A top class dance facility, offering lessons to students from 18 months upwards. Classes in Ballet, Tap, Modern & Jazz, were initially conducted in Mrs.
In response to requests for more artistic activity in the Somerset area, The Somerset School of Dancing was established by Sal Hodgson & Anne Cherry in September 1970 with an enrollment of just 40 students. Hodgson’s living room and shortly thereafter at the Somerset Brigade Band Hall on Scott’s Hill Road. The following year, under the auspices of the British Ballet Organization (BBO), a major exa
miner was sent to the school and ballet examinations were conducted for the first time in Bermuda. With continued growth, and the need for larger premises, prompted the move in January 1981 to The Armoury in Mangrove Bay. In 1982, the school affiliated with the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) and the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dance (ISTD), two internationally recognized dance bodies that we still accredit and follow today. In 1987, the school expanded to the Hamilton area with classes on Saturday mornings at the Masonic Hall on King Street (opposite the Fire Station). Then in 1990, with the closing and government renovation of our beloved studio (The Armory), the amalgamation of both our Somerset and Hamilton studios was a predestined step into a more central location and hence a new hub – the upstairs loft on the corner of Front and King Streets. After 17 years, in early 2007, the school was relocated to our current expansive, 3 studio premises, the Berkeley Cultural Centre, (old Berkeley Building), in the heart of Hamilton. Although SSOD has a strong platform in classical ballet training, we also offer quality teaching and training in all genres of dance & production, including; but not limited to: tap, jazz, contemporary, urban (hip hop, street) & musical theatre. SSOD continues to gain recognition as a dance school with the highest standards, a true testament to our success, longevity and generational following.
