Hertfordshire Dance Summer School

Bluebells in Hertfordshire

Author Cameraman

Source Wikipedia

Creative Commons Licence

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Last year I mentioned the Harpenden Dance Summer School in There's more to Harpenden than Thameslink 17 May 2015.  That was a week long summer school in August run by Helen Brewer and Mary Schon. Sadly Mary Schon died last year and Helen Brewer did not wish to carry on the event without her.

However, she and her son David will be teaching at the Hertfordshire Dance Summer School which will take place at Sele School in Hertford between 22 and 28 Aug 2016.

Helen Brewer is a registered teacher for the Royal Academy of Dance and her  credentials are impressive:

"Training at the Hammond school Chester, she went on to perform professionally with ‘Link Up’ Dance and Theatre Company in London. During this time she developed a strong interest in teaching dance to students with special needs. She taught visually impaired students for the Royal Opera House Education Department and led workshops for deaf children at Sadlers Wells. For many years Helen also led the Special Needs Dance Project at the Royal Academy of Dance. She currently remains responsible for dance at Weatherfield Academy in Dunstable.

As well as teaching for Stephanie Ledger, Helen has taught for 25 years at the Louise Sheaves School of dance in Harpenden, where she pioneered boys only classes and helped develop a strong Vocational level department. She was co-director of Harpenden Summer Dance School which ran from 2005 - 2015 and also mentors trainee teachers as part of the Royal Academy of Dance certificate of Ballet Studies."

She now runs the Stephanie Ledger School of Dancing in St Albans which runs an adult ballet class between 18:15 and 19:15 on Thursdays. Useful to know as I often find myself in the South mid-week.

Her son, David, dances with Ballet Theatre UK which I last saw in Rotherham on Saturday (see Pinocchio 6 June 2016). He also has an impressive CV:

"David joined Ballet Theatre UK as a graduate from Tring Park and he has become an accomplished and versatile Principal Dancer. Looking back he feels one of his career highs would be the title role in BTUK’s production of A Christmas Carol. David took on the role of Ebenezer Scrooge with an actor’s eye and was able to fuse theatre and dance to great effect, a role he feels he will look back on as a great achievement in years to come.

Since 2012 he has performed in many roles for Ballet Theatre UK including Prince Siegfried (Swan Lake), Aladdin (Aladdin) and The Nutcracker (The Nutcracker). Most recently he has danced the lead roles of Kay in The Snow Queen, and Gepetto in Ballet Theatre UK's newest ballet, Pinocchio. We are delighted that David will be joining us at our summer school!"

Other teachers include Kathryn Swainton (PDTD ARAD AISTD RAD examiner teaching ballet and rep), Alison Boden (CDE, Dip. LCDD, Dip. AIST teaching ballet, modern and jazz), Damian Slade (CAT Scheme teaching contemporary) and Anna Forbes (Royal Ballet trained, ex-ENB and Phantom of the Opera).

Applications for the course can  be made on-line using this form.