Devon started at Mrs Berry’s when he was 12 when he and Matt came from the Maureen Law School of Dance. During his time with us he was nominated for the IDTA Scholarships many times and won special commendations in 2003/4 for Grade 5 Tap and Theatre Craft. He was also the winner of the Ken Dodd Tap Award.
In 2006, at the age of 16, he came third in Dance Master UK, performing at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool. Later that year he went on to study for his National Diploma in Musical Theatre at Laine Theatre Arts College. While there both he and Matt competed in a tap competition held at the college, and Matt, feeling generous, used one of his old routines and choreographed a new one for Devon… he regretted it in the end because Devon ended up beating him with it!
After graduating in 2009 he went on tour to Germany with the musical Hairspray for two years, managing to resist the urge to learn any German while he was there. He performed in Aladdin at the Royal & Derngate in Northampton in 2011.
In 2012 Devon taught classes and workshops in London and performed in the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Olympic Games.
Since then he has played a Shark on the national UK tour of West Side Story which began in Liverpool in 2013 and ended in summer 2014. In his spare time he has come back to Sheffield to teach our pupils exciting new routines and give them insight into the life of a professional dancer.
Devon was very excited to be joining the cast of Memphis, a new musical which arrived in London’s West End in October 2014. The starring role is taken by Beverley Knight, and the production won Best New Musical at the What’s On Stage Awards.
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!
Berry Academy of Dance 
