Audrey Spencer Dance

A wonderful end to the week with news of our gorgeous Senior, Olivia Serutla completing her week-long Intermediate Summer Intensive with Northern Ballet 🥰

Olivia had an amazing time and didn't want it to end. During the week she did pilates, contemporary and enhanced ballet. She also had an acting class.

She watched the company dancers rehearse for a show in September and learnt repertoire from Cinderella which will be performed by the company in December.

Olivia also took part in a Q&A with Dame Darcey Bussell DBE who Olivia said was lovely and very inspiring.

What an exciting experience for Olivia, gaining an insight into professional ballet in a world-class ballet environment. Well done from all of us! 💜

Our Friends of Audrey Spencer team are delighted to have raised £400 which has been split equally between Yorkshire Cancer Research and the British Heart Foundation, following fundraising at our Lawrence Batley Theatre dance shows in June.

The funds have been raised in memory of two of our lovely dance mums, Carlean Jerome and Nicola Mara who sadly passed away last year.

It was lovely to meet Triya Mistry, Fundraising and Events Assistant for Yorkshire Cancer Research who came into see us at the studio.

Thank you to everyone who kindly supported our fundraising efforts by buying raffle tickets, taking part in our lucky square and purchasing programmes at our dance show.

💜 We are very proud of Ophelia who performed at the All England Dance National Final this afternoon at the Winter Gardens in Eastbourne.

Ophelia was one of 14 finalists who competed from different regions of the country in the 9 Years Character/Narrative section.

What a fantastic achievement for Ophelia to reach the grand final of this prestigious event. She thoroughly enjoyed the experience and made some lovely new friends from other dance schools! Congratulations to everyone who took part and thank you to AED for all their hard work organising.

💜 Congratulations to Ava Thornton and Scarlet Gledhill who danced this week at the IDTA North West Theatre Festival, achieving excellent results.

Ava:
1st place E Lyrical
2nd place E Ballet
2nd place E Character

Ava was one of ten dancers chosen for the Adjudicators Choice this evening, where she was asked to perform her gorgeous Lyrical.

Scarlet:
2nd place C National
3rd place C Character
3rd place C Tap
4th place C Musical Theatre

Well done to both girls on their beautiful performances.

A small number of our pupils chose to attend Laithes Theatre Dance Festival over the last couple of weekends. Well done to Mili, Erin, Emily, Tom, Cassara and Ella! 💜

Mili Duffy
* 2nd place E Tap
* 3rd place tied Senior Lyrical

Erin Baxter
* 3rd place F Tap
* 4th place Senior Lyrical

Emily Baxter
* 1st place F Ballet
* 3rd place tied Senior Lyrical

Tom Jones
* 1st place Senior Novice Ballet

Cassara Bradshaw
* 1st place Senior Novice Modern

Ella Corion
* 2nd place Senior Novice Modern

Emily Baxter & Erin Baxter
* 3rd place Senior Cabaret Duet

📣 We are recruiting

An opportunity has arisen for a theatre dance teacher to cover one evening and Saturday classes temporarily Sept to Dec – possibly leading to a long term position.

You will be required to have a dance teacher qualification and be able to teach IDTA grade work and general class work, as well as helping prepare pupils for dance festivals.

If interested, please submit your CV via email to Joanne Perkins at [email protected] by July 31st with your availability.

If you know of someone who may be interested, please tag or share. Thank you.

Exciting news for our Beginner pupil Ezra Widdop, who has been cast as Young Shrek in Woodhouse Musical Theatre Company’s 2027 production of Shrek The Musical! 🎭💚👑

Ezra who is just 5 years old, has been dancing with us for 11 months and recently performed his very first solo at a dance festival (a Character) at Airedale.

Ezra’s dad Tom is playing adult Shrek and his mum Becky, herself a former pupil of our dance school, is co-choreographing it, so it’s a real family affair!

Shrek The Musical will be showing at the Lawrence Batley Theatre during Easter (30th March - 3rd April 2027) with lots of matinee performances and fun for all the family to enjoy!

We wish Ezra and all the cast a wonderful rehearsal period for what is sure to be another fabulous show by Woodhouse!

Last night we had the pleasure of welcoming Ollie Botterill - Tap Choreographer back to our studio. Ollie put on two fabulous tap workshops which were organised as a special treat for pupils by our fundraising committee, the Friends of Audrey Spencer.

The first workshop was attended by some of our lower and upper inters, and saw them using lots of close work and drill timing whilst working on a routine to Me Too by Meghan Trainor.

The second workshop with some of our upper inters and seniors focused on a few technical drills, some advanced blending of steps with pace and lots of weight transfer. Then they worked on a challenging routine to I Don’t Like It, I Love It by Flo Rida, which they all did brilliantly at.

Thank you to Ollie for devising these fabulous, fun workshops for our pupils! And a grateful thanks to our fundraising committee for making this happen.

Distinctions across all IDTA exams! 🥳

We are delighted to say everyone passed their most recent IDTA exams with distinction in every subject, which is tremendous! Congratulations to all dancers - what a super job they've all done!

We had pupils taking exams in Preparatory Ballet, Primary Ballet, Stage 2 Musical Theatre, Grade 4 Ballet, Grade 5 Theatre Craft, Advanced 1 Ballet and Intermediate Contemporary Modern Jazz.

Our Stage 2 Musical Theatre Group received a nomination to the 2027 IDTA Musical Theatre Awards and the following pupils received nominations to the prestigious IDTA Theatre Dance Awards. Those nominated received marks of 92 or above with a technical score of 54 minimum:-

Dolores Murphy-Straughan - Ballet Grade 4
Scarlet Gledhill - Ballet Grade 4
Grace Boothroyd - Ballet Grade 4
Tom Jones - Ballet Grade 4
Sylvie Kitterick - Ballet Grade 4
Gabby Dawson - Ballet Adv 1
Ava Thornton - Ballet Adv 1
Ava Thornton - Theatre Craft Grade 5
Olivia Serutla - Theatre Craft Grade 5
Faith Kitterick - Theatre Craft Grade 5
Agnes Holder - Theatre Craft Grade 5
Ava Thackray - Theatre Craft Grade 5

Congratulations to Charlie on successfully completing his first year at Wilkes Academy, culminating with a superb show at the weekend.

He performed in two fantastic numbers - one was a Michael Jackson inspired commercial piece and one was a Chicago MT jazz number.

What a fabulous year he’s had. We are looking forward to having Charlie assisting in the studio over the summer! 🙌