We were invited to perform at the opening of several important city events, including the:  

SQA Star Awards, hosted by Kaye Adams

Big Dance Weekend, at several city centre openair venues, including Princes Street Gardens’ Ross Bandstand

Last ever Jewel & Esk Graduation Ceremony at the Usher Hall

Inauguration of Edinburgh College for the Assembly Rooms

Strictly Shimmy at Edinburgh Castle for Strictly Come Dancing, filmed by the BBC

Edinburgh International Science Festival at the Museum of Scotland

Dr Peter Lovatt, a former professional dancer turned psychologist and founder of the Dance Psychology Lab, talks about the Science of Dance. For more videos and show descriptions, see our Performances page…

We started our Drop-In Ballet Classes for adults, beginners to advanced levels, with live pianist William Mowat-Thomson. Other new classes included Adult Beginners Tap and an Elementary Flamenco season with guest tutor Maria Claderón, a soloist from Spain’s premier flamenco dance companies.

Our Web Manager, Jeda Pearl, put together an article on the Health Benefits of Dance using information from recent studies. This sparked the interest of Gina Davidson, Associate Editor of The Evening News, who then interviewed our Principal Director, Tracy Hawkes. The full page feature appeared in The Weekender on the 4th February: “Give Dancing a Stamp of Approval.” With great photos of Tracy and our guest tutor, Maria, teaching, Gina discussed the rise in popularity of adult dancing classes and the health benefits of dance. Read the Interview….

More Graduates got in touch to let us know how well they were doing: 

Stacey Graham (2011) passed her  ISTD Advanced 2 Modern with Distinction, ISTD Advanced 2 Tap with Merit and her RAD Advanced 2 Ballet with Merit and won our Outstanding Student of the Year 2011. She’s just back from summer 2012’s season dancing in Greece.

Jennifer Lyall completed her ISTD Teacher Training and  is enjoying her very rewarding teaching career creating themed educational workshops in nursery and primary schools in and around Edinburgh for a local performance arts organisation.

We put together our first ever YouTube video:

Choreography credits to our inspirational faculty, including:
Artistic Director: Tracy Hawkes
David Aing
Irene Allison
Christina Gusthart
Karen McArthur & Graduates 2011
Steinvor Palsson
Nicky Pyrah
Lesley Wood
Audio Credits: ‘Sweet Fascination’ by Photoside Cafe

Performances included our annual Spring Fling with senior pupils and professional students, biannual show with junior pupils entitled A Step in Time, the Go Dance festival and Dance Around the World – our end of academic year showcase.  

Award winning Flamenco A3 came back to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and taught workshops at our studios. Flamenco A3 is a minimalist flamenco performance concept comprising the award winning artists, guitarist Flavio Rodrigues and singer Pedro Obregon, with the accomplished ex-soloist of the Ballet Nacional de Espana; David Coria. View videos…

We introduced new contemporary classes for teenagers 13yrs+ taken by one of our highly skilled and experienced tutors Samm Baigrie.

Our Alumni were awarded ISTD Teaching Certificates in Dance Education (CDE): Lousie Ferrier (2007), Jennifer Lyall (2010) and Claire Roberston (2007). We offered our praise and congratulations for all their hard work and, wishing them the very best in their continued dance teaching careers! 

There were more Graduate Successes as our 2010 Graduates reported:

Emma Smith secured a position in the Robbie Williams Tribute Show on a Balearic Islands Cruise with Main Feature Productions. She was one of only three singer/dancers in the production. She is now the Dance Support Officer for SkyeDance, which is the resident charitable dance company of Aros Arts Centre in Portree.

Lisa Aytoun won a contract with Octopus Entertainment in Mumbai, India, which included performing in Bollywood films, music videos, adverts & theatre shows. That followed on the back of representing Scotland at the 2010 European Gymnastics championships in Sweden and touring the UK performing for singer Scarlette Fever. 

Lauren Cunningham also made it through competitive auditions to secure a contract with the renowned Costa Cruise Company. She joined fellow DFA graduate Louise Ferrier (Dance Captain), to tour internationally.

We opened up some of our advanced professional level classes.

Award winning Flamenco A3 came for the first time to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and taught workshops at our studios. Flamenco A3 is a minimalist flamenco performance concept comprising the award winning artists, guitarist Flavio Rodrigues and singer Pedro Obregon, with the accomplished ex-soloist of the Ballet Nacional de Espana; David Coria.

Performances included our annual Spring Fling with senior pupils and professional students, the Glasgow Go Dance festival, Everybody Dance Now Festival and Showcase ’11 – our end of academic year showcase. 

2010 marked Dance For All’s Silver Anniversary and ten years of our Professional Course! We contacted all past students to invite them to a Reunion and find out what they had been up to since their days at DFA .

We created a NEW College Prospectus for the Professional Course, which you can now download (7.7MB pdf).

We welcomed new tutors: Paul McLavin and Christina Gusthart and we said goodbye to Julie Martin (Café & Wardrobe), who moved on to pastures new with IQ Student Accommodation. Julie will always be part of the Dance For All family!

DFA was invited to be part of the Active Scotland campaign.

We announced our very first Patron: the accomplished writer, playwright and actor, Steven Berkoff.

Performances included our annual Spring Fling with senior pupils and professional students, biannual Easter Fairytale show with junior pupils, the Go Dance festival and Variations – our end of academic year showcase.  

The National Gallery of Scotland invited us to hold a flash dance performance in their grounds to celebrate their Dance exhibition which included work by Arthur Melville, Walter Sickert, Diane Arbus, Pablo Picasso and Edgar Degas.

We were very happy for our senior pupils who went on pursue their dreams of a professional dance career in 2009. 

Left to right: Stacey Graham gained direct entry into second year on our own Professional Stage Dance Course. Claire Robertson gained a place to study a degree in modern ballet, run by Scottish Ballet at the renowned RSAMD in Glasgow (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) and Beverley Grant took up a coveted place at the prestigious Rambert Dance School in London.

BBC3 Move Like Michael Jackson

While in her final year, Lauren Cunningham made it through the first two rounds of auditions for a new BBC3 show Move Like Michael Jackson. Lauren was one of the top forty acts selected for the final callbacks in London.

MOBO AWARDS

Another of our 3rd year students, Lisa Aytoun, did us proud at her live performance throughout the 2009 MOBO Awards held in Glasgow on 30th September. Lisa was chosen to bring on the MOBO Award envelopes to the presenters Reggie Yates and Keri Hilson in a unique way through acrobatic dance tumbling onto the stage!

SKY TV SHOW JUST DANCE

Our 3rd Year Students did very well to make it through to the second round of auditions for the first series of the SKY TV show GOT TO DANCE (originally titled JUST DANCE). Also through was one of our young pupils who is only nine years old!

Read more Graduate Success…