Congratulations are in order for our pupil Eve Wilson who turns 18 today!
Eve was just three when she started dancing with Mrs Berry and Miss Gemma was her first teacher. In her first show she did Baby Face and in her second show she loved being in Sailor Tap.
She’s always loved coming to dancing class and her mum Lisa tells us that it’s given so much over the last 15 years. She has made so many great friends and it has given her the confidence, self-belief and tenacity that will be with her for life. Little sailors Martha, Eve and Isabelle
Eve is hoping to go to Newcastle in September to study Psychology with Business. Hopefully she will continue to dance there (and not just in the night clubs)!
We wish Eve all the best and only ask that she comes back to see us when she’s away broadening her mind at university! Happy birthday to a girl who is beautiful inside and out!
I am the proof that even if you’re not good at dancing – there’s appreciation for all talents here at the Sharon Berry School of Theatre Dance. Just kidding – I wasn’t that bad, in fact my last exam was Intermediate Modern Jazz and earned me a very respectable 87 marks… my Ballet and Tap grades tell a very different story!
I began my glorious performing arts career in 1998, after sitting in the audience at All Around The World, watching my bosom pal, Charlotte Beresford, tearing up the stage as Po. It was there, gazing at my Teletubbied-chum that I decided I too wished to strut around in leotards and white and brown eye shadow for all the S5 and S6 community to see. That September, aged 5, I arrived at Malin Bridge’s glamorous nursery terrapin, and launched one of the most expensive and rewarding hobbies my mum was yet to fund under the watchful eye of Miss Gemma.
The very same Teletubbies who inspired my love affair with the theatreI quickly blossomed. I couldn’t quite manage shuffle ball changes and I’ll never forgive myself for missing my forward roll cue in A Century In Dance, but my undeniably cute face and cheesy performing technique caught the eye of top dog Mrs B, and I was catapulted to the intoxicating fame of dance festivals.
Edgy eyeshadow combination, thanks mumIt must be said that I peaked age 9. Still cheesy, I could sing, and the adjudicators weren’t looking so much at my feet. Together, Charlotte and I delivered the (disturbingly) sauciest Aye, Aye, Aye routine ever seen at Cantley Community Centre. I made it into the open for 75% of my solos – very impressive considering I forgot all my routines and made them up (sorry Miss Rebecca).
Look at that face – Racy Aye Aye AyeThe most exciting experiences I had at dancing class were getting to perform in professional shows. The youngest Berry Babe of our first ever pantomime, Peter Pan, I made quite a splash (literally). From getting locked into the toilets while being called to the stage (sorry Beverley), to spilling coke on my costume (sorry Miss Rebecca, again) to the ultimate achievement: There aren’t many people who can say Mrs Berry’s mopped up their wee, and I think I am the only one who can say it happened on Sheffield’s Lyceum stage. In my defence, I was only seven years old.
Pre-wee Peter Pan photo – that’s me being hugged by Mel Fox in the middleUpon hitting puberty, I decided I was far too mature to simply learn. I made the generous decision to share my knowledge with the younger generations. My first baby class contained the likes of Grace Harby and Maddie Dunn – so remember girls, you owe those beautiful skips to moi. Helping out at class was one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. Getting a 13 year old out of bed at 8.30 is difficult at the best of times, but on a Saturday I couldn’t wait to get to class to see if Isobel could do her good toes this week or whether Courtney had figured out her shuffle hops.
I was duly punished for my dedication to the baby class by being invited (made) to perform with them as Mama Chicken in Can’t Stop The Beat. I was around this time that I performed as Shprintze for the Crucible’s Christmas show, Fiddler on the Roof. I went twice to summer school at Performer’s College with Amy, Becky, Hollie & Jodie and lost half a stone in a week after dancing for five hours a day – the life of a professional dancer. I wasn’t cut out for it. It would serve however to motivate my friend Hollie to take up dance as a career, and it’s fantastic that she’s now performing professionally in Malta.
Had to be doneI studied French and Italian at the University of Liverpool, and I must say, the separation from Thomas More Community Centre was too much to bear. I had to find a way to stay in with the dancing family. I proposed my idea to Mrs Berry, and, very trustingly, she went with it. The first Sharon Berry School blog went live in June 2012. I didn’t really know what I was doing, and I annoyed a lot of people by sending them endless nudges for articles and photos (sorry Matt and Marie). Two and a half years since then, that website has been visited 85,000 times.
Stylish Hairspray costumesI became the official photographer, much to Kirsten and Alex’s frustration, as I asked them to split leap for me over and over again trying to capture that perfect moment. I’ve had the chance to write articles and stay in touch with the achievements of this school’s pupils and staff. They deserve to be published.
The new Sharon Berry School website (that you are now viewing) came about while I was trying to avoid an essay about Charles II. (Fun fact: Coronation mugs and other such tat date back to 1661). I wanted something fresher and more modern, and hopefully I managed to do that.
I hope Berry Babes who don’t feel like they’re the best at a certain type of dancing take heart from this. Us staff can tell when you’re trying hard and we can tell when you’re dossing. I might be nerdy, sometimes uncoordinated, and surprisingly, not destined to be a professional dancer – but I have learned that if you work hard, you earn respect.
I am very proud to run Mrs Berry’s website. I enjoy finding out what you’re all up to whether I’m wrestling scallies in Liverpool or supping prosecco in Italy. The school helped and is still helping me to fulfill my potential, and it’s always wonderful to see when it’s doing that for everyone else too.
Enjoying staff retreat to Whitby, March 2015, with my number 1 lady, Miss Amy
We enjoyed beautiful sunshine for our Easter Fun Day – we all know Mrs Berry is capable of organising anything, even the weather! The Jackson family were our hosts for the day and did a fabulous job, thank you so much.
The first of our 150 guests began to arrived at 10am and were straight onto the bouncy castle, zip wire or busy with craft activities in the party barn. Sarah and Karen Burton were kept busy all day face painting and the kids looked fabulous.
Hard at work at crafts in the barn
We started the Easter Egg Hunt at 11am and all the children (including some big kids!) had a booklet and went off searching for clues in the garden, field and the woods while the adults enjoyed a cuppa and a bun in the sunshine. When they had found all the clues and completed their Easter words they collected their prize of an Easter egg.
The grown-ups getting pretty serious about that egg and spoon race
The prize draw for the bunny came up next, with Jack being overwhelmed with his prize that was bigger than him! It was soon time for lunch which we all agreed was the best BBQ food in South Yorkshire and we spent some more time relaxing and enjoying the facilities. It was a real family atmosphere with everyone chipping in to serve food, clear up and help wherever needed.
Mrs B showing the girls how elevation gets done properly.
All that changed with the highly competitive egg and spoon races which culminated in the teacher’s race, won by Mrs Berry. We also had an expert judge, Suzanne Leech, for our colouring competition with many wonderful entries.
The day ended with a visit from an ice cream van and everyone left happy after a thoroughly enjoyable day. When the gazebos were put away and all was tidy, myself, fellow Committee members Andrea and Charise and also Mrs Berry decided it was our turn on the zip wire – we were very proud of ourselves.
Aliyah, Laylah, Eleanor and Grace make a new friend
It was a fantastic day. Thanks to all who came, a big thank you to everyone who helped out before, during and after the event, and of course a massive well done and thank you to the Jackson family.
Mrs Berry and her staff would like to thank Gemma and the Fundraising Committee, not to mention the Jackson family and everyone else who helped make this wonderful event possible. We are very grateful and impressed by the Fundraising Committee’s activities and the generosity of the friends of the school who continue to support it time and time again.
If you would like to find out more about our Fundraising Committee, please click here.
Last Saturday evening with a mixture of happiness and sadness, we joined our pupil Frankie Beetlestone and his family and friends for his leaving party. Frankie, 14, has been offered a place at the Sylvia Young Theatre School in London. The school for performing arts boasts former pupils such as Denise Van Outen, Rita Ora, Tom Fletcher and Billie Piper.
Frankie will start his new school on Monday 20th April, and although he hasn’t been with us for too long (since autumn 2014), we have loved teaching him, developing his skills and supporting him through the application process. We wish him all the best, our loss is their gain!
Our Berry Babes took so many medals at this festival that we can’t report on all of them, so here are some of the highlights!
Our pupils took the Dearne Valley Dance Festival by storm, with the Xaba sisters swiping the first two golds of the festival (all before 9am, their tired mum might add)! Laylah and Aliyah both won their Modern categories, with Leila Steer taking fourth place. Well done to our youngest ballerinas Laylah, Abigail Bridger, Gracie Howsham, and Niamh Thompson who danced beautifully according to Miss Marie, with Niamh and Laylah tying for fourth place. In the Junior Cabaret Trio section, Megan Bridger, Aliyah, and Evie Wright performed their Tap dance, Positivity, for the first time and took second place. Meanwhile, Isabel Adshead, Abi and Laylah danced all the way down the yellow brick road to third place.
Missy
Congratulations to our Berry Babes in C Modern who took first, second and fourth place! Respectively, the medals went to Eleanor Jackson, Lilli Walker and Isobel Moseley. In C Tap Maddison Buckley took gold while Maisie Ganley took bronze. In the Intermediate National section we were thrilled to see Eleanor take another gold while Megan Moore and Courtney Smith were placed third and fourth respectively. Sticking to Nationals, Leila Steer came first in her age-group with Megan Bridger and Grace Mitchell also taking third and fourth place respectively.
Jodie and Ewan
We saw Kayla Barnes as Jack Frost and Alana with her Decorator’s Dilemma in the Inter Character section, with them taking second and fourth place respectively. The Steer sisters got their fair share of medals too: Leila won third place for her Ballet and Jodie took fourth place with her Greek dance, Autumn to Spring.
Briony
On gold and silver in their National category was Isabel Adshead and Abigail Bridger! Well done girls. Liberty Shepherd won her Character section and Alexandra O’Brien also placed third. The lovely Trolley Song group performance got a silver medal in the Intermediate Troupe category, and following on shortly from that our bendy wendys Rebecca Hanneman and Emily Gay won first and third place in the Senior Acro section.
Eva, Eleanor, Maddie, Kayla and (cheeky) Coen
In their different National sections, Evie Wright took second place and Aliyah Xaba came fourth. In E National, Bridie Thorpe also took a silver medal, while Alex O’Brien and Charlotte Stones tied for fourth place. Charlotte and Bree Quinton won first place with their Song and Dance duet while Alex and Rebecca Hanneman took fourth place.
Megan and her gold medal
Congratulations to Abigail Bridger on her silver Modern medal, and in that same section Isobel Adshead and Niamh Thompson tied for fourth place – Niamh also won fourth place for her Character! It was silver medals all over the place for Leila Steer with her Tap and Coen Quinton with his Song and Dance. Big sister Bree Quinton took second place with her Character.
Leila, Aliyah, Coen & Neve
One of the highlights of the festival was our sweeping the medal board in the E and F Ballet sections. An extremely proud Miss Lucie was thrilled to see Liberty Shepherd step forward to receive gold, Emily Gay taking silver, Charlotte winning bronze and Alex taking fourth place in the E age-group, and then to Bree and Rebecca carving up gold and silver between them in the F age-group! Well done girls.
We like the look of this line-up!
In E Song and Dance, we were delighted to see Charlotte Stones perform her way to first place. Not one to be left out, Megan Moore also won her Modern section! Aliyah Xaba took fourth place with her Character while Grace Mitchell stormed her way to gold in the same section – well done to you two! Grace also received fourth place for her Ballet while Alana O’Connor took a bronze medal for hers.
Grace and Megan
Maisie Ganley and Megan Thorpe took care of gold and silver in their National section while first, second and fourth went to Bree Quinton, Isabelle Sykes and Rebecca Hanneman respectively for their Song and Dance category. Well done to Maddie Dunn who took fourth place with her Character, A Girl in Every Port.
Some very happy medalists – ballerinas Liberty & Emily
Some extremely high marks were achieved in the Senior Duets section, with Rebecca and Bree attaining a score of 90. The girls won the section and Alex and Bridie came in fourth out of a group of 32 entries – an impressive result! In another big section, Alex won gold with Bridie and Charlotte Stones on fourth places respectively for their Modern solos.
Rebecca and Bree
Congratulations to one of our newer pupils, Connor Povey, who tapped his way to the podium and claimed first place! There were a few Berry Babes dancing for the first time at this festival, and they all did marvellously! Hannah Braithwaite (whose mum many former pupils will know as Lindsay Hardman) took third place in Baby Classical while Coen Quinton took fourth place. A big well done to Missy Thorpe, Briony Plightling, Hebe-Rose Burton and Alycia and Bradley Mayfield who performed for the first time at their very first dance competition! We were all very proud of you.
Proud Miss Rachel & Hebe-Rose
Another highlight of the festival was the E Tap section… there were many strong competitors in this category, many of them our own pupils, and you can imagine our delight when the very popular Mr Jack Skelton danced out of his skin to a well-deserved first place. The biggest cheers were from his friends up on stage with him, and when Charlotte was awarded second place, the first thing she did was walk up to Jack and congratulate him. We were proud of Jack and proud of our Team Berry spirit.
We say this at the end of every Comp Report, but the success of our pupils could not happen without the hard work of our staff and the unfailing support from mums, dads, nans and granddads. Well done to our pupils for continuing to do their best, and thank you to that backstage team who make it all possible. We can’t wait to see what we’ll do at Two Counties… see you then!
We’re thrilled for our former pupil Hollie Glossop who will be moving out to Malta tomorrow to begin her job performing at a hotel! She will be there for six months, probably getting very tanned, dancing for guests. She’s incredibly excited about this opportunity, but also a little bit stressed as she has had to up and leave pretty quickly! We wish you a safe flight Hol, and cannot wait to hear how you get on. All the best!
Congratulations are in order for two of our many fantastic Berry Babes who have secured places into the Grand Final of the IDTA’s Miss Dance of Great Britain award, held annually in Blackpool. Rebecca Hanneman won her heat in October 2014, and last night, Bree Quinton also danced her way to the final of a very prestigious dance competition.
Another of our Berry Babes, Bridie Thorpe, has also been performing her heart out at heats, taking runner-up only last week, so we think it will only be a matter of time before she makes it the magic trio! Three is Mrs Berry’s lucky number… so no pressure Bridie!
Miss Dance takes place in June at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool, and many of the pupils, staff and parents attend every year on a big Berry school coach and enjoy fish and chips in between the fantastic showcase of dancing. In the past we have had many pupils performing at this competition, with Miss Rebecca taking third place, and our former pupils Matt Croke and Devon McKenzie-Smith taking third place in their own Dance Master competitions.
Friday 27th February saw the latest in our series of fundraising events with a family race night. Team Berry did us proud and a great night was had by all. We would like to thank the many local businesses who sponsored us:
Race 1 – Daisy Chain private day care
Race 2 – Butterfly Wings Dancewear
Race 3 – P Ridal Engineering
Race 4 – Malin Bridge Sports and Social Club
Race 5 – Helens of Hillsborough
Race 6 – Smithy Garage
Race 7 – Butterfly Beauty and Nails
Race 8, (last but by no means least) was sponsored by Sharon Berry School of Theatre Dance.
Eyes down, look in…
Family and friends then sponsored each horse in the race and the winners received a box of chocolates and a bag of sweets. We started with races 1 to 3 as we all queued to place our bets and then cheered on our chosen horses. There was a quick break for delicious pie and peas provided by Stanwood Friery with plenty of Henderson’s Relish then we moved on to races 4 & 5. Time now for a couple of games organised (in a very teacher-like manner) by myself. First, one for the adults: ‘heads or tails’. Everyone stood up and placed their hands on their head or their bottom and a coin was flipped. If they guessed wrong they were out. After four rounds we were down to Mrs Berry’s best friend Vicki and former Berry Babe Linzi Thompson with the prize being the choice of a signed SWFC or SUFC shirt. Linzi won and opted for the United shirt.
Victorious Blade Linzi with her prize
Next it was the kids turn with bingo and the chance to win another fantastic prize of an iPod shuffle. All children had a single bingo ticket and if their number was called they had to sit down, and last person standing was the winner. Another tense finale as we went down to just two – Alfie Wright and Sophie Waterfall, with Sophie victorious. Two more races and then it was time for the auction race. Some very competitive bidding with Jerry Bridger bravely taking on Mrs Berry, I think we all know who won that one!!
Sophie, proud new owner of an iPod shuffle with her friends
We would like to thank all who attended, sponsored and participated in the games. A huge well done to you for helping us to raise another brilliant amount of money.
Sharon Berry School would also like to thank Gemma and the rest of the fundraising team for organising yet another fantastic event.
We were thrilled to see four of our pupils appearing in Images Dance Costumes new catalogue for 2015! Abigail Bridger, 7, Maisie Ganley, 11, Rebecca Hanneman, 16, and Jack Skelton, 14 all attended a photoshoot with the dance costume company showing that not only can they dance and perform, but they also have modelling chops! Well done to all of you.
Berry Academy of Dance 
