Central Scotland Ballet School

CSBS dancers sparkle onstage!

Central Scotland Ballet School — Wed, 08 Jun 2022 22:02:00 GMT

We were delighted to stage our first dance displays since 2019, "Everybody Dance Now!"

Due to Covid restrictions, we were unable to stage our annual dance displays in 2020 and 2021, so this year's displays were extra special! Over 500 dancers performed across 5 different dress rehearsals and 5 different shows in the Macrobert Arts Centre. For many of our dancers, it was their first experience of a dance display, which made it very exciting!

Dress Rehearsals...

Our dress rehearsals gave the dancers a chance to experience the bustle of backstage and to perform their routines onstage with final adjustments for spacing and costumes. We had professional technicians operating the lights and sound, including fitting our musical theatre students with personal radio mics, which all added to the adventure! The dancers were helped behind the scenes by our teachers and a team of volunteer chaperones who did a remarkable job of running backstage; we are extremely grateful! We have some galleries of photos from the dress rehearsals on our CSBS Facebook page:

Professional photos from the dress rehearsals will be available to view and purchase soon from Leask Photography. You can view the galleries on the Leask Photography website. If you did not pick up a password card at the displays, please just get in touch with us.

Fabulous performances...

We were so delighted to watch the joy in everyone's performances and to hear the great applause from each audience... Mrs Clark absolutley loved being able to watch one of the shows from the auditorium rather than from backstage in the wings, and was overwhelmed by the whole thing! On our CSBS Facebook page you can view some galleries of photos taken during the performance from the wings by teacher Amanda:

Charity collections...

Our programmes were by donation to charity and our Senior students also coordinated a bucket collection after each performance. We raised a total of £543.56 from programme donations and £839.37 in the bucket collections. Thank you for your support; we will keep you updated about which local and national charities and good causes we support with your donations.

More thanks...

We must additional thanks to the following people and companies for their hard work in helping our displays to run professionally, smoothly, and safely, and adding to the sparkle!

Lighting: Brian and Colin (Sight and Sound Ltd)
Sound/tech: Saint and Martin (Macrobert Technical team)
Front of house and box office teams from Macrobert
Lorraine and the rest of the Stirling Uni cleaning team
Programme printing: JMK Printing
Finale t-shirts: Homefront Signs Ltd
Staff t-shirts: Make Your Marque
Professional videography: 1StudioVideo
Professional photography: Leask Photography
Additional costumes: Dance Costumes for Hire; Costume Source; Camy at Dance Favourite (China)

Please take time to complete our feedback survey for the chance to enter a prize draw to win a full term of dance classes. We are so very proud of all our dancers and teachers for their hard work in staging the displays and and hope you have all enjoyed the experience! We look forward to seeing you at our summer holiday events and then the new term in August. In the meantime, have a well deserved rest!

Choreography Competition 2022

Central Scotland Ballet School — Thu, 12 May 2022 18:53:00 GMT

Wow... What a wonderful day we had at our 2022 Choreography Competition!

After a 2 year gap, we were very excited to welcome 70 competitors, aged from 4-17 years old, to perform onstage at Falkirk Town Hall in our Choreography Competition as part of the Tryst Festival. They showcased an entertaining variety of solos, duets and group dances in ballet, character, jazz, commercial, tap, musical theatre and acrobatics. All the dancers had choreographed their routines themselves with their own choice of music and costumes with a total of 88 routines! We had 23 dancers of all ages trying the competition for the first time, as well as 3 little stars in the demonstration section.

Little Stars section and Elite Team performance

A wonderful highlight of the day was the 'Little Stars' section for children under 6. Three little dancers performed a dance routine for the judges and the audience and received great applause! After their performances, they were each presented with a certiicate and medal by Bill McDonald, chairman of the Falkirk Arts Network. Very well done to Isla, Chloe and Aria (with big cousin Murray!).

We were also delighted to have our Starshine Elite Dance Team perform at the end of day... they were outstanding and a great inspiration for all our younger dancers!

Guest judges and prizes

On our judging panel, we had, Ashleigh McGeorge (Stenhouse Performing Arts), Amy Hart (Professional dancer) and Elgin Adams (Professional dance artist). They all thoroughly enjoyed their day and were very impressed by the high standard of technique and performance across all the age groups. They also commented on how friendly the day was and how many talented young dancers we had take part, particularly in the Senior section this year.

After each genre, Mrs Jacqueline Clark, Director of Central Scotland Ballet School, presented the competitors with a certificate for each routine they had performed. In total, 154 certificates were presented. At the end of the day, the judges presented medals to their winners from each section; 42 first-place medals, including duets and groups, second place medals, bronze medals, runners up medals and 3 little stars medals were presented.

New Improvisation Knock-Out

Falkirk Arts Network donated a new trophy which will be presented annually for Improvisation. Thirty-one dancers took part and improvised to pieces of music in a knock out style competition onstage. The judges chose 10 finalists then whittled it down to 4 winners. Many congratulations to inaugural trophy winner, Anna Bremner!

Trophy winners

We were delighted to present additional trophies for the highest score in each section. Well done to the winners:

Highest Score Ballet - Jill Russell (12)
Highest Score Pointe/Character - Anna Bremner (16)
Highest Score Acro - Hanah Firth (15)
Highest Score Tap - April Beattie (16)
Highest Score Musical Theatre - April Beattie (16)
Highest Score Jazz - Hannah Firth (15)

We also presented a trophy to the dancer the judges considered the 'Best Newcomer', someone who had not competed in the competition before. It was awarded to Evan Steele (10).

The new FAN Award for Improvisation was presented to Anna Bremner (16).

The Millennium Trophy for the most outstanding performer of the day was awarded to Jill Russell (12) . Jill performed in 8 different routines winning 3 gold medals and 1 silver medal for and will perform a solo in some of our dance displays.

The "Spirit of Dance Award" for performance and love of dance was awarded to Sophie Jackson (9) who performed solos in ballet and character with a huge smile and obvious joy for dance!

You can view a complete list of the prizewinners here, and view a gallery of photos from the Choreography Competition on our CSBS Facebook page:

Please view the gallery photos from the day of all the dancers, performers and awards on our CSBS Facebook page

Thanks to...

Many thanks to everyone who supported the event, including the students, parents, friends and staff who just came along to watch and cheer on their friends and family. Special thanks to: CSBS teacher Hayley for running backstage; CSBS teacher Sammy for being the compere for the day; CSBS teacher Claire for tallying scores and organising the Elite Team performance; our judges who gave up their full Sunday; CSBS teacher Amanda for organising the day including the programme, designing the certificates and medals, photographing and videoing the day; Mrs Clark for presenting the certificates; the Front of House team at FTH; and the technical team at FTH for helping make our dancers look and sound fabulous!

We were very impressed by the positive and encouraging atmosphere throughout the day which ensured every participant had a wonderful experience. The standard of dancing and the wide range of ideas, was excellent too... we hope everyone is keen to join in again next year!

Acrobatics awards presented

Central Scotland Ballet School — Tue, 10 May 2022 16:25:00 GMT

CSBS teacher Diane was delighted to present awards for excellence in our recent acrobatics exams.

The acrobatics exams do not have a points system so we ask the examiner to choose who he/she feels is the "Most Promising Acro Dancer" in each session. In our Spring 2022 exam session, we had 106 acrobatics candidates from First Steps up to Premiere Award levels, so the examiner had a challenging job!

The examiner selected the following students as the 'most promising' in the session:

JUNIOR SHIELD: Charlie Fleming (10) for Bronze
SENIOR SHIELD: Ailey Meikle (17) for Premiere Award

She also picked out two dancers for a special commendation, and they each received a certificate:

Lawrence Bremner (Gold)
Hannah Firth (British Medallion)

Very well done to them and to all the acrobatics candidates for strong results!

Results from our Spring Exam session

Central Scotland Ballet School — Sun, 08 May 2022 16:11:00 GMT

Huge congratulations to all our 410 Spring exam candidates on their excellent results!

With a record number of candidates and a combination of both live and filmed exams with 4 different exam boards, it was an incredible effort to get through the 8 days of assessments and the vast amount of paperwork and video footage. We are extremely proud of our candidates and their teachers!

RAD Ballet exams and CSBS Class Tests

Thirty Pre-Primary Grade dancers sat a CSBS class test for ballet and gained excellent reports. They were delighted to receive their reports, certificates and medals in class! We had 125 candidates for ballet exams and awards with the Royal Academy of Dance. These exams have a challengingly high standard and we are delighted that everyone passed! The RAD have introduced new banding for results, Pass-Merit-High Merit-Distinction-High Distinction. The medals, certificates and reports will hopefully arrive before we break for the summer!

The overall results were:

19 gaining their RAD Class Award
27 Merit
50 High Merit
21 Distinction
8 High Distinction

Extra congratulations to those candidates gaining over 80% for their examination:

Grade 2: Charlie Fleming 83%
Grade 2 SPA: Charlie Fleming 90%
Grade 3: Rachel Higgins 81%; Heidi Russell 86%;
Grade 3 SPA: Georgia Rosenfeld 86%; Heidi Russell 89%
Grade 5 SPA: Emily Paton 87%; Ellie Withnell 80%
Grade 6: Emily Paton 83%
Grade 7: Ailish Ogilvie 86%; Anna Bremner 85%
Intermediate: Jill Russell 87%
Advanced: Anna Bremner 82%

IDTA Tap exams and Rosette Awards

We are very excited to have received the results from our 2nd ever session of IDTA exams where we were able to give our recreational jazz and tap students, and our younger dancers the opportunity to sit StarDance Awards and Rosette Awards. These awards are pass/fail and everyone passed with 39 gaining their StarDance Award in tap, and 91 different rosettes being gained in ballet and tap! They will received certificates, trophies and rosettes in class soon!

We also had graded tap exams with excellent results, gaining 3 Pass, 12 Merit, and 10 Distinctions overall plus the Silver medal candidates gaining 2 Highly Commended and 6 Honours.

Distinction/Honours is awarded for over 85%, so excellent effort and congratulations to:

Grade 2: Lucy Allan 85%; Abigail Ponton 87%; Heidi Russell 88%; Freya Jones 85%; Rachel Higgins 87%; Charlie Fleming 90%
Grade 3: Rachel Dagger 85%; Lawrence Bremner 87%; Eva Inglis 85%; Violet Beattie 87%
Silver Medal: Anna Bremner 85%; Ailish Ogilvie 87%; Ailey Meikle 88%; Megan Richards 86%; Hannah Firth 88%; April Beattie 90%

ISTD Tap exams

Only our Senior graded tap students follow the ISTD syllabus and we are delighted that our two Grade 6 candidates this session both gained Distinction! Many congratulations to April Beattie (87%) and Hannah Firth (83%) on their excellent results!

BATD Acrobatics Exams and Awards

We had an incredible 103 acrobatics candidates this session from the little First Steps right up to the highest level, Premiere Award. Overall, the dancers gained 2 Pass Plus; 19 Commended; and 82 Highly Commended, the highest band for these exams! The reports, certificates and medals have been presented in class time.

A special congratulations to Ailey Meikle and Rachel Sneddon for gaining their Premiere Award with Highly Commended. Outstanding achievement!

There are no points awarded in these exams, the candidates receive a written report, however the examiner selected 4 dancers as the "most promising" in the session, and they were Charlie Fleming (Bronze), Ailey Meikle (Premiere Award), Lawrence Bremner (Gold) and Hannah Firth (British Medallion). You can read more about their awards here.

Please take a look through our gallery of exam awards being presented... more photos will be added as we receive the rest of the awards!

Starshine Elite back onstage...

Central Scotland Ballet School — Wed, 23 Mar 2022 11:06:00 GMT

Our Starshine Elite team dancers enjoyed a full day at the Can You Dance? convention in Glasgow.

Our Junior and Senior teams joined hundreds of dancers from across the UK for a packed day of dance workshops with some of the UK's top guest tutors. They were able to expereinece a wide variety of styles, watch performances, and visit stands to find out more about all things related to dance including dancewear, photography, and colleges.

Some of our dancers were picked out during the workshops for special awards... well done to:

Charlie Fleming (commercial)
Georgia Rosenfeld (contemporary)
Hannah Firth (contemporary)

CYD? Competition

Part of the day included being able to perform and compete onstage alongside Scottish dance schools and colleges. Our Senior team performed a new upbeat jazz routine which was brilliant! Our Junior team performed a lyrical routine in only their second competition... and placed THIRD in their category! Both routines were choreographed by coach Claire and we loved watching them.

We look forward to seeing both teams perform throughout the rest of the season!

Epic Spring Exam Session!

Central Scotland Ballet School — Wed, 23 Mar 2022 00:02:00 GMT

We had candidates sitting exams in ballet, tap and acrobatics this session...

In our largest ever session, 410 candidates sat exams from their first levels right up to Advanced Ballet, Grade 6 tap, and Premiere Award Acrobatics... more candidates than in the whole of last year! Our Royal Academy of Dance ballet exams were filmed and the recordings will be submitted to the London Headquarters for marking by an International examiner. Both our ISTD and IDTA Tap exams are also being submitted by video. However, we were delighted to welcome an examiner to the Studios to watch the acrobatics candidates in-person... Our first in-person exams since November 2019!!!

Here's a summary of the exams:

86 Graded ballet exam candidates
18 Class Award ballet candidates
6 Solo Performance Award ballet candidates
15 Vocational ballet exam candidates
30 Pre-Primary Class Test ballet candidates
22 Graded tap exam candidates
40 Stardance Award tap candidates
8 Silver Medal Test tap candidates
79 Rosette Award tap and ballet candidates
106 Acrobatics exam candidates

Due to Covid isolations, we had students unable to attend their scheduled exam, however, we have been able to arrange an alternative day to film those students and submit the ballet and tap recordings as part of our Spring session.

Huge congratulations to all the candidates on their effort in preparing for their exams, we look forward to receiving the results in approximately 4 weeks time. We have a special shoutout for our amazing team of teachers for their extraordinary effort too in preparing the candidates at all levels and managing Exam Week so well. You can view a gallery of the candidates on our CSBS Facebook page.

Awards for Excellence 2021

Central Scotland Ballet School — Sun, 27 Feb 2022 20:27:00 GMT

We were delighted to present awards for excellence in dance exams during the year 2021.

We received our final winter session results in February 2022 and picked out the top marks from the 340 candidates who had all made the incredible achievement of passing exams in 2021 after the disruption of 2020.

Junior and Senior Excellence Shields

We present the 'Vicki Paterson Awards for Excellence' annual awards to students who have gained the highest marks in their ballet exams over the year. The award is named after former CSBS student Vicki Paterson who gained a perfect 100% for her RAD Grade 4 ballet exam as well as consistently scoring over 90% in all her dance examinations. Vicki went on to become a professional ballet dancer after graduating from full-time training and now runs a highly successful dance studio in Norfolk..

The Junior Shield was presented to Heidi Russell (11) who gained 87% for her Grade 2 ballet exam with the Royal Academy of Dance in the summer session. Heidi studies ballet, tap, acro and jazz and has recently joined our Majors programme. She is an accomplished performer and also trains in musical theatre; she has starred as 'Little Cosette' in the UK tour of Les Miserables in Edinburgh.

The Senior Award for Excellence was presented to Ailish Ogilvie (16). Ailish gained an impressive 92% for her Grade 6 ballet exam in the summer session. Ailish is a member of our Majors programme, a Scottish Ballet Senior Associate, and a valued class assitant for preschool ballet. She is also an accomplished performer and has had lead roles in a number of musical productions across the Central Belt.

Katie Deacon Performance Award

The Katie Deacon Performance Award is an annual trophy presented to the student who gains the highest mark for their RAD Solo Performance Award. It is named after former student Katie who was a professional ballerina following her graduation, and is now a musical theatre performer working across the world and in the West End. This year, the award was presented to Jill Russell (13) for her outstanding score of 93% for the Grade 4 Solo Performance Award in the winter session. Jill has now won the award on 3 times! Jill also represented CSBS at the RAD Senior Awards 2019, winning the class trophy for her level. She studies ballet, jazz, tap, and acrobatics and is in our Majors programme. She is also an associate with Scottish Ballet.

New Tap annual awards

Due to having more students sitting tap exams, we have introduced new Junior and Senior shields for the highest marks in our IDTA or ISTD tap examinations. We hope this will encourage students to aim high in their tap training as well as ballet. Many congratulations to the inaugural winners!

The Junior shield was presented jointly to Jill Russell (13) and Georgia Rosenfeld (12) for their excellent score of 93% in their Bronze Tap Award. Both girls also gained 92% for their Grade 2 Tap exam in the same Winter session! What excellent results by them both! Like Jill, Georgia studies ballet, tap, acro and jazz and is a member of our Majors programme. She also trains weekly with S-MB Company.

The Senior shield was presented to April Beattie (16) for an outstanding score of 93% for her ISTD Grade 5 tap exam in the summer session. As well as studying ballet, tap, jazz, acrobatics and cheer, April is an experienced class assistant and a member of both our Majors programme and Elite Dance Team. She also studies musical theatre and has performed on stage and screen across Scotland, including in the Edinburgh Festival.

Acrobatics - Examiners shield for most potential

Our acrobatics exams have written reports and not points so we ask the examiner to choose the students he/she feel have demonstrated the most potential in their examination. We present a Junior and Senior shield, as well as certificates of commendation. Here are the recipients from our only 2021 session:

Junior Shield: Georgia Ormond (8 - Pre-Bronze)
Senior Shield: Ruby Grant (13 - Silver)
(no certificates presented)

Many congratulations to the students for their effort and determination and to all of our 340 dance exam candidates who worked extremely hard to pass their dance exams in 2021. We had around 40% of graded candidates gain Distinction. Please have a look at our exam news and results:

Our 2022 Spring session of exams is only a few weeks away so our students and teachers are still working incredibly hard... especially as we will have nearly 450 candidates in just the one session!

Winter Exam Session Results 2021

Central Scotland Ballet School — Tue, 08 Feb 2022 15:54:00 GMT

We finally have all the results from our Winter 2021 exam session... outstanding work!

It was a small session compared to usual because many of our graded students have been struggling to complete the work following all the disruption to their learning throughout the pandemic. However, well done to the 70 candidates and their teachers for excellent results in the session, with 60% of the candidates gaining the top band of Distinction and Honours!

RAD Ballet exam results

Of the 35 RAD exam candidates, 2 gained Pass, 18 gained a Merit, and 15 gained Distinction. The Merit marks were generally high this session with many just missing the Distinction by a couple of marks but our Distinction marks were lower than anticipated. We were delighted to have 6 students enter for a Solo Performance Award and every one of them gained a Distinction!

We have a special mention for the students who gained over 80% for their Distinctions:

Grade 2: Freya Jones 80%
Grade 4 SPA: Jill Russell 93%

ISTD Tap exams

We only had 5 candidates sit their ISTD tap exams by video submission with 4 Grade 4 candidates and one Grade 6 candidate. Between them they gained 1 high Merit and 4 Distinctions!

Grade 4: Emily Marsh 82%; Jenna Buchanan 83%; Libby Hardie 80%;
Grade 6: Jennifer Armstrong 81%

IDTA Tap exams

We entered our first ever exams with the IDTA, International Dance Teachers Association and are delighted by the strong results! We had 40 entries at Grade 1-3 levels as well as Bronze medals and Stardance Awards. Overall, the dancers gained 3 Pass; 6 Merit; and 23 Distinctions for the graded exams, and 4 Honours for the medals. The Stardance Awards are a Pass/Fail and all 6 candidates passed and are looking forward to receiving their special awards.

A special well done to those who gained over 85% for their examination:

Grade 1: Amelia McDonagh 85%; Aysha Pollock 89%; Charlie Fleming 91%; Erica Higgins 85%; Faye Campbell 86%; Layla Thomson 87%; Libby Fisher 85%; Isaac Rosenfeld 85%; Marcus Miller 90%; Orla Martin 85%; Roan Ogilvie 87%;
Grade 2: Erin Lang 85%; Georgia Rosenfeld 92%; Jill Russell 92%; Lawrence Bremner 91%; Ruby Grant 87%; Sophie Cameron 91%
Grade 3: Ellie Withnell 89%; Holly Paton 87%; Iona Lang 88%; MAisie Pandian 85%; Rachel Hunter 85%; Rachel Kinghorn 88%;
Bronze Medal: Georgia Rosenfeld 93%; Jill Russell 93%; Lawrence BRemner 90%; Ruby Grant 89%

You can view a full gallery of photos of all our ballet and tap exam candidates on our CSBS Facebook page. We now have only a few weeks until the Spring exam session in March!

If you have not yet received your dance exam results, please contact us! The certificates, reports and medals should arrive within the next few weeks and will be distributed in class time.

End of Year Awards 2021

Central Scotland Ballet School — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 23:26:00 GMT

Although we couldn't welcome parents into classes at the end of the year, we were delighted to present awards for progress!

After an extraordinary 21 months we were delighted to be able to commend our dancers for their effort and proress. Many of them had taken part in lessons by Zoom in a wide range of spaces; some had prepared for and passed exams; others had taken up more classes; and many had dealt with periods of isolation or illness... and they all danced brilliantly over the term and final 2 weeks. Many classes filmed work over the last 2 weeks so that parents could still see their progress.

For obvious reasons, we did not award badges for 100% attendance this year. We did, however, present certificates and trophies for significant progress and our preschool dancers all received certificates for completing their ballet themes. In total, we presented over nearly 150 awards including:

57 class progress certificates
80 class progress trophies
4 overall progress trophies

...And everyone's favourite part, THOUSANDS of lollies and sweets!

Click here to see a full list of progress award recipients 2021.

Overall trophies for most improved dancers

At each branch, we awarded a trophy to the student who our staff agreed had made the most significant progress overall. The branch winners (pictured below) were:

Braes branch: Rachel Higgins
Grangemouth branch: Phoebe Williams
South Queensferry branch: Ciara Sharp
Linlithgow branch: Georgia Rosenfeld

Please view the full gallery of all our certificate and trophy winners on our CSBS Facebook page.

Most Promising Acro Dancers

We also presented two trophies to our acrobatics dancers for their exam performancs. Georgia Ormond and Ruby Grant were selected by the examiner as the most promising Junior and Senior candidates respectively in our Winter session. Very well done to them both!

Many thanks to all our teachers who have kept the classes hard working and lots of fun, which is evident in the progress over the year! We look forward to classes starting back on 5 January 2022 when we will be straight back into workig toward competitions, workshops, shows, rehearsals and Spring exams!

Boys to join Scottish Ballet tour

Central Scotland Ballet School — Tue, 05 Oct 2021 14:43:00 GMT

We are delighted that 3 of our dancers will be joining Scottish Ballet for their 2021/22 festive tour...

Evan Steele, Marcus Miller and Roan Ogilvie successfully auditioned for the junior cast of Scottish Ballet's "The Nutcracker" and will tour with the company over the winter months. The group of 10-year olds will perform alongside the professional cast in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle and Belfast from December to February and we are very much looking forward to seeing them onstage!

All three boys are in the Scottish Ballet associate scheme and train weekly in Glasgow. The boys attend weekly ballet classes with CSBS and are studying the RAD Grade 2 syllabus, jazz and tap. We currently have another 6 students in the scheme including another 3 boys, Kieron Anglin, Murray Leitch, Robert Paterson, and Majors students Jill Russell, Ailish Ogilvie and Anna Bremner.

Lead roles...

We have an extra special congratulations to Evan who has secured the lead role of Fritz, Clara's mischievous brother! He will be using both his dancing and acting skills in the production to portray the troublesome sibling who breaks Clara's beloved Nutcracker doll.

Roan is also very excited to be involved in the production as his older sister Ailish danced the lead role of Clara in the 2017/18 tour. Since then he has been determined to perform in the show!

You can watch the trailer here:

Exam intensive results

Central Scotland Ballet School — Fri, 01 Oct 2021 21:39:00 GMT

Over what should have been the first week of term we ran an exam intensive week with examinations.

Those entered were selected by their class teachers to progress through the grades and had 4 lessons in which to prepare for the remote exam session. The exams were filmed and submitted to the Royal Academy of Dance for assessment. Eleven dancers took part and we are delighted to report that they gained 2 high merits and 9 distinctions overall!

Primary Grade: Sophie Jackson ; Erin Fraser
Grade 3: Lawrence Bremner
Grade 5: Marilena Lalou ; Emily Paton ;
Grade 6: Ailey Meikle ; Rachel Sneddon
Grade 7: Hollie Crooks
Grade 8: Hollie Crooks; Ellie Stenton; Eve Hanson

All of the candidates did remarkably well but we have an additional congratulations to the students who gained over 80%

Primary: Sophie Jackson 81%
Grade 3: Lawrence Bremner 82%
Grade 5: Emily Paton 81%
Grade 6: Ailey Meikle 84%
Grade 7: Hollie Crooks 80%

Our next exam session will be the Winter session in December. It will be our third and final remote session... hopefully exams can return to normal from the new year!

Starshine leaps back into competitions!

Central Scotland Ballet School — Mon, 27 Sep 2021 16:32:00 GMT

Our CSBS Starshine Elite dance team were delighted to be back on stage for their first live event in almost 2 years...

The dancers travelled to the SEC in Glasgow for the Can You Dance? Scotland Convention. Due to Covid restrictions, this was their first live event since March 2020, and they took part in a wide range of dance masterclasses with top UK tutors, watched a performance showcase, and competed in a stage performance too.

The team competed in the Senior category with many former members now left for university and the former Juniors now in the Senior age group category, it was their first time competing and performing in this group. Other challenges included dancers missing rehearsals due to isolation, and dancers missing the pevent due to Covid. However, they have been working extremely hard since the beginning of term and their performance choreographed by coach Claire gained them THIRD PLACE in a very impressive section! An outstanding achievement!

During the dance masterclasses, tutors picked out students to demonstrate, or to award certificates for excellence. Many congratulations to the following dancers:

Gracie Stevens: Selected during Jazz for part scholarship for CYD Intensive
Hannah Firth: Selected in Musical Theatre Jazz and awarded Hardest Worker certificate
Saoirse Homan: Selected during Jazz for part scholarship for CYD Intensive
Sophie Leonard: Selected during Adam Scott workshop and awarded month free membership to CYD TV

Well done too to the other CSBS students who attended the event to add to their dance experience and training!

We have a get-well-soon shoutout for dancer Robyn who damaged her ankle landing from a beautiful split leap after her solo section. We hope it heals quickly and send a huge group hug.

New teams...

Auditions for our 2021/22 team were held at the beginning of September and we look forward to following the success of the new Junior and Senior squads over the coming year.

Full-time theatre training for Eve

Central Scotland Ballet School — Sun, 26 Sep 2021 16:46:00 GMT

Advanced student and CSBS teacher Eve Hanson begins her full-time training at MGA Academy in Edinburgh...

Eve will be training in Musical Theatre at the Edinburgh based college. She is already an accomplished singer, dancer and performer with a wide range of performances, achievements and awards on her CV.

Dance success

Eve was a member of our Majors programme reaching Advanced levels and most recently gaining Distinction for her Grade 8 Award from the Royal Academy of Dance. She also studied jazz and tap, and was the student teacher for our Musical Theatre classes. The younger students loved learning from her, and she even managed to successfully continue the classes online throughout the Covid lockdown periods!

Eve gained an A for her Higher Dance at the age of 13, making her the youngest student to gain the award at the time.She received progress awards in our end of year prize givings and a Star Performer Award at Project Dance summer school. She also represented CSBS at the prestigious Royal Academy of Dance Awards days in Edinburgh.

Theatre and performing

Eve has performed across Scotland with CSBS including Go Dance at the Theatre Royal; annual dance displays at Macrobert Arts Centre; the Pasha Kovalev UK tour; Festive Light Switch On - The Nutcracker in Falkirk; and local community events.

As an accomplished singer and musician she has won awards at school for music and voice, and has been in the Junior Musical Theatre programme at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She has performed in panto at the King's Theatre Edinburgh for two years, the Alhambra Dunfermline, and at the Macrobert Arts Centre Stirling for two years. In 2013 Eve played the role of Bielke, the youngest sister, in Fiddler on the Roof at the Festival Theatre Edinburgh, with Paul Michael Glazer. Eve takes part in the Beyond Broadway musical theatre summer school in Edinburgh each year and has performed in Bring It On the Musical, Fame!, Wizard of Oz and High School Musical over the last 5 years at the Kings Theatre. She played the lead roles of 'Dorothy'in the Wizard of Oz and 'Gabriella' in High School Musical.

Eve was also a member of National Girls Choir, part of NYCoS, with whom she performed in the Edinburgh Festival with the RSNO and the Edinburgh Festival Chorus.

We are sure we will see her name in lights soon and can't wait to follow her stage career!

Olivia begins full-time training

Central Scotland Ballet School — Mon, 20 Sep 2021 15:53:00 GMT

CSBS Majors students Olivia has begun full time ballet training at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland...

Olivia Hunter successfully auditioned for a coveted place to study at for a degree in Modern Ballet at the RCS. Olivia has been studying ballet, jazz and tap with CSBS for 7 years and in that time has achieved excellent results in exams, competitions and performances. She has also been a class assistant in preschool and pre-primary ballet classes... much loved by our little dancers!

Excellence in exams

Most recently Olivia gained Distinction for her Grade 8 Award with the Royal Academy of Dance, following a Distinction for both Grade 7 and Intermediate. Impressively, she has gained distinction for all her RAD exams with CSBS and been listed as one of our highest marks each time!

Olivia has also been in the mids and senior associate scheme with both Scottish Ballet and the RCS, supplememting her training here with weekly sessions in Glasgow.

Competition success

Olivia competed in the Terpsichore of the North Russian Ballet Competition in 2018 and 2019 (unfortunately the 2020 competition was cancelled due to Covid but she had qualified for the finals). In 2018 she won the Grand Prix for best overall, then in 2019 she won Gold in the Teen section and was also awarded the Special Commendation Medal for her performance in the Masterclass with Maestro Akhundov. On both occasions she was invited to perform her classical solo and repertoire as part of a ballet gala.

She has represented CSBS at the Royal Academy of Dance Senior Awards Days in Edinburgh and also won gold at the Showcase Events competition.

Olivia has been awarded prizes for progress in her class at our end of year awards, including receiving the overall trophy for progress in our Linlithgow branch.

Performances

Olivia has performed with CSBS across Scotland including many dance displays at Macrobert Arts Centre; Festival of Remembrance events at Falkirk Town Hall; Go Dance at Theatre Royal Glasgow; Festive Light Switch On (The Nutcracker) outdoor performace in Falkirk Town Centre; alongside Pasha Kovalev in his UK tour; and with the Russian State Ballet at Carnegie Hall Dunfermline. She performed the solo role of a Princess in "Swan Lake" with the Russian State Ballet.

Closer to home, Olivia has also been part of Generation Ballet, a project taking ballet into local Care Homes where she danced with residents and performed too.

We look forward to following her career and wish her all the best with her training!

Performers College Essex for Ellie

Central Scotland Ballet School — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 20:03:00 GMT

CSBS dancer Ellie has commenced her full-time degree training at Performers College in Essex...

Ellie Stenton is studying toward a 3 year BA Hons degree course in Musical Theatre Dance at one of the UKs top dance colleges.

Ellie is an incredibly hard working student who studied ballet, jazz and acro, and was a member of both our Majors programme and Starshine Elite dance team. She most recently gained distinction for her Grade 8 Award from the Royal Academy of Dance before leaving for college. She was also awarded 'Star Performer' at our 2019 Project Dance Summer School, won 'Best Newcomer' at our 2019 Choreography Competition, and has also been awarded the overall progress trophy.

Other dance achievements

In addition to CSBS, Ellie studied dance at school in the Larbert High Dance School where she gained an A for both her Higher Dance and HNC in Dance. She won many awards and nominations for dance achievements in the Falkirk Schools cluster, including Dance Leader of the Year and the Bill Graham Memorial Award for Performing Arts. She also represented Team Scotland at the Dance World Cup as part of a team from Larbert High. Ellie attended the monthly Performers College Elite programme in London. She was awarded a Dancer of the Year nomination at CYD? and a scholarship opportunities, and is an ambassador for En Pointe Photography!

Ellie successfully auditioned to be a part of the Dane Bates Collective, training and performing alongside dancers from across the UK. She has won a number of trophies in competitions including Can You Dance Convention, the World Lyrical Dance Federation, and Showcase Events.

Performing with CSBS

As part of our Majors programme and Elite dance team, Ellie has performed and competed across the UK. She has performed in our annual dance displays at Macrobert Arts Centre; in classical ballet roles with the Russian State Ballet; in the Pasha Kovalev UK tour; and local community events.

We are sure her determination and enthusiasm will ensure she gets the most from her training and we look forward to following her successful career in dance!

Summer remote exam results

Central Scotland Ballet School — Tue, 17 Aug 2021 23:47:00 GMT

We held a 'remote' exam session in June to allow students to progress after a challenging year.

Over the course of 7 days we had around 260 candidates sit exams in ballet, tap and acrobatics. The exams were filmed under exam coditions and submitted to the 3 different exam boards for assessment. This was a great opportunity for the dancers to gain recognition for the effort they had put in by attending lessons during and after the covid lockdowns.

Ballet exam results

Due to the disruption in learning over the year, many of our students were entered for the RAD Class Award which has slightly less pressure than the exam by allowing the class teacher in the room and not using a points system for marking. Well done to our 35 Class Award candidates who all successfully gained their awards from Pre-Prmary to Grade 3 levels. We had another 65 candidates sit a graded ballet exam from Grade 1 to Grade 8 level, and we are delighted to announce that 40% of them gained a Distinction, and 60% gained a Merit! What an amazing feat after only weeks of in-person lessons! We have a special congratulations to the dancers who were awarded over 80%

Grade 1: Charlie Fleming 86%
Grade 2: Rachel Higgins 82% ; Heidi Russell 87%
Grade 4: Jill Russell 90% ;
Grade 6: Anna Bremner 86% ; Ailish Ogilvie 92%
Grade 8: Olivia Hunter 80%

Another 15 candidates sat the challenging Vocational graded exams at Intermediate Fundation and Intermediate level. Overall they gained 11 Merit and 3 Distinctions - excellent results!

Intermediate: Anna Bremner 82% ; Ailish Ogilvie 80%

Tap exam results

We only had 3 candidates for tap and they sat their Grade 5 level. All 3 girls gained high Distinctions which was particularly impressive given that the camera had stopped filming and they had to perform half of the exam again... they were completely exhausted by the end! Well done to:

April Beattie 93%
Hannah Firh 89%
Laura Cummings 86%

Acrobatics results

A staggering 98 candidates filmed their acrobatics exam from First Steps to Silver levels. We are thrilled that 95% of the dancers gained a Highly Commended which is the highest band with another 5 gaining Commended which is the second highest band. What a great achievement!

Workshop Week fun!

Central Scotland Ballet School — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 15:56:00 GMT

After our 4 week lockdown block, we held a 'workshop week' with events for all ages...

This was our first ever Workshop Week and we welcomed guest tutors from across the UK, and even America! All the events were held over Zoom and students of all ages enjoyed lessons from home. Over the course of the week we held 16 different events with a total of 401 participants. Here is a little summary of the programme:

Small Foot themed Lyrical Jazz: Professional dancer and CSBS teacher Kristina lead a lyrical jazz workshop for ages 7-11, teaching a routine to 'Wonderful Life' from the movie Small Foot. The children loved the emotive choreography!
Contemporary with Serena McCall: International dance star and former CSBS student Serena taught a contemporary workshop. It was very popular and the 40 dancers really enjoyed the challenge of learning her choreography.
Ballet Goes Pop: CSBS teacher Amanda jazzed up the Adult Ballet class with a pop soundtrack, mking the class even more fun than usual! It was great to welcome back some former students to join in the lesson.
ToyStory: Guest tutor Rachael joined us from Essex for a wonderful Toy story session which has us signing and singing, dancing, making props and playing games and meeting Lotso too! Our dancers were dressed up too which added to the fun!
Tik Tok: Almost 40 dancers aged 7-15 learned 3 tik tok routines with guest tutor Anya Brown. We had lots of fun, although they were quite tricky!
Stage Makeup Masterclass: Professional make up artist and former CSBS student Dayna Lipski took us step-by-step through make up suitable for the stage. Everyone looked fabulous by the end of the session and we hope to have another workshop at dance display time.
Nutcracker Ballet: CSBS teacher Sammy lead our younger ballet students through a Nutcracker themed ballet lesson where they learned the story, made props, learned some repertoire and also watch guest Sugar Plum Fairy, Ailey Meikle, perform the famous solo fully costumed from home.
Classical Ballet: Former CSBS dancer Lucy Hutton has graduated from Northern Ballet School. She lead two open classical ballet lessons with some challenging settings and lots of revision of technique.
Hairspray: Guest tutor Stefanie Eadie is a professinal performer having graduate from Bird College. Prior to full time training she trained at Dance School of Scotland, Stenhouse School of Dance and CSBS. She lead a fun musical theatre workshop teaching an excerpt from the musical 'Hairspray'.
Grease: Guest tutor professional performer Rebecca Stenhouse has an impressive performing CV having performed around the world. She taught the students a routine from a touring production of Grease the Musical... it was extremely fast but so much fun!
Virtual Big Top: Dancer Susan Vance joined us live from inside the Big Top at the Do Portugal Circus in Texas! Susan is a former CSBS student and has been performing in the Circus for 7 years as lead dancer and choreographer. The students learned a showdance routine before getting to see a tour of the big top and a video of Susan performing some amazing aerial routines, as well as a fascinating Q&A session.
Yoga: We had 30 families join in a yoga workshop with former CSBS student Anthea. Anthea is also a former world champion highland dancer and has graduated as a performer from Bird College. She recently qualified as a yoga instructor and it was lovely to see all ages take part from 3 to 53!
Cheerleading: Guest coach Chelsea Tough put our starshine cheer team and some of our dance students through their paces in 2 fun and challenging cheer workshops.

In addition to the dance workshops, we held 2 fun sessions to give the students a chance to chat, chill, and have fun. Amanda lead a "Pyjama Party" for our little dancers aged 3-8 and their families with dancing, stories, games and a scavenger hunt. Our Senior students were invited t a "Ballet Blether" with lots of chat, a quiz, some challenges and some dancing. It was great to be able to see everyone, albeit virtually! Finally, we ended the week with a pin board on Valentine's Day for staff, students, and their families to post message for each other. Please go and leave your message or view the board!

Thank you to everyone who supported our Workshop Week, we hope you enjoyed the experiences! Our regular dance lessons resume online from Monday 15 February until Easter while we await further updates from the government on when we can safely reopen the studios. Hopefully workshop week has inspired you to keep dancing through lockdown!

Exceptional exam effort

Central Scotland Ballet School — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 14:56:00 GMT

We are delighted to have received the results for our rescheduled exam session...

All of our 90 candidates passed their ballet examinations with the Royal Academy of Dance from Pre-Primary right up to Grade 8 level while another 63 chose not to sit their exam. This is a particularly outstanding result given that the exams had been cancelled during our Spring Exam week in March and postponed until indoor activity was again permitted in September-October. The exams were filmed and the recordings assessed by an RAD examiner. Read more about out first virtual exam session here.

Strong results

Overall, the results were strong, especially considering the extraordinary circumstances. We had 22 little dancers gain their Pre-Primary Class Award, 4 gain Primary Class Award, and 3 gaining their Grade 2 Class Award. In addition, there were a total of 1 Pass, 38 Merit, and 22 Distinction across the grades.

A special congratulations to those dancers who gained over 80% for their exam, which is quite remarkable this session!

Primary: Remy Carnegie 81%
Grade 2: Elsa Murphy Heeley 86%
Grade 3: Eva Inglis 80%, Jill Russell 92%
Grade 5: Hannah Firth 81%, Sarah Parker 84%
Grade 6: Hollie Crooks 81%
Grade 7: Olivia Hunter 83%

Another special congratulations to Katy Russell, Isabelle Evans, and Zoe Young for being awarded their Grade 8 from the RAD which completes their study of the syllabus!

We now have to await the reports, certificates and medals but the students have already begun progressing through their new grades. They are all especially very well deserved this session! If you have not yet received your results, please email us.

We were unable to schedule a Winter exam session due to conitnued restrictions but hope to hold our next exam session in Spring 2021.

A unique Term 1

Central Scotland Ballet School — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 08:09:00 GMT

As with most things in 2020, our Term 1 was quite unique!

We had hoped to be resuming all our dance lessons as "normal" after the summer break when we restarted in August, but due to continued Covid-19 restrictions, we were unable to do so. Our ten week term was split into two shorter 5 week blocks with the first being delivered solely online using Zoom. The zoom lessons are interactive and allow the teacher to see and correct the students, ask questions, and progress almost as a normal lesson. It was great to have some students trying this format for the first time, although we still only had around 25% of our school participating.

The second part of the term had a mixture of lessons as we were allowed to reopen our own CSBS Dance Studios with a number of 'covid-secure' procedures in place and LOTS of additional cleaning. Our two studios in Linlithgow Bridge reopened mid-September and we were delighted to welcome back dancers of all ages, although our adult dancers only had a couple of lessons before restrictions were tightened again. Our teachers have continued to master new skills, and many lessons have been streamed live from the Studios during regular classes to allow those isolating or unable to travel the opportunity to join their friends in class!

During the 10 weeks of Term 1, we were able to hold 610 lessons online... we have now held over 1000 lessons online using Zoom since March!

You can also read about our rescheduled ballet exams which saw 153 candidates sit our first ever set of virtual exams during Term 1.

Term 2 underway...

We began Term 2 positively with a number of our Braes branch classes moving into the Linlithgow studios temporarily and classes resuming in person at our Grangemouth Branch. We were also able to secure a new venue for our South Queensferry classes ahead of resuming on the second week of term. However, after just one day, West Lothian was put under Tier 4 restrictions for 3 weeks and lessons have had to be hastily rescheduled again. We did manage to hold 43 of the 55 lessons planned for the first week in the Studios alongside another 64 lessons online! We will be continuing the term with a mixture of online and in-person lessons across our branches and hope that no further tier 4 restrictions will be implemented over the coming weeks!

You can check the online class tmetable here OR look at the current timetables for in-person lessons here.

Please check your email regularly for updates in this ever changing situation, especially your spam / promotions folder if you haven't read any of the previous 5 updates from CSBS. Can we also please remind you of the protocol for in-person classes which must be adhered to at all times, including mask wearing, changing, and sanitising. Download a copy of the guidelines here.

Rescheduled ballet exams

Central Scotland Ballet School — Fri, 30 Oct 2020 13:41:00 GMT

We are delighted, after almost 7 months, to be able to run our Spring ballet exams... with a difference!

Our exams were cancelled only hours before they were due to begin in March due to the Covid pandemic. We opted to reschedule the exams for our 153 candidates, obviously not knowing that the lockdown and restrictions would last so long. The Royal Academy of Dance has arranged for schools to submit their entries by video, the first time this has ever been done. However, we had to wait for the government to allow us to resume in the Studio before being able to conduct these 'virtual' exams.

New exam format

The filmed exams are running as a normal exam but with a teacher conducting the session and a camera beside them to record the session for the RAD examiner. The teachers have had to both manage filming, and new specifications, guidelines and procedures for these exams which are SQA accredited. We also gave the candidates a rehearsal in the Studio in advance of their exam and they loved having space to dance after months of practising in their bedrooms or lounges at home. These exams will definitely be a unique experience!

Congratulations!

Many congratulations to the 87 students who sat a filmed exam from Pre-Primary right up to Grade 8. We have a special mention for our Grade 8 candidates who were able to complete their final award after their years of dance with CSBS. They all showed great resilience and determination. We now need to wait for the results to come in! You can view a small gallery of photos on our CSBS Facebook page.

Unfortunately, around 45% of our Spring candidates decided not to sit their rescheduled exam now after months away from the studio, despite attending our online lessons. They will still be able to progress to the next grade but will not have their certificates and award to recognise the great progress and effort they've made over this challenging time. We may have a small Winter session of filmed exams and hope that our Spring session in 2021 will either be able to proceed as normal or as a filmed session.

Kiera leaves for Dubai!

Central Scotland Ballet School — Mon, 10 Aug 2020 16:02:00 GMT

We are sorry to announce that teacher Kiera is leaving to take up a teaching post in Dubai...

Kiera is currently the coach for our Starshine cheer teams as well as teaching jazz and tap in our Linlithgow branch. She also assists with the Starshine Elite dance teams.

Kiera is an accomplished dancer and performer having trained with CSBS from the age of 3 until becoming a dance teacher and qualifying as a USASF cheer coach. During her training, she reached higher grades in RAD ballet, advanced levels in tap and jazz, and competed as a member of both our starshine cheer team and Elite dance team. She performed with us across Scotland, including in the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in 2014.

Over the past few years she has spent her summer breaks working across the world in summer camps and has recently qualified as a Primary Teacher. She will be leaving to work in a school in Dubai from this month and we are very sorry to lose her as a valued member of our staff. Kiera has always been a happy and enthusiastic student and teacher, always willing to lend a hand in any situation, and she will be greatly missed here at CSBS by our whole team.

We wish her every success in her new role and will keep in touch to update her of her dance and cheer students' progress!

Temporary team coach...

While we move back online for lessons, the Starshine Cheer teams will run at mixed levels with teacher Hayley who is one of our former cheer team members as well as being a CSBS teacher. When we move back to classes in the studios, we hope to have either secured another coach, or be able to have one of our existing teachers gain their coaching qualification to lead the teams.

CSBS Summer dance workshops

Central Scotland Ballet School — Sun, 09 Aug 2020 16:55:00 GMT

We had lots of fun and hard work in our 2020 summer dance programme online...

Being unable to meet in person, we ran a shortened summer dance programme online with a range of workshops for all abailities from little juniors up to advanced levels. Although numbers were low, those that took part enjoyed the sessions and worked incredibly hard from home!

Summer Boogie and Dance Stars Junior

Our Summer Boogie gave little dancers aged 5-9 the chance to work on jazz and ballet skills with teacher Amanda and acrobatics with teacher Hayley. We had 10 little dancers take part over 3 weekly sessions and they were awesome! Dance stars Junior is our holiday dance workshop programme for dancers aged 9-13 (mids levels). Teacher Sammy lead jazz and ballet lessons with a greater focus on technique, before a fun combo class which included both musical theatre and acrobatics skills in a fun routine each week. We had an average of 11 dancers each week and really enjoyed seeing them work hard and have fun!

Dance Stars, jazz and conditioning

Dance Stars is our holiday workshop programme for dancers aged 13+ or Grade 4 and above, it was delivered online this summer with a wide range of abilities taking part. The sessions included a conditioning warmup, jazz technique, classical ballet and pointe work with an average 0f 23 young dancers participating from home each week. Teacher Hayley also ran jazz choreography sessions and 'conditioning for dancers' sessions, which were so popular and beneficial that they will continue to be included in our online dance timetable in the new term!

Many thanks to CSBS teachers Amanda, Hayley and Sammy for leading our holiday sessions, and well done to all the dancers who took part!

Virtual dance class success

Central Scotland Ballet School — Thu, 25 Jun 2020 17:55:00 GMT

We were delighted by the success of our virtual dance classes held online from April-June.

Lockdown was imposed by the government in response to the Covid-19 pandemic half way through our Term 3 impacting both our lessons, our exam week, our events and competitions, and our planned dance displays. We spent the end of what should have been our exam week recording videos of syllabus work and tutorials for our YouTube channel before trialling interactive online dance classes using the Zoom platform. It proved so successful that we established a full timetable for the final few weks of Term 3 and into an extended Term 4.

Varied and full timetable

We ran weekly lessons from preschool to advanced and adult levels in all dance styles including ballet, tap, jazz, cheer, commercial musical theatre and acrobatics. In term 4 alone we completed 198 lessons... as well as a range of free events for everyone using Zoom, YouTube Live and Facebook Live. In total since lockdown, we have hosted 319 online dance lessons plus another 66 dance events including:

34 Rise and Shine sessions (morning dance fitness workouts on YouTube Live)
10 Desk stretch sessions (gentle stretch for desk workers Facebook Live, copy on YouTube)
6 Strictly Family dance sessions (Strictly inspired session on Facebook Live)
11 Masterclass dance workshops (introducing former CSBS students as guest tutors)
4 Easter events (preschool, Boogie, DanceStars, and Project Dance full day)
2 Repertoire workshops with guest tutors
1 Summer sparkle party! (End of term party hosted on Facebook Live)

That makes an impressive total of 387 live classes and events over the course of 10 weeks with over 300 individual participants of all ages in lessons, and more taking part in the family events!

Additional activities and resources

In additional to our live classes and workshops, we have created a fantastic library of tutorials, practice videos and performances on our CSBS YouTube channel. We hosted 5 'YouTube Premieres' screening some fabulous performance recordings of both short and full-length CSBS ballets from the past few years. The videos on our channel have had almost 34,000 views between 23 March-25 June over the lockdown period! Please visit our YouTube channel.

We have also created a range of nearly 40 free downloadable dance related challenges, worksheets and activities for all ages and levels. You can still access them on our Online Dance class page and scroll to the bottom.

Thanks...

Can we again please thank the extraordinary effort put in by our teachers, our students, and their parents over this time. Even though participating online didn't suit everyone, we were encouraged to receive messages of support and to have so many families make a determined effort to provide space and time for their dancer to join in the classes... with mums, dads and siblings joining in lessons at the lower age groups too! Those dancers who were able to participate did extremely well to listen and learn through a screen, with teachers noting significant progress over the final term at all levels and abilities. We have also received some fantastic and positive feedback from both parents and students.

"Thank you to you all. In the face of such adversity you have stood up to the challenge and engaged with our children so much, bringing some normality to the days and helping us remember what day it is. You should be super proud of what you have created and delivered." Parent, Linlithgow branch

"Its amazing what you guys have achieved so quickly setting up zoom sessions following lockdown. It has been an brilliant focus for and she has loved every session she has joined. The Masterclass sessions were fabulous and so well co-ordinated. Thank you for your hard work." Parent, Queensferry branch

"Thank you so so much for making this difficult time so much brighter! 3 months ago (when we all watched that dreaded announcement) who knew a pandemic wouldn't stop a full time table of classes, creative challenges, masterclasses, crafts and more! CSBS teachers you are definitely our stars of the week!" Parent, Braes branch

Finally, we must give a special thanks to our teachers for an incredible effort to keep the dancers active and engaged - it was a challenging experience for us too! Only a couple of our staff were unable to lead the lessons online due to work committments but were suporting us from behind the scenes. Well done to Amanda, Sammy and Hayley for leading most of the lessons, with additional classes being led by Chloe, Claire, Diane and Kiera, our student teachers Catherine and Eve, and additional tap videos prepared by adult tap teacher Olivia. Teacher Amanda was also responsible for setting up all the lessons online and maintaining both our social media, website, and Alexa skill daily, she also monitored every lesson for security and safety, and organised / led most of the extra activities. CSBS Principal, Mrs Clark watched almost every lesson and selected her "Star of the Week" each week for students she felt had done particularly well.

We all hope to be able to confirm the arrangements for our new term soon once we have received clear guidleines from the Government for our sector... but until then, keep healthy, keep safe, and of course... keep dancing!

Masterclass workshops in lockdown

Central Scotland Ballet School — Tue, 23 Jun 2020 14:24:00 GMT

During lockdown, we were delighted to host a range of dance Masterclasses online...

What made all these sessions even more unique was that every guest tutor was a former CSBS student who has established a career in dance! The tutors led the sessions from their own homes through our Zoom platform and joined us from across Scotland, London, Germany and Paris! It was a wonderful opportunity for us to see them dance and also to inspire our current students who were able to learn and experience a wide range of dance styles and learn about many different aspects of dance and theatre as a professional career.

Here is a short introduction to the tutors, their biographies, and their workshops. Please take a few minutes to read about them and their success!

* Amber Ibrahim - taught Showdance - Amber trained and graduated from JazzArt UK. Amber has worked for DoPortugal Circus as a dancer touring Panama, with TED Group working as a dancer in Tenerife and is currently working for KLS International as a Dancer/Aerialist in Malta (suspended under lockdown just now though!). She is an amazing vocalist and has also mastered a wide range of circus skills.

* Andrew Halliday - taught tap fusion - Andrew started dancing with CSBS when he was ten and went on to train full time at Laine Theatre Arts in London. Since graduating he has performed in various dance contracts in France including several with Disneyland Paris and with the RB dance company, and has developed a huge love of tap and especially incorporating tap into modern jazz dance.

* Emma McTeague - taught MT jazz - Emma trained and graduated from JazzartUK. She has performed in hotels and theme parks around the UK and was in the ensemble of “Sleeping Beauty” at the Alhambra Theatre in 2018. She has just completed a contract in Japan where she worked as a performer at Tokyo Disney Resort.

* Andrew Coleman - taught Cruise dance - Since graduating from Northern Ballet School in 2014 he has been continually working for the last 6 years preforming with multiple Las Vegas Magicians such as Connie Boyd and Mark Bennick, as a back-up dancer for Lip Sync Battle and has worked with 3 of the worlds largest Cruise Lines companies (Costa, Princess & Carnival) as a dancer and dancer/singer. His work has allowed him to travel and perform all over the world including South Africa, Russia, Brazil, Greece, Norway and multiple US states and many others.

* Lauren Wilson - taught Pom Dance - Lauren studied at The Young Americans College of the Performing Arts granting her a Teachers Training Certificate in 2016. She then toured across U.S.A, UK, Ireland, Canada, Germany, Japan with the Young Americans in nine international music outreach tours. In 2018, was a performer in Disneyland Paris and now teaches across Scotland as well as performing professionally with the Scottish Rockettes and at Brewhemia.

* Kristina Lowe - taught Samba - Kristina has been working as a professional dancer performing onboard cruise lines, Disneyland Paris and corporate events around the UK. Prior to this she was a dance teacher with Central Scotland Ballet School teaching jazz, tap and also coaching Starshine Elite senior competition team. Kristina has just returned home from her third contract onboard Costa sailing around United Arab Emirates.

* Serena McCall - taught Lyrical - Serena is currently in her 3rd year of full-time training at Elmhurst Ballet School in Birmingham and will be moving to London in September to begin her training at the prestigious Rambert School for Contemporary Dance. Many of our dancers will know her from Instagram where she showcases her work with world renowned choreographers and photographers, and is an ambassador for dance brands across the world.

* Eva Simanavicius - taught fitness for dancers - Eva began full-time training at the Dance School of Scotland. From there, she has recently graduated from Bird College in London with a BA (Hons) Degree in Musical Theatre and is now also working towards her Level 3 Personal Training Qualification and Level 4 Nutrition Diploma. She is passionate about fitness and health and firmly believes that it is one of the main things that has benefited her as a dancer, by increasing strength, stamina and mobility.

* Duncan Anderson - taught modern ballet - Duncan trained full-time for 4 years at the Dance School of Scotland before training a further three years at Central School of Ballet in London and at Northern Ballet Company in Leeds. Since graduating with a First Class Honours Degree he has danced with Richard Chappell Dance, Northern Ballet, Ballet Ireland and was also in the original production of The Phantom of the Opera in Stockholm. Duncan also completed three tours with Rosie Kay Dance Company in the production of "5 Soldiers: The Body is the Frontline”, which not only caused a sensation across the UK but also at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Currently Duncan is dancing with Theater Krefeld und Mönchengladbach under the direction of Robert North in numerous ballets choreographed by Robert.

* Mia Musakambeva - taught MT jazz - Mia graduated from Jazzartuk! Since graduating Mia has performed as Aurora in the Pantomime ‘Beauty and the Beast’; sailed the seas with Norwegian Cruise Line as part of the inaugural cast of ‘Footloose’; performed in the SSE Hydro in ’The Steamie’; and was just making her West End debut in ‘Tina’ when the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

* Claire McAlister - taught lyrical - Following success with CSBS, Claire trained in PE at University where she began cheerleading and qualified as a coach, soon establishing our CSBS cheer team in 2009, Starshine. The team had instant success, including dancers being selected for national squads and Worlds competitions. Claire has also established a specialist school of dance excellence within Larbert High School, and Starshine has grown to include an award winning dance team with success at regional, national, European and Worlds levels. She has also been a guest tutor and judge at events across the UK, including working with choreographers such as Dane Bates. In 2011, she was runner-up in the Local Hero Awards for "Teacher/trainer of the year" following her for her determination and dedication to her dance team throughout her diagnosis and treatment for cancer over the year. What an amazing role model for all our young dancers!

Students to pursue dance careers

Central Scotland Ballet School — Mon, 22 Jun 2020 16:37:00 GMT

We are delighted that some of our students will be moving to full-time training in Scotland...

Many congratulations to our dancers who have chosen to follow a career in dance and theatre and will begin their full-time training at colleges in Scotland.

Lisa moves to MGA

Senior dancer Lisa Muir (17) will be training in Musical Theatre at the MGA Academy of Performing Arts in Edinburgh. The college has quickly established itself as a centre of excellence for musical theatre training in the UK and we currently have 2 former CSBS students already studying there. Lisa is a popular student and class assistant reaching Grade 6 ballet, and Senior jazz and tap levels. As well as dancing with CSBS, Lisa is an accomplished performer and prizewinning singer and has performed in a wide range of productions with Grangemouth High School, Project Theatre, and Innov8 Dance. We are sure to see her name in lights soon!

Isabelle to train in ballet

Senior dancer Isabelle (16) has only been with CSBS for 2 years to further her ballet training. In that time she has reached Grade 8 and Advanced levels and has complemented her training by successfully auditioning for the Edinburgh Festival Ballet Associates scheme. She will begin her full-time ballet training at Edinburgh Festival Ballet later this year and we look forward to seeing her career develop.

Iona steps into Dance School of Scotland

Junior dancer Iona Macleod (11) has gained a place at the Dance School of Scotland and will begin her training after the summer break. Iona has only been with CSBS for 2 years to focus on her RAD ballet, and has continued her study with other dance schools in that time too including representing Scotland at the Dance World Cup. She has also been an associate with Scottish Ballet, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and the Royal Ballet School; an ambassador for global dance brand Grishko; and performed with Scottish Ballet in their tour of "Cinderella". We are sure she has a bright dance future ahead!

We wish all the girls all the best for their continued training!

Robyn to train in London

Central Scotland Ballet School — Sun, 14 Jun 2020 10:40:00 GMT

Senior dancer Robyn will be heading to London to beging full-time training at Urdang!

Robyn Whyte (16) successfully auditioned for a number of top dance colleges including Laine Theatre Arts, but accepted a coveted scholarship for the world renowned Urdang Academy in Covent Garden, London where she will train full-time in dance and musical theatre. Robyn has already completed a year at PASS in Edinburgh while still attending regular dance lessons.

Popular performer

Robyn is a very friendly and popular senior student who always supports her peers, and her bright personality will be missed in class! She has achieved success in a wide range of dance styles since joining CSBS 3.5 years ago and studies ballet, tap, and jazz, and is a dancer in our Majors ballet programme. She has gained strong results in all her exams from Grades 3-6, Intermediate Foundation and Intermediate, and Solo Performance Awards all in just 3 years! Robyn is a determined and enthusiastic student and has enhanced her dance training with attendance at workshops and events across the UK including Move It and Can You Dance Conventions where she has been selected for a range of awards. She is an associate in the S-MB Associates, an accomplished singer, and an Ambassador for Dream Beams and Bars Ltd. Robyn also volunteered to participate in our 'Generation Ballet' project which took ballet into care homes.

With CSBS, she has danced as part of the Pasha Kovalev UK Tour, a number of community performances, and performed as a corps de ballet dancer in full length ballets with the Russian State Ballet. Last year Robyn successfully auditioned to join the Dancepoint team directed by Robert Hamilton which became famous nationally, reaching the finals of the TV show, "The Greatest Dancer"... We loved watching her on TV!

Unfortunately, like the rest of our 2020 leavers, we missed the opportunity to showcase her skills to our home audiences in our dance displays due to the cancellation of performances in the Covid-19 pandemic, but will undoubtedly see her perform again soon!

We wish her all the best for her training and look forward to following her career!

Academy training in London for Sarah

Central Scotland Ballet School — Thu, 11 Jun 2020 10:09:00 GMT

Senior dancer Sarah Firth will be training full-time at Wilkes Academy of Performing Arts in London...

Sarah (17) was awarded a scholarship on the Diploma course and will be studying on the BA Hons Musical Theatre degree course at the London based Wilkes Academy following her 14 years at Central Scotland Ballet School. She was able to choose from a range of offers having been awarded a place at each of the colleges at which she auditioned including Laine Theatre Arts and London Studio Centre.

Successful and accomplished dancer

Sarah is a hard working and popular senior student who has gained consistently strong exams results in all styles, winning our Vicki Paterson Shield for Excellence twice for the highest exam marks. She studies ballet, tap, jazz and acrobatics at Advanced levels and is also a member of both our Majors programme and Starshine Elite dance team. As a performer, Sarah has danced with CSBS across Scotland including prestigious events such as Go Dance, the Pasha Kovalev UK Tour, Festival of Remembrance, Big Burns Bash (Falkirk), and as both a corps de ballet and soloist in productions with the Russian State Ballet. She has represented CSBS at the Royal Academy of Dance Awards days at both Junior and Senior levels. Sarah has been awarded many CSBS prizes for progress over the years, and has also won the Millennium Trophy and countless medals at our annual Choreography Competition, performing a number of solos in our summer displays.

As a competitive dancer with our CSBS Starshine Elite team, she has won countless group, duet and solo awards and titles across the UK, currently holding the title of World Lyrical Dance Federation Under 18 Scottish Champion. She was part of the team to represent Scotland at the 2016 European Championships in Vienna and has also been awarded a number of awards and scholarships at Can You Dance? Conventions across the UK. Sarah successfully auditioned for the Dane Bates Collective alongside dancers drawn from across the UK.

Sarah has volunteered as a class assistant with CSBS and is much loved by the younger students, particularly when she performed as a mermaid in preschool! In addition, she volunteered as part of our 'Generation Ballet' project to take ballet into local care homes.

We are very sorry not to be able to showcase Sarah's wonderful dance talents in her final display with CSBS due to the Covid-19 situation, but hope to see her back onstage soon! In the meantime, here is a lovely video compiled by Elite team coach Claire with some of Sarah's competition rehearsal and performance events.

We wish her all the best for her training and look forward to following her career!

Zoe leaps to London

Central Scotland Ballet School — Wed, 10 Jun 2020 10:58:00 GMT

Senior CSBS dancer Zoe is beginning her fulltime training at London Studio Centre...

Zoe Young (17) successfully auditioned for the BA Hons degree in Theatre Dance. She also received offers from other dance colleges and a number of unconditional offers to study at University too! London Studio Centre is recognised as a well established and renowned training college for world class performers and we are very excited to follow Zoe's career!

Successful and accomplished dancer

Zoe is a very popular senior student and has achieved great success in her 15 years of dance training with Central Scotland Ballet School including excellent exam results in all dance styles having gained up to advanced levels in tap, ballet and acrobatics. As a member of both our Starshine Cheer and Dance teams, Zoe has had great competition success as both part of the group and as a soloist winning a host of trophies and prizes across the UK and representing CSBS at the Royal Academy of Dance Awards Day. She also represented Scotland as part of the CSBS Starshine team in the European Championships 2016 in Vienna, and as a soloist and small group dancer in the Dance World Cup 2018 in Barcelona. Closer to home, she has won many medals at our annual Choreography Competition, as well as end-of-year awards for progress over the years in a range of styles, and represented CSBS and Starshine at the Falkirk Sports and Arts Awards.

Zoe has also been a popular class helper in junior classes, holiday classes, and acrobatics over many years and has been training toward her teachers' qualification in acrobatics. She has also performed as a 'mermaid' for our little preschool dancers on a number of occasions. She has represented CSBS on STV Live in recognition of our charity fundraising for the STV Appeal.

As well as competitions and exams, Zoe has performed across Scotland, the UK, and the world with CSBS including notable events such as the opening of the Commonwealth Games 2014; dancing as part of the Pasha Kovalev UK Tour; performing as a corps de ballet and soloist in full length ballets with the Russian State Ballet; a soloist in CSBS dance displays and in Majors ballet productions. She successfully auditioned for the Performers College Elite training scheme last year and attended classes once a month.

Unfortunately, like the rest of our 2020 leavers, we missed the opportunity to showcase her skills in our dance displays due to the cancellation of performances in the Covid-19 pandemic, but hope to see her perform again soon!

We wish her all the best for her training and look forward to following her career!

CSBS dance displays cancelled

Central Scotland Ballet School — Fri, 01 May 2020 13:48:00 GMT

We are disappointed to officially confirm that our planned 2020 dance displays are cancelled.

Our displays were due to be staged in FTH on 15-16 May (Tryst Festival), Carnegie Hall on 31 May, and in Macrobert Arts Centre from 3-9 June.

Although cancellation was expected, we had held onto the hope that the situation would clear quickly and we would be able to stage some kind of public performances. Given that 'lockdown' is continuing for at least another month, and the theatres remain closed, we have had to admit defeat and acknowledge that both staging a performance and holding an event involving at least 180 dancers each show and which attracts audiences of around 450 to each performance will be impossible for quite some time.

Some people have already asked us whether we will reschedule for later in the year, however, until the phases of coming out of lock down are laid out firmly by the government, we are unable to make plans for the rest of the year. We also need to consider when and where exams may be rescheduled, school term or holiday dates, when we will regain 'normal' access to Studios, and the availability of theatres.

We are absolutely devastated that we are unable to showcase our dancers this year and let audiences see how much progress they have made in their dance skills. A dance display is the highlight of a young dancer's year and an experience which will be impossible to replicate from home or online. We are particularly saddened for our Senior dancers for whom this would have been their final display together. Most of those leaving this year have been with us for 15 years; dance is a huge part of their lives as they are a huge part of our lives. Not being able to showcase them, congratulate them, and hug them goodbye is genuinely heartbreaking for Mrs Clark and our team of teachers.

YouTube Premiere screenings

We will still 'show off' some of our dancers by screening recordings from previous dance displays in a series of "YouTube Premieres" on our CSBS YouTube channel. They will be screened on Saturdays at 7pm from 23 May onward. Visit our YouTube channel here.

On Friday 15 May at 7pm we will be screening our ballet adaptation of "Peter Pan" from our 2019 displays, and on Saturday 16 May at 6pm, we will share our ballet version of "Annie". These two screenings will form part of the virtual Tryst Festival 2020. You can find out more about the 2020 Tryst Festival here.

Easter dancing under lockdown

Central Scotland Ballet School — Fri, 17 Apr 2020 16:19:00 GMT

Being confined to our own homes has not stopped our dancers and teachers from dancing through the 'break'!

Our regular classes were already suspended due to the health crisis, however, we have been running a wide range of online lessons and establishing a comprehensive library of online resources for our dancers over the past few weeks. We had a short break to get organised rescheduling our Easter programme and then hosting it online! We welcomed dancers of all ages to join in virtual lessons and it was brilliant! Some sessions were free and others were only a few pounds to take part; profits are going toward our CSBS fundraising... we raised £150 which will go into our CSBS Dance Fund!

Students also took part in a range of Easter challenges and art activities which were shared on our website and Facebook page. Some of our staff and Majors / Elite dancers created a brilliant 'Toilet Roll Challenge' video too which you can view here:

Easter Hop and Easter Boogie

We welcomed 6 little preschool dancers to our Easter Hop and they enjoyed a Circus themed dance session with CSBS teacher Amanda which included a fun art activity too! Our most popular event every break is the Boogie for children aged 5-9. Unfortunately we did not have asmany join as usual, but the 6 young dancers who took part with Amanda enjoyed 2 dance workshops in jazz and ballet, and a guided art activity. We all had lots of fun!

Dance Stars Junior - Easter Edition

Dance Stars Junior is our holiday programme for Mids level, aged 9-13. Teacher Sammy lead the 13 students through jazz and ballet technique lessons before a fun dance routine based on the musical "Mary Poppins". Everyone had great fun again and learned a lot of new steps.

Project Dance - Easter Intensive

Thirty senior dancers studying Grade 4 upward joined us for our Project Dance Intensive. To make this a special and worthwhile experience, we invited a wonderful faculty of guest tutors from across the UK:

Dr Emily Twitchett - Warm up and conditioning
Kelly McCole - Classical Ballet
Katie Deacon - Pointe technique
Sammy Clark - Jazz technique
Bernardo Ribeiro - Contemporary

It was a wonderful day of dance and the students learned a lot from the expertise of the tutors who were able to offer advice and correction using the Zoom platform.

"Introducing Masterclasses"

We added in a new event this break. In this series of workshops, we were delighted to 'introduce' former CSBS students who are now prfoessional dancers to lead workshops in their chosen style. It was an inspiring set of workshops for our students with around 35 participating in each masterclass and Andrew even teaching us from France! Many thanks to:

Amber Ibrahim - Showdance
Andrew Halliday - Tap fusion
Emma McTeague - Musical Theatre Jazz

It was so successful that we hope to include more of these masterclasses in our timetables over the next few weeks and showcase our former students.

Strictly Family Dance sessions

Teacher Amanda has been leading 'Strictly' inspired family sessions on Saturdays using Facebook Live and they have had people from across the world dancing! So far she has taught cha-cha, charleston and jive... you can still view the Strictly videos on our CSBS Facebook page with more sessions weekly so keeeeep dancing!

Many thanks to everyone who took part in any of our Easter events. We hope you enjoyed the experience! (Unfortunately we don't have any photo galleries to share this break.) A regular timetable of classes will be introduced from Monday 20 April so everyone can continue their regular dance studies. Keep up to date on our CSBS website or add the Central Scotland Ballet School skill to your ALEXA flash briefing so you can simply 'ask Alexa' what's on each day!

First two weeks of online dance

Central Scotland Ballet School — Sun, 05 Apr 2020 09:54:00 GMT

We have come to the end of the first 2 weeks of our online dance class provision...

And what a busy 2 weeks it has been! Our regular dance classes were suspended from Monday 23 March 2020 due to the 'lockdown' restriction enforced by the Government during the Covid-19 pandemic. To encourage our students to keep active and engaged, we have been establishing a range of online resources to provide materials for home practice as well as interactive virtual tuition.

Live interactive lessons

In the first week, we held 10 live lessons using the Zoom platform, and in the second week, this doubled to 20 lessons. These lessons have covered every age group and dance style in our regular timetable from preschool to advanced ballet, Teeny to Senior jazz, acrobatics and Elite team training. The lessons are being delivered from the homes of our teachers and, if the students have their webcam on, the teachers can provide both general and individual feedback. We have also been delighted to welcome guest teachers to offer tuition.

We hope to establish a set schedule for the coming weeks so that our students and their families can resume some kind of routine in the daily lives, as well as perhaps run some special Easter workshops. Links and details for classes are on our online dance classes page.

CSBS YouTube channel

Our YouTube channel has had over 30 new videos uploaded over the 2 weeks with practice materials for all styles, and tutorials in steps and technique. Some of our live lessons have also been uploaded to YouTube to use as reference. Over the past 2 weeks our videos have had almost 7500 views. Our channel was established in 2012 and already had over 200 videos of performances, events and demonstrations.

You can subscribe to the channel and hit the bell icon for notifications when new videos are uploaded. Visit the CSBS YouTube channel here.

Facebook live lessons and events

We have used Facebook Live to deliver some lessons including a desk stretch session for parents working from home; musical theatre lesson in our closed Facebook group; and a fun Strictly Online Special for our dance families hosted by teacher Amanda. You can still view the Strictly video and learn a cha-cha!

Additional activities

We have provided additional resources such as CSBS and dance related colouring sheets, wordsearches, cross words and quizzes. These are available to download from our Online Dance class page (scroll to the bottom). There has also been a weekly challenge; the first was an alphabet choreography challenge and the results were superb!

Other links to external workshop providers have been posted regularly on our Facebook events page.

Positive feedback

We are delighted to have received some great feedback so far and thank you to those families who have sent in videos and photos!

"The girls are LOVING the online classes (albeit mucking about sometimes) so thank you for keeping the dancing going!"

"Just wanted to say a BIG thank you for the live pre school class this morning! S loved it and it was a bit of normality in these strange times!"

"My 2 have joined in when they can and have both loved having some sort of dance/normality. Yeah it has its challenges ie my living room and dining space have been emptied to make a dance studio LOL but thank you for continuing to supply dance classes it’s helping keep them sane."

We hope that you are all keeping well and active, and beginning to cope with these extraordinary circumstances, and we hope that continuing to deliver our dance classes will provide some relief for our students. We are also sending our best wishes and a huge virtual group hug to those CSBS families who have already had to deal with Covid-19 illness and bereavement. We hope to see all our dancers back in class soon.

CSBS class update during Covid-19 crisis

Central Scotland Ballet School — Thu, 19 Mar 2020 07:57:00 GMT

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected our dance classes. Find out more here...

Our classes were closed from Monday 16-Sunday 22 March due to our planned Spring Exam Week. During this week, we also had a performance planned as part of Go Dance 20, a competition for our Elite team, and dancers competing in the Terpsichore of the North International Ballet Competition. All these events, including the examinations, have been cancelled by the organisers.

We had hoped to be able to resume regular classes on Monday 23 March but will now be unable to do so. Over the next 2 weeks prior to the Easter break, we plan to provide a wide range of dance classes using online platforms which will be accesible from your home using any PC, smart TV, or mobile device. We hope that these classes will provide exercise, help to rehearse class work, and improve mental well being during what is an uncertain and worrying time for everyone.

Please listen to our full statement made on the evening of 18 March on our CSBS Facebook page:

Posted by Central Scotland Ballet School class announcement

You will be able to access lessons through our website and through our social media platforms. More information will be available here from Monday 23 March. We hope that dancing regularly will help retain some normality, fun and routine in your family lives, and we hope that you all stay safe and healthy.

With best wishes to you all from the Clark family.

Jazz workshops with Vivian Gayle

Central Scotland Ballet School — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 08:43:00 GMT

Professional dancer Vivian Gayle lead jazz workshops with our dance students...

We were very excited to welcome Vivian to our Studios for these very special dance workshops! Vivian is a professional dancer with an extensive CV of performance including Thriller Live; BBC Eurovision; MOBO Awards; Strictly; Royal Variety Show; and many events and pop concerts with global artists. He took each group of children through a warm up and technical exercies before teaching some choreography inspired by Michael Jackson and the 'Thriller Live' musical.

We were delighted to have full classes with almost 70 dancers attending... and the students LOVED the sessions!

"My daughter loved this workshop! I have never seen her so excited when she returned home and she never stopped talking and singing Micheal Jackson until bedtime! Thank you for organising this."

We have a few video clips from each session (Junior/Mids/Senior) on the events page... go and have a look! And you can also view a gallery of photos from the workshops on our CSBS Facebook page.

Many thanks to Vivian for a wonderful day!

Super Sundays launched

Central Scotland Ballet School — Mon, 02 Mar 2020 08:18:00 GMT

We are excited to launch "Super Sunday" dance workshops...

This series of workshops will run from our CSBS Dance Studio and are aimed at bringing technique classes in all dance styles to our students of all ages and abilites. We hope to be able to run the session once a month and keep the cost of the workshops at the same price as a regular lesson. We hope that the extra experiences will enhance our dancer's regular training and further their knowledge and enjoyment of dance. Any profit from the session will be put into our fundraising for equipment and events.

Initial workshops and feedback

Our first 'Super Sunday' session was held in February and was a Character Dance workshop based on the work the students need to complete in the Royal Academy of Dance ballet syllabus. CSBS teacher amanda lead the sessions with students from Grade 1 upward and introduced them to the history of character dance, technique, and new steps and rhythms. You can view some photos from the workshops on our CSBS Facebook page or see a few short video clips on the event page.

Our second session was in March and was Contemporary Dance with guest tutor Rachel Laird. We were delighted to have full classes and enjoyed watching the dancers explore the space with their bodies and experiment with new ideas and concepts. The sessions were great fun! You can view a gallery of photos from the Junior workshop on our CSBS Facebook page, or photos from the Mids/Senior workshop here. There are some video clips on the event page too.

Feedback has been very positive from participants so far and everyone has thoroughly enjoyed the session.

"Just to say thanks for organising the workshop yesterday. My daughter loved it and said wishes she could do it every day! I wish she had the same enthusiasm for school work! She loved the teacher and and has now changed the name of her favourite doll to Rachel."

We hope to have the next workshops scheduled soon so keep watching our venue noticeboards and social media channels for information!

Awards for Excellence 2019

Central Scotland Ballet School — Tue, 07 Jan 2020 13:16:00 GMT

We were delighted to present awards for outstanding achievement in exams for the year 2019.

We received our final winter session results in January 2020 and picked out the top marks from over 500 candidates.

We present the 'Vicki Paterson Awards for Excellence' annual awards to students who have gained the highest marks in their dance exams over the year. The award is named after former CSBS student Vicki Paterson who gained a perfect 100% for her RAD Grade 4 ballet exam as well as consistently scoring over 90% in all her dance examinations. Vicki went on to become a professional ballet dancer after graduating from full-time training and now runs a highly successful dance studio in Norfolk..

Junior Shield

The Junior Shield was presented to Charlie Fleming (8) who gained an outstanding mark of 98% for his Primary Grade ballet exam with the Royal Academy of Dance. Not only was that the highest score in our school, but it was the highest exam score across the whole of Scotland that session! Charlie has also gained Distinction for his Primary Tap exam and most recently Highly Commended (the highest band) for his Pre-Bronze acrobatics exam. He currently studies Grade 1 ballet and tap, jazz, acro and musical theatre and is also a mid associate with Ballet West Edinburgh.

Senior Shield

The Senior Award for Excellence was presented to Abbie Garmany (14). Abbie gained an impressive 92% for her Grade 4 ballet exam in the summer session. She also gained a high score of 93% for her Grade 4 Solo Performance Award and has most recently gained Distinction for her Intermediate Foundation ballet exam! Abbie is a member of our Majors programme and also attends a number of associate schemes including Scottish Ballet Senior Associates; Edinburgh Festival Ballet; S-MB Associates; and Ballet West.

Katie Deacon Performance Award

The Katie Deacon Performance Award is an annual trophy presented to the student who gains the highest mark for their RAD Solo Performance Award. It is named after former student Katie who was a professional ballerina following her graduation, and is now a musical theatre performer working across the world and in the West End. This year, the award was presented to Jill Russell (11) for her outstanding score of 96% for the Grade 2 Solo Performance Award in the summer session. Jill also represented CSBS at the RAD Senior Awards 2019, winning the class trophy for her level. She studies ballet, jazz, tap, acrobatics and musical theatre and is also in our Majors programme. She is also an associate with Ballet West Edinburgh and S-MB Associates and trains monthly with each.

Acrobatics - Examiners shield for most potential

We created a new shield for acrobatics exams last year. Our acrobatics exams have written reports and not points so we now ask the examiner to choose the students he/she felt had demonstrated the most potential in their examination. We then presented a Junior and Senior shield, as well as certificates of commendation. For the first year ever, we had 2 sessions for acro exams. Here are the recipients from the Spring session:

Junior Shield: Roan Ogilvie (8 - Pre-Bronze)
Senior Shield: Anna Bremner (13 - Gold)
(no certificates presented)

And here are the recipients from the winter session:

Junior Shield: Charlie Fleming (8 - Pre-Bronze)
Junior certificates: (none presented)
Senior Shield: Lawrence Bremner (10 - Silver)
Senior certificate: Murray Leitch (9 - Silver)

Many congratulations to the students for their effort and determination and to all of our 512 dance exam candidates who worked extremely hard to pass their dance exams in 2019. We had around 40% of graded candidates gain Distinction. Please have a look at our exam news and results:

Our 2020 Spring session of exams is only a few weeks away so our students and teachers are still working incredibly hard!

Winter 2019 dance exam results

Central Scotland Ballet School — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 13:49:00 GMT

After a long wait, our Winter 2019 dance exam results arrived in January 2020!

Many congratulations to all the candidates as everyone passed!

RAD Ballet exam results

Of the 85 RAD exam candidates, 48 gained a Merit, 29 gained Distinction, and 6 received their Class Award, (there were also 2 absentees). The Merit marks were generally high this session with many just missing the Distinction by a couple of marks. Most of the students sitting exams at the higher levels gained Distinction.

We have a special mention for the students who gained over 80% for their Distinctions:

Primary Grade: Orla Martin 82%; Aysha Pollock 81%
Grade 1: Eleisha McKendrick 80%; Heidi Russell 83%; Laura Taylor 81%
Grade 2: Sienna Brown 80%; Lawrence Bremner 87%
Grade 5: Anna Bremner 84%; Ailey Meikle 88%; Ailish Ogilvie 86%
Grade 5 Solo Performance Award: Grace Evans 81%, Ailish Ogilvie 86%
Grade 7: Eve Hanson 84%

Congratulations to the 5 students who gained their first Vocational level exam, Intermediate Foundation, at the Regional session in Stirling. Overall they gained 3 Merits and 2 Distinctions.

Inter Foundation: Hannah Firth 81%; Abbie Garmany 83%

ISTD Tap exams

We had 19 candidates sit their ISTD tap exams. Overall our tap exam candidates gained 2 Pass, 12 Merit, and 6 Distinctions. We have special mention for those gaining over 80%...

Primary Grade: Orla Martin 95%; Aysha Pollock 97%
Grade 1: Laura Taylor 87%; Niamh McDonald 83%; Maria McKendrick 87%
Grade 4: April Beattie 84%

Unfortunately the marking over our past few sessions of ISTD tap exams has been quite inconsistent with some candidates even being marked incorrectly this session, consequently we submitted an official complaint to the exam board. The outcome was that 2 candidates marks had been submitted incorrectly by the examiner this session, and will be replaced with the correct results, and a reassurance that the examiners are trained to mark accurately.

BATD acro exams

We held our first ever Winter session for acrobatics exams. Huge congratulations to the 45 candidates for excellent results. Overall they gained 1 Commended and 44 Highly Commended, which is the highest band. The acro exams do not currently carry points but use written comment sheets from the examiner.

You can view a full gallery of photos of all our ballet and acro exam candidates on our CSBS Facebook page. We now have only a few weeks until the Spring exam session in March!

If you have not yet received your dance exam results, please contact us! The certificates, reports and medals should arrive mid-January and will be distributed in class time.

End of year awards 2019

Central Scotland Ballet School — Sat, 21 Dec 2019 12:00:00 GMT

We had a wonderful end to the year inviting parents to watch their child's dance classes and presenting awards...

Audiences enjoyed watching 124 dance class demonstrations in ballet, tap, jazz, acrobatics, hip-hop, cheer and musical theatre, and seeing the excellent progress their young dancers have made over the year. We were very proud of the performances by the students, and the smiles, applause and positive feedback from parents.

In each class, we awarded badges for 100% attendance as well as certificates and trophies for significant progress. In total, we presented over 500 awards including:

290 attendance badges (around 50 less than usual!)
131 class progress certificates
113 class progress trophies
3 overall progress trophies

...And everyone's favourite part, almost 2000 packets of sweets!

Click here to see a full list of progress award recipients 2019.

Overall trophies for most improved dancers

At each branch, we awarded a trophy to the student who our staff feel has made the most significant progress overall. The branch winners (pictured below) were:

South Queensferry branch: Eva Blair
Linlithgow branch: Jenna Buchanan
Braes: Grace Evans
Grangemouth: (Not awarded)

Please view the full gallery of all our badge, certificate and trophy winners on our CSBS Facebook page.

Many thanks to the support of all the parents who came along and to all our teachers who have kept the classes hard working and lots of fun, which is evident in the progress over the year! We look forward to classes starting back on 7 January 2020 when we will be straight back into competitions, workshops, shows, rehearsals and Spring exams!

Winter dance exams 2019

Central Scotland Ballet School — Sun, 01 Dec 2019 12:50:00 GMT

We had 140 students sitting dance exams in the 2019 Winter session...

In a smaller session than Spring, the students sat exams in tap, ballet and acrobatics. It is the first time we have ever held acro exams in a Winter session and was put in due to the popularity and progress in our acro classes.

In total we had 20 tap exam candidates sitting from Primary to Grade 5 levels with the ISTD. Another 80 candidates sat Royal Academy of Dance ballet exams from Pre-Primary to Grade 7 and also 5 girls entering for the Vocational Intermediate Foundation level. Finally, we were delighted to have 40 BATD acrobatics exam candidates sitting from Pre-Bronze to British Award levels.

You can view a gallery of photos of our ballet and acro exam candidates on our CSBS Facebook page.

All our examiners seemed to enjoy their time here and we look forward to receiving the marks at the end of this year or beginning of next year. Well done to all the CSBS teachers who have worked extremely hard with the dancers to help them reach their potential. We hope that all our dance parents will enjoy seeing their child's progress in our annual parent's days over the next few weeks!

Festive Nutcracker performance

Central Scotland Ballet School — Wed, 20 Nov 2019 12:18:00 GMT

Our Majors students performed a unique version of the classical ballet "The Nutcracker" at the Falkirk Festive Lights Switch On.

We had 29 Majors students perform in the event which was a narrated version of the story highlighting some of the well known music and dances from the popular Christmas ballet. The performance was part of the entertainment as part of the annual Falkirk Festive Light Switch On organised by Falkirk Delivers and we performed alongside other local groups and artists. The outdoor stage was situated by the famous Falkirk Steeple in the High Street and projected onto a giant video wall for the huge audience to see the whole event... the estimated audience was 13,500!!!

Our cast and choreography

The students performed the routines based on traditional classical choreography and were coached and rehearsed by CSBS teacher Sammy both during class time and 2 rehearsals together. Our beautiful costumes were from our own massive store but also from the collection of vintage costumes we received from the former Youth Ballet of Scotland. The students all learned the corps de ballet roles, but we were delighted to give them the opportunity to perform solos and small groups too:

Clara - Jill Russell
Sugar Plum Fairy - Ailey Meikle
Reed Flutes - Sarah Firth, Eve Hanson, Olivia Hunter, Katy Russell
Bon Bons - Hollie Crooks, Robyn Smillie, Robyn Whyte
Chinese (Tea) - Ailey Meikle, Ellie Stenton
Arabian (Coffee) - Anna Bremner, Hannah Firth, Chloe Murray
Spanish (Chocolate) - Sarah Firth, Ellen Guthrie, Olivia Hunter, Robyn Whyte

You can view a gallery of photos from the event on our CSBS Facebook page. There are a few professional photos by Leask Photography below with thanks to Cameron Leask.

Swan Lake with the Russian State Ballet

Central Scotland Ballet School — Wed, 13 Nov 2019 15:03:00 GMT

We had an amazing experience for our students performing alongisde principals from the Russian State Ballet...

Twenty-six of our Majors students aged 10-17 took to the stage in a unique production of the classical ballet "Swan Lake". The performance was part of the 'Ballet without Borders' project which staged 4 unique productions across Scotland during this tour.

Our dancers trained with CSBS teacher Amanda over the course of only 4 rehearsals (!!!), learning the Russian choreography from video clips sent by Maestro Akhundov. The day before the performance, the students had the opportunity to rehearse with the Russian professionals. It was both exciting and challenging given that the ballet master, Maestro Akhundov was unable to attend the tour due to illness. Please view some photos from the rehearsal on our CSBS Facebook page.

As well as dancing the corps de ballet choreography, our students performed principal roles in the production including:

Pink Prince and Princesses - Hollie Crooks, Olivia Hunter, Ailey Meikle
Masked Princesses - Abbie Garmany, Olivia Hunter, Ailey Meikle, Robyn Smillie
Neopolitan Prince and Princesses - Sarah Parker, Anna Bremner, Hannah Firth, Jill Russell
Polish Mazurka - Olivia Boath, Hollie Crooks, Katy Russell, Rachel Sneddon, Ellie Stenton, Zoe Young

Our little swans

The famous routine, "Dance of the Little Swans" was performed by 7 of our ballet boys! The boys had less than a week to learn the routine and received huge applause from the audience. They were also inspired watching the male dancers from Russia lifting their partners! Congratulations to:

Kieron Anglin, Lawrence Bremner
Charlie Fleming, Murray Leitch
Roan Ogilvie, Robert Paterson, Evan Steel

Surprise performer

The audience were treated to a surprise appearance by CSBS teacher Amanda Clark as the Hungarian Princess in Act 2! She performed a character routine and thoroughly enjoyed performing alongside the students.

Many thanks

We also need to give many thanks to the technical team at Carnegie Hall for their help and support in the theatre; Vitaly Mirinov from the Moscow Caledonian Society and Ballet Without Borders; Costume Source UK for the hire of a set of white tutus; Ballet West for the generous loan of professional swan headdresses.

You can view photos from the dress rehearsal and performance on our Facebook page to get a glimpse of how spectacular the production looked on stage:

Performance photos from the wings

Many thanks to Cameron from Leask Photography for taking professional photos and video of the performance which will be available soon!

Dancers perform in Festival of Remembrance

Central Scotland Ballet School — Mon, 11 Nov 2019 09:35:00 GMT

We were honoured to be invited to perform at the 2019 Falkirk Festival of Remembrance.

Nineteen of our Majors students volunteered to take part in the event at Falkirk Town Hall and prepared 2 unique dance pieces as part of the entertainment. They had 2 rehearsals in the October break and another 2 before the performance.

The first piece was based on traditional playground games and swa the dancers hopscotch, play tig, hide and seek, and hand clapping. It was great fun and brought smiles to the audience.

Our second piece was devised especially for the event. Teacher Amanda worked with the dancers to conisder the impact of war on civilians and together they created a piece called "Brave" which reflected the experience of refugees. The routine showed families being torn apart, loss at sea, hope and despair. It was very emotional for both the dancers and the audience and we received great feedback. We also welcomed 4 little dancers to join the routine to make up our 'families'; many thanks to Charlie Fleming, Harry Fleming, Roan Ogilvie and Heidi Russell for their own excellent performances! Special thanks too to Gary Laing, the technical manager at FTH, for taking time to plot our lighting; it really added to the impact of both numbers.

You can view informal photos taken from the wings during the performance on our CSBS Facebook page. Many thanks to Cameron from Leask Photography for taking photos of our perfromance. You can view the gallery of performance photos here.

Watch a recording of "Brave" on our YouTube channel below...

Sarah and Ellie audition success

Central Scotland Ballet School — Sun, 15 Sep 2019 07:56:00 GMT

Senior dancers Sarah Firth and Ellie Stenton have successfully auditioned for the Dane Bates Collective!

Sarah (16) and Ellie (16) both travelled to London to attend the elite casting auditions at Pineapple Studios alongside hundreds of hopefuls from across the UK - you can watch a video of the audition process below. The Dane Bates Collective recently featured on the TV show, "The Greatest Dancer" with choreographer Dane Bates in demand across the UK. In the audition, he taught his own emotive choreography and encouraged every dancer to put their individuality into their performance. The new group with young talented dancers drawn from across the UK will rehearse toward a debut performance at the CYD Super Convention in Liverpool in October. We have been priviledged to have Dane teach at our Project Dance Summer School and love the way he encourages every dancer to be themselves as well as really challenging them with his unique choreography. The girls will learn so much from this experience!

Sarah's successful dance career so far...

Sarah is already a successful CSBS dancer and trains with us in ballet, jazz, tap and acrobatics, as well as being in both our Majors programme and Starshine Elite dance team. In adddition to her training she attends a monthly Elite Programme with Performer's College and is a former Ballet West associate too. She has represented CSBS at RAD Awards days and has been awarded the 'Vicki Paterson Shield for Excellence' for the highest exam marks over 2 years. She also performed as a soloist in "Sleeping Beauty" with the Russian State Ballet. Sarah received the trophy for most improved dancer in our Grangemouth branch 2018. With Starshine, she has acheived great competition success including recently a CYD dancer of the year nomination; WLDF under 18 Scottish champion; and audition scholarship for D&B Performing Arts. As the winner of our Millennium Trophy, she has performed her own prize winning choreography in our dance displays.

Ellie's promising dance career...

Ellie only joined our school a year ago to gain more dance experience and training... She is an incredibly hard worker! She now studies ballet, jazz and acro, and is a member of both our Majors programme and Starshine Elite dance team. She recently gained Distinction for her first ballet exam, Grade 5, was awarded 'Star Performer' at our 2019 Project Dance Summer School, and won 'Best Newcomer' at our 2019 Choreography Competition. Ellie also studies dance at school in the Larbert High Dance School where she has gained her Higher Dance and is working toward her HNC, as well as many awards and nominations for dance achievements in the Falkirk Schools cluster, including Dance Leader of the Year. She also represented Team Scotland at the Dance World Cup as part of a team from Larbert High. Like Sarah, she attends the monthly Performers College Elite programme in London. Ellie has been awarded a Dancer of the Year nomination at CYD and a scholarship to audition for Wilkes Academy of Performing Arts AND is an ambassador for En Pointe Photography!

We are extremely proud of both girls. Their hard work and determination makes them great role models for our younger students and we are very excited to see them perform with the Dane Bates Collective!

Academy training for Laura!

Central Scotland Ballet School — Tue, 10 Sep 2019 07:54:00 GMT

Advanced student Laura McTeague begins her full-time dance training this week at the MGA Academy of Performing Arts.

Laura (18) will be training on the BA Hons degree course at the Edinburgh based Academy following her 15 years at Central Scotland Ballet School. She is following in the dancing footsteps of her sister Emma who is now a prfoessional dancer.

Successful and accomplished dancer

Laura is a lively and enthusiastic senior student who will be remembered for brightening up her classes! She has gained excellent exams results, made great achievements in competitions and performances, and represented CSBS at both Senior RAD Awards Days and at performances such as Go Dance, Pasha Kovalev tour, Disneyland Paris, as a Cruise performer, and even the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony in 2014! Laura was also an associate with Ballet West and also had solo roles in performances with the Russian State Ballet.

She has studied ballet, jazz and tap with us over the past 15 years, reaching Advanced and Grade 8 and was both a member of our Majors programme and Starshine Elite dance team. In our 2019 displays, she danced the role of Captain Hook in our Majors ballet "Peter Pan".

We wish her all the best for her training and look forward to following her career!

Sarah heads to Laine Theatre Arts

Central Scotland Ballet School — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 08:07:00 GMT

CSBS dancer Sarah is heading to full-time training at the prestigious Laine Theatre Arts in London!

Sarah Leslie (18) successfully auditioned for the college against dancers from across the country. She also received offers from every college at which she auditioned including Performers College and Bird College! Laine Theatre Arts is recognised as one of the leading training colleges for world class performers and we look forward to following Sarah's career!

Successful and accomplished dancer

Sarah is a quiet and popular senior student and has achieved great success in her dance training with Central Scotland Ballet School including outstanding exams results, competition success, and awards including: Distinction for the RAD Grade 8 Award; representing CSBS at both Junior and Senior RAD Awards Days; representing CSBS on STV Live; performing in Disneyland Paris; studying and performing with Ballet West; performing as a soloist with the Russian State Ballet; performing in the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony 2014; Junior, Mids and Senior associate with Scottish Ballet; competing in the European dance finals (Vienna) with Starshine Elite; Millennium trophy winner twice; performing at Go Dance on many years; performing at Get Scotland Dancing (Edinburgh); performing alongside Pasha Kovalev; performing in a number of local pantomimes; competing in the Royal Academy of Dance Genée Dance Challenge finals in both Cardiff and London;

She has studied ballet, jazz and tap with us over the past 15 years, and was both a member of our Majors programme and Starshine Elite dance team. She has taken lead roles in our Majors ballet productions, most recently dancing the role of Peter Pan in our 2019 displays.

We wish her all the best for her training and look forward to following her career!

Summer Photo Competition 2019

Central Scotland Ballet School — Sun, 25 Aug 2019 22:58:00 GMT

We loved seeing photo entries of our dancers from all over the world showing their love of dance!

We had a total of 308 photos in the album with entries from dancers of all ages and abilities, and every photo making us smile! The gallery was judged by six professional dance teachers who had the incredibly difficult task of choosing their favourites! Many thanks to:

Kimberley Stewart
Samm Baigrie - Aspire Dance Academy
Heather Shrimpton - Principal, Alloa Ballet Company
Morag Phillips - Principal, Lothian Dance Academy
Julie Friar - Principal, Dunbar School of Dancing
Karen Aitchison - Principal, Karen Aitchison School of Dancing

Winners...

From the judges choices, we have 6 winners and 17 runners-up! Many congratulations to our 2019 winners who will receive a voucher from Leask Photography:

Beatrice Lawson (4) from our Braes branch
Charlie Fleming (7) from our Linlithgow/Queensferry branch
Iona Macleod (10) from our Queensferry branch
Murray Leitch (8) from our Braes branch
Robyn Smillie (14) from our Queensferry branch
Sophie Leonard (12) from our Braes branch

And more congratulations to our runners-up:

Abbie Garmany; Anna Bremner; April Barclay; Aysha Pollock
Carlotta Davies; Clara Kay; Clara Mirchandani; Ellen Guthrie
Emily Dickson; Fiona Picken; Holly, Eryn and Mhairi; Iana Phillips
Airlie and Isla Oakley; Sophie Jackson; Sophie Roskilly;
Friends Ellie, Isabelle, Anna, Charlotte, Clara, Orla, Hannah and Lawrence

Please view the gallery of all the winning entries on our CSBS Facebok page!

Iana leaps into full time training

Central Scotland Ballet School — Wed, 14 Aug 2019 07:09:00 GMT

CSBS dancer Iana is moving to train full-time at the Dance School of Scotland in Glasgow...

Iana Phillips (14) will move into the residential accommodation to begin 3 years of full time training at Scotland's national training academy. The Dance School of Scotland is part of Knightswood Secondary School where Iana will have academic studies as well as around 4 hours of daily dance training. Two of ther siblings, Anya and Emmy, already train at the school!

Award winning dancer

Iana is a very popular member of our school and has already achieved great success in her dance training with Central Scotland Ballet School including outstanding exams results, competition success, and awards. This year alone she has won our "Millennium Trophy" at our 2019 Choreography Competiotn; the Grand Prix at the Terpsichore of the North International Ballet Comeptition; Grand Champion at 'Follow Your Dreams'; World Champion at the WLDF championships; silver medallist at the Scottish Youth Ballet Grand Prix. Iana has also represented CSBS at RAD Scotland Awards days (where she has won class and overall prizes), on STV Appeal live, and with Starshine Elite as a member of our competitive dance teams. She has represented Scotland as a ballet soloist at the Dance World Cup in 2017 and 2018.

Iana studies ballet and jazz with CSBS and is a member of both our Majors programme and Starshine Elite dance team. She has also been attending the Dance Academy at Larbert High School for 2 years where she studied dance as part of the daily curriculum. She complements her training with additional lessons as part of the Scottish Ballet Associate scheme, Ballet West Associates and the Royal Conservatoire associate scheme.

We wish her all the best for her career and look forward to following it as she grows as a dancer!

Junior Summer School 2019

Central Scotland Ballet School — Fri, 09 Aug 2019 19:44:00 GMT

We had 24 enthusiastic little dancers attend our 2019 Dance Stars Junior Summer School...

The dancers aged 7-11 worked incredibly hard in the 3 energetic and fun days of dance classes which included daily technique lessons in both ballet and jazz as well as workshops in acrobatics, drama and musical theatre, acrobatics and tasters of world styles such as bollywood and african! They also had a daily arts'n'craft session to create the scenery and props for their performance at the end of the course. Our 2019 theme was "AROUND THE WORLD" and they created a fantastic performance piece based around a world tour holiday.

CSBS teacher Sammy taught ballet, jazz and acrobatics while Amanda taught ballet, drama / musical theatre, world styles and arts'n'craft. Many thanks to dancer Eva for coming along to be the class helper for 2 days.

At the end of the third day, the children received a souvenir t-shirt for the performance. The audience were greeted by an airport entrance (complete with security scanners and boarding announcements); a flight to Paris with a Disney parade; a train journey to the polar regions; a Russian Dance and a Chinese dance from the Nutcracker; a sea cruise which passed by India, Egypt and Africa; and then a celebratory Around the World presentation!

Every dancer was presented with a specially designed certficate of attendance while they received lots of applause!

Photos and video

Please view a gallery of photos from each day on our CSBS Facebook page - they are a fantastic record of the hard work and fun had throughout the course!

You can watch the short video of their performance below:

Project Dance Summer School 2019

Central Scotland Ballet School — Fri, 09 Aug 2019 18:48:00 GMT

We had over 50 CSBS dancers come from across Scotland for our 2019 Project Dance Summer School.

We also welcomed 2 students from other dance schools for the course and had a number of former students come to watch the presentation on Day 4.

The 4-day course was open to all dance students studying Grade 2-Advanced levels and included a packed timetable of 6 classes daily including: warm-up/conditioning, ballet, repertoire, jazz, commercial, contemporary, lyrical, and musical theatre. There is a fabulous record of each day on our CSBS Facebook page - PLEASE go and have a look through each gallery of photos.

Learning from the best...

We were again very fortunate to have an amazing team of guest tutors as our faculty:

Sara-Maria Barton and Kelly Marie Shields (Ballet and Repertoire)
Dane Bates (Lyrical)
Gavin Williams (Jazz)
John Dempsey and Sarah Wilkie (Musical Theatre dance)
Rachel Laird (Contemporary)
Claire McAlister (warm up / contemporary)
Katie Hunter (warm up / hip-hop)
Amanda-Louise Clark (Musical Theatre - Group 1)

On the final day of the course, parents were invited to watch an informal presentation of work showcasing just a little of what the students had been learning. The course was mainly focussed on technique and mastering new steps but the students also had a number of short routines to share.

Certificates and awards

Every student was presented with a certificate on completion of the course and a souvenir t-shirt. Two 'Star Performer' awards were also presented to each group. The faculty chose 2 students who they thought had shown just a little extra hard work, determination, enthusiasm and talent over the course. They had an almost impossible task; all the participants had worked hard and progressed so much in each class and both the CSBS staff and Summer School faculty were very impressed. The awards (pictured below) were presented to:

Group 1 Star Performers - Lawrence Bremner and Jill Russell
Group 2 Star Performers - Abbie Garmany and Sarah Parker
Group 3 Star Performers - Anna Bremner and Ellie Stenton

Many thanks to the Community Access staff at Grangemouth High School, and also to CSBS teachers Amanda and Sammy who managed the entire event. If you or your child took part, please complete our Project Dance 2019 feedback survey!

Summer ballet exam results 2019

Central Scotland Ballet School — Fri, 26 Jul 2019 17:49:00 GMT

We had only 31 ballet exam candidates in the summer session from Grade 1 to Grade 8...

The exams were held only a few days after our June dance display run which made the experience a challenge for both the students and their teachers! The students put in a lot of personal practise and it shows in their excellent results. We have many thanks to Brightons Parish Church for hosting our exams at the last minute when our original venue was double booked.

Excellent exam results

Our ballet results are excellent with overall the 31 candidates gaining 1 Pass, 9 Merit and 21 Distinctions! Special congratulations to the students who were awarded high scores of over 80% for their examinations, with particularly high scores being achieved for the Solo Performance Awards. The SPA is a perfromance orientated exam where the dancers are marked on 3 solos.

Grade 4: April Beattie 80%; Hannah Firth 81%; Abbie Garmany 92%; Robyn Smillie 83%; Gracie Stevens 80%
Grade 8: Sarah Leslie 85%
Grade 2 SPA: Lawrence Bremner 90%; Rachel Dagger 90%; Jill Russell 96%
Grade 4 SPA: Abbie Garmany 93%; Gracie Stevens 84%
Grade 5 SPA: Robyn Whyte 93%

Additional special congratulations to the dancers who gained their Grade 8 Award from the Royal Academy of Dance, the culmination of their ballet examinations:

Sarah Leslie (Distinction)
Laura McTeague (Merit)
Erin Mitchell (Merit)
Kirstin Richards (Distinction)

You can view a small gallery of photos of the candidates on our CSBS Facebook page

Our next exam session will be in November, and entry forms need to be submitted within the first few weeks of our new term... so keep practising throughout the break!

Linlithgow dancers in "Lights, Camera, Action!"

Central Scotland Ballet School — Thu, 20 Jun 2019 11:05:00 GMT

Our Linlithgow branch performed "Lights, Camera, Action!" to a sell out audience in Macrobert Arts Centre...

Two-hundred and thirty dancers aged from 3 to adults showcased their skills in 30 different routines including ballet, jazz, tap, acro and musical theatre. The dancers were joined in their performance by our Majors students who opened the show with a muscial theatre number as well as showcasing pointe work routines, and a ballet adaptation of "Peter Pan". With a sell-out audience, the atmosphere was fantastic!

Our 2019 Millennium Trophy winner Iana performed a solo which she had choreographed herself. Another highlight of the show was the Adult Tap routine inspired by the film "Billy Elliot"... they received a huge cheer!

We had an amazing team of CSBS staff, class helpers, and volunteer chaperones backstage helping the children get ready and get onstage quickly while their parents enjoyed the show. Thank you to all of them for an amazing job!

We would be delighted to get your feedback on the the display and love to hear what you enjoyed or any suggestions for improving our shows. Please take a few minutes to complete our short survey.

Charity collections

We support a wide range of good causes throughout the year, and our charity bucket collections after the Linlithgow branch performance raised an impressive total of £212.20 as well as additional funds from programme donations which will be totalled soon. Many thanks for your generosity!

Photos and videos...

We have some galleries of photos taken from the wings on our CSBS Facebook page:

Photos from the wings from the dress rehearsal
TIMELAPSE footage of the dress rehearsal (thanks to Cameron at Leask Photography)
Photos from the wings during the performance.

Professional photos from the dress rehearsal are available to view at Leask.Photography using the password provided at the event.

A DVD recording of the displays by 1 Studio Video is also available and you can order a DVD directly from our shop. (Note: will be ready for collection in new term).

In the meantime, you can enjoy some highlights from the show on our YouTube channel or below: