Sussex youngsters celebrate "the joy of dance" in difficult times

The school has around 250 pupils across its various locations in Lewes, Plumpton, Barcombe and Haywards Heath.

Lianne Carter, assistant principal of Turning Pointe, explained: “Since lockdown, around 175 of our dancers have continued to take classes with us online via Zoom, and this has been going extremely well.

“We were due to have a gala performance in July to celebrate our senior pupils who are leaving, many of whom have gained places at prestigious dance schools, and had also invited several of our former pupils, who are now dancing professionally, to come back and perform for us.

“As the gala had to be cancelled, we wanted to do something to celebrate our pupils’ achievements in its place. We had seen several professional dance companies, such as Paris Opera, produce films of their artists dancing at home so we thought we would try something similar.

“The idea behind the film was to create a special memory of our dancers’ experiences during these unprecedented times.

“Our principal Julia Canneaux selected several tracks of music from Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and gave our pupils some ideas to think about when filming themselves. For example, thinking about how they can use the different spaces around them and that they could either use their whole body or just focus on certain parts such as am movements.

“There were 75 separate pupils who sent in a total of 130 different videos of them dancing in a variety of settings: from their kitchens, to their gardens, in the woods, on the beach and on the South Downs. The youngest child is actually a three-month-old baby who is in a sling on one of our Ballet teachers whilst she dances, and the oldest is a lady in her 40s who attends our adult ballet class. Several dogs are also featured.

“The footage took a lot of editing, and it was really hard to get it down to just 14 minutes. We are all absolutely delighted with the result. I think the film really shows how amazing the joy of dancing can be, and this shines through on all of the dancers’ faces; they are totally involved in the movement and are enjoying expressing themselves. For me personally, as one of their teachers, it was really emotional to see all of my wonderful pupils dancing at home and creating beautiful movement phrases. It gives us a sense of togetherness as a school; hence the title Somewhere Together.”