An Invitation to Powerhouse Ballet's Repertoire Workshop in Leeds

[Terpsichore]

Powerhouse Ballet has received a lot of help from a lot of teachers, schools and companies all around the country and beyond but nobody has done more for us than Yvonne Charlton of the Jos Dolstra Dance Institute in the Netherlands.  Yvonne trained at what is now the National Ballet Academy in Amsterdam and works very closely with the Dutch National Ballet.  Twice a year her adult ballet students get to learn a bit of the company's repertoire with some of its best dancers.  I am a Friend of the Dutch National Ballet and I visit Amsterdam frequently.  It was through my association with the company that I got to meet Yvonne. 

Last September I invited Yvonne to give us a repertoire class in Liverpool. Our ballet mistress, who is not known for lavishing praise, described that class as our best ever.  Everyone who took that class agreed.  Before I had even left the studio I was mobbed with requests to bring her back as soon as possible.

As we don't yet know whether we will be able to hire teachers from EU countries after brexit, I had to hire her before 29 March. Yvonne is coming back on Sunday 24 Feb to give us a special repertoire class in two of her works:

• her own version  of one of the dances from Don Quixote  which we started to learn in Liverpool, and
• Morning Mood to the music of Edward Grieg from Peer Gynt.

The workshop will take place at Dance Studio Leeds in Mabgate Mills between 09:00 and 14:00.  I apologize for the early start but Yvonne has to catch a plane to Amsterdam at 18:00 and this is the way we can make the best use of her time.

To give attendees the optimum experience we have hired Northern Ballet's accompaniest, Alena Panasenka, to play for Yvonne and Fiona Noonan to learn the pieces and coach us so that we can eventually include them in our own company's repertoire.  Ladies who are trained and experienced in pointe work are encouraged to bring their pointe shoes to the workshop.

We want to use this visit as an opportunity to welcome more dancers into our company and support networks.  The whole workshop will be sponsored by my law practice so it will cost our guests nothing.  We do hope to meet a lot of new people.   If you want to attend the workshop you can register here. 

If you can't get to Leeds on Sunday you may like to come to our company class at the Dancehouse in Manchester which Yvonne will also give between 13:30 and 15:00 on Saturday 23 Feb. If you want to attend that you are welcome to register here.

If you want to attend both events, feel free.   We want to get to know and make friends with as many dancers as possible.

Edited February 16, 2019 by Terpsichore
correcting grammatical error