Matt Flies to Agrabah

Matthew Croke

We’re thrilled to say that former pupil Matthew Croke has landed the lead role in Disney Theatrical Production‘s Aladdin at the Prince Edward Theatre in London’s West End!

Matt will join the current cast and star as Aladdin himself opposite former Sugababe Jade Ewan as Jasmine and Trevor Dion Thomas playing the Genie. This immensely popular magical musical opened last June 2016 and Matthew will take on the role on 5th June.

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In addition to his professional musical theatre career, Matt has been a part-time teacher at the Berry Academy of Dance, bringing new skills, choreography, and his experience to benefit our pupils. We couldn’t be prouder of his achievements and we cannot wait to see him taking up his harem trousers and magic carpet very soon!

If you’d like to find out more about Matt, please click here.

To read more about the cast changes afoot at Aladdin, please click here.

A Very, Berry, Merry Christmas 2016

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Well we have been busy! Lots of festive fundraising and a fabulous Christmas Concert to finish off a wonderful term.

IDTA Theatre Awards, Here We Come
We were delighted to announce that following our November exam sessions, 9 pupils have been selected to perform at the IDTA’s Theatre Awards in 2017 in Manchester. This competition is drawn from the best syllabus exam performances across the country, and it is considered a great honour to be asked to dance. Many pupils have been nominated for more than one category, and they are as follows:

Grade 5 Modern Jazz
Ewan Revill, Liberty Shepherd, Jack Skelton, Eve Wainwright

Advanced 1 Ballet
Bree Quinton

Advanced 1 Theatre Craft
Rebecca Hanneman, Alexandra O’Brien, Bree Quinton, Charlotte Stones, Bridie Thorpe

Advanced 2 Theatre Craft
Rebecca Hanneman, Alexandra O’Brien, Charlotte Stones, Bridie Thorpe

Well done to all pupils who took exams, as usual, we have maintained our 100% pass rate.

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Fundraising Frenzy
Our Fundraising Committee have well and truly done it again this term. Carol singing, festive fayres and a fantastically organised Christmas Concert. This year we added another performance due to popular demand! Many thanks to everyone who came to support the school and to those who donated extra to our extremely cute collectors. dsc_0782-001

Photos from the Concert are available at our Facebook page, please click here. A huge well done to all the teachers for putting together our festive favourite in a short space of time, we hope you all now feel suitably Christmassy.

We also had a sighting of a certain someone supposedly in “retirement” – but it turns out we can’t keep her away.

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Thanks again to all for supporting our marvellous dance school, and we look forward to seeing you in the new year. Classes begin Saturday 7th January 2017.

Getting the Grade – Teaching Success

Congratulations are in order for our very own Miss Marie Horner who has added to her score of teaching qualifications!

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Marie with some pupils at our school production

Marie has recently completed module 1 of her Licentiate Tap qualification and not only has she completed it, but achieved a Distinction. Not to mention accomplishing all this during our ever busy and demanding school production earlier this year!

Well done Marie, and best of luck for the next steps.

If you’d like to find out more about our teaching staff, please click here.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves

2016.06.20Many a congratulation to our pupils who are now part of the juvenile chorus in Sheffield Theatres and Evolution Pantomimes’ production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

Maddie Dunn, Maisie Ganley, Lucy Holcroft, Megan Moore, Leila Steer, Megan Thorpe, Lilli Walker, Renée Warren and Aliyah Xaba will be pounding the floorboards this Christmas at the Sheffield Lyceum alongside panto favourite Damian Williams and Coronation Street’s Wendi Peters.

Well done to all the girls who auditioned for the show, you all continue to do us very proud.

 

Teaching Success

Many congratulations to our student teachers Molly Barrowclough, Elle Longden-Lyons and Charlotte Stones for passing their Theatre Craft teaching exam at Pre-Associate Part 2 level! The girls passed the part 1 of their exam last year and we are thrilled to see them progress with flying colours. Well done ladies!

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Miss Dance of Great Britain 2016

If you’d have told us in June 2015 while we were trailing back on the coach from Blackpool that we could top the feeling of watching 3 of our wonderful young ladies perform on that huge stage in front of 3,500 people, we would have laughed at you.2016.06.12 05

But there we were, coaches full of Berry Babes, parents, family and friends, on Sunday 12th June 2016, arriving at the Winter Gardens Theatre to cheer on five of our talented pupils.2016.06.12 03

The day was exciting, emotional and chocca-block with fantastic and entertaining dancers. To achieve your place in Miss Dance of Great Britain, you have to compete in heats across the country to win one of the 50 spots in this prestigious competition. So there we were, with 10% of the top young dancers in the country coming from the Sharon Berry School of Theatre Dance.2016.06.12 04

huge congratulations to our girls performing at this event: Rebecca Hanneman, Alexandra O’Brien, Bree Quinton, Charlotte Stones and Bridie Thorpe. You girls danced beautifully, and we were so proud as a school to be there to cheer you on as your performed your hearts out. A record-breaker for our school, to have 5 girls dance in the competition together, and surely a wonderful experience for the Fab Five to share this moment and think about how far they’ve come since they were little girls.2016.06.12 02

A special well done to Bree Quinton, who was recalled to perform in the semi-finals of the competition with her I Dreamed A Dream. An incredible honour.2016.06.12 01-001

Well done to all of our girls who performed at Miss Dance, you are all winners in our eyes, and your parents, teachers, family, friends and fellow pupils are so very proud of you.

Snow White: Audition Information

Sheffield Theatres and Evolution Pantomimes are putting on their annual smash-hit at Sheffield’s Lyceum this year, and for 2016, it’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs! The production company are looking for young dancers to join its company for the Christmas season, and as no South Yorkshire pantomime is complete without Berry Babes, we give you the information at the link below.

Please note, if you are going to audition – please inform Mrs Berry so she can make the appropriate arrangements for the school production’s photoshoot. 

For audition information, please click here: Snow White Audition

June: The Month That Keeps On Giving

Well well well… we have been busy! We’ve achieved rather a lot in the first week of June and the month’s main even, Miss Dance of Great Britain, hasn’t even happened yet! Here’s what the month of June holds for Sharon Berry School of Theatre Dance:2016.06.06 Two Counties 03

Two Counties Dance Festival
Our Berry Babes did us proud last week at the Two Counties Dance Festival. There were trophies galore as nine of our pupils were invited to dance in the Bursary competition at the end of the week’s activities (some of them were nominated more than once!).2016.06.06 Two Counties 04

Well done to Rebecca Hanneman, Alexandra O’Brien, Bree Quinton, Ewan Revill, Gabriel Sharrock, Jack Skelton, Eve Wainwright, Aliyah Xaba and Laylah Xaba for earning their spot in the Bursary section. An even bigger congratulations to Rebecca Hanneman for winning Senior Bursary prize! 2016.06.06 Two Counties 06
There were too many medal wins to count but a few highlights are the Junior Character section, in which our pupils swept the board from 1st-4th place with Eva Cadet, Megan Bridger, Gracie Smedley and Maddison Buckley. Abigail Bridger took a 1st place in her Tap while our seniors and their Top Hat troupe also took a gold brushing off their white coats.
Well done to everyone who represented the school, working hard and always with a smile!2016.06.06 Two Counties 07

IDTA Scholarship Nominations
A big congratulations to Ewan, Gabriel and Jack for being nominated for their Grade 4 Theatre Craft examinations – they will be dancing at the 2017 IDTA Theatre Dance Awards in Manchester next year.2016.06.06 Two Counties 09

Staff Success
Well done to Miss Rebecca Akers who has achieved the position of Fellow of the International Dance Teachers’ Association through her qualifications in Modern Jazz. We’re very glad all the hard work paid off! Miss Rebecca and Miss Marie Horner also won awards at Two Counties Dance Festival.2016.06.06 Two Counties 08

Singin’ In The Rain
Our lovely former pupil and guest teacher Matt Croke is assuming the lead role of Don Lockwood at Singin’ in the Rain – which this month will be performed at Bolton’s Octagon Theatre for a month! Tickets are nearly sold out so book soon to avoid disappointment.2016.06.06 Singin in the Rain 01

All Good Things
Preparations are now well underway for our school production, All Good Things. We have now sold out for Saturday’s evening performance and are nearly sold out for the matinee! If you would like tickets please get in touch with Pete Berry at 0114 246 6126 or by email at psberry43@gmail.comShow 2014

Miss Dance of Great Britain 2016
Well… this hardly needs an introduction as one tenth of the competitors of this prestigious event are homegrown Berry Babes! Sunday 12th June and Blackpool won’t know what hits it as hundreds of Team Berry pile into the Winter Gardens Theatre to cheer on our fantastically talented girls, Rebecca Hanneman, Alexandra O’Brien, Bree Quinton, Charlotte Stones and Bridie Thorpe. We can’t wait to see you on that stage girls, best of luck, we know you don’t need it.

So stay tuned! Lots of exciting things happening at the Sharon Berry School in the coming weeks…Too Darn Hot 2014

All Good Things: Ticket Information

We’re very much looking forward to our school production in July, All Good Things, which will be a celebration of the very best of Berry School!

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Tickets will be on sale to school pupils 1st May. General sale will begin 19th May.

Tickets can only be purchased via the official forms distributed by Mrs Berry and will only be reserved when the money is paid in full.

Price:
£12 adult ticket
£9 concession

Please note there are no concession tickets for the Saturday evening performance.

For show dates and further information, please click here: All Good Things.
To sponsor a page in our programme, please click here: Programme Sponsorship
And finally, to see how we’ve been getting on with our rehearsals, please click here: Show Gallery.