News and Events

Aged just 12, Mirabelle Seymour has been chosen by resident Royal Ballet choreographer Wayne Mcgregor to create a solo role in his new ballet ‘Raven Girl’, on stage at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

Raven Girl is a collaboration between Author Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Traveller’s Wife) who has written the modern-day fairytale, Choreographer Wayne Mcgregor (‘Machina’ from Metamorphosis, Chroma) and Composer Gabriel Yared (The English Patient, The talented Mr Ripley). It tells the story of a Raven Girl – her father is a Postman, her mother a Raven he rescues after falling from the nest as a fledgling bird, he takes her home and they fall in love.....

Mirabelle has been rehearsing with Wayne McGregor and her partner Ed Watson (Principal dancer with the Royal Ballet) for 3 weeks to prepare for the role of the fledgling bird. The World Premiere was performed last night to a sell –out audience and Miss Canneaux was there to watch in awe as Mirabelle appeared from beneath a cloak at the foot of a huge rock, a terrified, tiny, weightless, bird, lifted tenderly in one arm by the postman (Ed Watson) who takes her home to recover. She sits watching the postman striking a series of beautiful, frightened, birdlike poses. Gaining in confidence she performs a series of intricate, delicate steps and movements moving up to the table she balances posed on one leg before appearing to flutter around the postman’s head as he throws her expertly around his neck before letting her fly away.

At the end of the ballet Mirabelle stood in line with Royal Ballet stars Sarah Lamb, Eric Underwood, Olivia Cowley, Ed Watson and Thiago Soares, she was the first soloist invited forward to take the first of many curtain calls until Wayne McGregor appeared onstage to take his bow, holding her hand and inviting her forward to receive her applause once again.

CONGRATULATIONS MIRABELLE – you are the most beautiful young ballerina we have ever seen!

Mirabelle will be dancing in 3 more performances of Raven Girl – Wednesday 29th May at 2pm, Monday 3rd June at 7.30pm and the final performance on Saturday 8th June at 7pm, tickets are available from the Royal Opera House.

Julia Canneaux

One Monday in April, Kevin Ellis was invited along to the studio in Barcombe to take photos of the youngest children during their ballet class with Miss Carter and assistant teacher Jessica.
Go to the gallery page to see how adorable they were.

Turning Pointe students get ready for show term!
Over the Easter holidays a small group of Turning Pointe students went up to Pineapple Dance Studios with Miss Carter, and were put through their paces in a Jazz class with Alex Turner that involved lots of stretching, sit-ups, press-ups, and a routine packed with pirouettes! All of the students really went for it and despite the exhaustion were buzzing after the class. Their hard work was rewarded with an afternoon of shopping in Covent Garden, followed by a DVD night watching previous Turning Pointe shows. A fantastic day was had by all, and the students couldn't wait to get back into rehearsals for Razzle Dazzle!

We are delighted to announce that Katy Mills has won the Dame Beryl Grey Scholarship to Legat. After 2 auditions, presided over by Dame Beryl Grey, Katy was announced as the winner of the coveted award and will start full time at the dance school in September this year. Katy has been a pupil at Turning Pointe from the age of 3 and has acheived Distinction for all exams, including most recently Grade 5 and Intermediate Foundation.

WELL DONE KATY - we are all so proud of you.

In January I auditioned at the London Contemporary Dance School (The Place) for a BA Hons degree studying contemporary dance. I recently got the news that I had been accepted into the school for the three year course and will start in September.

I have trained in many styles of dance such as Freestyle, Tap, Latin, Ballroom, Street, Ballet, Jazz and Contemporary. Even though I enjoy all of these styles my main focus is on Ballet and Contemporary, for this is what I see myself doing in the future. The course I will be starting in September consists of dance and theory work for five days a week, along with some evening and weekend rehearsals. This will help me reach my ultimate goals in dance; dancing with a contemporary company before going on to teach others.

I am extremely grateful to the teachers and staff at Turning Pointe. When I joined in 2008, aged 13, I had had no ballet training whatsoever. In order to stand any chance of getting into a Conservatoire I needed to learn quickly and work hard to make the grade in ballet. There is no doubt that Turning Pointe played a vital part in bringing me up to standard. Last year I completed Grade 7 with distinction, something I could barely have dreamed of a few years ago.

Written by Phoebe - We are delighted with your success and wish you all the best for the future. WELL DONE PHOEBE!

Turning Pointe is celebrating as both the RAD Ballet and ISTD Tap and Modern exam sessions held in December have yielded excellent exam results, with every student achieving a Merit or Distinction. Achievements include Katy Mills who achieved Distinction for Intermediate Foundation Ballet, Libby Mills who achieved Distinction for Intermediate Ballet, and Molly Walker who achieved a fantastic score of 94 (Distinction) in her Grade 6 Modern exam. Particular congratulations to Martha Gardner and Abigail Lambert who both took exams in all three dance disciplines. Abigail achieved Distinction for both Grade 6 Modern and Grade 5 Tap, and a Merit for Intermediate Ballet. Martha achieved the school's highest ever result of 96 (Distinction) in Grade 6 Modern, 93 (Distinction) for Grade 5 Tap, and a Distinction for Intermediate Foundation Ballet.

Congratulations to all of the students on their exam results, we are very proud of you all!

We year 7’s were looking forward to the “time of Nutcracker” and were all excited at the prospect of auditioning for a part; the Year Eights at White Lodge had talked about it “non-stop”. When I first found out I was going to be both gingerbread and a mouse I didn’t really know what to expect, I only knew that it was going to be fun. Rehearsals for gingerbreads started quite soon after. Once we had watched the previous gingerbreads we were then quickly taught the routine in the space of half an hour. I remember feeling even more baffled when it came to learning the mice: we were just plunged into the deep end with slightly odd phrases like: “from the odd three”, “glitter”, and learning it at the same time with no idea where we were supposed to be - fun nevertheless! Most evenings these rehearsals ended with a huge scrum to dinner as the whole of years seven, eight and nine finished rehearsals together.

The first time we went up to the Royal Opera House was incredibly exciting with a warm-up class there and then being led around the enormous building full of our “heroes” (and heroines!!!) We were brought into a studio where Mr. Carr (the ballet master) was sitting along with a lot of other important people (one day even the TV was there).

Gingerbreads went first, only four of us on stage with Drosselmeyer and Clara. We are meant to be scared of the mice trying to eat us so we jump around until Miss Gertrude comes to rescue us. We then after “much flapping” take refuge in a huge dolls house where we stay for the rest of the battle scene – observing the battle unfold. It’s all very exciting and a lot of fun especially when the house gets wheeled off-stage at the end. We then swapped casts so that meant I was a mouse. As I was the smallest of the mice I got the part where I had to jump onto the back of the Nutcracker during the battle, onto the back of a Royal Ballet Soloist - that was really scary! But we soon learned that everyone is incredibly friendly and that we are all in this together.

Later, when we tried on the costumes dancing was so much harder, not only wearing a mask which is difficult to see out of- but we also have to act twice as much than before to make it look good for the audience. Eventually, many, many studio rehearsals later it was time to try it out on the stage of the Royal Opera House – the biggest stage I have ever set foot on. Here we were given specific marks on the ground where to position ourselves otherwise it would be wrong and we would get a correction and would have to go through it all again.

Nutcracker is full of fun and nerves, when you’re about to go on for the first time the mind is just full of the possibilities that could go wrong - but of course they never happen... mostly (and if they do I am sure the audience never really notices)...

Written by Mirabelle Seymour aged 11.

On Sunday 18th November, 27 dancers from Turning Pointe took part in a nationwide 'Tapathon' event in aid of Children in Need. This event was trying to break the World Record for the largest number of people dancing the same Tap dance at the same time, and numerous dance schools across the country took part. The students from Turning Pointe ranged in age from 7 to 50, and everyone had a brilliant time learning the upbeat routine to 'Dance with me tonight'. On the day it was great to see everyone pulling together and dancing their best, and thank you to all of the parents who came and watched and made cakes for the cake sale afterwards. Despite not breaking the World Record, the event still managed to raise over £11,000 for Children in Need, and Turning Pointe raised over £320. A fantastic achievement, and likely to become an annual event in the Turning Pointe calendar!

See the article below which appeared in the Mid Sussex Times
http://www.midsussextimes.co.uk/news/local/tap-tap-tapping-for-pudsey-and-a-world-record-1-4476926

10 of our young students auditioned and were offered places at the new Pre-vocational training programme at Legat, St Bedes, for talented dancers who aspire to a career in the dance profession.

Huge congratulations to: Josie Barton, Holly Bellack, Beatrice Casey,
Alexandra Clark, Daisy Fretten, Katy Mills, Caitlin O'Neill, Nessa Saar-Zook,
Jane Simmons and Olivia Warner-Welsh, we are very proud of you.

Elaine Holland, director of dance at Legat, thanked us for sending -"Lovely girls, who were so poised and well prepared for the audition; they are a real credit to your training. Our staff are looking forward to working with them."

This summer I took part in one of the biggest shows our nation has ever produced. Starting with an audition in London to be an aerialist in one of the ceremonies, with hundreds of applicants and some of the best aerialists in the country, I was not expecting to get in! However, in April I received the call offering me a job performing as one of the 32 Mary Poppins in the opening ceremony. Rehearsals began at the end of May and by Mid June we were full time: starting off at the outside space in Dagenham and at 3 Mill studios, London until the stadium was ready.

Watching the show come together piece by piece was so exciting – the giant props, hundreds of volunteers moving in amazing unison. Our rehearsals began with height training, starting at 10m then eventually going up to the roof at over 40metres! Finally performance week was here; every show, we started on the roof and had an incredible view of the green and pleasant land and industrial revolution. Then the time came for us to be floated into the air, watching as the nurses moved below forming shapes with the bed, then as Voldermort raised up into the air we started our flight over the roof and over the audience. When we finally came into the lights and the music hit its cue, we opened our bags and brollies to reveal who we were. After being unclipped and dancing across the stage, we were careful not to hit the cameramen with our brollies and bags!

From beginning to end it was a magical experience: Working with amazing choreographers, dedicated volunteers, performing to 60,000 then 80,000 people and the world watching on TV! It was a huge honour and I feel privileged, to have been a part of the opening ceremony doing what I love most.