'It's like a track day with Lewis Hamilton '

 The title of the  post  is the reaction I got  from  a work colleague  when I explained to them what I had been doing on a weekend off, but this is one of the  things i love so much about adult recreational ballet ... there is  so little  hierarchy , there are teachers who one day might be teaching  pre-professional students or  coaching company dancers and the next  day teaching  random  recreational  dancers

What I had I been doing? I'd been on yet another of The Ballet Retreat's  fabulous weekend intensives. In 2018 I attended 4 of these events;

• January in Leeds - Kitri Act 2 for the ladies and Basilo for the gents
• June  in London - Black Swan
• August Bank Holiday in Leeds  - Sylvia  variations
• December - Nutcracker Dewdrop for the ladies and  Cavalier for the chaps

While The Ballet Retreat as a concept is not unique, what makes it special is the  calibre of the people involved in running and teaching it ...

David Kierce and Hannah Bateman are the main people behind it, which is pretty fabulous in the first place ...

but, then you look at the calibre of the other people involved in teaching such as ;

Dreda Blow
Antoinette Brooks-Daw
Gavin McCaig
Giuliano Contadini
Amaury Lebrun
Kenneth Tindall
Georgina Jobson

plus of course  the fabulous accompanists

Andrew Dunlop
Ewan Gilford

I don't think it's overselling TBR to say it is getting on for the the closest the recreational dancer will get to company life...  as  while  the Likes of Powerhouse Ballet and other similar companies exist,  they  work  around   real life over weeks to months  rather than the  few days of a retreat ...


For clarity  this is my disclaimer here.
My involvement  with The Ballet Retreat is as a satisfied paying customer,  and  My involvement with Powerhouse  ballet is as a volunteer.