Press Release: Chelmsford Ballet Company performing alongside Ballet Central at Music for Christmas Concert on 21 December 2019

[Jan McNulty]

Chelmsford Ballet Company performing alongside Ballet Central at Music for Christmas Concert on Saturday 21st December at the Brentwood Centre.

 

 

The Chelmsford Ballet Company will be performing along side Ballet Central  at Music for Christmas Concert on Saturday 21st December at the Brentwood Centre.  It is the biggest Christmas musical extravaganza in Essex.  This concert is part of the Hutton & Shenffield Choral Society. They will be performing excerpts from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which was specially created by Artistic Director Annette Potter as part of their 70th Celebrations earlier this year.

Directed by Ballet Central Artistic Director Christopher Marney, Ballet Central will present excerpts from their enchanting version of the classic Christmas ballet The Nutcracker.

 

Photo credit Andrew Potter

 

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About The Chelmsford Ballet Company



In 1947, Joan Weston created the Broomfield YMCA Ballet Company in order to give the more senior students at her existing dance school the opportunity to learn and perform to the public. It was after their 1949 performance of Coppélia at the Shire Hall that the then Mayor of Chelmsford suggested the name ‘The Chelmsford Ballet Company’, and with a small committee the company was born.

 

Since 1949, the company has staged a full-scale production every year. Initially a part of the Arts Festival, and then the Cathedral Fringe Festival, they occur today as an annual event in their own right. Today the company is led by Artistic Director, Annette Potter, who is a former dancing member. Annette danced many leading roles with the company before moving on to teaching and choreography.  The company continues to celebrate artistic success under her leadership, nurturing the company’s dancers from company classes to workshops, through to rehearsals and the company’s annual production.

 

The ballet company is a way for skilled dancers from across the area to perform together and to showcase their considerable talents to appreciative and receptive audiences. These performances always maintain the high standards and have become a well-loved cornerstone of Chelmsford’s cultural calendar.

 

The company’s patrons are Doreen Wells, Marchioness of Londonderry and Christopher Marney, Artistic Director of Ballet Central.




 

The Chelmsford Ballet Company is “an amateur company which sets professional standards for all its work, involving professionals in its productions, courses and other teaching and workshop opportunities”. The company’s aim is to inspire and progress enthusiastic dancers in a safe, friendly and open environment with a professional approach, whilst having fun along the way, it has a reputation for staging impressive productions with fantastic artistry, from the choreography to sets to the costumes, the company prides itself on the regard with which it is held by Chelmsford audiences, and those further afield. The company is not an extension of any dance school, and dancers are auditioned via a panel of professionals from a dance background. The amateur company prides itself on its professional standards, demonstrating a huge array of talent through its dancers excelling themselves each year. These high standards are maintained through the monthly company classes, where the dancers are able to meet and take a class with experienced and distinguished teachers. In the 1960s a Scholarship Fund was created to help young dancers moving to professional training.

 

 

About Ballet Central 

Directed by Ballet Central Artistic Director Christopher Marney, Ballet Central will present excerpts from their enchanting version of the classic Christmas ballet The Nutcracker. 

 

The story is set in the fantasy world of Drosselmeyer's toyshop and we see Clara on Christmas Eve as her dreams come alive before her eyes. Join us to see the young Ballet Central dancers on the cusp of their professional careers in this festive, sparkling, quintessential Christmas performance. This is a show designed for families, introducing children of all ages to a new version of the dance favourite performed to the iconic Tchaikovsky score. 

 

· Ballet Central is the Central School of Ballet's renowned graduate performing company 

· Ballet Central’s annual tour takes place from March to July giving audiences across the country the chance to see the company’s young and dynamic dancers showcasing newly commissioned works and celebrated masterpieces by the dance industry’s top choreographers .

 

· Led by Director Heidi Hall and Artistic Director Christopher Marney, Central School of Ballet is a world-leading centre for professional dance training.

 

· The school is an affiliate of the Conservatoire for Dance & Drama and was founded 37 years ago by Ann Stannard and the late Christopher Gable CBE.

 

· Central’s students train for three years aiming for a BA (Hons) in Professional Dance and Performance (validated by the University of Kent). Central also offers an MA Choreography degree for professional and emerging choreographers.

· Central’s ethos is the belief that talented, dedicated young people should have access to the highest quality of training, whatever their economic, social or cultural background.

 

· Central School of Ballet has particularly high rates of employment for graduating students; 80% are employed in professional contracts or apprenticeships in dance within six months of graduating 

· Central will move to a new purpose-built home in Paris Gardens in Southwark in the South Bank community in London early in 2020.