History of the School

 

 

 

The late Dorothy Marshall founded her school of dance and drama in 1954. In 1996 Alison Wakefield, who had been Miss Marshall's Head Assistant for 12 years, stepped into her shoes. Here she has continued the main aims and objectives that Miss Marshall founded the school upon. The school was established on the philosophy of having fun whilst learning within a framework of a happy supportive family atmosphere with a strong emphasis on discipline. This has been maintained throughout the school's expansion and more than five decades. We want your child to make the most of there ability professionally or just a hobby.

 

Children are helped to make the most of their abilities whether they are considering a professional stage career or simply enjoying dance as a hobby. Our emphasis is to try and keep the class numbers low providing quality tuition by experienced teachers who pay close attention to the development of each child.

 

We provide tuition in Ballet, tap, modern and contemporary from the age of 2.5 to 18. As your child progresses through the school they will be entered in examinations for I.S.T.D (Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing) for ballet, modern and tap. 

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Special tuition is available for children with a particular talent who wish to pursue a dance or drama career. Parents are advised if their child shows significant ability and a tailor-made course is designed for the child, in agreement with the parents, to capitalise on the child's strengths, improve any areas of weakness and smooth progression towards dance college.

 

Our pupils have gained places at the Royal Ballet School, English National Ballet School, Doreen Bird College of Performing Arts, Laine Theatre Arts to name a few. We have an 100% examination pass rate with many of our students gaining over 90% in their examinations and some also gaining an unheard of 100%.  We have many pupils compete as part of our competition team gaining many medals and awards as well as winning national level titles.