Book the coaches, start on that packed lunch, because we’re off to Blackpool again next June! A huge congratulations to our very own Miss Rebecca Hanneman who performed her heart out in Loughborough to secure a place in the Grand Final of Miss Dance 2016.
After doing us tremendously proud this year (along with Misses Bridie and Bree of course), Becky has been back competing for a place in this prestigious competition, and we’re so looking forward to cheering her on once more. Well done!
Please see our new timetables for Monday below. If you have any questions, please contact Mrs Berry on 0114 246 6126.
| 4.30-5.15 | Grade 2 Ballet | Grade 3 Modern |
| 5.15-6.00 | Grade 3 Ballet | Grade 4 Modern – boys |
| 6.00-6.45 | Boys Ballet | Grade 5 Modern |
| 6.45-7.45 | Inter Ballet with Pointe | Advanced 1 Theatre Craft |
| 7.45-8.30 | Stretch Class | |
| 8.30-9.30 | Advanced 1 Ballet with Pointe | Pre-Associate Theatre Craft Part 2 |
Cinderella Pantomime Auditions – Monday 7th September 2015 6.00pm-7.00pm at St Thomas More. 
Six girls are required to make a team of juveniles for this years Christmas pantomime at Rotherham Civic Theatre. Auditionees must be strong dancers and performers as they will be required to act and sing.
The selected children must be 7 years and older and no taller than 4ft 11ins. They must be committed and available to attend all rehearsals and show performances which run from 2nd December 2015 to 10th January 2016.
The first rehearsal dates are:
Monday 5th October – 4.30-7.30
Monday 19th October – 4.30-7.30
Monday 2nd November – 4.30-7.30
(All rehearsals must be attended and further dates will be confirmed)
Performance dates for this team have not yet been confirmed but you must be available for all shows.
Anyone wishing to attend the audition must call or send a private message to Mrs Berry or Miss Rebecca.
Please find below our timetable for Saturday class. Term commences 5th September at St Thomas More Community Centre.
If you would like to begin dancing with us for the first time, please call Mrs Berry to arrange on 0114 246 6126. We will be delighted to welcome new pupils.
For any clarifications or questions, please contact Mrs Berry on the number above.
| 10.00-10.30 | Juveniles | Preparatory Theatre Craft | Primary Theatre Craft | |
| 10.30-11.00 | Preparatory Tap | Primary Tap | ||
| 11.00-11.30 | Grade 1 Ballet | Preparatory Ballet | Primary Ballet | |
| 11.30-12.00 | Grade 1 Modern | Preparatory Modern | Primary Modern | |
| 12.00-12.30 | Stretch Junior | Stretch Inter | Stretch Boys | |
| 12.30-1.15 | Grade 1 Theatre Craft | Grade 2 Theatre Craft | Grade 3 Theatre Craft | Grade 4 Theatre Craft |
| 1.15-1.30 |
Lunch |
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| 1.30-2.15 | Grade 1 Tap | Grade 2 Tap | Grade 3 Tap | Pre-Associate Theatre Craft |
| 2.15-3.15 | Grade 2 Modern | Grade 5 Tap | Advanced 1 Modern | |
| 3.15-4.15 | Inter Theatre Craft | Advanced 1 Tap | ||
Congratulations are in order for our pupils Jack Skelton and Charlotte Stones who have two sets of very different and very good news. Both of them successfully auditioned for Tap Attack, a tap performance and workshop company with the likes of West End favourite Graeme Henderson on the bill! Having attended their workshops, Charlotte and Jack were invited to audition for the performance company – and we are very proud to say they got in!
In addition to this, Jack was also nominated to dance in the IDTA Scholarships 2016 for his outstanding performance in his Grade 4 Tap exam. Charlotte on the other hand has also discovered that she has been chosen for the role of Head Girl at Stocksbridge High School in the coming year.
Well done to both of you, keep up the good work!
We’re delighted to announce that our school production:
All Good Things
Will take place next summer at the Montgomery Theatre in Sheffield. All our pupils get the chance to dance on a full-sized stage right in the city centre in front of hundreds of people every night. There will be four performances and children dancing in the show will be required in the evenings of the whole show week to attend technical and dress rehearsals. The details of these will be released nearer the time.
Please make a note of these dates in your diary:
Tuesday 12 July 2016 – Technical Rehearsal
Wednesday 13 July 2016 – Dress Rehearsal
Thursday 14 July 2016 – Evening Performance
Friday 15 July 2016 – Evening Performance
Saturday 16 July 2016 – Matinee Performance & Evening Performance
There will also be full-class rehearsals that take place at St Thomas More Community Centre on the following dates:
Thursday 30 June 2016
Saturday 2 July 2016
Details regarding tickets and costumes will be released in due course.
A pirouette down memory lane…
This year’s show theme is a special one, as it celebrates the very best of Berry. As we sashay towards our 35th birthday as a school, we continue to enjoy a long history of achievement and friendship. As the daughters of our first ever pupils learn their shuffle hops, nieces, brothers, twins, grandchildren of our community come together to make a school that is incredibly special. Expect to see old favourites and new showstoppers, danced by our pupils as only they know how, with stretched feet and a foot-long smile!
We now begin the difficult task of narrowing down a shortlist of crowd-pleasers, and we look forward to seeing you in July 2016.
I started dancing at Sharon Berry School from the age of two. During my 16 years there, I made some truly amazing memories. The people I met there are friends for life, we used to have so much fun in class!
When I got older, I was able to help on Saturday mornings with the younger pupils. I used to love pretending to be fairies and butterflies with the baby class!
Competitions were the best part of the year, and Doncaster Civic was my favourite. I used to love getting up so early and having to put full show hair and makeup on. (And I was normally allowed a McDonald’s breakfast on the way – bonus!)
When I was 18 I moved down to Essex to study at Performers College for my National Diploma. I enjoyed three great years there and met some lovely people. During my time at college I was lucky enough to have some amazing opportunities like dancing at the FA Cup Opening Ceremony at Wembley Stadium and performing in a tribute to the tiller girls at the London Palladium.
Since graduating in 2014, I am now part of a showgirl company called Showgirl Entertainments with whom I have performed in different venues all over the UK. In September 2014, I also worked in Scotland with Circus Vegas as a showgirl. I then went on to perform in Dick Whittington pantomime in Birdwell as part of the ensemble over Christmas 2014.
I am currently soaking up the sun in Malta, working as Dance Captain in a hotel show team.
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.
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.
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.
I went to Mrs Berry’s for 13 years and my favourite classes were Gymnastics and Modern Jazz. Before I left I reached the final of the very prestigious Miss Dance competition. It was a brilliant experience in which I performed my favourite dance of all time. I did all the competitions!
I left Mrs Berry’s age 18 to go to Phil Winston’s Dance College in Blackpool where I completed a three-year course. After leaving there I came to Tenerife to dance in various shows touring hotels. I’m still here 10 years later! I’m now performing in a show called The Sound of Musicals. My own daughter Kaci has started dancing.
I had the best years at this dancing school and without Mrs Berry I would not be where I am today.
James began dancing at Sharon Berry School of Theatre dance a couple of weeks before his 13th birthday after being told at school he would need the three disciplines of dance, singing and drama to fulfill his dream of performing in the West End. It was Mrs Berry’s idea that he should go for his first audition to London for the new musical Billy Elliot. After successfully beating 3,000 other candidates, James became one of the three original Billy Elliots to play the part in the West End’s Victoria Palace Theatre. He was involved in the development of the role of Billy from the very beginning, and contributed to the success of the show with critically acclaimed performances in acting, singing and dancing. The show opened on 31 March 2005. In that year, he won the Variety Club’s Outstanding New Talent Award and also the Theatre Goers’ Choice of Most Promising New Comer. He also jointly won the prestigious Sir Laurence Olivier Award in 2006 for Best Actor in a Musical.
James was featured in Strictly Dance Fever performing part of the musical finale and in several TV interviews and short clips related to the musical. In July 2006 he played the lead role of young blind Nicholas Saunderson in the new musical No Horizon in Penistone, and was well received for his performances. After leaving the show in 2006, James won a place at Millennium performing arts school in London, where he completed his National Diploma in Musical Theatre in 2009. After graduation, he went on to perform in the West End production of Dirty Dancing at the Aldwych Theatre. He then joined the national UK tour of Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat, playing Joseph on several occasions. He spent a deal of time in Bochum, Germany, performing in Starlight Express.
James is now part of the band Gypsy Queens who are based in Nice in the south of France, where he now lives. They perform at private parties all over the world.
Berry Academy of Dance 