A very Happy Birthday to our lovely Bridie Thorpe who turns 18 today!
Bridie started dancing class age 3 and joined our school age 8, and the rest is history! Her first Berry School show was Save The Last Dance in 2010, as she had to miss the 2008 show when her family went on holiday to Florida – her mum Keeley assures us she only forgave her after 2 years!
Her first interaction with professional theatre was appearing as part of the children’s chorus in Take That The Musical at Sheffield Lyceum age 10, and from the age of 11, she was a regular in Evolution Pantomime’s popular festive shows at the Lyceum. She was part of the cast until the age of 15.
Bridie’s first dance festival
Competitively, Bridie has also flourished. She competed in her first dance festival at Penistone with a modern solo age 11 and has since gone on to achieve a place in the IDTA’s prestigious Miss Dance of Great Britain in both 2015 and 2016.
She has also enjoyed a successful curriculum career, having been nominated to perform in the IDTA Theatre Awards in 4 consecutive years, gaining Special Commendations in Modern 3 times, twice for Theatre Craft and once for Tap.
Currently Bridie is studying Dance and Theatre Studies at A Level and is hoping to go on to further her dance career at college.
If her future is half as bright as her achievements with us, we have no doubt that she’ll go on to do great things. Happy Birthday sweetheart.
Berry Academy of Dance are pleased to report that our latest exam session maintained our school record of 100% pass rate. Nearly every grade was tested as the following classes passed these exams: Theatre Craft Rosette, Preparatory Theatre Craft, Primary Theatre Craft, Grade 1 Ballet, Grade 2 Tap, Grade 4 Modern Jazz & Intermediate Ballet.
Some very happy faces here
Rosettes all round
We were absolutely thrilled to find out that Maisie Ganley, 13, was awarded 91 marks for her performance in Grade 4 Modern Jazz and has been nominated to dance in the IDTA Theatre Awards held in Manchester in 2018. It is an honour to be invited to this event and we cannot wait to cheer Maisie on next year.
A very happy IDTA Nominee!
Maisie also recently entered TDCI’s Championships at Chesterfield, where she won 5th place in Junior Song and Dance, playing Sally Brown and performing My New Philosophy.
Well done to Maisie for this fantastic achievement and well done to every pupil in the school who took an exam, we continue to be proud of your efforts.
A huge well done to our fabulous Alexandra O’Brien who has qualified for the IDTA’s prestigious Miss Dance of Great Britain 2017!
This will be Alex’s second time competing on the huge stage at Blackpool’s Winter Gardens, this year with a new routine, Crunchy Granola.
Alex has been offered a place at Urdang Academy, and we can’t wait to cheer her on alongside Rebecca, Bree and Jack in June. Congratulations gorgeous girl!
As usual our Berry Babes did not disappoint at this 4-day festival of dance. New dances, old favourites, there was all to play for at this South Yorkshire competition. Unfortunately we can’t list all the achievements of our pupils or we’ll be here all day, but to give you a taste of our high achievers, take a look at the write-up below! Also lots of fab pics of all our pupils right at the bottom.
Earning her spot at the Trophy Presentation, one of our younger pupils, Abbie Braithwaite won Baby Modern right at the beginning of proceedings. Leila Steer won her Ballet section while Maisie Ganley won her Tap.
Two of our Miss Dance nominees, Rebecca Hanneman and Bree Quinton, teamed up to take 1st place in Senior Modern Duet, with Jack Skelton and Ewan Revill taking 3rd place. Sticking on the theme of duets we were also pleased to see Eva Cadet and Eleanor Jackson win their Song and Dance Duet.
Our younger dancers held up their end with Neve Francis taking first place in A Modern and Coen Quinton taking second place. We were also very proud of Halle Ferguson, competing in her first ever dance festival and earning a 4th place in Baby Song and Dance, while big sister Missy took 3rd place with her Character.
Quite a few new Berry Babes were welcomed into the dance festival fold, we were thrilled to see the following dancers making their first appearances on the stage: Leila Arslan, Millie Boynton, Evie Bradford, Neveah Brook, Summer Griffin, Tiana Lewis, Evie O’Connor and Gracie Rogers. Well done girls!
Maisie Ganley took home rather a lot of gold medals, including Ballet, Modern and Tap while in Modern we took a straight gold-bronze sweep with Isabel Adshead, Niamh Thompson and Abi Bridger winning medals respectively.
Ewan, full of character in real life and also on stage, won first place with his Character dance, while the original bendy Wendy Emily Gay took first place in Senior Acro with Rebecca taking 4th. Our inter acrobats also did well with Megan Thorpe earning silver, Bridey Bonnett taking 3rd place and Aliyah Xaba taking 4th.
Not to be outdone, our other seniors took 1st, 2nd and 4th places respectively for their Tap section, well done to Jack, Charlotte Stones and Alexandra O’Brien. Also one of the highlights of the weekend was F Modern, which was a clean Berry Sweep: 1st place for Rebecca, 2nd Eve Wainwright, 3rd Jack Skelton, 4th Bridie Thorpe and Alex.
Winners of Intermediate Bursary & Outstanding Performance
Troupes and trophies:
We were thrilled to win the Senior Classical troupe section, while the Senior Acts category, the closing act for the festival, saw our pupils compete with a Michael Jackson number and the school favourite, Jai Ho. We were pleased that Jai Ho was awarded a silver medal and it was a wonderful colourful watch thanks to the new costumes worn by the pupils.
It was great to see so many Berry Babes on the stage at the Trophy Presentation, particular mentions however must go to our very own Aliyah Xaba who not only won her Ballet and Modern but was also awarded the Intermediate Bursary Prize! Congratulations Aliyah.
The final prize of the night was for Most Outstanding Performance and to great cheers our Rebecca Hanneman won this award for her F Modern performance. Well done Becky.
As usual, festivals are only successful as a group effort, so a huge congratulations to the teachers for their fab choreography and hard work, thank you to the mums and nans and dads who act as make-up artists, tailors, chauffeurs and number one fans, and well done to all of our pupils for representing the school so well.
Well our Berry Babes never fail to impress us and make us silly with pride. Our Sheffield dance school had 10 pupils nominated to perform at the IDTA Theatre Dance Awards in Manchester last weekend for their storming performances in their grade exams.
To be invited to dance at this prestigious event is an achievement in itself, and we were thrilled to have the following pupils be nominated for these grades:
Advanced 2 Modern – Rebecca Hanneman, Alexandra O’Brien, Charlotte Stones, Bridie Thorpe
Advanced 1 Theatre Craft – Rebecca Hanneman, Alexandra O’Brien, Bree Quinton, Charlotte Stones, Bridie Thorpe
Advanced 1 Ballet – Bree Quinton
Intermediate Theatre Craft – Eve Wainwright
Grade 5 Modern Jazz – Ewan Revill, Liberty Shepherd, Jack Skelton, Eve Wainwright
Grade 5 Tap – Jack Skelton
Grade 4 Theatre Craft – Ewan Revill, Gabriel Sharrock, Jack Skelton
Our pupils worked very hard and danced their socks off, with Liberty and Eve making it to be Modern Jazz Grades finalists and Jack taking his place in the Theatre Craft Grades finals.
We were also delighted to see Rebecca and Bridie being recalled to dance in the Modern Jazz Performers finals, with Bridie earning a Special Commendation. Bree made it to the Theatre Craft Performers final and also earned a Special Commendation.
Our very own Mr Tap himself: Jack Skelton, IDTA Tap Grades Winner 2017
However, the icing on the cake for a fabulous weekend has got to be our very own Jack Skelton, who stormed to victory in the Tap Grades category! Jack is our third overall winner at the IDTA Theatre Awards, following Charlotte Stones in the Tap Grades of 2014 and Bree Quinton in the Modern Jazz Performers of 2016.
Mrs B with the school’s IDTA winners; Jack, Charlotte & Bree
This is an absolutely huge achievement and very well deserved. Jack’s year can only get better as his performing and dance skills will take him on to Dance Master UK 2017, the lead part of Cosmo Brown in Singin’ in the Rain at the City Hall in May and the lead of Troy Bolton in Ecclesfield’s production of High School Musical.
Jack and some very proud teachers: Miss Lois, Miss Rebecca & Miss Marie
We are immensely proud of all our pupils who represented the school and we congratulate them on a successful weekend.
Congratulations are in order for our pupils who have won parts in Bradfield School‘s production of Bugsy Malone!
Well done to Lucy Holcroft, Eleanor Jackson and Renée Warren who will be performing in April, we’re always glad to hear of what you get up to outside of class! Eleanor will be playing Bugsy’s romantic interest, Blousey, while Lucy will be playing the part of Fizzy.
Roll up, roll up, 3-day dance workshop taking place over Feburary half-term! If you would like to come to our fabulous holiday treat your booking forms need to be in by this Saturday 4th February.
All information below – don’t miss out on further training and a great opportunity to have fun with your dancing family.
Last weekend, 7 of our Berry Babes enjoyed a 2-day workshop with industry professionals at the Zoe Birkett Academy in Hartlepool. Isabel Adshead, Helin Arslan, Abigail Bridger, Megan Bridger, Niamh Thompson, Evie Wright and Laylah Xaba, fresh from their run in Rotherham Civic’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarves took part in singing, dancing and acting classes which were then transformed into a performance for parents at the end of the weekend.
Zoe Birkett, (of Pop Idol fame) who starred as Snow White herself in Shone Productions’ Christmas favourite, taught the singing class herself, while the dance class was taught by Christabelle Field, choreographer for Sky 1’s Got to Dance, and the acting class was led by Game of Thrones’ Junade Khan.
The girls were split into age groups and performed a scene from Men in Black, complete with singing, dancing, and American accents!
Isabelle & Jack will be taking up 2 of the 3 lead parts in Singin’ in the Rain.
Hot on the heels of their last successful production, Jack and the Beanstalk, our friends at the Manor Operatic Society are pulling out all the stops for their next show, Singin’ in the Rain, and we can’t help but be pleased with their taste in leading actors.
A huge congratulations to Isabelle Sykes who has won the part of Kathy Selden, the tap-dancing love interest of Don Lockwood, and another well done to Jack Skelton, who will be assuming the role of Cosmo Brown, Don’s lovable and goofy best friend.
We’ll also be pleased to see more Berry Babes taking roles in the show, with Conner Povey, Ewan Revill, Megan Sayles & Gabriel Sharrock soon to be acting, singing and dancing their hearts out in this classic musical.
All of our pupils who will perform in Singin’ in the Rain are no stranger to the City Hall stage, including Isabelle who took the lead part of Manor’s production of Annie in 2010.
Well done to everyone, and we can’t wait to see you all in action.
A very happy birthday to our gorgeous Rebecca Hanneman who becomes an adult today!
Becky joined us over 10 years ago, taking part in her first show in 2006, A Kinda Magic, experiencing the first of many quick costume changes with Miss Lisa! The dance festival roller coaster began at age 8 for Rebecca when she had varied success; falling first on her bum with her Ballet solo but then achieving 4th place with her Modern.
Rebecca is no stranger to Sheffield Theatres, playing Louisa in the Sound of Music in 2012, and then joining the dance troupe of Kes in 2014. This last performance was pretty traumatic and Becky’s trooper spirit came through as she was rushed to hospital to have her appendix removed a week before opening night. She still made it though!
In 2014 she won the South Yorkshire Tap Championship and in 2015 and 2016 she appeared in the IDTA’s prestigious Miss Dance of Great Britain competition. She has already won her place in 2017’s Miss Dance.
Over the years she has secured many great exam results and was first nominated to compete in the IDTA Theatre Dance Awards in 2012 with Modern Jazz. Since then she has been nominated many times, most recently in 2016 she was nominated for Advanced 1 Modern Jazz and Intermediate Tap, the latter for which she was awarded a Special Commendation.
Rebecca had her first professional job only a month ago, appearing as a magical doll for Cbeebies’ Nutcracker festival!
We hope you have a wonderful day and we cannot wait to see what your future holds.
Bridie started dancing class age 3 and joined our school age 8, and the rest is history! Her first Berry School show was Save The Last Dance in 2010, as she had to miss the 2008 show when her family went on holiday to Florida – her mum Keeley assures us she only forgave her after 2 years!
Becky joined us over 10 years ago, taking part in her first show in 2006, A Kinda Magic, experiencing the first of many quick costume changes with Miss Lisa! The dance festival roller coaster began at age 8 for Rebecca when she had varied success; falling first on her bum with her Ballet solo but then achieving 4th place with her Modern.
Berry Academy of Dance 