classes a week for dancers over the age of 55 in Leeds for many years. As you can see from the class timetable, it now runs classes for beginners and improvers over the age of 55 at its studios in Leeds on Tuesdays and Fridays as well as two classes in Gomersal on Monday mornings. I started the beginners' class in Leeds almost exactly 4 years ago. If you are wondering what to expect on your first day. I wrote about my first experiences in Realizing a Dream on 12 Sept 2013. You can actually watch a video of our class in action and find links to lots of other articles on dancing in later life in We're in the Paper 15 April 2013.
I know for a fact that there are similar classes in London run by Rambert which seem to attract royal patronage (see Mercury Movers 60+ on the Rambert website), Birmingham (see Move into Ballet on the Dance Exchange website), Newcastle (see Ballet Beginners on the Dance City website) and Glasgow (see Regenerate on the Scottish Ballet website). For the more ambitious or extrovert there are elder companies in Glasgow and London which perform before a paying public (see Caledonian Cousins 9 June 2015 and Sage Dance Company 19 June 2017) and indeed Canberra (see Growing Old Disgracefully in Morley 28 Sept 2015).
One other thing to note. I have found out that there is not much difference between an over 55 improvers class in Leeds and any other adult ballet class. We do exactly the same barre and centre exercises and the teacher expects exactly the same degree of effort and commitment from us as she does from her other students. I discovered that by accident when I strayed into Christopher Hinton-Lewis's class after I was prevented from attending my over 55 class by a fallen tree on the A1 (see It's an Ill Wind - Review of Northern Ballet's Beginner's Class 8 Dec 2013). So if there is no over 55 class in your town, don't be afraid to join an all age class as you will not feel out of place. I discovered KNT in my home town of Manchester three years ago and have never looked back. I do not know a more congenial group of classmates or more encouraging teachers on the planet (see So Proud of Manchester - KNT Danceworks Complete Beginners Class 29 Aug 2014).
So I wish RAD and their students every success with their SILVER SWANS venture. I shall be very pleased to assist them in any way I can. If anyone who takes a SILVER SWANS class would care to review it for me I shall be very glad to publish it. I encourage everyone of every age who loves ballet to check out their local dance school for an adult ballet class. I remember a poster a few years ago with the words "You can't buy happiness but you can buy a ballet class which is kinda the same thing." That is just so true.
The RAD's initiative seems to have been a long time in the making. I reported on three taster classes in Haslingden, Richmond and Glossop marketed by the RAD under the SILVER SWANS sign as long ago as 12 Feb 2014 (see Migrating Swans - Dance Classes for the Over 50s in the North 12 Feb 2014). Interestingly, the first use of the words SILVER SWANS to refer to dancers of a certain age appears to have been by the BBC. Those words appeared in the headline for an article about a Scottish Ballet class for older dancers by Emma Ailes as long ago as 18 Oct 2013 (see 'Silver Swans' taking to the barre later in life for ballet lessons 18 Oct 2013 BBC).
If you are over 55 and want to return to dance after a gap of many years or even take up ballet for the first time, you do not have to wait for the RAD. Northern Ballet Academy has been running several beginners and improvers classes a week for dancers over the age of 55 in Leeds for many years. As you can see from the class timetable, it now runs classes for beginners and improvers over the age of 55 at its studios in Leeds on Tuesdays and Fridays as well as two classes in Gomersal on Monday mornings. I started the beginners' class in Leeds almost exactly 4 years ago. If you are wondering what to expect on your first day. I wrote about my first experiences in Realizing a Dream on 12 Sept 2013. You can actually watch a video of our class in action and find links to lots of other articles on dancing in later life in We're in the Paper 15 April 2013.
I know for a fact that there are similar classes in London run by Rambert which seem to attract royal patronage (see Mercury Movers 60+ on the Rambert website), Birmingham (see Move into Ballet on the Dance Exchange website), Newcastle (see Ballet Beginners on the Dance City website) and Glasgow (see Regenerate on the Scottish Ballet website). For the more ambitious or extrovert there are elder companies in Glasgow and London which perform before a paying public (see Caledonian Cousins 9 June 2015 and Sage Dance Company 19 June 2017) and indeed Canberra (see Growing Old Disgracefully in Morley 28 Sept 2015).
One other thing to note. I have found out that there is not much difference between an over 55 improvers class in Leeds and any other adult ballet class. We do exactly the same barre and centre exercises and the teacher expects exactly the same degree of effort and commitment from us as she does from her other students. I discovered that by accident when I strayed into Christopher Hinton-Lewis's class after I was prevented from attending my over 55 class by a fallen tree on the A1 (see It's an Ill Wind - Review of Northern Ballet's Beginner's Class 8 Dec 2013). So if there is no over 55 class in your town, don't be afraid to join an all age class as you will not feel out of place. I discovered KNT in my home town of Manchester three years ago and have never looked back. I do not know a more congenial group of classmates or more encouraging teachers on the planet (see So Proud of Manchester - KNT Danceworks Complete Beginners Class 29 Aug 2014).
So I wish RAD and their students every success with their SILVER SWANS venture. I shall be very pleased to assist them in any way I can. If anyone who takes a SILVER SWANS class would care to review it for me I shall be very glad to publish it. I encourage everyone of every age who loves ballet to check out their local dance school for an adult ballet class. I remember a poster a few years ago with the words "You can't buy happiness but you can buy a ballet class which is kinda the same thing." That is just so true.
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