News

9th January

Welcome back to the new year and new term We hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year and are ready to dance off all those mince pies. Here is the latest news round up from the last few months.

We would first like to say a huge well done to all of our dancers that were involved in the recent Buckley and Wrexham pantomimes.
This year, as always we provided a number of dancers to the local amateur panto in Buckley. You did us proud as always. Once again all dancers who auditioned for Wrexham Panto got in, it was lovely to see your smiling faces up on that stage over the Christmas holidays. We were asked very last minute if we could provide some junior chorus for the Rhos Panto ‘Cinderella’. We sent along 7 dancers to help make up the 4th team and once again you were a credit to the school. Well done everyone!

Well done to all of our dancers who took part in the annual, North Wales Superkids show at Clwyd Theatr Cymru. It was an excellent show this year and you did us all proud. The evening raised just under £1300.00, so a huge thank you to everyone who came along and supported a great cause.

Well done to everyone who was involved in Buckley Theatre Club’s, Showtime Variety Show back in September. It was a new venture by the club and definitely paid off as each performance was full. Thank you for your support.

We are still awaiting all of our exam results from last term. Well done to Jessie Hayes, Jess Southern and Tasha Griffiths for passing their Advanced 1 modern exams at Merseyside Dance and Drama Centre. Excellent results from all of you but top mark of 81 goes to Jessie Hayes!! Well done!!

Well done to our Senior Group Team who recently entered the British Troupe Championship competition. Once again ‘Addiction’ won it’s section. We weren’t overall winners this year (we came second!!! Out of 120 Troupes still pretty good!!) We were awarded the adjudicators choice (Nicolette Whitley - from ‘Got to Dance) for her personal favourite dance of the day. So stilll excellent results - Well done!!!

Our Mini Shows are now booked. They are at a different venue this year, due to Buckley Elfed not being available. The new venue is, Bryn Coch School, Mold. and will take place on the 7th, 8th, 14th & 15th July. For new pupils who have never done or seen our Mini Shows, these are our bi-yearly smaller performances. All four shows are different and every class in the dancing school dances in two of the shows. More information about these shows will be on the notice board at the beginning of the Summer term.

Rachel Catherall will be choreographing Clwyd Theatr Cymru’s forthcoming production of, ‘A Dolls House’, which is directed by Emma Lucia - Hands.

Finally - For those who don’t know, we have a Facebook page (just search ‘elsberdancers’). Where as our website is a collection of videos’ photos and rounded up news, all of the latest and up to date news is posted on the Facebook site, eg. Time table changes, snow days etc. Please feel free to join.

28th July

We would like to say a huge well done and thank you to everyone involved in any way with our recent production show, Circus Of Life at Clwyd Theatr Cymru.We hope everyone enjoyed it. All of the feedback we have received so far has been very positive. Over the coming weeks, we will be posting more photos and videos from the show, so keep checking back. Also, if you have a spare minute, we would be really grateful if you could share your comments about the show on our guestbook.

The DVD of the show is now available to pre - order. Click here to go to our new merchandise page.

28th April

Welsome back to a new and very busy term. As you probably know by now, it's our large production show year at Clwyd Theatr Cymru. This year's show is called, 'Circus of Life' and will be on at Clwyd Theatr Cymru from Thursday 7th July - Saturday 9th (including a matine on Saturday 9th). We promise it will be a brilliant show and look incredible. Please help support us and our dancers. Tickets are now on sale from the theatre's box office. The phone number is 0845 330 3565 or you can visit their website by clicking here.

If you would like to download our poster to put up anywhere you can think, just right click here and select, 'save as'.

Well done to everyone who took part in the recent Frodsham Festival. We came away with many first places, too many to mention, but two trophies that were adjudicator's choices were awarded to, Hannah Bridges (most promising classical dancer) and Eleanor Custance (most outstanding classical performance). Well done!!!

The Welsh Championships take place on May 8th at the Catrin Finch Theatre, Wrexham from 2pm. Please come along and support our dancers.

We had had a set of ballet and modern / tap exams this term. The ballet results are in but we are still awaiting the results for the modern / tap. The ballet results were excellent, with a special well done to Jessie Hayes, Hannah Bridges and Jess Southern for gaining their Intermediate Ballet (GCSE equivalent). Well done Jess Souhtern for getting 80 marks, a distinction. We haven't had a pupil who has received a distinction in this exam for quite a while.

Show rehearsals begin tomorrow. When you go back to dancing, please check out the time table each week, Tuesday classes will change every week from now until the show and all Rachel Catherall's private lessons have changed too.

Some of our dancers will be performing in the forthcoming Dee & Alyn Gilbert & Sullivan Society's show, HMS Pinafore at Clwyd Theatr Cymru, 7th - 11th June.

Some our dancers will be performing at a charity show at Rhyl Town Hall on 2nd June for North Wales Superkids. More information on this show will follow soon. To book tickets, phone, Margaret Williams on 01352 761193.

We will be taking part at this year's Flintshire Dancefest Event at Clwyd Theatr Cymru. Keep an eye on the board for more details.

The Senior Group Team will be holding a fund raising event at the Hawkesbury Theatre, Buckley on Sunday, May 15th (7pm). There will be various stalls and raffles. There will also be a panel of professionals from the entertainment's industry, all of whom are former Elsber pupils, including West End star, Lydia Griffiths, and will be answering any questions anyone may have about the profession, how to get into it, what it's like what you're in it etc etc. Please think of a few questions to help make this a great night. Watch the board for more details.

24th January

We would first like to say a huge well done to all of our dancers that were involved in the recent Buckley and Wrexham pantomimes.
This year, as always we provided a number of dancers to the local amateur panto in Buckley. You did us proud as always. This year, you might know that Wrexham had it’s first professional pantomime which starred TV presenter and local boy, Tim Vincent. As mentioned on our website, many of our dancers took part in this. Well done to you all.

It might be a little quieter on the performance front this year. As you know, we usually perform in the Young Musical Theatre Singer’s Final at Rhyl Pavillion. Unfortunately, due to various reasons, including having their funding cut from the Welsh Arts Council, the organisers of the event have decided to call it a day and stopped the competition. We also as yet, don’t have any dates for the Welsh Championships or the Nancy Clarke Memorial Show, but as soon as we do, we will let you know.

A huge well done to everyone who took exams recently. Our Modern / Tap exams came back with the highest results ever, with every entry gaining either a Distinction or Merit, with Jess Threadgold gaining a mark of 90. Well done to you all.

As you may know, we had a group of our dancers audition for the Sky 1 programme, Got To Dance. In the last news letter we weren’t allowed to let you know how we got on, but as the show started this weekend on Sky, we are now allowed to tell you. At the time of the audition, we received two out of three gold stars from the panel which meant we got through to the judge’s shortlist for the next round. We performed a cut down version of our, ‘Addiction’ number (we were restricted to 90 seconds). We got a gold star from both Kimberly Wyatt (former Pussycat Doll) and Ashley Banjo (leader of Diversity) but got a red star from Adam Garcia (West End tap dancer). We were thrilled with the comments, and it was nice that the choreography got a good mention too. Kimberly and Ashley loved it, but Adam Garcia said that although he very much enjoyed the performance, within the 90 second segment (of what was originally a 3 ½ minute routine), he didn’t quite understand the story, which to be honest, we were expecting as the routine was really cut down. We received a phone call a couple of weeks ago to say that unfortunately, we didn’t make it through to the live shows, but out of over 4000 groups / performers that auditioned, it was good to make the 200 group shortlist. We were very impressed at how organised the show was and how much of an easy time we had. We were also very impressed with all of the judges comments, not just with our number, but with all the acts we saw. Unlike the showing off and lack of knowledge from various other judges in other TV talent shows (not mentioning any names Piers Morgan!!!), Everything that these three judges said were constructive. We will deffinately be auditioning for the show again next year if it is re-comissioned and will go prepared with a 90 second routine especially choreographed for the show. As last time, rather than audition our dancers for this, this year’s classwork and performance work will be monitored constantly and the dancers will be chosen from that, so make sure you give your all, everytime you step onto a stage this year!!!!

After pressure from our dancers, we now have an ‘Elsberdance Dancewear Collection’, which consists of Joggers, Hoodies, Vests and T-Shirts. We know that most people who wanted any have already ordered and received, but from now on, we will place an order at the end of every month, so if anyone wants anything else then fill in an order form, and hand it into class.

Well done to our Senior Group Team who recently entered the British Troupe Championship competition. We entered 2 categories, Senior Tap with our, 'Crazy For Gershwin' routine and Senior Cabaret, with, 'Addiction'. Both pieces came first in their sections and 'Addiction' went on to win highest mark of the competition and also scooped the Best Choreography prize. We also entered an adult tap routine which came second, so well done to everyone involved. We are now the British Troupe Champions.

Other news this term....Rachel Catherall has been busy choreographing recently with Dancing At Lughnasa, directed by Kate Wasserberg, Feast Of Festive Fun and A Child’s Christmas In Wales, both directed by Tim Baker, all for Clwyd Theatr Cymru. She has also recently been onboard the Fred Olsen cruise ship, The Black Watch, teaching 2 new shows to the onboard production team.

We would like to say a huge well done to former Elsber dancer, Stevie Tate Bauer who is in the company of Wicked in the West End who got on as the lead part of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch back in November. We went to see her and she was amazing!!!

Many of our former pupils who are now in the profession have been busy recently, with Lydia Griffiths, Emma Fenlon and Charlotte Rose recently starring in various pantomimes across the country, Rosie Taylor and Ceri Shone are still with Carnival Cruise Lines, Sara Bryan with Classic International Cruise Lines and Kerry Piper with Fred Olsen Cruise Lines.

With our large scale production show at Clwyd Theatr Cymru in July, it’s going to be a busy year, so keep working hard and keep checking the website and notice board for news updates!!!!

21st October

We usually update our news page once a term, but quite a lot has happened recently so we thought we'd do a quick update to tell you what's been happening.

First off, a huge well done to our Senior Group Team who recently entered the British Troupe Championship competition. We entered 2 catagories, Senior Tap with our, 'Crazy For Gershwin' routine and Senior Cabaret, with, 'Addiction'. Both pieces came first in their sections and 'Addiction' went on to win highest mark of the competition and also scooped the Best Choreography prize. We also entered an adult tap routine which came second, so well done to everyone involved. We are now the British Troupe Champions. For more information about the championship, visit, www.britishtroupechampionships.co.uk

We would like to say well done to the dancers who took part at former Elsber girl, Lydia Griffith's Magic of the Musicals show recently in Wrexham. We performed our Riverdance routine. Lydia was also performing a week later at the O2 Arena, London as part of the Les Miserables 25th Anniversary Concert (which is available to pre order on DVD and Blu Ray at various online stockists including Amazon and Play.com).

Thank you and well done to everyone who took part in the recent annual, North Wales Superkids Charity Concert, which also featured Lydia Griffiths. It was one of the charity's most successful shows to date, so thank you all who took part and supported.

We are currently half way through the Hope Festival and have got some great results so far. Well done to everyone involved so far and good luck to those taking part this weekend.

Modern & Tap exams have now been confirmed and will take place on 22nd, 23rd & 24th November and Ballet exams will be taking place on 13th & 14th December.

We have now moved into this century and for anyone out there who, 'Tweets', we are now available on Twitter. Just search for 'elsberdancers' to see all the latest updates

After constant requests from many of our dancers, we have now decided to start a clothing range. Soon you will be able to buy Elsberdance t-shirts, vest tops, hoodies and jogging pants. We don't have a date yet or prices, but they should hopefully be ready in pleanty of time for Christmas if anyone is looking for present ideas.

Other news - good luck to former Elsber dancers, Rosie Taylor and Cerri Shone, both of whom have recently returned to cruise ship life and performing in show teams onboard ships for Carnival Cruises.

Finally some very exciting news!!! We mentioned a while ago that former Elsber girl, Stevie Tate-Bauer has been performing in the hit musical Wicked in the West End. Aswell as being in the chorus and main understudy to the character, Nessa-Rose, she has now got a date for her going on as the lead part, Elphaba, the Wicked Green Witch. At the moment, she only has one guarenteed performance in this role which is the evening performance of Thursday November 18th. We initially said that when we knew when she was on, we would like to run a coach trip, but being on a Thursday night in school term, this isn't possible. But for anyone who fancies a trip down to London to see her, that is when she is on. We wish her the best of look and look forward to seeing her, 'Defy Gravity'!!!!!

8th September

Back in July, at the last minute, we entered into the Sky 1 Dance Show competition, Got To Dance. 15 were chosen on the strength of their performances in the recent Mini Shows, and 10 auditioned in the researcher’s round at the Masonic Hall, Manchester. They danced their, “Addiction” piece which they did in the Mini Shows (a video of the dance can be found on our website). We got a phone call 2 weeks ago to say we had got through to the Judges Audition Round which takes place on September 10th in Glasgow (and we have to be there at 7.30am - ouch!!!). Please note that as part of the competition rules, everyone in the audition has to sign confidentiality clause and we are not allowed to reveal how we got on, so we ask if you would please not hassle the dancers involved because they really aren’t allowed to tell you and we could face elimination from the competition should we get through. The judges are, Ashley Banjo, the leader and choreographer of Diversity, Adam Garcia, West End star of many shows such as Wicked, Tap Dogs etc and Kimberly Wyatt, formerly of The Pussycat Dolls. We wish all our team good luck!!!!

We received another last minute call, last Thursday from the production team of the pantomime at The William Aston Hall, Wrexham informing us of auditions for junior chorus and senior dancers which were talking place two days later. For the first time, Wrexham are getting a professional panto which is being directed by and is starring Tv’s Tim Vincent. We quickly put up the information on the dance school’s Facebook page, not knowing if any of our dancers would go to the auditions. We popped along to see the junior auditions. 40 children from all over the area auditioned and we were thrilled when 8 of our girls were chosen. They wanted 2 teams of 8 junior chorus, of which 1 team is entirely made up of Elsber dancers. These are, Emily Miller, Daisy Miller, Maddie Hayes, Amy Kemp, Megan Jenkins, Shikiera Davies, Holly Belcher and Caitlin Kelly. A huge well done to all of you!!! In the afternoon, it was the senior dancers auditions. 6 of our dancers attended, they were looking for 8 dancers (2 teams of 4) and all 6 of our dancers got through. A huge well done to, Sophie Edwards, Abbie Baines, Jessie Hayes, Jess Southern, Hannah Bridges and Sophie McLaren. The panto runs from 9th December - 2nd January.

We would like to say a huge well done Chloe Dignam, Laura Mewes and Deanna Boden who recently took Advanced 1 and Advanced 2 Tap exams in Liverpool. All 3 girls came out with A grades. The Advanced 1 exam is the equivalent of an AS Level exam and the Advanced 2 is the equivalent of an A Level. Well done!!!

Good luck to Deanna Boden who has just started at Merseyside Dance & Drama Centre and to Zakhia Reilly who has just started at Hammond School, Chester.

Other news....

Over the Summer, Rachel Catherall has again been choreographing shows for Fred Olsen’s. Boudicca Cruise Ship

Rachel is currently choreographing Clwyd Theatr Cymru’s forthcoming production of, ‘Dancing At Lughnasa’ which opens 30th September and runs until 23rd October. The show is directed by Kate Wasserberg.

Former Elsber girl, Lydia Griffiths is part of the Les Miserable 25th Anniversary Concert at the O2 Arena, London, 3rd October. Lydia was in the show in the West End a few years back. She started off in the chorus, was understudy to the parts of Cosette and Eponine, then went on to play the part of Cosette full time.

20th July

We would like to say a huge well done and thank you to everyone who was in, who help and who supported our recent set of Mini Shows at Buckley Elfed. The shows were a great success and we're very proud of everyone!!!

We hope you enjoyed the shows and if you have a spare minute, we would be very grateful if you would take the time to leave any comments on the guestbook page.

It's been a while since we actually updated this news page, but here is a quick run down of things we have done since the last update.....

We take part in the Wrexham Festival.

Some of our Senior Group Team perform as special guests at the Young Musical Theatre Singer Final at Rhyl Pavillion.

We also perform in 2 concerts to celebrate 10 years of the Young Musical Theatre Singers competition. One was at Rhyl Pavillion, the other at The Stiwt, Rhos.

3 days of Ballet, Modern & Tap exams were taken. Again with 100% pass rate.

Zakhia Reilly successfully auditions for the Hammond School, Chester.

Some of our dancers took part in the Welsh National Championships Competition.
Natasha Griffiths came runner up for the Senior Welsh Modern Champion.

We perform at the Nancy Clarke Memorial Concert at Rhyl Pavillion.

Some of our dancers appear in Dee & Alyn Gilbert and Sullivan Society’s production of ‘Anything Goes’ at Clwyd Theatr Cymru

We perform at Dancefest 2010 at Clwyd Theatr Cymru.

Some of our dancers perform in the Flintshire Schools Performance at Clwyd Theatr Cymru.

Other news includes....former Elsber dancer, Steph Larty has recently graduated from Northern Dance College, Manchester and has recently successfully auditioned for Regent Cruise Lines and will be joining the show team onboard the 5 star, luxury, "Seven Seas Navigator" ship soon.

Rachel Catherall has been busy as every with her choreography, with another trip down south soon to work on more cruise ship shows for Fred Olsen Cruises. She is also choreographing the forthcoming Clwyd Theatr Cymru production of, 'Dancing At Lughnasa', which will be directed by Kate Wasserberg.

Finally, we have posted some new videos on our site and official Elsber YouTube channel. Be sure to check them out.

11th July

Just a quick Well Done to everyone in last night's Mini Show. Good luck to everyone for tonight and next weekend. A full news update will follow within the week.

12th April

Please note that this term is a 13 week term, which makes up the extra week from last term which was only 11 weeks.

You may have noticed from the bills that the term fees have gone up slightly. This is due to increased hall hire costs, insurance etc. We have kept it to a minimum and has increased by 8 pence per lesson (for one discipline).

MiniShow dates are confirmed and will be on 10th & 11th and 17th & 18th July. All four shows will be at Buckley Elfed High School. Tickets will be on sale at some point in May. More details about these shows will follow shortly. Be sure to keep checking the notice board.

We would like to say well done to everyone who took part in the Wrexham Festival, earlier last term. As always, we had many great results.

Also a huge well done to everyone who took part in the recent Frodsham & Helsby Festival over the Easter holidays. We had a lot of great results and many cups were won. We would like to give a special mention to Amy Kemp who won the Most Promising Classical Dancer award for the entire festival, and also to Deanna Boden who won the Most Promising Caberet Dancer award for the entire festival. A huge well done to you both.

Congratulations go again to Deanna Boden who has recently successfully auditioned for Merseyside Dance & Drama Centre, Liverpool, where she will go on to further her dance training from September.

Well done to everyone who took exams recently in Ballet, Modern & Tap. We are still waiting for the results to come through, but as soon as they do, we will let you know.

In other news, Rachel Catherall has been busy again recently, choreographing more shows for the Fred Olsen Cruise Ships, The Boudicca and The Black Watch. She has also just recently choreographed the European Premier of Shakespeare’s Will, directed by Emma Lucia at Clwyd Theatr Cymru. After a short Summer break, Rachel will be choreographing the forthcoming Clwyd Theatr Cymru production of Dancing At Lughnasa, which is being directed by Kate Wasserberg. Rachel is really looking forward to that one as it will contain a good old bit of Irish foot stamping.

We would like to say well done and good luck to former Elsber dancer, Chloe Coles who has recently joined the dance team at Circus Krone, the famous circus group based in Germany. She will join other former Elsber girl, Nicole Ringrose, who has been with Circus Krone for the last year.

Congratulations also go out to former Elsber girl, Robyn Griffiths, who has recently started rehearsals in Miami with Jean Ann Ryan Productions prior to her contract onboard the 6 star rated luxury cruise ship, The Regent Navigator for Regent Seven Sea Cruise Lines.

We recently caught up with former Elsber girl, Stevie Tate - Bauer, who has joined the West End Cast of Wicked full time. She is currently an ensemble member, but is first understudy to the lead role of Elphaba, the green witch (the one Bethan Jacks played in our show at Clwyd Theatr Cymru last year). Her contract gives her the guarentee of going on at least once as Elphaba, but chances are she will be on more than that. She has told us she will let us know when she is going on as that part and if convenient, we hope to sort out a school coach trip to see her if anyone is interested. Keep your eye on the notice board for more details.

Finally, it is with great sadness that we hear of the passing of great friend of the dance school (and family), Fiona Price. A lot of you may have known Fiona as the piano player for the ballet exams. Fiona first became friends with Wendy Catherall around 40 years ago where she was a music student and played piano for the dance classes when the dance school first started. Fiona played piano for all of the ballet exams from then (and the modern & tap exams before tapes and Cds came into play) until last October. Fiona also used to give vocal training to many of our pupils past and present and recently started the choir group, Belle Voci, which some of our dancers were a part of. If anybody saw the Superkids Charity Concert that we performed in last October, it was Fiona who was playing piano for the choir. Fiona was an incredibly talented person and at only 52 when she passed away, will be incredibly missed by us and many more. Our love and thoughts go to her family.

12th January

Welcome back to a new year and a new term. We hope everyone has had a great few weeks off and are now ready to get back to it, for what will be another busy year. Sorry we haven't updated this site in ages, but we have had some major computer problems, but we think we're back on track again now (fingers crossed).

Please note that this term is an 11 week term, rather than the usual 12. The lost week will be added to next term, making the Summer term 13 weeks.

We have now recieved all our exam results for the resent exams and are very proud to say that everyone has passed well. For the modern and tap exams, the results are all A's and B's, for the ballet, the results were all A - C. The highest mark of all was gained by Olivia Piano fro Grade 3 Tap, who got 90. Also well done to Sophie Davies, Zakhia Reilley and Deanna Boden who all passed their Advanced 1's modern and tap exams, which are equivalent to AS Exams and also to Sophie Davies, Rachel Larty, Lauren Jones, Laura Mewes and Chloe Dignam for passing their Intermediates in ballet, modern and tap, which are GCSE equivalents. Well done to you all.

We would like to say a huge well done to all of our pupils that performed in the recent Buckley Pantomime. We provided two teams of Seniors and two teams of Juniors, and was choreographed by Rachel Catherall.

Hopefully everyone who ordered a DVD of the summer show at Theatr Clwyd has now received their copy. We know there are still some outstanding photograph orders, we think we know who still needs photo discs, but if you could mention it to Rachel, that would be great. Sorry for the delay.

Rachel Catherall has been busy recently, choreographing the pantomime at the Carlisle Sands Centre (this is her 6th year of choreographing for them). It was probably the best show yet and starred TV actress and Dancing On Ice runner up, Claire Buckfield amongst others. Two of Rachel’s professional female dancers were former Elsber girls, Robin Griffiths and Steph Larty. Well done to you both, you were great!!

Rachel will be away from 13th - 18th January, onboard the Fred Olsen Cruise Ship, The Black Watch, where she will be choreographing some new shows for part of their around the world cruise.

Other news of former Elsber dancers....after recently taking the role of Nessa Rose for a few weeks at very short notice in the West End’s production of, Wicked, Stevie Tate - Bauer has confirmed that she is to be an understudy for the leading character of Elpheba (the green witch that Bethan Jacks played in the Theatr Clwyd show in the summer). We are hoping that Stevie will be confirming some dates soon that she knows she will definitely be on, and we are thinking about getting together a dance school trip to go and see her. We need to be able to confirm approx 50 seats for the coach,so if you are interested, please let Rachel know. She doesn’t start rehearsing for a few weeks yet but as soon as we find out more, we will let you know.

Rosie Taylor and Ceri Shone have recently gone back to Carnival Cruise lines to continue dancing. This time, they both head to the Caribbean. Sara Bryan is about to return to Classic International Cruises for her next contract. Rachel Varney is currently dancing for P&O Cruises on their world cruise. Kelly Burke and Kerry Piper are still happily working as dancers for Warners. Nicole Ringrose is currently back home, but will be returning in March to Germany to continue dancing for Circus Krone, Europe’s largest circus. Emma Fenlon is now dancing in Cyprus in some of the large hotels on the island and Lydia Griffiths is currently singing her way around Australia in an ABBA show. We wish everyone all the best of luck!!!!!!

6th November

Welcome back after half term, it's been a busy few weeks. Here is a quick summary of what has happened since last time and what is coming up soon....

Well done to everyone who took part in this year's Hope Festival. As usual, many great results were had!!!!

A huge thank you and well done to all of those dancers who took part in this year's annual North Wales Superkids Charity Show at Clwyd Theatr Cymru last month. The night was a great success with them making around £1300. Some photos were taken on the night and will be posted on our photos page shortly, so be sure to check them out.

We have our exams coming up very soon. Ballet, Modern and Tap....so keep practicing!!!

As usual, we will be providing dancers for the annual Buckley Theatre Club pantomime. This year it is Cinderella and will be on 4th & 5th and also 10th, 11th & 12th December. We will be providing two teams of Senior dancers and two teams of junior dancers and the routines will be choreographed by Rachel

Talking of Rachel, she has recently got back from the high seas after choreographing 5 shows for the Fred Olsen cruise ship, The Boudicca and 2 1/2 shows for the Black Watch cruise ship, also for Fred Olsen Cruise Lines.

We will be putting in our final order for DVDs the beginning of next week, of our summer production show at Clwyd Theatr Cymru, I Want It All. We are going to order a few spare copies which will hopefully be available to buy here on this website (if we can work out how to do it).

We would like to say well done to all our dancers who have now started at the Hammond Dance College, Chester. We have been hearing glowing reports for all of you!!!

Finally, just a bit of a catch up of what some of our recently (well, over the last 8 years or so) turned professional dancers are up to.....Sara Bryan is about to join the production show team onboard the largest cruise ship ever built for a European ship owner, the Fantasia for MSC Cruise Lines. Rachel Varney has recently joined the production show team onboard the P&O cruise ship, The Aurora as it embarks on it's world cruise. Ceri Shone has recently returned to Carnival Cruises and Rosie Taylor goes back to dance for carnival Cruises after a few well deserved weeks off. Lydia Griffiths is currently touring the United States of America in her Abba production show. Kerry Piper and Kelly Burke are still at Warners in the Isle Of White and Nicole Ringrose is still with Europe's largest Circus, Circus Krone, over in Germany. So a huge well done to all of you!!!

Also, keep checking our Elsber YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/elsberdance where we are uploading more videos, including some from our new DVD, I Want It All. You can also view some of them on our videos page on this site. We appreciate any comments about the videos either on our YouTube Channel or on our Guestbook.

4th September

First off, a huge thank you and well done to everyone involved in our large scale production show at Clwyd Theatr Cymru at the end of last term, ‘I Want It All’. This was our technically most ambitious show to date, and we were very pleased how it tuned out.
The DVD is now available and if you have ordered one, it will be bought into class for you. If you have not yet ordered one but would like to, we will be putting another order in with the production company who made them at the end of September. Once this order has gone in, it is unlikely that there will be another chance to order one.

Some of our dancers will be performing in the annual North Wales Superkids Charity Concert in the Clwyd Room at Clwyd Theatr Cymru. The date has now been confirmed as Sunday October 18th. Keep checking the notice board for a list of which numbers we will be doing and as usual, if you can put your name under each one if you are available and want to do it. There will be a single rehearsal for this show. It will be on Friday, 2nd October, 7.30pm - 9.00pm at Buckley Cross. Please note that Rachel will not be around on the day of the show due to choreography commitments but you will all be informed on what’s happening closer to the date.
For tickets and more information, call Margaret Williams on 01352 761193 or visit www.northwalessuperkids.co.uk. It should be a great night with some great acts, please support our dancers and a great charity

We have requested some dates for our exams this term. For the Ballet Exams, we have asked for 23rd and 30th November, and for the Modern & Tap, we have asked for 1st, 2nd and 3rd December. Please note that as yet, these dates are unconfirmed. You will be informed as soon as the dates are definite.

We will again be supplying dancers for Buckley Theatre Club’s annual pantomime. See above for the performance dates. At the moment, it looks like this is going to be Cinderella (but we don’t think it’s confirmed yet). We will be providing two sets of senior and two sets of junior dancers. The teams will be announced during half term. More details about this will follow.

We would like to say a huge good luck to all the students who left at the end of last term and wish you all the best for the future. We would like to say a special good luck to Lauren Jones, Rhian Cunnah, Emily Richards, Josh Donovan and Dan Burke who all continue their full time dance training at the Hammond School Of Dance, Chester.

Rachel Catherall is currently in Watton, Norfolk, choreographing shows for the Fred Olsen Cruise Ships, The Boudicca and The Black Watch. She will be returning home for every Monday class until September 28th but then she will be onboard one of the ships for the show set ups for 3 weeks, returning back straight after half term. Rachel is also currently choreographing Clwyd Theatr Cymru’s next production, The Glass Menagerie.

Rachel will also be choreographing the pantomime at the Sands Centre, Carlise in December (for the 6th year running). This year, the show is Dick Whittington and the Pirate Adventure and among her professional dancers are former Elsber girls, Robyn Griffiths and Steff Larty.

Former Elsber girl, Rachel Varney will shortly be joining the P&O cruise ship, The Aurora (the same ship that former Elsber girl, Stevie Tate - Bauer used to perform on a few years back) as a production dancer for their round the world cruise. We wish her the best of luck.

4th July

Well it's been a week now since our final performance of, 'I Want It All' and I think we're all just starting to recover from what was probably our most ambitious show to date, certainly technically and in format. We would also like to say thank once again to every single person who made this show possible. It was a huge team effort, of which it really couldn't have happened how it did without you. We would also like to say a huge well done to everyone who performed in the show, you really did yourselves and the school proud. If you have a spare minute, please leave any comments you had about the show on the guestbook...as it's always great to hear feedback.

By now, you should have receieved a DVD order form, but if not, you can download it from here (right click and, 'save target as'). Please place your orders as soon as possible, as we have to make a bulk order very soon to the production company. The DVDs will only be available for a limited time.

If you can't wait for the DVD to come out, we have posted a highlights clip of the show on our YouTube Channel. Click here to go to it, or visit our videos page. Please note that this footage is from the theatre's relay camera and is much lower quality than the footage which will be used for the DVD, it's purley there to bring back some great memories. We're also very proud that the people at Handel Productions LTD, who film and make our DVDs said that our show was probably the best show they had ever seen....and coming from a company that films lots of dance schools every year, we are very proud of that comment - well done!!

Finally, a bit of news from outside the dance school. Former Elsber girl, Stevie Tate-Bauer is currently understudy for the part of Nessarose in the West End production of Wicked. She has been on lots recently, and we hope to catch her in it before she finishes in 3 week's time.

There's still a couple of weeks left of term, so keep dancing and see you in class!!!!

April 20th

Welcome back to the new term. As always, it’s going to be a busy one, working up to our big production show at Clwyd Theatr Cymru of which tickets are now on sale. Tickets can only be bought from the Clwyd Theatr Cymru box office, and remember, if a show is sold out, then there will be no more tickets made available. Please book soon to avoid disappointment.

First off this term, we would like to say a huge well done to Emily Richards, who is now the Welsh Modern Champion, winning first place at the recent Welsh Championships at Rhyl. As well as being Welsh Modern Champion, she also was runner up in the Welsh Ballet Championship.

We would like to say well done and thank you to everyone who took part in the recent Nancy Clarke Memorial Concert at Rhyl Pavillion. It was a great night and you all dance excellently.

Well done to everyone who took part in the recent Frodsham Festival, we had some really great results. We would also like to say thank you to Rachel Harrison for being there for everyone as Rachel Catherall was unable to attend due to choreography commitments. She has just returned from Norfolk where she has been choreographing a number of shows for the Boudicca Cruise Ship for Fred Olsen Cruise Lines.

Out of the five days of exams taken at the end of last term, we have just had the results for one of the days. We are very pleased to say that they were all excellent again - all A’s and B’s.

As the Clwyd Theatr Cymru show is only ten weeks away, some of Tuesdays classes will change slightly. Please keep checking the board for the latest information. From now until the show, every Sunday will also be a rehearsal day. Please keep half term as free as you can as we will be having some rehearsals then too. Please note that the Sunday rehearsals until further notice will be for Grade 6 and above only.

Please note that after this week, Rachel Catherall will NOT be teaching any more private lessons until after the show, as all solo work for the show and also some smaller bits will be put into these spaces.

Some of our dancers will be appearing at Clwyd Theatr Cymru two weeks before our show in the Dee & Alyn Gilbert And Sullivan Socoiety’s production of, ‘Oklahoma’. They will be dancing in the, ‘Dream Sequence’, which will be choreographed by Rachel Catherall.

Also, we now have a YouTube Video Channel where loads of videos will be posted over the coming weeks. You can get to it via our website, or by going directly to www.youtube.com/elsberdance Be sure to keep checking back to it as new videos will be posted regularly.

March 9th

We have recently had our December Modern and Tap exam results through and they were excellent!!! They are the best we have ever had (mostly A's with a few B's), with ALL lower grades in Modern, Primary - Grade 2 achieving an A. The highest mark of the whole school was 91, gained by Bethan Jacks in her Grade 4 Modern exam. A huge well done to everyone.....and for 'Anon' who posted a note few months ago on the guestbook who wrote, "It will be interesting to see the next set of exam results for the lower grades" - well there you have it....satisfied??

Well done to all of our dancers who took part in the recent Widness and Wrexham Festivals. They were both great, with many excellent results - well done!!!

On Saturday 7th March, we performed a number of routines as 'special guests' at the Musical Theatre Young Singer Finals at the Pavillion Theatre, Rhyl. Well done to everyone involved, it was a great night!!!

Some of our dancers will be appearing in Dee & Alyn's production of 'Oklahoma', directed by Robin Goddard (Chester Mystery Plays) in the dance sequence which will be choreographed by Rachel Catherall. The show is at Clwyd Theatr Cymru in June (2 weeks before our show). For more information, visit the Clwyd Theatr Cymru website.

We are currently in the middle of our exam sessions, the examiner has been very impressed by the standard of what she has seen so far.

Auditions will be starting next week for the parts of the major roles in this year's Clwyd Theatr Cymru show, 'I Want It All' (see the home page for the poster). If you are interested in auditioning, please check the notice board which will have all of the information about it.

As mentioned in the last news update, some of our dancers will be performing again at Rhyl Pavillion Theatre at the Nancy Clarke Memorial Concert. For more information, scroll down the page to the last news entry.

We have recently added some new videos to our, 'video' page, be sure to check them out and feel free to leave any comments.

Other news....good luck to former Elsber girl, Rachel Varney, who has recently returned to the P&O Cruise Ship, The Oriana as a dancer in the onboard production shows. This contract has taken her all over from Austrailia to Hong Kong (it's a tough life being a dancer!!!).

Rachel Catherall has recently choreographed the Clwyd Theatr Cymru, new musical production of, 'Great Expectations' which has just finished playing in Mold and will go on a UK tour, starting next week. Rachel will also be heading down to sunny Norfolk again at the beginning of April to choreograph more shows for the Fred Olsen Cruise Ship, 'The Boudicca' and has just confirmed that she will again be choreographing the panto at the Sands Centre, Carlisle this year, which will be 'Dick Whittington and the Pirate Adventure'.

That's it for now. Be sure to keep popping by to check for any new updates!!!

January 5th

Welcome back to the new term and New Year. As always, it’s going to be a busy one, working up to our next big production show at Clwyd Theatr Cymru. Sorry it's been ages since the last update, it has been really busy, but we aim to update itr at least once a month if not more from now on.

Here are a few bits of news from last term and forthcoming events for this term.

The dates for the Widness and Wrexham Festivals have been announced. The Widness Festival, held at Ditton Community Centre, Dundalk Road, Widnesswill be on January 31st, February 1st, February 7th & February 8th. The Wrexham Festival, held at the Stiwt Theatre, Rhos will be on 15th, 16th, 17th & 18th February.

Well done to all those who took part in the North Wales Superkids annual charity show. This was the 10th anniversary of shows that have been put on by North Wales Superkids and we are proud to have been in all of them.

Well done to everyone who took Ballet exams last term. Especially well done to those who had very short notice due to the ISTD mess up in London. They say all problems now have been sorted and you can see from the Festival & Exam Diary above, we already have pending dates. All exams were passed with A or B grades. We would like to say a special well done to Rhian Cunnah for gaining her Intermediate Ballet which is the equivalent and very hard. Finally, a big thank you and well done to Miss Wilson who coped brilliantly when told her pupils were going in for the exams in 6 days time!!! Stressed??? - Just a bit!!!

Well done to all those who took Modern and Tap exams in December. We are still awaiting the results but all 3 examiners seemed really happy with the students.

Well done to those who have been auditioning for professional dance colleges last term. To date, the following people have successfully auditioned for the following colleges; Emily Richards - Hammond, Northern Ballet, Kate Simmonds and Stella Mann, Rhian Cunnah - Hammond, Stella Mann and Body Works, Lauren Jones - Hammond and Stella Mann. Lets hope you are able to get some funding and good luck to our other students who will be auditioning during this term.

Well done to everyone who took part in this year’s panto at the Hawkebury Little Theatre for Buckley Theatre Club. This year’s panto was sleeping Beauty and once again, we provided the senior dancers and junior chorus.

Well done to everyone who competed in the Hope Festival, way back in October. Once again, some great results were gained.

Well done to everyone who took part and travelled down to the Saddler’s Wells Theatre, London for the Mardi Gras Challenge. You were all excellent.

We were recently contacted by the director of the, 'Fabulous Las Vegas Show', which theatres and venues around the UK as were looking for 2 male dancers for some forthcoming shows. The director came into to our class to audition Dan Burke and Josh Donovan who both got the job and have since performed in 3 Bugsy Malone style themed dinner shows around the country. Well done to you both.

We have again been asked to perform as special guests in this year’s Musical Theatre Singer of North Wales Final at Rhyl Pavilion. We usually do 3 routines and involves some of our Senior Group Team. I would like to do the Mardi Gras dance but don’t know which other two as yet.

Some of you may remember from the old Rhyl Festival, Nancy Clarke, who sadly passed away last year. Her daughter, Pat has gained permission to restart the Welsh Championships and has booked Rhyl Pavilion on March 22nd. Competitions will take place during the day and then all competing schools will be doing some group numbers in a tribute concert for nancy in the evening. Proceeds will go to an alzheimer charity. Again, we’re not sure which routines we are doing, but we’re going to submit ten group numbers that we know to Pat and let her chose.

Well done to fomer Elsber girls, Robyn Griffiths and Ami Dickinson. They were the 2 principal female dancers in the Jack & the Beanstalk panto at the Sands Centre, Carlisle which was choreographed by Rachel Catherall.

Former Elsber girl, Sara Bryan has extended her contract on the cruise ship, The Athena for another 6 months. She thought it would be rude not to go to Mauritius, the Maldives and the Gold Coast in Australia and get paid for it!!!

Other former pupils working as dancers on cruise ships include, Rosie Taylor, Ceri Shone and Rachel Varney.

Rachel Catherall has been busy with her choreography work. Recent productions include 3 shows for the Fred Olsen cruise ship, The Boudicca, Twilight Tales for Clwyd Theatr Cymru, directed by Tim Baker and Jack & the Beanstalk for the Sands Centre, Carlisle.

October 11th

First off, there is some important news about the big show at Theatr Clwyd next year. We were told this week by the theatre that our show would have to be moved a week earlier. The dates for the shows now are June 25th - 28th. We're really sorry if anyone has already booked holidays on these dates, but it was the theatre who chnged the dates, not us and there was nothing we could do about it.

We would like to say a huge well done to our Senior Group Team members who took part in the Mardi Gras competition at London's Sadler's Wells theatre last Saturday. You all danced brilliantly and did the school proud. You may have noticed on the home page now is a group photo from that event (minus Rachel Harrison and Rachel Catherall who got lost while it was being taken!!). You will see by the text over the photo that it is only a proof. We have been sent this picture to see if any of you would like to buy a copy of it. It comes with a card frame and costs £10.00. If anyone would like a copy, talk to Rachel in class and she will get a copy of the order form to you. This phot is nothing to do with us and is bought directly from the photographer.

We'd also like to say well done for some of our dancers who took part in the special Chester Mystery Plays concert in Liverpool last night and good luck for the show tonight.

Good luck to all our dancers performing at this year's, North Wales Superkids charity show at Theatr Clwyd tomorrow night (Sunday 12th Oct). There are still tickets available if anyone still hasn't sorted them out yet. Please contact Margaret Williams on 01352 761193

We have just uploaded a new video to the video page. It is a clip of a documentary from the National Geographic Channel, broadcast last year about the making of the musical of Lord of the Rings, which until recently played at Drury Lane, London. The clip features former Elsber girl, Stevie Tate Bauer who was understudy to Laura Michelle Kelly, the leading actress. The clip shows a time when they thought that Laura couldn't make the show and Stevie was going to have to step in last minute for the first show.

Finally, Rachel Catherall is back tonight after he time away in Norfolk choreographing shows for the Fred Olsen cruise ship, The Boudicca.

October 3rd

Welcome back and well done to everyone who took part in the recent Mini Shows. They were a great success and we have had lots of great feedback from them. From the proceeds, we will be investing in some new ballet bars.

Good luck to some of our Senior Group Team will be taking part in a UK dance competition at the Sadler’s Wells theatre, London for Mardi Gras Promotions on 4th October (tomorrow). It is a national competition where we have to perform 3 different styles within a four minute routine. It will be judged by four West End professionals, including Bonnie Langford and the first prize is holidays in Euro Disney, Paris, with various other prizes for other places. There will be two busses going down to London. If you are interested in coming down, keep your eye on the notice board and information will be posted shortly once we know what we are doing.

From this term, as Rachel Harrison will be a full time Hammond student, she will no longer be teaching Beginner’s Irish, this will now be taken by Emily Richards. Rachel Harrison will still continue teaching festival lessons on a Saturday morning and will be taking over the teaching of the Adult Tap class.

Don't forget that some of our dancers will be performing in the annual North Wales Superkids charity concert on October 12th at Clwyd Theatr Cymru. Tickets can now be bought from Margaret Williams by phoning 01352 761193.

The results for the Advanced 1’s and 2’s Modern and Tap exams have come in. We achieved four A’s and four B’s. These are A.S and A Level exam equivalent, so well done as these are excellent marks.

Rachel Catherall will be away for a little while during this term due to choreography commitments. She will be choreographing routines for the Fred Olsen cruise ship, The Boudicca and the Jack & the Beanstalk panto at the Sands Centre, Carlisle.

We would like to say huge congratulations to three of our former dancers, Robyn Griffiths and Nicole Ringrose who went on to further their dance training at professional college. They both graduated from college this year and havel found professional dance employment. Following Rachel Catherall’s footsteps, Robyn Griffiths has recently successfully auditioned for the Irish Dance sensation, Spirit of the Dance. She is currently on the UK. Nicole Ringrose is now working as a dancer at Warners holiday park in the Isle of Man.

July 31st

Well, that's the shows over for another year!!! A HUGE well done to all our dancers who appeared in the Minishows, you were all great. It was very hard work for everyone, but everyone did themselves proud!! We would just like to say thank you again to everyone who helped out, we really really do appreciate it. From those who helped in the dressing rooms, to those who did security and sold crips, we are really grateful. We hope you enjoyed the shows as much as we did and if anyone has any photos of any of the routines or backstage or whatever and wants them to be posted on the website, just pop them on a disc and give them to your teacher, or email them to info@elsberdance.co.uk.

We would also like to say a huge well done to all of our dancers involved in The Chester Mystery Plays. It was great for the school to be part of this event. We have just posted some photos from the rehearsals on the photos page. Again, if you have any yourselves which you wish to share, email them to us or give them to Rachel on a disc in class. There is also an oficial DVD of the Mystery Plays which has just been released. There is a short clip of exerpts from some of our dances on our videos page.

This time of year is always sad, as we lose a number of dancers who go off to further their training or off to university etc. Good luck to all of you, you will be missed.

Well done to those who took their Advanced 1 & Advanced 2 Modern and Tap exams recetly. Theses are AS and A Level equivalents. We had 8 exams entered and had 4 A's and 4 B's. This is the most Adavnced 1's & Advanced 2's we have ever entered in one session and also the best results recieved.

Well done to Nicole Ringrose who has recently graduated from Merseyside Dane & Drama Centre, Liverpool and has just got her first professional dancing job at Warners in the Isle of Wight. Also good luck Robyn Griffiths and Kelly Burke who are now starting to audition for their first jobs since graduating.

The winter term starts on September 8th, we hope you all have a great summer and look forward to seeing you soon.

June 21st

Sorry it's been so long since we updated this page, as you know, it's been hectic recently, sorting out the Mini Shows, Chester Mystery Plays etc.

Since our last update, the school has had 5 days of exams. 2 of Ballet and 3 of Modern & Tap. We achieved excellent results, with 100% pass rate, most acheiving grades A or B. Well done to everybody.

Good luck to the Advanced 1's and 2's who are taking their exams at Merseyside Dance & Drama Centre next Sunday. These are the highest grades you can acheive with the ISTD and are equivalent of AS and A2 Level.

Well done to those who took part in the Frodsham Festival. We did really well, with many places and cups.

We have been really busy rehearsing for our Mini Shows, we hope you enjoy them as much as the dancers enjoy performing in them.

Some of our Senior Group Team as you may know are also involved in the Chester Mystery Plays which start next week. For more information about the Mystery Plays, check out their website,

www.chestermysteryplays.com We were recently featured in an article about the plays in this month's Cheshire Life magazine.

In the last update, we mentioned that Ami Dickinson had successfully auditioned for the Hammond School, Chester. She was due to start in September, a few weeks ago, a 1st year dropped out and a place became available and the asked Ami if she could start there and then..so she did. Well done Ami!!!

Other news this month. Former Elsber girls and now established West End performers, Lydia Griffiths and Stevie Tate - Bauer, will be performing their own show called, 'There's No Place Like Home' at theForum Theatre, Chester (formerly the Gateway Studio Theatre) on 24th - 26th July. For more information, click here.

Elsber teacher, Lisa Messham will be teaching on a Clwyd Theatr Cymru summer school. For more info, click here.

Rachel Catherall will be choreographing some more shows onboard the Fred Olsen cruise ship, The Boudicca in October for Mirage Shows & Productions.

Rachel has recently confirmed the choreography for this year's panto at the Sands Centre, Carlise (this will be her Rachel's 5th year with this company), Jack & The Beanstalk, directed by David McNeill. Rachel is looking forward to meeting up again with former 'Grease Is The Word' contestant, Wayne Smith who has recently finished playing the Pharoah in the UK tour of Joseph. Rachel worked with Wayne a few years ago at Centre Parcs, Penrith.

That's it for this month, we'll try not to leave it as long next time. Finally good luck to everyone in the Mini Shows and the Mystery Plays!!!!!

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April 13th

Well done to all the dancers who took part in the Stan Stennett show, "Bless 'Em All" at Clwyd Theatr Cymru last night. You were brilliant. It was a special night for Mrs Catherall who met up with Stan again after over 50 years (see last news post). Videos of our routines have now been posted on the 'Videos' page. Please leave your comments.

April 11th

As mentioned last term, due to Easter being early this year, this term will be 14 weeks long, rather than the usual 12. Half term is 26th May - 1st June.

We’d like to say a very big well done to all those who took part in the recent Frodsham Festival. We had some excellent results and won many cups.

Well done to everyone who took their modern and tap exams. The results have come through and they were the best we have had for a long time. The top mark was 92% gained by Sophie Shaw for Grade 1 Modern.

Some of our dancers will be performing 3 routines at the ‘Bless Em All, An Evening with Stan Stennett’ show at Clwyd Theatr Cymru on April 12th. The show looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun, and it would be great to see some familiar faces in the audience supporting us. We’re hoping to have a piece about it in the newspaper later this week. You may be interested to know that Mrs Catherall’s first professional show as a dancer back in 1957 was in a show in Blackpool with Stan Stennett (and Ken Dodd). She did a few shows over the years with Stan and she is looking forward to meeting him again.

Congratulations to Rachel Harrison and Ami Dickinson who have successfully auditioned for the Hammond School, Chester and Leanne Evans Jones who has successfully auditioned for SLP in Leeds. Good luck to you all.

The date for the annual North Wales Superkids Charity Show at Clwyd Theatr Cymru has just been announced. It will be on Sunday 12th October. It will be the 10th anniversary of the shows and we have appeared in them all. Check out www.northwalessuperkids.co.uk for more information.

Good luck to former Elsber dancers, Rachel Varney and Sara Bryan. Both of them have recently started new dance jobs on cruise ships. Rachel will board P&O’s Oriana where she will spend the next 6 months cruising destinations all over the world and Sara has recently boarded the MV Athena for Classic International Cruises and she will be sailing around the Mediterranean.

Rachel Catherall has been busy as always with her choreography work. She has recently been in Norfolk where she choreographed 2 shows and some opening and closing numbers for the Fred Olsen cruise ship, The Boudicca. She has also been working on Clwyd Theatr Cymru’s revival of The Voyage which performed in Aberystwyth and will be soon be working on the forthcoming Clwyd Theatr Cymru production of Macbeth, directed by Terry Hands CBE.

January 4th

First off, due to Easter being early this year, this term is only actually 10 weeks instead of our usual 12. Rather than mess up the billing system, we will just add an extra 2 weeks to next term.

Well done to everyone who recently took their Modern, Ballet and Tap exams. Once again, we had excellent results. A special well done to Rachel Harrison and Emily Richards for gaining their Intermediate Ballet and Laura Hewitt and Zakhia Reilly for gaining their Intermediate Modern.

Well done to everyone recently involved in the Buckley Theatre Group panto, Puss In Boots. We supplied 2 sets of junior and 2 sets of senior dancers.

We would like to say well done to Chloe Coles who danced in her first professional show over the Christmas holdidays in Carlisle’s Sands Centre production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs starring Sandra Dickinson which was choreographed by Rachel Catherall.

We’re sure most of you know about the ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ story, but if not, this is it. Our Senior Group Team decided that they wanted to enter the TV competition this year and put together a group called ‘Celtic Freedom’. Our initial application was successful and we had to go to Blackpool in October, along with hundreds of other acts to be filmed by the show’s producers to be viewed back down in London with a view to being invited to the actual show auditions, hosted by Ant & Dec and judged by Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan. We have recently found out that we have been accepted and will travel to Blackpool Opera House on 13th January to perform for the judges. We have no idea how far we will get or even if we will be shown on TV or not, but no matter how it turns out, it will be great fun and a brilliant experience for all those involved. We have set up a mini site at www.celticfreedom.co.uk that will follow the journey of our time in the competition. On New Year's Eve, some of the 'Celtic Freedom' group were bag packing at ASDA to raise money for coaches to Blackpool. They made just over £600.

On Saturday, March 8th, some members of the Senior Group Team will be the guest artistes at the Young Musical Theatre Singer Of Wales competition at the Pavilion Theatre, Rhyl for the second year running. We’re not sure yet exactly which routines we will be doing, but it will include the Britain’s Got Talent, ‘Celtic Freedom’ routine.

We would like to say a huge well done to Ami Dickinson who has recently successfully auditioned for the Hammond School, Chester. We wish her all the best.

We have some other news regarding Rachel Catherall’s professional work - Rachel is currently onboard the Fred Olsen, ‘Boudicca’ cruise ship, choreographing an Elvis themed show for Mirage Shows & Productions. Rachel has also been confirmed as choreographer for Clwyd Theatr Cymru’s forthcoming production of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, directed by Tim Baker which will play at the theatre through February then transfer to the New Theatre, Cardiff in March. She is also choreographer for this summer’s ‘Chester Mystery Plays’ which will include some of our own dancers.

Because of Rachel’s ever increasing choreography demands, she has now handed over Saturday morning teaching to Dawn Hughes who has been teaching for us for a while now. We would like to welcome Dawn as a full time member of our teaching staff.

November 10th

We've been really busy recently but it's all been good. We auditioned for this year's 'Britain's Got Talent' up in Blackpool a couple of weeks ago. We have been told that we will find out by Christmas if we get through to the auditions infront of the judges. Due top the contract of agreement we are not able to reveal here if we get through or not so we're not going to mention it again until it is broadcast - that is if we even get through. For those of you who took photographs on the day, it would be great to have a copy of some of them so we can make a photo page up of the day (but not until we're allowed).

Also a huge well done to all those who took part in the recent Hope festival, there were some great results as always.

We would like to say a very well done to all of our dancers who have taken exams recently. You all did really well.

Finally, good luck to all our dancers who are involved in this year's panto for Buckley Theatre Club. More details on this will follow.

October 22nd

Huge congratulations and well done to all of our Senior Group Team who took part in yesterday's British Troupe Championship final at Wolverhampton. We came second in the whole of the UK with our version of 'Bye Bye Blackbird'. An extra well done has to go to Hannah Graham who sang the number which was to be her last public performance with us - well done!!!

You may or may not know that we have got an audition for the next series of 'Britain's Got Talent' - tomorrow!!! We only found out last Sunday and at that point didn't have a routine, just some ideas. The team have worked hard all last week rehearsing the number which has been labelled as a 'Stirish Dance' - a cross between street dance and Irish dance. Tomorrow's audition which is to be held at the Imperial Hotel in Blackpool is just for the show's researchers. If by chance we get through, we think the next stage is infront of the judges (including Simon Cowell) is to be held in January, so fingers crossed!!!

Finally, good luck to all those who are taking part in next weekend's festival in St Asaph.

October 8th

We would like to say a huge well done to all of the dancers in our Senior Group Team who took part in yesterday's heat of the British Group Championships competition in Wrexham. 3 of our 4 numbers (Riverdance, Bye Bye Blackbird and Capone) got through to the final which is to be held in Coventry on 21st October. More details will follow soon regarding transport and tickets etc. Well done everyone!!!

Don't forget that some of our dancers will be performing at the annual North Wales Superkids charity show at Clwyd Theatr Cymru this coming Sunday (14th October). We will be performing various routines from our 'Rockin' All Over The World' show. For more information and tickets, call Margaret Williams on 01352 761193. There will also be more dancers, a comedian and lots more entertainment. It is always a great night and for a really good cause. See www.northwalessuperkids for more info on what they do and who they help.

September 15th

Welcome back, we hope you enjoyed your holidays but we have a very busy term ahead of us. Here is an update on all the latest news.

For those of you who ordered a copy of the 'Rockin' All Over The World' DVD, it is now available and if you haven't already recieved it, you will get it this week. For those of you who want a copy, get an order form from your teacher as soon as possible as another order will be placed with the production company in the next few weeks. For those who have got the DVD, please let us know your thoughts and comments by leaving a message on our guestbook. Talking of our guestbook, you may have noticed that we get quite a lot of spam mail on it, we are on the case and trying to solve this problem.

We have had the ballet exam dates through, they are on November 2nd. We are still awaiting Modern and Tap exam dates.

The first heat for the Inter Schools Group Competition is on October 7th at the North Wales Institute. More news on this is coming soon.

The Hope festival will take place between 26th - 29th October. As yet, the venue is unconfirmed, but as soon as it is, we will let you know.

The annual North Wales Superkids Charity Concert at Clwyd Theatr Cymru will take place in the Clwyd Room on Sunday 14th October. Some of our dancers will be performing various numbers from our recent show. For more information and tickets, visit www.northwalessuperkids.co.uk or phone Margaret Williams on 01352 761193.

As usual, we will be providing the dancers to the Buckley panto. This year it is 'Aladdin' We don't have the exact dates yet, but it will be some time at the end of November / beginning of December.

Photographs of the dress rehearsal of 'Rockin All Over The World' will be available for sale over the next week or so, ask in class for details.

Also, check out our photos and videos pages which we have just updated.

Other related news.... Rachel Catherall has recently choreographed some routines for Mirage Shows & Productions onboard the Fred Olsen Cruise Ship, 'The Boudicca'. She is currently choreographing the Clwyd Theatr Cymru productions of 'Toy Epic', directed by Tim Baker and 'The Cherry Orchard', directed by Terry Hands CBE. She will also be doing panto again in Carlisle at the Sands Centre and has been confirmed as choreographer for next year's Chester Mystery Plays which will feature some of our dancers. More news on this soon.

We would like to say well done and good luck to Jess Ingham and Sara Bryan who have recently successfully auditioned for the 'Fabulous Las Vegas Show' for The Professionals & Kayad Productions which tours various theatres throughout the UK.

We think that's about it for now but be sure to keep checking back for all the latest updates.

July 18th

Summer holidays!!!! It's been a busy few months as you all know. We'd just like to say a huge well done to the dancers that took part in Ruthin Festival. Without going into too much detail, it was certainly an interesting event, but you were all great and the organisers said that they had never known the crowd to respond so well to an act as they did with us in all the years they had been running it. A special mention has to go to Bethan Jacks who kept her cool during the minor stage invasion - well done!!

As well as being a time to chill down for a few weeks, it's also a sad time as we have students who leave and go on to further their studies or dance training else where. We would like to say a huge Good Luck to all who are leaving us this summer and going into full time training!!

You may have noticed on the Videos page that the videos from the London show at Her Majesty's Theatre have been removed. This is due to us getting hassled as we didn't own the copyright of the actual video - only the number itself, so we decided it was much easier to remove them.

Some of you have been asking about photos from the show. Yes, there will be some available to buy when you go back to class when the new term starts. They were taken at the dress rehearsal of the show. We don't know how many or the cost yet, but we'll keep you informed.

We've also had some requests for video footage from the show to be posted here. As soon as we get the DVDs from the production company (in probably another 4 weeks or so) we will be posting them. In the mean time, we have some footage of the show filmed from the theatre's show relay camera at the back of the auditorium which we will be posting a few clips ups here over the next week or so. It is only a single fixed image of the whole stage, but it will serve as a bit of a reminder until we get te actual video.

Other news, Rachel Catherall is teaching at Theatr Clwyd's Senior Summer School next week before heading down south to choreograph some routines for the Fred Olsen cruise ship, 'The Boudicca'.

July 3rd

It's finally over...boo hoo. We would like to say a huge thank you and well done with everyone who was involved in making 'Rockin' All Over The World' such a success. It was our most successful show to date, with full (or virtually full) standing ovations on all 4 performances. It went down better than we could have hoped for and it was all due to the hard work of everyone!!!

It was a sad time for some of the seniors, as it will be their last Theatr Clwyd show, but if they wanted to go out on a high, then it doesn't get much higher than that....until next time!!!

Both shows on Saturday were filmed for the DVD which will be available in approx 6 weeks time for £17.00. Order forms are being given out in class. They will only be available for a limited amount of time, so make sure you get your orders in soon if you want one. There will also be some photographs which were taken at the dress rehearsal by Theatr Clwyd photographer, Barry Hamilton available soon. More details on this to follow.

If you enjoyed our show...or even if you didn't, please take the time to leave us a message on our guestbook. It really is great to hear all the comments.

Finally, as if we haven't been busy enough. Some of our dancers will be appearing at the Ruthin Festival on Saturday evening. We will be performing a 20 minute set sometime between 6.30 and 7.30pm - more details as we get them.

That's it for now, well done to everyone and thanks for all your support!!!

June 14th

The DVD from the recent London show at Her majesty's Theatre, London (see April news article for more details) has finally been released. For those who haven't seen it yet, check out our 'Videos' page for all 3 of our numbers. Let us know what you think on our guestbook.

June 12th

Apologies for not updating for a while. It has been hectic here preparing for the show in 2 1/2 weeks time. Everyone has has been working very hard and we can't wait for the show to be up and running.

For those of you who have seen one of our big shows at Clwyd Theatr Cymru, you will have a sort of idea what to expect (only hopefully even better this year), but for those who haven't seen us perform in our shows, you are deffinately in for a treat. If you haven't got tickets yet, and you do want them, please call the theatre's box office soon. The Saturday night is already sold out, the Friday night is well on it's way and both other shows are doing pretty well too.

For those of you have have ordered a DVD from the recent Sunday Night At Her Majesty's show in London that we appeared in, we have been told that they will be sent out very soon. We will post the videos of all our numbers from the show onto this site as soon as we get them.

Other news, Rachel Catherall has recently finished choreographing 4 brand new shows for the 'Ocean Majesty' cruise ship for Page & Moy Cruise Lines and as soon as our show is over, she will be off to choreograph a West End themed show for the Fred Olsen Cruise Ship, 'The Budicca'. Rachel has also recently been working at Clwyd Theatr Cymru on their production of 'Timeless Myths Of The Mabinogion', directed by Tim Baker.

We hope you will enjoy the show and we would love to hear any comments you have about it either on our guestbook or sent to us by email.

April 27th

Just to let you know that tickets are now on sale for the upcoming Theatr Clwyd show, 'Rockin' All Over The World'.
For more details and to book, please contact the theatre's box office on 0845 3303565.
We don't want to make anyone panic, but they are already selling quickly and over 200 seats have already been sold in less than a week for the final performance on Saturday 30th June and it only holds about 500.

Also, we have been having a few prodlems with our internet provider so have recently changed. If you have our site bookmarked (in favourites), you may need to re-save it as it will probably direct you to the old and no longer updated site.

April 14th

We just wanted to let you know that the photographs from the London show are available to view and buy from www.beckhamphotography.com They will only be available for a couple of weeks, so if anyone wants any, please act fast.

April 2nd

Well, we finally did it. We have been down and performed onstage at Her Majesty's Theatre in London's West End (last night) as part of the 'Star EFX Sunday Night At Her Majesty's Show' and we would like to say a huge well done to all the dancers and everyone involved in making this happen and also a huge thank you to those friends and family who came down to see us. If you have been reading the previous news entries, you will know the story, but if not, this is pretty much it..... A few months ago, we successfully auditioned to perform at this event, hosted by the company 'Star EFX'. One of the conditions of our entry was that we provided a group of approximately 30 performers and each performer brought approximately 4 audience members with them. As you probably know, getting to London and seeing a show isn't cheap, so we created a Senior Group Team Comittee to discuss plans on how to make this happen. It was decided that because tickets for the event ranged from £15 - £35, we wanted to be able to take friends and family down to London at no extra cost than just the ticket price. The Senior Group Team (with a little help) organised a fund raising show at Buckley Elfed last year which went really well and have recently taken part in a sponsored walk and spent two days packing shopping at Woolworths at Broughton Park. With all of this and some other gratefully recieved donations, we finally managed to fund 3 coaches to take 150 of us down to London (early) yesterday morning. Friends and family were able to spend the day in London while the Senior Group Team rehearsed all day in the theatre. Although we all left at 5am on Sunday morning and didn't arrive home until 4am Monday morning, I think everyone who went would agree that it was a fantastic day out and our dancers were brilliant!!!! Not wanting to sound biased or bigheaded, but I think you'll agree that we certainly showed London what the best of North Wales has to offer!!! We performed 2 numbers ourselves, 'Riverdance', with Dan Burke taking the lead male irish role as Sion was unable to come with us due to other commitments and 'Bye Bye Blackbird' sung brilliantly by Hannah Graham. We also provied a backing routine to one of their own vocalists to 'Son Of A Preacher Man'. There were many photos taken which I'm sure will make it onto this site over the next couple of weeks and also the show was filmed for a DVD which will be ready in 5 - 8 weeks (I'm sure our videos will be popping up on this site too). For those who were there and are looking to buy the official photographs from the day, they will be available to view and buy online (usually within 48 hours of the performance) from www.beckhamphotography.com. If anyone who was there has a spare couple of minutes, please leave us a few comments about the day on our guestbook, we love to see what people really have to say. Thank you again to everyone who made this a very special day for those taking part!!!!!

Other news this month. We would like to offer our congratulations to 3 of our pupils.....Well done to Chloe Choles who has recieved a full scholership for Hammond School Of Dance, Chester. Well done to Terrie Abblet who has just successfully auditioned for SLP, Leeds and well done Steph Larty who has successfully auditioned for both the Hammond School, Chester and the Northern Ballet School, Manchester. Good luck to you all, we wish you all the best!!

Well done to the members of our Senior Group Team who performed 2 routines at the 'Musical Theatre Young Singers' final at Rhyl Paillion last month as special guests. The open routine was filmed by BBC Wales, but we haven't been able to find out if or when it will be shown (unless it already has and we've missed it).

Work has begun early on our bi - yearly large production show at Theatr Clwyd. I know is is becoming expected now, but this year looks to be bigger and better than ever (we hope!!!). We're not sure when tickets go on sale, but as soon as they are, we will let you know here!!

Other related news...Rachel catherall is currently in Newcastle choreographing a brand new irish Dance show for 'Main Feature Productions' which will tour large hotels in Majorca all summer from May this year and as soon as she finishes this job, she's straight down the motorway for Norfolk to choreograph 4 production shows, plus openers and closers for 'Mirage Shows & Productions' onboard 'Page & Moy's' 'Ocean Majesty Cruise Ship.

We think that's it for now, enjoy your 2 weeks off before we start again for the Summer Term.....it's gonn abe busy!!!!

February 20th

We'd like to start off this month's news by saying a big "Well Done" to our dancers involved in the recent pantomime, "Aladdin" for BADG. The show was adjudicated, so if you are interested in the review, then click here. As you will read, the adjudicator like the dancers and dances very much.

The Wrexham Festival is currently on at the Yale Drama Theatre, we'd like to say well done to those that have already taken part and to those that are still to take part.

As mentioned in last month's news, we will be performing at Rhyl Pavillion theatre as special guests for the Young Musical Theatre Singer Of Wales final on March 3rd. We have just found out that the opening number will be filmed for BBC Wales News, so set those videos. We don't know yet when it will be broadcast, but we're guessing it'll probably be the Monday after the show.

March 11th sees our Senior Group Team doing a sponsored walk up Moel Fammau to raise the last bit of money needed to get down to London on April 1st (see previous news). They also have some bag packing in Woolworths on Broughton Park. Please help them out if you can. We have also been asked by the organisers if we will provide the backing dancers for one of their soloists to 'Son Of A Preacher man'.

Finally, Rachel Catherall has been busy choreographing at Theatr Clwyd recently. 'Arcadia', directed by Terry Hands CBE is currently running, before transferring to the 'New Theatre', Cardiff and Rachel has just been asked to choreograph some routines for the forthcoming production of 'Tales Of Europe', directed by Tim Baker which will play at Theatr Clwyd and tour schools of the area.

January 15th

First off, we would to congratulate Chloe Coles on gaining her Advanced 1 Ballet exam. This is a very hard exam and we rarely put in people for it. She got a B grade which is an excellent achievement and we are very pleased for her - well done!!

As you know from last term, the Senior Group Team have been busy fundraising to get themselves down to London to appear at Her Majesty’s Theatre in a special Sunday night concert on April 1st. The audition date has now come through and is January 23rd. If they are successful, every group member has to guarantee four audience members. Tickets will be offered to the families of the dancers involved first, but if there are tickets spare, we will then open it up to the rest of the school on a first come, first served basis. Tickets are priced between £15.00 and £35.00, but you will get your transport provided to and from London. We aim to get to the venue around 10am (which means a very early start!!!) , but for the families of the dancers, you get a day shopping in London followed by a great show with transport to and from all included (We still have quite a bit of money to raise, so keep an eye out for any fun raising events and please support the dancers if you can).

Well done to everyone who recently took their Modern and Tap exams. Out of 49 entries, we had 12 B grades and 37 A grades - these are the best results we’ve ever had - so well done!!!

Well done to everyone recently involved in the Buckley Theatre Group panto, Snow White. We supplied 2 sets of dwarfs and 2 sets of senior dancers.

Good luck to everyone involved in the forthcoming BADG panto, Aladdin. We are supplying 18 dancers for this show. See above for dates.

We would like to say well done to Robyn Griffiths who danced in her first professional show over the Christmas holdidays in Manchester Lowry’s production of ‘Aladdin’ starring Coronation Street’s nasty builder, Charlie Stubbs (actor Bill Ward).

We would also like to say well done and Rachel would like to say a special thank you to Kelly Burke for coming to the rescue at the panto that Rachel was choreographing at the Sands Centre in Carlisle when 3 days before it opened, they became a dancer short for one performance and the understudies were no where near ready for the task. The show was ‘Aladdin’ and featured various ex Byker - Grove’s / soap stars etc.

On Saturday, March 3rd, some members of the Senior Group Team will be the guest artistes at the Young Musical Theatre Singer Of Wales competition at the Pavilion Theatre, Rhyl. As we haven’t decided what we are doing yet, we can’t tell you who will be in it....but we will soon!!

We have some other news regarding Rachel Catherall’s professional work - she has been filling her choreography diary with the forthcoming shows. ‘Arcadia’ at Clwyd Theatr Cymru, directed by Terry Hands CBE (he was honoured in this year’s honours list). This show has just started rehearsing and will open early February. Rachel has recently been confirmed as choreographer for a brand new ‘Tribute To The Celtic Shows’ production show for the production company, Main Feature, which will tour the island of Majorca from the end of March. Rachel’s most exciting bit of news is that she has been head hunted by Mirage Shows & Productions to choreograph 4 production shows plus 10 opening routines onboard Page & Moy’s ‘Ocean Majesty’ cruise ship. She is quite pleased that she will have to stage the show onboard during their 13 day cruise of the Baltic Capitals...(it’s ok for some!!!).

Because of Rachel’s other work (don’t moan, there could be a job in it for you one day!!), Senior rehearsals for our big summer show will start on Sundays in February, but there will be no rehearsals on Sundays mid April to early May - so you can revise for your GCSE’s!!!!

3rd December

Christmas is nearly here and it's been a busy couple of months here since our last update, so let's get started (in no particular order).....

Well done to everyone who took part in the recent Hope Festival. It was our most successful time yet at that particular festival. Many first, second and third places won including 'Capone', which won the Group Section.

We recently took place in the 'British Troupe Championships' where we won the 'Over 12 British Troupe Championship' title with 'Capone'.

Congratulations to Steph Larty who has performed in a Las Vegas styled production show at a theatre in Blackburn. Rachel Catherall was contacted by the company's manager asking if she could recommened a dancer to replace someone who had left. It is a touring show, and Steph is due to appear in it again very soon.

Modern and Tap exams have recently taken place. Although results haven't been handed out yet, we can tell you that they have achieved the highest standard of marks so far.

Congratulations to Robyn Griffiths who will be dancing in her first professional pantomime. The panto is 'Aladdin' at the Lowrey Theatre in Manchester and features Coronation Street's Mr Nasty, 'Charlie Stubbs' (actor Bill Ward) playing the part of Abanazer. It runs from December 8th to January 7th.

Buckley Theatre Group's annual panto is now up and running. This year is 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'. As usual, we have provided the dancers, and dwarfs. There are two sets of dancers and dwarfs this year to split the amount of shows they are doing and also to let twice as many have the experience. So well done and good luck for the rest of the run to the dancers... Leanne Evans - Jones, Rachel Larty, Sophie Ingham, Donna Parry, Ami Dickinson, Laura Hewitt, Sophie Davis, Deanna Boden, Zakhia Reilley, Terry Ablett, Vanessa Higham, Laura Mews, Rachel Stanwood Jones, Dan Burke, Sion Williams, and also to the dwarfs... Amy Kemp, Sophie McClaren, Maddie Hayes, Ellen Hunt, Laura Northall Hughes, Megan Casey, Eve Lewis, Amy Salt, Emily Watson, Holly Belcher,

Thank you and well done to veryone who danced in the annual North Wales Superkids Charity Concert in October. Also a huge thank you to veryone who came along and gave their support. It was a great night for a great cause (see www.northwalessuperkids.co.uk for more info).

Thank you to everyone who took part and supported us in our recent fund raising show at Buckley Elfed. For those of you who don't know why we're raising money...We have been looking into ways of expanding our horizons and getting our senior students as much performance experience as possible. Some of you may be aware of a London based company called, ‘Star EFX’ (www.starefx.com). This company hosts a series of Sunday night productions at top West End theatres throughout the year. We have approached the company about appearing in their April 1st 2007 concert and at the moment, they seem very interested to have us on the bill (we will have to be auditioned). Unfortunately, this sort of thing comes at a price...quite a high one infact. We have to guarantee a dance troupe of 30 and supply 4 people per dancer for the audience. This means we will have to transport approx 150 people down to London and back. The Senior Group Team have decided that they would like to be a part of this show and have put together a fund raising committee. They decided to put on a special fundraising concert in a similar style to this year's MiniShows. This concert was mostly organised by the Senior Group Team and ended up being a great success. We think we are probably about 50% towards our target. Other fundraising events will be announced soon.

Rehearsals for BADG's annual panto will start in the Christmas holidays.

Rachel Catherall has just gone up to Carlise to choreograph panto at the Carlisle Sands Centre, featuribg various celebs, including Kim Gee (Pop Idol), Neil Armstrong (Byker Grove etc), The Patton Brothers (panto legends and real life brothers of the Chuckle Brothers) amongst others. This is the third year running that Rachel has choreographed their panto and it opens on the 13th December and runs to the 29th December. Rachel has also just been confirmed as choreographer for Clwyd Theatr Cymru's forthcoming production of the Tom Stoppard play, 'Arcadia' which goes into rehearsals in the New Year then transfers to the New Theatr, Cardiff.

Ex Elsber dancer, Charlotte Rose has just started a new contract with NCL Cruise Lines as a production dancer onboard the Norweign Sun..

Ex Elsber dancer, Stevie Tate - Bauer has recently finished her run playing the part of Rusty in Footloose in London's West End and has just successfully auditioned for a part in the huge budget forthcoming West End Musical, 'Lord Of The Rings' which goes into production early next year.

Ex Elsber dancer, Lydia Griffiths is currently in rehearsals for panto (Jack and the Beanstalk) in Hunstanton, Norfolk.

Well, I think that is pretty much it for now, but keep checking back for constant updates.

We hope you all have a great Christmas and New Year!!! xx

29th September

Apologies for not updating before now, it's been really busy here. The time table has now settled and all classes are running hunky dorey. As you probably know by now, we have decided to produce a termly news letter featuring latest news, dates of festivals etc, shows etc etc. You should all have one by now but if you have lost it then click here for a printable version of it.

We have now got our dates for next years big production show, 'Paradise' at Clwyd Theatr Cymru. These are,
Thursday 28th - Saturday 30th June, but please keep the whole week free as we will be rehearsing on stage at the theatre.
Every pupil in the dancing school is in this show. Pupils must be in all 4 shows as it is unfair to the teachers and other pupils if dances are messed up due to missing people. If you cannot be in the show or have anything booked for the rehearsal period that week, please let your teacher know ASAP.

We would like to say well done to 2 of our students, Eleanor Custance and Megan Jenkins who successfully auditioned for parts in Clwyd Theatr Cymru's current show, 'The Grapes Of Wrath'. The show is directed by Tim Baker and is choreographed by Rachel Catherall. See www.clwyd-theatr-cymru.co.uk for more details.

Congratulations to Chloe Coles and Emma Fenlon. Both girls successfully auditioned for professional stage schools with Chloe going to the Hammond School Of Dance, Chester and Emma going to Merseyside Dance And Drama Centre, Liverpool. Both girls started this week. Robyn Griffiths, Kelly Burke and Nicole Ringrose are just starting their second year at these colleges.

Our senior group team will be performing at the annual North Wales Superkids Cahrity Concert in the Clwyd Room at Clwyd Theatr Cymru on Sunday October 15th. We will be performing, 'Cats', 'Capone' and 'Riverdance'. For tickets and more information, visit their website or call Margaret Williams on 01352 761193.

We have just decided to start a 'MySpace' site for the dance school. the reason we have done this is because research shows that it is a good way and the most interactive way to keep in touch with our students. We will only accept current and past students of the dance school. If you aren't part of the dance school, please don't ask to join. It can be found at www.myspace.com/elsberdance

14th August

Summer's here, still a few weeks left before term starts again, so enjoy it while you can. We just wanted to say a huge thank you and well done to everyone who was involved in this year's Minishows. They were a great success and we were very happy how they turned out.

Only one bit of news this month. Rachel Catherall has been appointed 'Choreographer' for the forthcoming Clwyd Theatr Cymru production of 'The Grapes Of Wrath'. The show opens in September and is due to be quite an epic.

See you all soon in class.

12th July

We have just added a short clip from last night's BBC Midlands Newsnight programme to our 'videos' page. It was a short feature on the Barclays Spaces For Sports Campaign that Rachel Catherall and some of our dancers have been working on. The video shows a clip of Rachel teaching the dance, and if you look closely, you see Deanna Boden. We don't think Dan Burke quite made any of the shots. It also features an interview with cricketer, Vikram Solanki, of Worcestershire and England who was the special guest.

We are soon adding more pages to this site, the first of which will be a 'Frequently Asked Questions' page, answering questions about the dance school and dancing professionally.

Good luck to everyone involved in this weekend's Mini Show at Buckley Elfed.

4th July

We would like to say a huge well done and thank you to everyone who took part in and was involved with the fist 2 of this year's Mini Shows that took place last weekend at Connah's Quay Civic Centre. Both shows were sold out and we were pleased to have helped North Wales Superkidsraise over £200 (see guestbook entry). The next 2 shows are on Saturday 15th July and Sunday 16th July at Buckley Elfed High School. The Saturday performance is totally sold out but there are still a small amount of tickets left for the Sunday night. Lets hope they are as good as the last 2. If anyone, especially family of the dancers have any comments on either of the 2 shows, please take a minute to leave your comments on the guestbook.

17th June

Just a small site update. We have added some more to our photos page, some of last year's production show, 'Back In Time' and some from the Barclays Spaces For Sports National Campaign (see last news item for more info). You may have also noticed that we have changed 2 of the menu links (on the left of the screen). The 'stuff' menu has been replaced by 'Videos' where we had added another video to the page, 'Angels' from 'Back In Time' and also the 'diary' menu has been replaced by a 'Links' page, which we feel will be quite useful to some of you who are more serious or even curious about professional dancing. Let us know on the guestbook what you think of these new additions to the site, and keep checking back for even more updates coming soon.

12th June

It's been a very busy month here at the Elsber. Rehearsals have been going well for the forthcoming Mini Shows. Tickets are also selling very fast. Please not that once they are gone, there are no more, you will not be able to get in!! This is mainly due to very strict fire regulations of venues etc. See the notice board in lessons to find how how many tickets are left for each performance.

Other news going on this month...Rachel Catherall was recently appointed choreographer and dance consultant for Barclays Bank Spaces For Sports National Campaign. The aim is to get money into flagship sites up and down the UK to help get more people into dance and sports with dance being the main theme. The campaign was launched on the 8th June at White Hart Lane, London with Darren Gough, the ex English cricketer and winner of the BBCs Strictly Come Dancing. Rachel was asked to take 3 assistants down with her so she took 3 Elsber students, Steph Larty, Deanna Boden and Dan Burke. There are 4 more promotional events up and down the country with various celebrities. Pictures of the event will be posted soon.

Rachel is also currently working at Clwyd Theatre Cymru doing the choreography for the forthcoming production, 'The Voyage' directed by Tim Baker.

Rachel Varney is currently in menorca working in Lisa Messham's Sophistication and Disney shows, touring the hotels of the island.

Well done to Emma Fenlon who has successfully auditioned for Merseyside Dance & Drama Centre, where she will start in September.

Ex Elsber girl Lydia Griffiths is currentl performing at the Chichester Festival Theatre in their production of Carousel. This runs until September. She has also confirmed that she is performing in Jack & The Beanstalk in Hunstanton at Christmas.

We mentioned a while back that ex Elsber girl, Stevie Tate - Bauer was playing the role of Rusty, one of the lead roles in the UK tour of Footloose the musical, it has recently transferred to London's West End.

6th May

We are starting to do major updates to some of the pages on this site. Over the coming weeks, there will be lots of new features on this site including photos, dance career advice and info and videos to name but a few. To start off with, we have added some videos to our 'stuff' page - check them out and leave your commenst on the guestbook. Due to the nature of online videos, if you don't have a broadband connection, you may have some problems viewing them. We are unable to do anything about that - sorry.

28th April

First this month, we would like to say congratulations to everyone who took part in the recent Ellesmere Port festival. It was our most successful festival so far this year, with so many first places it would take up all our webspace just to name them all. Well done, everyone danced really well.

If you have been into class this week, you will see on the notice board that the mini shows running orders are up. The dates are Connah's Quay Civic Hall - July 1st & 2nd and Elfed School, Buckley - July 15th & 16th. Tickets will be going on sale on June 1st and will only be available at certain times at the dance school. To avoid some of the problems that we had last time of people not being able to get tickets, please note that each week, there will be an updated list of the amount of tickets available posted on the notice board. It is up to you to make sure you sort out the tickets for which ever shows you want. Once the tickets are sold out there are no more available, If a show is sold out, you will not be able pay on the door on the night.

Some of you have been asking about the dance summer schools in Theatr Clwyd. Rachel Catherall has now confirmed that she is tutoring on 2 schools this year. The first is a new course, introduced this year - not only will it have drama and dance, but will also offer technical tutoring in stage management,design and lighting and sound. The students chose to do the performance skills or the technical skills and everyone comes together at the end of the week to put on the show. This course is the week of August 7th. The other course is the dance week, where Rachel will be teaching Irish Dance and another 2 tutors will be teaching 2 other dance styles. This is the week of August 14th. Places are now on sale from the box office at Theatr Clwyd, but be warned if you are interested, these courses sell out very quickly and only have a limited amount of spaces.

Rachel has also been busy choreographing during the holidays. She has just finished a new re-worked version of the Irish Dance Show 'Celtic Dreams' for LM Productions. This is the show's 4th season, touring the island of Menorca and is still the most popular show on the island. Rachel has also been down in sunny Norfolk where she has been coreographing an Irish Dance section for a production show onboard Page & Moy's 'Ocean Monarch' cruise ship for Mirage Shows & Productions. The dancer's board the ship at the end of the week and start the shows next Monday - good luck!!

Finally, it was really nice to catch up with Ex Elsber dancer, Rosie Taylor a few nights back who is enjoying a few weeks off from her current dance job onboard the 'Valour' cruise ship for Carnival Cruise Lines. She flies back out to Miami next week to continue her contract through till August.

13th March

First up this month, we would like to congratulate everyone who took part in the recent Wrexham Festival. We had some excellent results and won many first places and trophies.

Well done everyone who took part in the BADG production of Cinderella.

Well done everyone who took part in the Tsunami Appeal Concert at The Pavillion Theatre in Rhyl

Congratulations to Rhian Cunnah, Emily Richards, Zakhia Reiley, Sophie Davies, Ami Dickinson, Steph Larty, Rachel Harrison, Leanne Evans - Jones, Tegan Rochefort, Lauren Jones, Chloe Dignam and Terrie Ablett who performed the Can-Can in the operetta, 'Orpheus In The Underworld' for the Ruthin Operatic Society.

We would like to say a special that you to Rhian Cunnah, Emily Richards, Rachel Harrison, Jess Ingham, Deanna Boden, Sophie Davies, Leanne Evans - Jones and Sion Williams who put on a short 2 part concert for an 85th birthday Party. Thank you very much for giving up your time, you made an old lady very very happy.

Good luck to everyone who is taking modern and tap exams within the next copuple of weeks.

Congratulations to Chloe Coles who has just been accepted in the Hammond School, Chester.

Rachel Catherall has been busy up at Theatr Clwyd again choreographing for the tour of 'The Way It Was' which opened last week in Wrexham.

27th January

Happy New Year to everyone. We're now back to it working off those turkey sandwichwes and Christmas puddings.

First, we would like to say a very big well done to everyone who took part in the recent Chester Festival. It's the first time we have done this particular festival. It was a very high standard festival and we got some excellent results. We'd like to say a special well done to Ami Dickinson who made it into the 'ballet challenge'.

This coming weekend is a busy one. Tonight sees the opening performance of BADG's 'Cinderella'. Good luck to everyone involved. For ticket prices and more information, please visit their website at www.badg.org.uk

Tomorrow night, while the dancers are still performing 'Cinderella' in Broughton, the rest of the senior group team will be at the Pavillion Theatre in Rhyl performing 'Bye Bye Blackbird' and the 'Irish' for a special Tsunami relief charity concert. If you would like more details on this event, please contact the Pavillion Theatre direct.

Ex Elsber girl, Stevie Tate - Bauer has now started her UK tour of 'Footloose' and has been getting some great reviews. Click here and here for some reviews on the show.

As mentioned in the last news update, Rachel catherall was up in Carlisle choreographing 'Cinderella' at the Sands Centre. She show and the dance routines recieved some great reviews. Click here and here to read more. Rachel has already been confirmed to choreograph Aladdin for the Sands Centre at the end of the year and is currently choreographing Clwyd Theatr Cymru's forthcoming production of the comedy 'A Chorus Of Disapproval' directed by Terry Hands which opens in February.

Finally, we are sick to death of our guestbook being down, so by the end of the day, we will hopefully have a new one. It will mean we will have to loose all our previous entries, but please help make this one as good as the other with all your comments. Who knows, maybe it will be third time lucky?

17th December

Christmas is nearly upon us and we've now broken up for the holidays. Quite a few things have happened in the last month, so here we go.....

First off, some of our dancers took part in a special charity performance at the Elfed School, Buckley. We were asked by the 6th form from the Elfed if we could help them with their concert to help raise money for a terminally ill baby. Money raised has been sent to the cancer research fund. The Evening Leader did a full page article which featured many of our dancers. Well done.

Next, we would like to congratulate all of the dancers who took part in this year's panto, Mother Goose, at Buckley. We would also like to thank everyone who came to atch the show and support us and the Buckley Theatre Club.

Rachel Catherall has been busy for the last 2 weeks up in Carlisle, choreographing their panto, Cinderella, which features Isla St Clair and various Hollyoaks, Bykergrove and west end stars. The show is on until the end of December, so if anyone happens to be passing Carlisle Sands Centre, pop in and see a great family show.

We have recently recieved great news from ex Elsbers girls Stevie Tate-Bauer (better known as Stephanie to us) who has landed one of the major roles in the forthcoming UK tour of Footloose. More details details on this as we get them.

Also, well done to ex Elsber girl, Lydia Griffiths who as also just landed the lead role in a forthcoming musical UK tour - we're not not sure which musical it is yet, but I'm sure we'll find out soon.

Dance rehearsals start on December 27th for BADG's annual panto, this year is Cinderella.

Finally we would like to wish everyone a very happy Christmas. We hope you have a great time and don't eat and drink to much!!!!!

2nd November

Well done to everyone who took part in this year's North Wales Superkids charity show last month. You help raise a much need £1000 for the charity. For more information about the charity and their events, check out www.northwalessuperkids.co.uk

Congratulations to all our dancers who took part in the recent Hope Festival. As usual, there were some great results. A special mention to Chloe Coles, Ami Dickinson and Rachel Larty for qualifying for the Senior Ballet Championship

Well done to everyone who took part in last weekend's British Troupe Championship.in Ellesmere Port. The competition was very tough this year as grouos came from all over the UK. A special well done to the Bye Bye Blackbird and Toxic groups which came 2nd and 3rd.

Some of you may be aware that we were recently approched by a Manchester based company called Cue Productions to enter a group competition to be held at the North Wales Theatre, Llandudno. We will be auditioning four groups for the competition, Bye Bye Blackbird, Toxic, Laura and the Irish. We now have our audition date, which is Sunday November 27th. This is to get us into the competition. If we qualify and do well in the competition, we may end up in the final in London and possibly the showcase in Malaga, Spain - we'll let you know more as it happens.

22nd September

We are delighted to have been asked again to appear in the annual charity concert on Sunday October 2nd for the North Wales Superkids Charity Toy Box Appeal (see www.northwalessuperkids.co.uk for more details) in the Clwyd Room at Theatr Clwyd. We have taken part in this event every year since it first began many years ago. We will be performing some numbers from our recent 'Back In Time' show (see notice board for more details). As well as ourselves, there will be lots more on offer, singing, dancing, magic and the evening will be finished off by TV comedian, Andy Ford, who some of you may remember from the concert 2 years ago. There is a very good chance that this show will sell out, so please to avoid dissappointment, book your tickets now. Prices are £6.00 for adults, £5.00 for OAPs and £4.00 for anybody in full time education. To book tickets, phone Margaret Williams on (01352) 761193. If there is no one there please leave a message and she will get back to you. It should be a great evening's entertainment and is for a very worth while cause. We hope to see some of you there.

11th September

Back to it tomorrow!!!! We hope everyone has had a great holiday and hope you're all fresh and ready for dancing again.

First up, the DVDs / Videos are now available. All pre-ordered copies will be given out in class this week, Mrs Catherall will be making one final order in October, so if you want another copy, this will be your last chance.

Photos from 'Back In Time' will be available from tomorrow. The contact sheets will be on the notice board with order forms near by. The prices are £3.75 for A4 size and £2.75 for A5 size. These will be available 'till half term.

Good news for ex Elsber girl, Rachel Varney (who may have seen in nearly all of the Summer classes this year). She has been busy auditioning over the last few weeks and has so far been successful for 3 cruise lines and 3 agencies. She is awaiting contracts before making a decision on which job she should take.

Robyn Griffiths has just completed her first week at the Hammond School, Chester.We have spoken to her and she is loving it. Good luck for the future Robyn...and see you in limbering on Saturday.

Kelly Burke and Nicole Ringrose begin their Musical Theatre Training at Merseyside Dance and Drama Centre this week - good luck to both of you.

Rachel was up in Carlisle today auditioning dancers for the big panto, 'Cinderella', at the Sands Centre, Carlise. This year's panto will feature Isla St Clare and various Hollyoaks and Byker Grove cast members, amongst others. Ex Elsber pupil, Alice Black who is currently studying drama at Carlisle University successfully auditioned as one of the senior dancers.

We are very sad to have to say goodbye to our modern / tap teacher, Dawn Hughes. Dawn has been offered a full time teaching job in Aberdeen. We wish her the best of luck. We are pleased to welcome ex Elsber girl and head of LM Productions, Lisa Messham.

Thank you for all of your backstage photos from the show, please keep sending them. They will all be posted over the next few weeks. Keep checking out our photos page.

19th August

It's been a funny sort of month with some good news and some not so great news.

First off, well done to everyone who took exams in the Colwyn Bay Centre. A special well done to Tamsin Law who achieved her advanced 2 tap. Tamsin is the first pupil ever from this school to achieved all her ISTD tap exams. For those who don't know, this exam is A Level equivalent (she also past her A Levels too). Well done Tamsin and good luck at Cardiff Uni - You'll be very missed, but I'm sure you'll be back to join us with shows / events when you can.

A special thanks to Hannah Graham, Robyn Griffiths, Steph Larty, Rhian Cunnah, Emily Richards, Zakhia Reilley, Emma Fenlon, Sion Williams and Tamsin Law who recently went down to Deeside hospital and put on a half hour Irish show for the patients. It really made their day and hopefully it will help speed up a few recoveries.

2 weeks ago, we were contacted by Peacock Design, a London based TV production company, asking if we could supply a dancer for the forthcoming music video of top Welsh opera singer, Bryn Terfel. A certain height and look was required for the video, so we submitted 4 girls for audition. The company were really pleased with all 4 girls and took the video footage they shot to Bryn and his record company, but unfortunately, yesterday on the 11th hour (filing takes place on an island just off Anglesea next Tuesday), the record company had a complete re-think of the video concept and decided they didn't want to use a dancer, they wanted to use a male guitarist instead. This is dissapointing, but that's TV for you....and we hope it rains (just joking).

We're still awaiting the DVDs / Videos of Back In Time, but we've been told that they will be available by the start of term. Photos will also be available.

We've been asked again by the North Wales Superkids Charity if we will do some numbers for their annual concert at Clwyd Theatr Cymru which ofcourse we have accepted. The concert is in the Clwyd Room and is on Sunday October 2nd. We will be using some numbers from Back In Time but we don't know what yet. More information on the acts appearing / ticket prices etc will follow shortly.

Finally, we have included a lot more photos on our photos page. Click here to check them out.

14th July

Well, it's finally over and what a great success it was. We would like to say a huge thank you to all our dancers and everybody else who was involved in putting on this technically huge show, 'Back In Time'. Thank you also for all of the comments on the guestbook. The DVD / Video will be available in September and we are still taking orders, ask in class for more details. Photos will also be available to order from September.

Classes finish this Saturday, Rachel will be holding a few holiday classes, click here for more details.

Rachel is also a tutor on 2 Flintshire Summer Schools at Theatr Clwyd. She will be teaching general dance on the week of July 25th and Irish on the week of August 15th. Both courses are full, but there might be the odd cancellation, contact the theatre for more details if you are interested.

1st July

Just a very quick update to say a huge well done to everyone last night in the 1st of our Back In Time shows at Clwyd Theatr Cymru and good luck for the rest of the run!!! If you have seen the show and have any comments then we would be grateful if you would take a minute to sign the guestbook.

12th June

It's been a while since we updated this site due to the last 2 months being so hectic, but here we are, this is what's been going on...

As mentioned in the last news report, on the 21st May, 3 of our dancers - Kerry Piper, Hannah Graham and Rhian Cunnah appeared in Rachel's Celtic Dreams show in Dover onboard the Japanese Cruise Ship, the MS Asuka. It was a very long day, but everyone had a great time - especially the Japanese audience. The old slight downside of the day was that Rhian managed to fracture her arm during the show, but being the true trooper that she is, she carried on without anybody even knowing that anything was wrong. Photos of the day will follow shortly.

On the 19th of May, 4 of our dancers, Hannah Graham, Jess Ingham, Chloe Coles and Robyn Griffiths performed a Can Can for part of the Princes Trust charity auction at the stately home of Merseyside TV owner, Phil Redmond (Grange Hill, Brookside etc). The event was watched by various celebs (including Coronation Street's Ken Barlow amongst others). The event was exclusively covered by either 'OK' or 'Hello' magazine (we're not quite sure which one), but we have some pics that we will be posting very soon.

Rachel Catherall has been busy at Clwyd Theatr Cymru choreographing a new show which opens this week called 'Home Front'. Set during World War 2, it is directed by award winning director, Tim Baker. The show will play in Mold before hopefully going off on a UK tour.

It's been a mad rush organising posters / programmes etc for our forthcoming show, 'Step Back In Time', but we're pretty much there with still a few weeks to spare.

Rehearsals have been continuing for 'Back In Time'. It really will be a fantastic show and urge you to go and get tickets soon to avoid disappointment. As usual, the show will be videod, but this year we're trying out a new company after a few problems with the tapes last time. It will also be available on DVD for those who want it.

A new photo page is currently being worked on and will be posted online very soon. It will include photos from recent events, including, The King And I, the Prince's Trust Charity Auction, An Audience With Paul Daniels and the Celtic Dreams show onboard the cruise ship.

Just like 'A Whole New World' at Clwyd Theatr Cymru back in 2003, we will have Barry Hamilton the photographer taking photos of the dress rehearsal. Pictures will be available shortly after. Details to follow nearer the time.

Finally, some of you may have noticed that we had been having some problems with the guestbook - this seems to have sorted itself out again and is working fine (touch wood!!)

22nd April

We'd like to start off this weeks news by saying good luck to all of our girls performing in the Chester Operatics Society's production of 'The King And I' at Chester Gateway Theatre next week. Tickets are still available from the theatre's box office.

Some news now from ex pupils. It's been great to see Rosie Taylor back in class after recently returning from her time on Carnival Cruise Line's 'Sensation'. She hopes to return to a different Carnival ship in the near future.

After seeing Stephanie Bauer on this week's 'Show Time Wales' on BBC 1 Wales, we got a call from her saying she is soon off to Malaysia to understudy the leading role of Nancy in the touring production of Oliver.

Sarah Russell is back from her recent tour of Madeira, she is hoping to return to the island again soon to join the cast of the Casino Show.

Rehearsals for our big summer show 'Back In Time' at Theatr Clwyd at the end of June are now underway. Auditions for the singing numbers are being held this Sunday 24th April. Tickets for the show will be onsale soon from the theatre's box office. Please, please book early to avaoid disappointment. Once the tickets are gone - that is it!!!! Remember what happened at the Mini Show at Buckley Elfed last year!!!! It is reserved seating, so if you want a good seat - book your ticket early. We have added an extra show this year on the Saturday afternoon due to the popular demand of our our shows.

Finally, very exciting news for 3of our dancers this month. The Celtic Dance show that Rachel Catherall choreographs for LM Productions which tours Menorca have been asked to perform a one night special onboard the MS Asuka. The ship will be docking in Dover on May 21st as part of it's World Cruise. As Celtic Dreams will already be open in Menorca, LM Productions were 3 dancers short. It was immediately offered to Kerry Piper who performed in the show in Menorca through all of last summer, and then Lisa Messham (Ex Elsber dancer and head of LM Productions) came into audition our top Irish class. She picked Hannah Graham and Rhian Cunnah who will be joining up with the rest of the cast down in Dover for the day. It will be a very long day (we set off at 4am and have no idea when we will be back) but will be brilliant experience for our dancers and an insight into what life can be like as a professional dancer.

22nd March

It's been a busy month here with lots of news to report - here goes....

First off - a very big well done to Hanna Graham, Robyn Griffiths, Jess Ingham and Chole Coles who performed at the recent, 'An Audience With Paul Daniels' show at Theatr Clwyd, in aid of North Wales Superkids. The dancers opened each half of what was an amazing show. You may have noticed the picture on the home page of the girls with Paul Daniels - there will be a few more pics posted very soon.

We have been asked to provide dancers for the forthcoming production of, 'The King And I' by Chester Operatic Society, to be performed at the Chester Gateway Theatre from 26th - 30th April. It is being directed by local acclaimed director, Robin Goddard who after seing our work in other events asked us if we would do it. 9 our our girls will be taking part - Emily Richards, Rhian Cunnah, Leanne Evans-Jones, Zakhia Reiley, Sophie Davies, Deanna Boden, Ami Dickinson, Vanessa Higham and Rachel Harrison. It will be choreographed by our own Mrs Catherall,

We would like to say congratulations and very well done to everyone who took part in the recent Hawarden Festival. As usual, many great results were had, but we wanted to say an extra congratulations to Chloe Coles and Ami Dickinson who were joint winners of the highest mark of the whole festival.

We would like to congratulate and send our best wishes to Kelly Burke who a just successfully auditioned for a place at The Merseyside Dance & Drama Centre in Liverpool. We also mentioned a few months back that Robyn Griffiths successfully auditioned for a place in The Hammond School Of Dance in Chester. Well done girls.

As mentioned in our January news - The Irish Performance Group will be performing at an Irish Night on May 14th at Kinnerton Village Hall. It is a fund raising event for the 'Kinnerton Under 5s'. There will be a traditional Irish band, lots of Guiness and 2 half hour shows from our Irish Performance Group. There are still some tickets left and more information can be got by calling Ruth on 01244 661659. The ticket price includes food and all the entertainment.

As some of you may know, Rachel Catherall has been busy recently, choreographing 3 new shows for 'Explosive Productions' at Center Parcs, Penrith. The shows are, 'Once Upon A Time', 'Back To School' and 'Hits From The Flicks'. The shows opened last weekend to many great reviews.

We would finally like to say a very big welcome to Dawn Hughes, who has been covering some of Rachel's classes while she has been away. We're delighted that Dawn has accepted much more teaching work for us in the very near future. Dawn's full biog will be posted soon, but until it is, just to let you know that she trained at The Hammond School Of Dance, Chester and has recently returned from teaching dance in Norway.

19th February

First off this month, we'd like to congratulate and say well done to all our dancers who appeared in this year's BADG pantomime, 'Robin Hood'. As usual, the dancers and choreography recieved huge amounts of praise in the official adjudicator's report. Well done.

Modern and Tap exams were taken last weekend and Ballet exams are being held at the moment. Good luck to all involved in these.

Well done to everyone who took part in the Wrexham Festival last weekend at the Stuite Theatre, Rhos. Great results were achieved as usual.

Rachel Catherall has been busy this week, sorting out the choreography for a forthcoming show at Theatr Clwyd (preceeded by a tour of schools in Wales). The show is called, 'Flights Of Fancy' and is directed by Tim Baker.

16th January

We would like to wish everyone a very happy new year!!!!

Classes have started again and everyone is working really hard for our mammoth exam session in February.

Congratulations to the dancers who performed in the Clifton School Of Dance's fund raising show at the Stiwt Theatre, Wrexham last night. Mrs Jones was very pleased by the amount of money raised.

As mentioned in a recent news update, four of our dancers will be performing at the 'Audience With Paul Daniels' show at Theatr Clwyd on the 11th and 12th March. The four dancers are, Chloe Coles, Hannah Graham, Jess Ingham and Robyn Griffiths. These shows will sell out so if anyone wants tickets, please contact the theatre box office on 0845 330 3565 as soon as possible.

The Irish Performance Group will be performing at an Irish Night on May 14th at Kinnerton Village Hall. It is a fund raising event for the 'Kinnerton Under 5s'. There will be a traditional Irish band, lots of Guiness and 2 half hour shows from our Irish Performance Group. This event will sell out and sounds like it will be a really fun night. Ticket prices haven't been confirmed yet, but are likely to be between £10.00 and £12.50. This includes food and all the entertainment. For further information, ring Ruth on 01244 661659.

Some of our dancers are currently rehearsing for the forthcoming Robin Hood pantomime for BADG. The dancers performing are Kelly Burke, Nicole Ringrose, Robyn Griffiths, Helena Bronnert, Jess Ingham, Chloe Coles, Terrie Ablett, Lindsey Morris and Callum Law. The shows will be held at Broughton Primary School on Friday 28th, Saturday 29th Januray and Friday 4th and Saturday 5th February. Check out BADG's website for more details

Finally, due to the success of last summer's Mini Shows, we have now been able to buy 3 radio mics to add to our system. The dance floor for Buckley Cross has also been ordered and should be delivered within the next few weeks.

20th December

Christmas is nearly upon us and it'll soon be time to dance off all that Christmas turkey. We have some good news this month, so here he go...

Firstly, well done to everyone of our dancers who took part in the Buckley Panto earlier this month, we know you all had a great time and you all did very well. If any of you have any photos from this that you would like to see in our photos page, just give them to Rachel in class or email them to info@elsberdance.co.uk

We would like to say a big well done and congratulations to Robyn Griffiths, who has recently successfully auditioned for the Hammond School Of Dance, Chester. She is still awaiting final details, but we wish her the best of luck and it is great to see another one of our dancers going on to try to become a professional dancer.

As you know, we do a lot of charity performances for the North Wales Superkids Charity, well, you may be interested to know that they have confirmed 2 shows to be held in the Clwyd Room at Theatr Clwyd on Friday March 11th and Saturday March 12th with famous TV magician, Paul Daniels (and star of recent reality TV show, The Farm). The show is called 'An Audience With Paul Daniels' and will be a 2 hour show of him telling stories, taking questions and ofcourse, performing his magic. We are delighted to have confirmed that four of our dancers will be performing 2 numbers at this concert, one to open each half. More details on this will be announced as soon as we know a bit more. Tickets are on sale from the box office at the theatre already, but it hasn't yet been advertised. If anyone wants tickets, we advise that you book them soon, as it is almost certainly going to be a sell out on both nights (approx 200 seats each night).

The panto which Rachel Catherall has choreographed up in Carlisle (Peter Pan staring Byker Grove's and pop star Summer Matthews and Brookside's Katy Lamont amongst others) opened last week and has been getting great press. If anyone happens to be passing through Carlisle and fancies a great night out then go along (although we hear that it is virtually sold out for the whole run).

Rehearsals will be starting this week for our dancers involved in the Broughton Panto. More details with regards to performance times and dates etc will be posted here soon or visit BADG's web site at www.badg.org.uk.

We've managed to put a short video from our last Theatr Clwyd show online. It's the 'Carmen' dance (with multi angles) and is in Windows Media Player format. To download it, click your right mouse button here and when the window comes up, click on 'save to file' once it is downloaded, click on 'open'. The file is 3.63MB in size, so if you don't have broadband, it will probably take about 10 mins to download (it'll only take about a minute with broadband).

We'd like to wish a huge Good Luck to Rachel Varney who flies out to Miami on Boxing Day to start rehearsing for her first professional dance contract for Royal Carribbean Cruise LInes.

Finally, we would like to wish everyone a very happy Christmas and hope you all have a great time.

3rd December

Well done to all our dancers in this year's Buckley Theatre Club's pantomime, Babes In The Wood which opened last night. The dancers are Sophie Davies, Deanna Boden, Leanne Evans-Jones, Rachel Harrison, Steph Larty, Zakhia Reiley, Rhian Cunnah, Emily Richards, Sion Williams and Dan Burke. The parts of the babes are taken alternate nights by Rhian / Emily and Sion / Dan. The show continues tonight and tomorrow and also Thursday to Saturday of next week.

Congratulations to everyone who recently took their modern and tap exams, they were the best results we have had for a long time. 80% of our students recieved A Grades and the rest got Bs. Highest mark of the session was 96 which was gained by Terrie Ablett for Grade 3 Modern.

Rehearsals will be starting this month for the Broughton panto, Robin Hood.

Rachel travels up to Carlisle tomorrow to start choreographing their big traditional panto, Peter Pan at the Sands Centre, Carlisle. The show runs from 15th December - 28th December.

14th November

Firstly, we'd like to say well done to everyone who took part in the recent Hope Festival. We got some good results, and some....interesting results, but that's what it's all about.

On a brighter note, a huge well done to everyone today at the British Troupe Championship at Ellesmere Port, the results were....Lilac Ballet - 2nd in the under 12 classical section, Gelert - 2nd in the senior classical, Adult tap - 1st and 2nd in the over 21s cabaret section, Bye Black Bird - 1st and Cell Block Tango - 2nd in the senior cabaret with song section and finally the Irish Performance Group - 1st in the caberet groups section. We also were awarded an adjudicator's choice award for Bye Bye Black Bird and highest marks by an individual judge (there were 3) for Lilac Ballet and the Irish. It was great to welcome back Kerry Piper who recently was performing in Menorca in Rachel's / LM Productions, 'Celtic Dreams' show.

Exams were taken 2 weeks ago, we are still waiting for the results.

Finally, we now have the dates for next year's big Theatr Clwyd production. The show will be called, 'Back In Time' and will be on Thursday June 30th - Saturday July 2nd. We have added an extra performance this time on the Saturday afternoon due to popular demand. Although there will be many tickets on sale, please do not leave it to last minute or you won't get in!!!

24th October

Firstly, a big thank you and well done to everyone who performed in the charity concert for North Wales Superkids earlier this month at Theatr Clwyd. There was so much positive feedback about the dancers and it was all for a great cause.

Well done to everyone who has taken part so far and to those who are yet to take part in this weekend's Hope Festival. Already we have been getting some great results, which we will be posting over the next few days.

Congratulations to ex Elsber girl, Rachel Varney, who after successfully auditioned for Royal Carribbean Cruise Lines a few months ago has finally recieved her call up. She leaves for Miami on Boxing Day to start rehearsals, then with be dancing onboard the Majesty Of The Seas for 4 months, sailing from Miami all round the Bahamas, we wish her the best of luck.

Finally, good luck to Rachel Catherall (who's work got a good mention in this week's edition of The Stage for her movement direction on Theatr Clwyd's production of Hobson's Choice - directed by Tim Baker) who goes back up to Center Parcs, Penrith next week to choreograph their panto, Cinderella. A few weeks later she will be up that end of the country again, this time in Carlisle where she is choreographing the big panto at the Carlisle Sands Centre,The panto is Peter Pan and stars Summer Matthews (pop star and ex Byker Grove), Katy Lamont ( Adele from Brookside) and Neil Armstrong (Byker Grove) amongst others.

We know it's taking a while, but more photos from the mini shows will be posted soon, and if anyone has any photos from this weekend's Hope Festival that they want posting on this site, email them to us at info@elsberdance.co.uk or give them in at class.

27th September

We'd like to start off this months news update by saying thank you and very well done to everyone who was involved in the North Wales Superkids charity funday at Theatr Clwyd last month. The sections went down very well. There was a small mention and photo in the Chronicle newspaper which which you can view by clicking here.

The next public performance by some of our dances, is again for North Wales Superkids charity and will be held this Sunday night in the Clwyd Room at Theatr Clwyd. Our Irish Performance Group will be performing their numbers and we'll also be doing Cell Block Tango and possibly the Circus Section. 3 of our boys will also be backing a young singer called Olivia Savva for her performance of James Brown's 'I Feel Good'. Also appearing on the bill are the Shirley School Of Dance, there's comedy and music with Music Machine, and Mental Magic from the International Magical Performer John Birchall. The night will be compared and will also feature the very talented Phil Snowden who's West End credits include, Les Miserables, Miss Saigon, and My Fair Lady to name but a few, he'll also be appearing in the West End in the forthcoming production of Billy Elliot. Please note that this even usually sells out and once all the seats have been sold then there is no way of getting in. Tickets can be got by phoning Margaret Williams on (01352) 761193 and are priced £6.00 for adults and £5.00 for OAPs and £4.00 for children.

Other news this month - we reported a while ago, ex Elsber girl, Sarah Russell is currently performing in her first professional dance show in Madeira. She has now had her contract extended and is loving every minute of it.

Kerry Piper has now returned from her summer appearing in Rachel's 'Celtic Dreams' show touring the island of Menorca. We went out to see her and we'd like to congratulate her on doing such a great job.

It is confirmed that we will be providing dancers for 2 local pantomimes, Mother Goose for Buckley Theatre Club and Robin Hood for Broughton. We don't have the dates yet, but we'll post them as soon as we do.

You may be interested to know that we've just posted some more photos online in our 'scrapbook' section. These are photos brought in by dancers or newspaper articles. Some of the new photos included are some from backstage at last years Buckley panto, the recent picture from the Chronicle from the Fun Day and some older photos from festivals. Click here to go straight to the page.

Finally - we've lost a chair - can you help? One of the white plastic chairs that we use for various routines including Nightowls seems to have gone missing sometime during or after the Mini Shows this summer. If anyone knows the whereabouts of it then please let us know.

21st August

Important News!!! We mentioned in the last update that our performances at Sunday's Funday at Theatr Clwyd were 1pm, 2pm and 3pm - THIS WAS A MISTAKE!! The actual times are 2pm, 3pm and 4pm. Sorry for any inconvenience.

We have started to add some photos from the recent Mini Shows. The first set to go up (check out the photos page) are from the first half of the final Mini Show held at Buckley Elfed school.

19th August

Well, we're coming to the end of summer classes and it's nearly time for the new term. We hope you've all enjoyed your summer and hope you are all refreshed and ready to go.

There's a few things to report this month, firstly Sarah Russell is enjoying her first professional dance job since leaving Merseyside Dance and Drama Center this summer. She is currently dancing for hotel shows in Madeira and loving every minute of it. We'll have more details of this job soon. Kerry Piper has been out in Menorca now for the last month and is doing really well in the Irish Dance show, Celtic Dreams. We hope to be able to post some photos from the show within the next few weeks.

Also, talking of photos, we haven't forgotten about putting photos up from the mini shows, it's just that it's been so busy recently, we haven't had the chance - but we will - soon!!!

We would like to wish very good luck to Alice Black and Yvette Page who are leaving us this term to further their studies in university. We would also like to congratulate them both as they have just passed their intermediate ballet exam. Well done.

Finally for now. Don't forget that some of our dancers are appearing at Theatr Clwyd this Sunday (21st August) at a fun day in aid of North Wales Superkids. The whole event is free of charge and we will be performing in the Clwyd Room at 1pm, 2pm and 3pm. Each set will be for approx 20-30 mins and will all be different. Please come along if you are free and give your support.

17th July

It's been a great few weeks for the Elsber School Of Theatre Dance. The 4 Mini Shows we did went better than we could have expected and we would like to thank and say well done to everyone who took part and who helped out. It was a lot of hard work but it was deffinately worth it. We will be posting lots of photos on this site over the coming weeks, so please keep checking. We have also had some great feedback on our guestbook page, so please take a look and leave a message with your comments. During these shows, we were pleased to have premiered our new Irish Performance Group. If you didn't see the show programme with information about this group, fear not, here it is again.....

The Irish Performance Group was started after growing interest in Irish dance showcases, for everything from charity concerts to birthday and wedding parties etc. As you may be aware, Rachel Catherall was with the Irish Dance sensation, Spirit Of The Dance for four years, touring all over the world with them. During her time there, she started off as dancer, then dance captain, and then went on to be assistant choreographer to the show’s choreographer, Alan Harding. She also auditioned and taught the show to all of the new casts and ended up as the resident artistic director for the resident shows in Reno and Branson in the United States and also on two of the European Tours - I think you’ll agree that this certainly makes her qualified to teach commercial Irish dance.
In the past, various showcases were performed by the top senior Irish class, but it was soon obvious that some of the younger dancers were equally as good, if not better in some cases. The Irish Performance Group is a collection of the best Irish dancers from all of the classes, regardless of age. They are currently being taught the show, 'Celtic Dreams, Season 2' which Rachel choreographed for LM Productions and is currently one of the top selling touring shows on the island of Menorca. We are also very proud to announce that one of our dancers, Kerry Piper flew out to Menorca this morning to join the Celtic Dreams show. Kerry is the first girl from the Irish Performance group to have turned professional and will be with the show until the middle of September when she returns to go to university. We're very proud of her and wish her all the best with the show and we look forward to visiting her out there.

More news for this week, we mentioned a few weeks back that ex Elsber girl, Stephanie Bauer is currently performing in the UK tour of 'The Full Monty, The Musical'. The tour visits the North Wales Theatre this week in Llandudno. If you see this show or any other (of the growing amount of shows) with ex Elsber dancers in, then feel free to leave your comments on the guestbook.

Also, for anyone visiting Center Parcs, Penrith over the coming months, Rachel Catherall has been choreographing their new Wild West Show which opens next weekend. We hope it goes as well as the previous 5 shows she has choreographed for them over the last year or so. Rachel is also choreographing pantomine this year at Carlisle Sand Centre. It's Peter Pan featuring various ex Brookside / Hollyoaks stars and opens in December. More details on this will follow when we hear more.

A couple more dates for the diary. We will be performing at 2 charity events for the North Wales Superkids Charity. The first is a fun day at Theatr Clwyd on August 22nd, the other is at the annual charity concert again at Theatr Clwyd on October 3rd. The fun day performances are free but the charity concert will be tickets only. We will be posting more details of this when we get it. The only thing we ask that if you do want to go, can you please make sure you have tickets. Unfortunately we had to turn some people away from our Mini Show at Buckley Elfed due to the huge amount of people who turned up to pay on the door. There will be plenty of tickets available for this concert, but once sold out, no more will be allowed into the space.

Finally, for some of you who are now leaving the school to go on to university / further education, we would like to say thank you and wish you all the best. We hope you have enjoyed your time with us and wev hope you still keep in touch with us and keep checking out the website.

1st July

Well done evryone who appeared in the first of our mini shows last Sunday evening at Broughton, you did yourselves and the dance school proud. We're all looking forward to this weekend at Connah's Quay - 2 shows, lots of hard work, but it'll be worth it on the night. As soon as all of the shows are over, there will be a big update on this news page which will include all of the information in the programmes for these mini shows plus loads of photos from each show.

We are pleased to be able to bring back the guestbook after taking it offline for a week or so - without losing our previous entries. Please feel free to sign it with comments on the shows, festivals, forthcoming events, good luck messages etc etc, but please let's just keep all of the messages somehow related to the dance school.

Good luck to everyone this weekend in Connah's Quay - see you there!!!

26th June

We want to wish everybody taking place in our mini shows good luck. They kick off tomorrow at Broughton Junior school, the others are - Sat 3rd / Sun 4th July at Connah's Quay Civic Center and the final one is Sat 10th July at Buckley Elfed school. There has been a lot of hard work put into these shows and we know they're going to be great fun for everyone. We will be taking some video footage of all of these shows so we can take some stills for the photos page. If there is anybody who does not wish to be in any of the photos or if there are any parents not wanting their child's photo to be posted please let us know and we will make sure it doesn't happen.

We have recently changed our photo page and taken some photos offline, this is to make space for the photos for the mini shows, we have though, put up lots (about 60) photos from last year's Theatr Clwyd production, 'A Whole New World', many of them you wouldn't have seen before. They were all taken by the show's photographer, Barry Hamiltion. We have kept the scrap book page and we will be putting more pictures into it soon, and if you have any photos from shows / festivals etc that you want posted, email them to us or give them in at class.

We will be updating this news page again over the next week or so with all of the other things which have been going on since the last update, so be sure to keep keep checking back.

You may have noticed that we have taken the guestbook offline recently. We really appreciate all of the comments, good luck messages etc etc, but we felt that one or two messages were starting to get a bit personal so we wanted to put an end to it before it got out of hand. We will be putting it back up again, but unfortunately, we may not be able to retrieve the old messages so it's starting from scratch time again. Please feel free to post any comments you like as long as it is related to the dance school or it's events / festivals / performances etc.

21st May

Well done to every one who took part in our new 'Choreography Competition' on May 8th. It proved that there is some great talent here in the dance school and many budding choreographers of the future. The Junior section was won by Sian Singleton, with Amy Mewes in 2nd place and Sophie Davies in 3rd. The Junior Duets & Trios was won by Sophie Davies and Deanna Boden, with 2nd place going to Rachel Larty and Laura Mewes and Jessie Hayes and Natasha Griffiths in 3rd. The Senior Solo section was won by Chloe Coles with 2nd going to Rachel Harrison and joint 3rd to Robyn Griffiths and Terri Ablett. The Senior Duets & Trios was won by Chloe Coles and Hannah Graham with 2nd place going to Kelly Burke and Helena Bronnert and 3rd going to Robyn Griffiths, Steph Larty and Terri Ablett. We also had an award for Musicality which went to Robyn Griffiths.

Dancing school trophies were also awarded that night. These were achievement awards for the year: -

Most Improved Ballet - Jessie Hayes

Most Improved Modern - Zahkia Reiley

Most Improved Tap - Lindsey Morris

Most Improved Irish - Megan Evans

Most Improved Boy - Tom Evans

Most Outstanding Performance - Sara Bryan (for winning the Welsh Modern Championship last year)

Best Stage Presentation - Sara Bryan

Most Improved Limbering - Lauren Jones

Most Promising Classical Dancer - Robyn Griffiths

Most Promising Caberet Dancer - Hannah Graham

Also a big well done to our dancers who appeared at the BADG Variety Night last Friday.

7th May

Well done to everyone in the Rhyl festival last weekend, as usual, many great results were achieved.

Don't forget about this weekend's Choreography Competition and Awards Ceremony taking place at Buckley's Hawksbury Theatre. We are pleased to announce that our adjudicator for the evening will be Kate Mackie - a former Elsber dancer who now co-runs the Elliot Clarke Stage School in Liverpool.

As you may be aware, some of our dancers will be taking part in a caberet eveing for Broughton Amateur Dramatics Group next Friday evening at Broughton Primary School. As well as our dancers, the show will feature the talents of comdien, Pete Ford, music from the band, Zeberdee Sez along with various sketches and performances from members of BADG and other drama/entertainment groups. Tickets cost £4.50 with concessions at £3.00 and are available from the box office on 0870 7743459.

30th April

Well done to everyone who took part in the recent Runcorn Festival. As usual some great results were achieved. Sara Bryan won the Senior Caberet Challenge and Most Promising Caberet Dancer, Robyn Griffiths got the highest mark in the fetival, Deanna Boden won an adjudicator's choice award and Callum Law won Best Boy. Lots of other medals and trophies were won, congratulations to everybody.

Rhyl festival takes place this weelkend at the Little Theatre, Rhyl. The Welsh Championships are on this Bank Holiday Monday afternoon.

Nominations for the dancing chool awards have gone out this week. The award ceremony will be held at the end of the Choreography Competition at the Hawkesbury Little Theatre, Buckley on Saturday May 8th. Tickets have now gone on sale through the dancing school, please check the notice board for more details.

2nd April

As we do not have a big Theatr Clwyd show this year (as you know, we do them bi-yearly), we wil be continiuing our 'Showcase Shows' in smaller venues - and we have the dates.

Sunday 27th June - Broughton CP School

Saturday 3rd July - Connah's Quay Civic Hall

Sunday 4th July - Connah's Quay Civic Hall

Saturday 10th July - The Elfed School, Buckley

Every class in the dancing school will be in at least 2 of these shows. Could you please let us know if you are on holiday for any of these dates and we will do our best to arrange them to accomodate the majority.

Please see your teacher for details on tickets etc.

21st March

Well done to everyone who took part in the Wrexham festival at the Stiwt theatre, Rhos last month. We had some good results. We'd especially like to say well done to Tamsin who finally won a song and dance section - this was a particularly remarkable achievement as she sang in tune and bothered to turn up for the event (those who were there will know what we mean!!!!).

A big well done to all those who took their modern and tap exams recently. Excellent results were achieved. The top marks went to Callum Law for grade 3 tap and Jess Southern for grade 1 modern.

Ballet exams were taken last week and we're still awaiting results.

Excitement is mountining as the re-launch of the choreography competition draws closer. The date is May 8th and is to be held at the Hawkesbury Theatre, Buckley. Tickets will go on sale within the dance school within the next 2 weeks.

Congratulations to ex Elsber girl, Rosie Taylor who jets off to Las Vegas on Friday to rehearse for the forthcoming contract with Carnival Cruises. Rosie will be cruising around the Caribbean and Mexico for the next 10 months on the Carnival Sensation (how jeleous are we!!!).

Rachel Catherall's 3 shows, Hit's Unlimited, Commited To Mowtown and Rock n' Roll Years open in Center Parcs, Penrith open this Friday - good luck to all involved.

Good luck to another ex Elsber girl, Stephanie Bauer who is currently on a full UK tour with The Full Monty Musical. This week she is at Manchester Opera House. For a complete list of the tour dates, click here.

15th February

Well done to all of our girls who took part in this years Broughton Pano, 'Jack & The Beanstalk'. If any of you have photos or reviews etc, we would love to post them on this site.

As you all probably know, the Wrexham festival is on this week (Thursday 19th - Sunday 22nd Feb) at the Stiwt Theatre, Rhos. For anybody who fancies watching the groups section (we will be performing Gellert, Nightowls and Bye Bye Blackbird), it will be taking place on the Sunday afternoon.

We are pleased to announce our 'Elsber Choreography Competition and Awards Night' which is being held on May 8th at the Hawkesbury Theatre, Buckley. This is open to anyone in the dance school (over 6 years old) - full details will posted here next week.

Rachel Catherall will be away from teaching for all of March (apart from Mondays) where she will be up in the Lake District choreographing the 3 new production shows at 'Center Parks'. Penrith. Cover for that time will be; Modern & Tap - Lisa Mesham AISTD, Ballet - Mrs Catherall, Irish & Limbering - Tamsin Law.

Good luck to everyone involved in the forthcoming ballet and modern exams.

Finally, you may have noticed that our guestbook hasn't been working for the last couple of weeks, this is due to the hosting company's site going down. We have started a new guestbook, but were unable to recover past messages - please start posting new messages now!!!! We want to hear your comments on the school, shows or anything really. Lets make this guestbook as good as the last. If the previous one comes back online, we will transfer all of the messages over.

19th January

Welcome back and a very Happy new year!!! We hope you all had a great few weeks off, but it's all started again.

First off, a huge well done to the dancers ( Rhian Cunnah, Emily Richards, Leanne Evans-Jones, Rachel Harrison, Chloe Coles, Hannah Graham and Robyn Griffiths ),who appeared in the Buckley Theatre Club panto, 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'. Also to the dwarfs ( Jess Southern, Jessie Heyes, Hannah Bridges, Amy Hinchcliffe, Bethan Waite, Sian Singleton and Natasha Griffiths ). We would also like to say well done to Nicole Ringrose who stepped in at the last minute to play the Wicked Queen. Thanks also to Lindsey Morris who took charge of the dwarfs for the run of the panto and even made it onto stage for the clapping routine at the end.

Rehearsals for this year's Broughton Panto, 'Jack & The Beanstalk' are underway. For more information about dates, tickets etc, visit B.A.D.G.'s website .Appearing from the Elsber School Of Dance will be Emma Fenlon, Vicky Williams, Nicole Ringrose, Lindsey Morris, Helena Bronert, Jessica Ingham & Kelly Burke.

For those who don't already know, the Wrexham festival is coming up at the end of half term, it is held at the Stiwt Theatre, Rhos on the Thursday, Friday, Saturday and possibly Sunday of half term. More details to follow.

We are very sorry to have to say goodbye to Charlotte Roberts who due to other commitments has had to leave us, we wish her the best of luck. Rachel Catherall will be taking all of Charlotte's Modern and Tap classes from now until the summer.

6th December

Good luck to all of our dancers currently performing in Buckley Theatre Club's production of, 'Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs'. Also to Nicole Ringrose who is playing the part of the wicked Queen. The shows are on Thursday 4th - Saturday 6th December and also Thursday 11th - Saturday 14th December. Go along, have some fun and cheers on our girls. Tickets can be got from the Hawksbury Theatre in Buckley.

22nd November.

A few things to report this time. Quite a lot has been happening. The British Groups Championship festival at Ellesmere Port hosted by Top Hat and Tails a couple of weeks ago went very well. Lots of first place trophies were won by our groups with a special award for the most different and inspiring number of the whole festival which was won by 'Gelert'. A very well done to everyone who took part, it was a great day.

Sara Bryan, Rachel Varney and Sarah Russell were among the dancers who performed in a Spannish Themed evening for the British Osteopath's Asociation at the Hannover Hotel, Hinkley last week. The evening was very well recieved and lots of great feedback was gained.

Ex Elsber girl, Lydia Griffiths who is current playing the part of Cosette in Les Miserables in the West End appeared on the BBC's Children in need, singing alongside her co-star (John from S-Club 7) and the rest of the Les Miserables cast. Well done Lydia.

Unfortunately, the filing of 'Andy Ford and Friends' which we mentioned last month was cancelled last minute. This was a dissapointment to the girls who were going to perform, but we are hoping that something may happen in the not too distant future.

Finally, well done to our dancers who have been appearing in Castaway Theatre Group's performance of 'Copacabana' this week at the Gateway Theatre, Chester. The show was choreographed by our teacher, Charlotte Roberts.

7th November

Sorry for the delay in news updates, it's been a busy couple of weeks. Firstly, a huge well done to everyone who took part in the recent Hope Festival. As usual, some great results were achieved. We will be posting a list of results from the festival very soon, but we just have to give a special mention to Chloe Coles who won the 'Most Promising Classical Dancer' of the festival, and Sara Bryan who got the highest mark of the whole festival for her modern dance. Nightowls and Gelert also both won in their sections.

Good luck to all those taking part in the Inter Schools Group Festival this Sunday. This is the first time this festival has been done. Hopefully it will continue to grow over the coming years.

If anyone is visiting Center Parcs in Penrith this Christmas, check out the 'Sleeping Beauty' panto. Rachel Catherall has been busy up there all week choreographing it. She will also be choreographing next season's 'Rock Legends' and 'Mowtown' shows. Rehearsals are due to start in March.

Also, we have just been informed that ex-Elsber girl, Stephanie Bauer (who has recently been performing onboard P&O's Aurora Cruise Ship - yes the ship recently in the news with the onboard virus problem) has successfully auditioned for the national touring production of 'The Full Monty'. We will post more details as soon as we find out more.

As mentioned in the last news update, on November 14th, Rachel Varney, Sara Bryan & Sarah Russell, along with 2 dancers from Merseyside Dance and Drama Centre will be performing a re-worked version of the 'Carmen' number from our recent show at a convention for orthapedic specialists who are hosting a Spannish night in a hotel in Birmingham. We wish them the best of luck.

Finally, we mentioned in the last news report that the Castaway Theatre production of Copacabana which some of our girls are performing in will be performed in Ellesmere Port - This was a mistake, it is actually on in the Gateway Theatre, Chester.

23rd October

Good luck to everyone taking part in the Hope festival this coming weekend. For those competing or for anyone who is going to watch, click here to get the timetable of events. This information is correct at the moment, but please double check your time to make sure you don't miss anything.

We have updated a few more pages, there are still a couple of the photo pages with broken links but they will be fixed very soon.

Sara Bryan, Rachel Varney and Sarah Russell will be performing the the Rachel Catherall choreographed Carmen number from the recent show along with two girls from the Merseyside Dance and Drama Centre. This is for an Orthopedic Specialists convention who are holding a Spanish night in Birmingham. We will hopefully be getting some photos from the event, so watch this space.

15th October

This web site has been given a face lift. Let us know what you think about the site's new look, leave us a message in the guestbook. Some of the photo pages haven't been uploaded yet, but they should all be up and working over the next few days. We have also added 2 new pages, the 'Dates For You Diary' page and a 'Stuff' page (this page did exist before, but didn't have a link from the menu page). We will hopefully be updating this site more often than before so keep checking back to see what's new. Also, help us fill up the 'Scrapbook' photos page with random pics from festivals, shows, newspaper cuttings etc. Either email us the picture, or give it in during a class.

11th October

Well done to everyone who took part in the recent 'North Wales Superkids' charity concert at Theatr Clwyd, you helped raise approx £1000 for the charity.

We've got a bit of exciting news. Some of our girls will hopefully be appearing in a 1 hour televised variety show, shown on a public access satellite channel. The show is part of a campaign by various artists, including comedian, Andy Ford (who you may have seen at the charity concert) who are trying to get variety back on television. Rachel Catherall has been asked to choreograph a number for the show and has decided on 'Lady Marmalade' (from our recent shows), again with Kelly Morris singing. The filming of the event is in a theatre in Bognor Regis on the 21st November. All of the acts (which include comedians, dancers, singers and illusionists) will be filmed during the day and then perform infront of a live audience in the evening. It will then all be edited together to make an hour long show. We obviously don't expect anyone to travel down to this event, but if you do decide that you want to, the evening show is free of charge but is ticket only, so you will need to let us know well in advance so we can reserve tickets for you. We don't know yet what date it will be broadcasted, but we think that it will be on a Saturday night at 8 o' clock. We will let you know as soon as we find out.

We have also updated the photos page (at last) with some photos from 'A Whole New World'. They are not of the official pictures available to buy, but were taken during the rehearsals by Chris Lucas who helped out and videoed the show each evening. We will be posting some more pictures from the show in the near future.

Clwyd Theatr Cymru have just had their press night for their production of Arthur Miller's, 'A View From The Bridge'. There is a short dance number in one of the scenes which was choreographed by Rachel Catherall.

If anyone takes a holiday up in CenterParcs in Penrith in the near future, check out some of shows. Rachel Catherall has been asked to choreograph 5 numbers for their Christmas panto, 'Sleeping Beauty' and also completely choreograph 2 of their 4 production shows which go into rehearsal in March.

Some of our girls have been busy in rehearsals after successfully auditioning for Castaway Theatre Company's production of 'Copacabana'. The dance routines have been choreographed by Charlotte Roberts (our higher grade modern teacher). It will be performed at the West Cheshire College in November.. Good luck girls.

And finally.....Some of you may have noticed that it's not always possible to get onto the guestbook page. Occasionally the providers go offline, but it all appears to be working again at the moment, so keep those messages coming. We are especially keen to hear people's comments of various shows, festivals and charity concerts that we do, either from our own dancers, their families, new members of the dance school or even the general public.

20th September

Hello everyone and welcome back to the new term. Classes are now underway (time table will be posted shortly - please ignore the other one for the time being!!!). Welcome to all of the new pupils, keep checking this website for all the latest info, news and events etc. It gets updated every few weeks (sooner if there is anything interesting to say).

Firstly, good news for ex Elsber girl, Charlotte Rose who has just accepted her 2nd Cruise Ship job as a production dancer. She jets out in November and sails to Japan and the Far East for 2 months - good luck Charlotte.

If you haven't got your video of 'A Whole New World' yet, please order quickly as they are only available until half term. See notice board for more details.

Photographs from the show are on sale so if there are any you want, let us know.

The next main event for the diary is October 5th. It's another charity concert for 'North Wales Superkids' - again, held in the Clwyd Room at Theatr Clwyd. It will hopefully be the best concert yet and is title - 'A Sunday Night Out.....an evening of song, dance and comedy'. As well as our dancers (who will be performing various numbers from A Whole New World as well as the odd solo piece), the other acts confirmed include, TNT - top girl band from North Wales, Music Machine - featuring Andy Snowden (of musical theatre fame, including Blood Brothers), Elsber friends, Jason D and Kelly Morris and to headline the event, top tv comedian, Andy Ford. Tickets are priced at £6.00 for adults and £4.00 for children (under 16) and are available by contacting Margaret Williams on 01352 761193. Please book early as there are only a limited number of seats and it has sold out in the past.

10th August

Photos of the show (taken by the professional photographer on the dress rehearsal) will be available from later this week. We will print out a contact sheet with each photo numbered. Pick up an order form, write down the number of the photo, as well as the size required (approx A4 or A5) and the quanity wanted. The A4 size will be £3.50 each and the A5 will be £2.50 each.

On our holidays, we visited ex Elsber dancer, Rosie Taylor who is currently dancing in the Irish dance show, currently taking Menorca by storm, 'Celtic Dreams choreographed by Rachel Catherall'. Anyone visiting Menorca, please note that there are 2 Irish touring shows - both called 'Celtic Dreams' - The one Rosie is in is the show with 5 girls by LM Productions (not Romantic Productions).

Congratulations to Tamsin Law and Vicky Jones who have recently passed their Intermediate Ballet exam. For those that know, this is not an easy exam - well done!!

Some of you will be aware of the funday which is happening at Theatr Clwyd next Sunday (17th August). We will be providing some dancers for the entertainment. Anyone who has been along to the summer classes will know what we are doing. Any seniors that we havent seen and would like to be a part of it, please let us know - Quickly!!! We will be performing 3 x 20 minute sections, mainly taken from 'A Whole New World'. The funday is a charity event for 'North Wales Superkids', please come along and support us and the charity. The day kicks off from about 11am, but we will be performing at 1.30pm, 2.30pm and 3.30pm (we think) in the Clwyd Room.

Rachel Catherall has been asked to choreograph the next Theatr Clwyd production, 'Arthur Miller's, A View From The Bridge', directed by Tim Baker.

Ex Elsber girl, Lydia Griffiths who is currently performing (and has been for the last 2 years) in the chorus (with understudy to Eponine and Cossette) of Les Miserables in the West End will be playing Cossette full time from September. We saw her when she went on as that part at Easter, and thought she was excellent - well done Lydia!!!

19th July

A HUGE WELL DONE to everyone involved in the show. It was fantastic!!! So many people were involved in this production from dancers to costume makers, set movers to lighting and sound operators and many many more - thank you all for your hard work and dedication. Keep checking out this web site as we will soon be posting loads of photos and some video footage available to download (in about a weeks time when we're back from our hols to watch 'Celtic Dream' in Menorca - the new touring Irish dance show by ex Elsber girl Lisa Mesham's company, LM Productions, choreographed by Rachel Catherall and featuring other ex Elsber girl, Rosie Taylor). Some of you have already asked about photos - as you probably know, we had the photographer in on the dress rehearsal on the Wednesday night and those photos will be available very soon - probably when the term starts again in September. We will be putting up some contact sheets with all the photos on and you will be able to order any you wish directly from the photographer. We're not sure yet how much he will charge per picture, but we don't think it will be that much.. Also, the video of the show (the official video recorded by Wizard productions) is now available. Some of you have had your copies already, the others will get theirs soon. We have also been working on our own project of editing some of the footage which we took ourselves to maybe eventually make a highlights DVD, but more information about this will follow when we have it.

It has been great reeading all of the comments on the web site's guestbook, if you haven't seen the comments or havent left a message, please do, and tell us what you think or what you thought.

3rd July

The day has finally arrived. It's the first performance of 'A Whole New World' tonight. There are still some tickets left so if you still havent bought, or are undecided, please do, quickly!!! The amount of hard work by everyone for this show has been amazing. From the dancers, to the costume makers, from the transporters to the technical staff - we can't thank you enough. We had the dress rehearsal last night, and although a few things weren't 100% (some costumes still need to be finished, lighting states need to be tweaked, quick changes not quite made etc) it still looked fantastic and will be even better tonight. We would like to wish everyone involved lots of good luck for tonight and the rest of the run. As usual it will be videoed on the last performance and will be available to buy. We are also filming certain parts each night in the hope of compiling a highlights DVD in the future, but more details of this soon. We also had a photographer in last night taking pictures for the front of house display, copies will be available directly from the photographer if anyone is interested but more details on this shortly. We will be updating this site again very soon with loads of pictures / reviews etc of the show and would love to hear your comments - please sign our guest book and tell us what you thought of the show .

12th June

It's been a while since we last updated. Lots has happened, and we've been busy preparing the forthcoming show. If we have missed anything out, we're sorry - tell us and we'll put it in the next update.

Our dancers did very well at the Rhyl Festival on May bank holiday weekend, lots of great results were had, including Sara Bryan taking the Welsh Modern Championship with Sarah Russell coming 3rd. In the junior section, Sion Williams came second and Hannah Graham came third. Sara Bryan also came third in the Welsh Ballet Championship. In the group sections, Gelert and Bye Bye Blackbird both gained first places. It was a bit of an emotional occasion for Trish Jones as this was the last time she will ever perform Nightowls and Blackbird as she leaves us after the summer show to go to university. We wish you the best of luck Trish.

Some of our dancers auditioned for 'Copacobanna' choreographed by our Charlotte Roberts and performing and Chester Gateway theatre very soon. All 11 of our dancers who auditioned got through and are looking forward to being on the Gateway stage again.

I'm sure we don't have to tell you, but our bi-yearly show at Theatr Clwyd will be here very soon. 'A Whole New World' will be performed on the 3rd, 4th & 5th of July, but please book your tickets now!!! as they are selling fast and we don't want anyone to be dissapointed. Tickets can be bought from the theatre's box office.

The advert for the theatre brochure for our show features a photo of Robyn Griffiths. This was the picture chosen by the designers of the theatre brochure and will be used in any publicity.

The show will feauture some old faces as well as friends both old and new of the dance school. We welcome back the talent of Jason D ( sorry, still can't spell your surname mate ), also the vocal talents of new friend, Tom Evans and we're very lucky to be able to present actress of Theatr Clwyd Company and West End, Kelly Morris (star of 2 Theatr Clwyd Pantos aswell as their production of Threepenny Opera) who will be performing some of the numbers.

As usual, the show will be videoed and can be bought directly through the dance school. See Mrs Catherall for detail.

Finally, although the John Field Concert doesn't really exist any more, the event is still happening at Theatr Clwyd on Sunday 29th June. Some of our dancers will be performing at this event, so go and book your tickets now (from the Theatr Clwyd Box Office) if you think you might want to go along.

21st April

We have finally discovered how to put downloadable video clips online!!! We will be adding various clips over the coming months, but to start with, here is a 5 min clip of highlights from the 'Showcase 2002' shows last summer. Click 'here' to start downloading the video, it will probably take anywhere between 5 and 15 mins, depending on your connection speed. You will need windows media player installed on your machine to view it. If when you click on the link, nothing happens after a few seconds, click 'here' with your right mouse button, and a box will appear asking you to give it a file name and where to save it. When it has downloaded, double click on the file and it should open automatically. I know this sounds a bit complicated, but it really isn't, you'll soon get the hang of it. Please post your comments on the guestbook and let us know what you think.

Well done to all of the girls that appeared in Chester Operatic's production of, 'My Fair Lady' the other week at Chester Gateway.

Also, well done to the girls that did the photo shoot for the Clwyd Theatr Cymru brochure last weekend (the Blackbird girls who didn't appear in My Fair Lady). We're not 100% sure yet if the pictures will make the brochure but our fingers are crossed. We managed to get some great pictures, most of which will be used as front of house pictures at this year's 'Whole New World' show.

Also, we have updated many of our existing pages, including 'staff', 'our success' and also the broken links to the photos page have now been sorted.

Lydia Griffiths will be performing at the 'Night Of A Thousand Voices' concert on May 4th at the Royal Albert Hall, London. She will be joining some of her fellow Les Miserables cast members as well as members from other West End Musicals. We wish her lots of luck. Also a big well done to Lydia who has been performing the leading role of Cossette in Les Miserables all last week in the West End.

We have also updated a lot of the other pages on this site, including the 'success' page and the 'staff' page. Also we have fixed the links to the photos on the latest page of pictures from this year's BADG panto.

6th April

Quite a bit of news to report this month. Starting off with the girls who performed at the 'Young Musical Theatre Singer Of North Wales' competition at Rhyl Pavillion last month. Despite putting on probably the best performance to date of 'Bye Bye Blackbird' we unfortunately didn't win. We would like to thank the our dancers and the staff at Rhyl Pavillion for being great and very professional - unfortunately unlike various other members of the organisers......less said the better we think. One of the judges was so impressed with the standard and professionalism of the 'Blackbird' girls, he offered them a part in Chester Operatic Society's production of 'My Fair Lady' to be performed at Chester Gateway theatre on Tuesday through Saturday of this week.

After some great auditions held a couple of weeks ago, this year's big show at Theatr Clwyd, 'A Whole New World' has now been cast. You will all be aware of who is doing what by now, but there are still bits to fine tune and juggle about. As soon as the running order and performers are 100% correct, we will post the list on this site.

Ex Elsber girl, Stephanie Bauer is about to board her first cruise ship as a production singer. The ship is P&O's Aurora and will be setting sail for the Carribbean on Tuesday. We hope you have a great time Steph.

Another ex Elsber girl, Lydia Griffiths who has been a part of the chorus in Les Miserables in the West End for the last 18 months will be taking the part of Cossette during Easter week.

Another ex Elsber girl, Lisa Messham will be starting her latest summer season in Menorca at the end of May. She is very happy this year to have a new show which will be touring the island. It is called 'Celtic Dreams' and is an Irish dance show choreographed by our own Rachel Catherall and will be featuring yet another ex Elsber girl Rosie Taylor. If any of you are out in Menorca this summer and see this or any other of Lisa's shows, go and say hello.

Rachel Catherall has also been choreographing some numbers for Karen Western Productions in County Durham to be included in 2 shows performing in Skegness this summer.

Not so new now teacher, Charlotte Roberts' biog will be included in these pages very soon.

Finally, we are aware that some of the photos on the photo pages don't work correctly, but this will be sorted out soon.

8th March.

First up, our apologise for leaving it so long since the last update. Lots has happened since then. The girls who took part in the 'Young Musical Theatre Singer Of North Wales' competition did brilliantly, got through and are appearing in the final - tonight at Rhyl Pavillion. I'm sure most of you already know this, but the more support, the better.

Also a very big well done to everyone who took part in the recent Wrexham festival at the 'Stiwt Theatre' last month. As usual, many cups and prizes were won.

We will be updating this site again over the next few days with various updates including our new teacher, Charlotte Robert's biog and various new photos. Keep logging on and don't forget to leave your coments in the guestbook.

7th February.

Well done to our girls who appeared in this year's BADG panto (see last news article). Photos have now been posted - click here to go straight to them. More photos of the panto will be added very soon.

Good luck to our 'Bye Bye Blackbird' group who are taking part in the 'Young Musical Theatre Singer of North Wales' competition tomorrow. We will let you know how they got on as soon as we know.

26th January

It's a bit late...but Happy New Year to you all!!!

It's been a busy month for us Elsber lot so lets "begin at the beginning" (as Dylan Thomas once said).....

Well done to all of our girls that took part in this year's newly revived Buckley Panto, 'Puss In Boots' (see last news article). We recieved many compliments in both their dancing and attitude (after a few quick lessons in organisation skills).

Broughton Panto (Snow White....) is now up an running and features 8 of our dancers. These are Sara Bryan, Trish Jones, Vicky Jones, Tamsin Law, Sarah Howells, Emma Fenlon, Kerry Piper and Yvette Page. There are still 3 performances left next weekend so if you haven't yet got your tickets then check out the B.A.D.G. website for more details. Photos of the girls may be posted up here very soon providing Sara remembers to take her camera!!!

The dance school are entering a new competition called 'The Young Musical Theatre Singer Of North Wales' next month. The competition is patroned by Welsh singing legend, Bryn Terfyl and is to promote musical theatre within Wales. We are entering our 'Bye Bye Blackbird' group piece from our Fosse section in the last Theatr Clwyd show. Watch this space for all of the results.

The Wrexham festival is coming up soon. The dates are Feb 16th - 19th. There is a new venue this year for the festival. It will now be held at the 'Stiwt' theatre in Rhos. It is in half term so if you fancy cheering some of our girls on then go along.

Congratulations to ex Elsber girl Stephanie Bauer who has just just started rehearsals for her first professional job since leaving drama college. She will be joining the production shows for P&O Cruises on either their 'Aurora' or 'Victoria', as soon as we know which, we will let you know.

We have just updated the timetable page so there is no excuse not to be late again. Click here to go straight there.

24th Decmber

First off this time..... a very happy Christmas to you all and we hope you all have a great new year.

Loads of news to report, starting off by congratulating all of our dancers who took part in the Hope festival last month. We had some great results and won many trophies....but......Night Owls was finally beaten.....but it's ok, because it was by our latest festival group, 'Bye Bye Blackbird'. Our debut performance of 'Gelert' also won first place in the 'classical group' section. Well done to everybody involved.

The dates for the bi-yearly Clwyd Theatr Cymru show have now been confirmed as the 3rd, 4th and 5th of July. The show is called 'A Whole New World' and will be the biggest and best yet!!!

We have a new teacher for you this term for the senior, modern and tap classes. It is Charlotte Roberts. We welcome her to the fold.

Well done to Chloe Coles, Robyn Griffiths, Vicky Williams, Lindsey Morris, Rachel Harrison and Jessica Ingham who have just taken part in this year's Buckley Panto (yes, it finally happened!!!). The production was 'Puss In Boots'. It was a very last minute production and our girls only got 2 weeks notice - very well done to you all.

Rehearsals for this year's Broughton panto, 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'. The show takes place the last weekend on January and the first weekend of February. More details on this will be posted shortly.

10th November

Unfortionately the performance of the comedy show 'Ba-Ba'Boom!' which was due to take place on 27th November at Chester Gateway Theatre and includes 4 of our girls (now also including Tamsin Law) and was being choreographed by our own Rachel Catherall has had to have been re-scheduled. At present, the exact date is yet to be confirmed, but it is thought to now be taking place some time in February. As soon as we have more info on this, we will let you know.

On a better note, well done to Sara Bryan who travelled up to York last weekend to compete in another heat of the 'Miss Dance' competetion. Although she didn't get through this time, she did gain 4th place in over 20 contestants. We applaud her commitment and determination - well done.

Good luck to all our girls who are taking part in the Hope Festival next week. It will be the first time that we have performed our new version of 'Gelert' in public. The music to 'Gelert' includes a voice over telling the story of the piece, which was recorded especially for us by the highly acclaimed Welsh actor of stage, film and television, Gwyn Vaughn Jones, who is currently on tour with 'Clwyd Theatr Cymru's' production of 'To Kill A Mocking Bird'. In the groups section, we will also be performing our 'Grimm's Tales' piece, our 'Night Owls' dance and also making it's festival debut is 'Bye Bye Blackbird'.

Keeping with Clwyd Theatr Cymru....after working as choreographer for their production of 'Romeo & Juliet', directed by Terry Hands, Rachel Catherall was brought into rehearsals for a new production of 'Four Seasons' as choreographer / movement co-ordinator. The production stars highly acclaimed Welsh actor, 'Owen Teal' who is probably best remembered for his roll as Conor in 'Ballykissangel' and also Rachel Sanders who is a well known star of TV and theatre. Again, this production was directed by Terry Hands and officially opens next Tuesday night.

Finally, a huge well done to all of our girls who have recently taken their exams. The results were fantastic with 100% pass rate. No mark awarded was below a 'B'.

13th October

It's been a while since the last update and quite a bit has happened, so here goes....

First off, a huge well done to all of our dancers who took part in this year's 'North Wales Super Kids' charity concert held last Saturday (5th Oct) at Clwyd Theatr Cymru. You were all brilliant. The girls ended the 1st half with the now infamous 'Night Owls' routine and went on to close the 2nd half of the show with the newly extended version of our powerful Irish / Celtic show piece, 'Celtica'. Judging by the audience's reaction, that piece is getting better and better every time we perform it. In the same concert, it was great to see one of our ex girls, Stephanie Bauer, (who has joined us back in class again over the last couple of weeks) take the stage by storm with a voice some people would die for - well done Steph. Stephanie has recently graduated from 'Arts Educational' drama college, London and is currently auditioning for various shows. We wish her the best of luck. Also appearing at this concert was Jason D (ok, so I still can't spell your surname) who will be appearing with us in our biggest concert yet next year at Clwyd Theatr Cymru. Again, well done to everyone who took part. A lot of money was made for a great cause.

We have also recently welcomed back one of our good friends and ex-Elsber girl, Rosie Taylor who has recently returned from working at Eurodisney, Paris. Rosie has been helping us out recently covering some classes for us. She has just got herself another cruise job as a dancer with Costa Cruises, crusing the Meditteranean for 6 months (nice!!). She will be leaving this Thursday to join them in Genoa. Good luck!!!.

Clwyd Theatr Cymru's new production of 'Romeo & Juliet' finally opened last night. It was due to start previews on Thursday 10th but just as Juliet exited the stage from scene three, approx 20 mins into the show, she walked into part of the staging during a black out and disslocated and fractured on of her toes....her 'Beckham' toe. After being strapped up, she bravely hobbled through the performance last night. Choreography for the show was done by our very own Rachel Catherall.

It has now been confirmed that this year's panto by our friends at 'B.A.D.G.' will be 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'. As usual, we will be providing dancers to appear in the music numbers.

Tickets have gone on sale for 'Ba-Ba-Boom!', a satirical comedy show premiering at Chester Gateway on November 27th which is choreographed by Rachel Catherall and will feature three of our dancers (see news below). Tickets can be bought from the ticket office at the Gateway Theatre. Please not that this production isn't really suitable for younger children.

16th September

The Elsber School Of Theatre Dance will be performing in a charity concert in aid of 'North Wales Super Kids' on Oct 5th. Our girls will be performing the 'Night Owls' routine and the new extended 'Celtica'. Other acts include ex-Elsber girl, Stephanie Bauer who has recently graduated from Arts Educational School in London, and friend of the school, Jason D. (sorry mate I can't spell your surname). There will be other acts on, including singers, comedians and other dance schools. The concert will take place in the 'Clwyd Room' at Clwyd Theatr Cymru and starts at 7.30pm. Ticket details will be posted very shortly.

Some of our girls who appeared in BADG's pantomime at the beginning of the year will be making another appearence tonight (Monday) at the CCTA finals night, again held in the 'Clwyd Room' at Clwyd Theatr Cymru. The girls will be performing 'Hard Knock Life' and 'Zero To Hero'. It starts at 8pm and as yet we're not quite sure of the ticket situation but I sure if you want to watch it, you could probably talk nicely to the people on the door and I'm sure they'll be able to sort you out.

We wish good luck to ex-Elsber girl, Charlotte Rose who flies out to Miami on October 15th to start rehearsals for her first professional dance job aboard the 'Norwegian Dream' cruise ship for NCL. Her first cruise is a 50 day cruise around South America. She will then be heading off to the Carribbean, The Baltic and finally the Meditteranean.

Also Rachel Catherall - teacher of the Elsber School and proffesional choreographer has recently started working for KP Productions, working closely with a Southport based girl band. She has also just been confirmed as choreographer of Clwyd Theatr Cymru's forthcoming production of 'Romeo and Juliet' directed by one of the most highly regarded Shakesperean directors in the country, Terry Hands. The production opens in the Anthony Hopkins Theatre at Clwyd Theatr Cymru on 10th October.

We will also be posting the new timetable up shortly so they'll be no excuse for missing those classes.

25th August

Some of you may be interested to know (I know there's a few of our senior girls who certainly will be) that friend and supporter of the Elsber school, Nick Washbrooke, made his television debut last week on Sky One's, 'Is Harry On The Boat'. He will also be appearing in the show tonight (Sunday) on Sky One at 10pm. Although not really suitable for our younger girls, some of you may find it rather amusing. For those of you who miss it, we think that it is to be repeated next Saturday night. Well done Nick, we're proud of you and drink a toast to your television career - as they say, "bottom's up!!!!" (watch it tonight and you'll know what we mean, ha ha). If there is anyone watching who doesn't know Nick....he's playing the part of the fireman!!!

18th August

We've been away for a while so we have a few weeks worth of news to catch up on, so here goes.....

First off, we reported last time that Sarah Baldock would be teaching for us from September, unfortunately this has fallen through and she is now unable to work with us. We will let you know who will be teaching instead very shortly.

If anybody was watching the opening ceremony to the Commonwealth Games a few weeks back, you may have noticed a full face close up of one of our ex dancers and good friend of the school, Helen Taylor, who was leading out the team of St. Helena (all 4 of them). Well done Helen, you were great!!!

We are also very proud to announce that during our 3rd concert in our recent 'Showcase 2002' tour, the director of the 'Full Stop Comedy' production company was in watching. After seeing our girls (and boys) perform, he got in touch with the school and has asked Elsber teacher / choreographer, Rachel Catherall would choreograph the dance pieces for their forthcoming production, 'Ba-Ba-Boom!' which will premiere at Chester Gateway Theatre on November 27th. He also offered 3 of the 5 dance positions in the show to our girls, Rachel Varney, Sarah Russell and Sara Bryan. Although not suitable to our younger students, the show is descibed as, 'A dazzling original comedy revue for the here and now from the professional company, Full Stop Comedy and Full Stop Dance Ltd. Sizzling, sultry, fresh and uniquely mad, Ba-Ba-Boom! is the dangerously sexy dance and comedy cocktail'. Tickets are available through Chester Gateway's box office.

Every year in the Merseyside Dance and Drama Center, awards are given for the highest achievements in all of the subjects that they teach. We are very proud that this year's Modern Theatre Dance award went to our very own Rachel Varney (twice Welsh modern champion). This is a very high homour for a first year student. Congratulations Rachel!!

Finally, ex Elsber girl, Lydia Griffiths has just signed a new contract for another year in 'Les Miserables' in the West End. This year, as well as chorus, she will be 1st understudy to 'Cossette' and 2nd understudy to 'Eponine'. Within the last year, Lydia has performed both of these roles and the dancing school hopes to run a coach trip to London next time she is on as a lead.

24th July

Ok, we've finally put up the photos from the 3rd Showcase 2002 show on our photos page. It was a great occasion for us and we will continue to perform them every other year, inbetween our Clwyd Theatr Cymru shows.

On a more serious note, we're sad to have to lose the wonderful talent and teachings of Christine Eccleston-Tuohy who due to extra commitments with The Hammond School Of Dance is no longer able to teach for us. Chrissie was one of the first students of the school when the Elsber School Of Dance first started up all those years ago (ha ha, she won't thank us for mentioning that). She will be dearly missed by us and all the dancers and we wish her the very best for the future. On a good note, we are very pleased to welcome Sarah Baldock to the fold. Sarah started off her training at The North Wales School Of Dance, then went on to further her training at Merseyside Dance & Drama Centre. After dancing for many years professionally, Sarah is now a professional teacher / choreographer who's work includes choreographing the panto at the New Pavillion in Rhyl every year.

This web site has now been up and running for just over a year and is continuing to grow, with more gossip and photos being added all the time. We really appreciate all the feedback, and entries in the guestbook (if you haven't signed it, go and signed now - even if you have, go sign it again!), but if you have any suggestions how we can add to it or how we can make it better, please feel free to email us at info@elsberdance.co.uk

22nd July

Well those of you logging on to see the pics from the last concert in our 'Showcase 2002' - we apologise. Due to a 'technical problem' (they always use that as an excuse) we haven't been able to post them yet, but we will soon - promise!!

Our main news this week is that Sara Bryan has decided that she WILL compete in next year's Miss Dance UK final, and after finishing off learning her new dance on Friday, she peformed it at the Preston heat on Sunday night. She did brilliantly, but unfortunately didn't win....never mind, it is only a matter of time before she gets through. Although we wouldn't dream of knocking the judge's oppinion, we were surprised when she didn't make first place - oh well, you win some and you lose some. Sara is hoping to get into the Manchester heat next week. We all wish her the best of luck.

Next year's show, 'A whole New World' has now been booked at Clwyd Theatr Cymru and we will let you know the dates shortly.

17th July

After months of preparation, we have finally finished our touring shows, 'Showcase 2002'. Yet again, we would like to thank everybody involved in these productions and also everyone who came to see any of them. They were a huge success, much bigger than we could ever have hoped for. If you have been visiting this site recently you will know that we have photos from the first 2 concerts in the tour and very shortly (hopefully within the next week or so) there will be loads of photos from last Friday night's performance in Connah's Quay.

Apart from the various festivals and charity concerts etc which our danncers constantly compete and perform in, our next main public show will be in Clwyd Theatr Cymru next June or July (a date hasn't been confirmed yet). The show will be titled 'A Whole New World' and promises to be the biggest, most spectacular show we have put on to date. More details of the show will be released in the near future.

9th July

What a great night - last Saturday, playing to a capacity crowd, we performed the 2nd of our on tour 'Showcase 2002' gigs. We couldn't have asked for a bigger or better crowd. Thank you again to everyone involved in making these productions possible. Thank you for anyone reading this who came to see the show, but most of all, thank you and well done again to all of our dancers (including the adult tappers!!). We have posted some photos of the show - click here to go straight to them or click our photos link below.

Don't forget, the 3rd and final of our Showcase 2002 concerts will be happening this Friday - 12th July at Connah's Quay Civic Hall at 7.30pm so please come along and support us.

1st July

The Elsber School Of Theatre Dance would like to thank everyone involved with Saturday night's production - the first of our Showcase 2002 concerts. Everything ran perfectly - the dancers were excellent and so were the crew and all of the helpers. You did us proud. As you know, we're about to do it all again this Saturday night, and again next Friday - both in Connah's Quay Civic Hall. Photos from last Saturday's performance have now been posted - if anyone has any more, please send them in so we can add them. If anyone reading this saw the performance, or are going to see any of the other productions over the next 2 weeks, we would really appreciate your feedback, good or bad - please take a minute to sign our guestbook.

Also, a slightly late well done to the girls that took part in the recent John Field's Memorial Concert at Clwyd Theatr Cymru. Our girls performed their 'Celtica' routine which finished off the 1st half of the show. Judging by the reaction of all of the crowd, a great time was had by all. This was to be the last of the annual concerts in memory of John Field and we were proud to have been a part of it for all these years. Well done girls!!!

13th June

Just a quick reminder about the annual John Field's Memorial Concert which takes place at Clwyd Theatr Cymru this Sunday evening (16th June). The Elsber's 'Celtica' girls will be appearing so we hope a few of you out there will come along and cheer us on. It is rumoured that this will be the last ever John Field concert so lets make it a good one.

We have just uploaded our new photos page - "scrapbook" - more pictures will be added soon. If you have any pictures of the dancers that you would like to see up there on this page then please let us know.

12th June

Well done to Sara Bryan who competed in this years Miss Dance finals this weekend, she did the school proud. It was a huge achievement, especially by someone still so young. It was also great to see a lot of her fellow Elsber dancers get up early to make the journey to Sheffield to cheer her on.

Also, we would like to say well done to Sarah Russell and Rachel Varney who recently performed in their first annual production for The Merseyside Dance and Drama Centre, held in Crosby a couple of weeks ago. Also dancing with them in the show was ex-Elsber girl, Charlotte Rose. This was Charlotte's 3rd and final show for Merseyside as she is soon to go off dancing in the big wide world and join a cruise ship (see earlier 'news' for details).

Tickets are now on sale for the mini-shows that we're putting on at the end of this month / beginning of next month. The show is (origianlly) titled, 'Showcase 2002'. Prices are £4.00 for adults and £3.00 for children and O.A.Ps. The tickets are available at all the usual outlets or by emailing us.

The Evening Leader and the Chronicle have recently printed articles about the Elsber School. The Leader reported about Rachel Varney's and Sara Bryan's achievments at the recent Rhyl festival and the Chronicle did a piece about the success of the 'Night Owls' group. Both articles will be in our new photos page, cunningly titled 'Scrapbook' which will be up and running very soon. This page will also contain pictures / articles of the school and it's dancers from it's very early days through to the present. We know a lot of the dancers had photos taken at the Rhyl Festival, if you would like to see them up here, please let us have a copy.

7th May

A huge 'Well Done' to all of the dancers who took part in the Welsh Championships over the bank holiday weekend at the Little Theatre in Rhyl. We had lots of great results (which will be posted here in the next week or so) including another win for our now infamous 'Night Owls'. But a very special mention and well done has to go to Rachel Varney, who won 1st place in the Welsh Modern Championships and also Sara Bryan who has finally achieved her long awaited, and hard worked towards goal of winning 1st place in the Miss Dance qualifiers. It was a very emotional moment, I don't think there were many dry eyes in the whole of the theatre. She will be now traveling to Sheffield on June 9th to compete in the Miss Dance National Final. The dance school will be organising a coach trip to watch her and cheer her on - check out your classes or this space soon for more details. If any of the dancers have pictures from this event, let us know if you want us to post them on our photos page.

We are currently in the middle of organising a 3 date tour of halls / community centres this June / July. These concerts will be a permanant feature and will happen bi-yearly, alternating with our main production held at Clwyd Theatr Cymru every 2 years. The dates and venues are...June 29th - Broughton Primary School, July 6th - Connah's Quay Civic Hall, July 12th - Connah's Quay Civic Hall. Tickets will be available through the dance school within the next 2 weeks - keep checking here for more details.

Ex-Elsber girl, Charlotte Rose is soon to graduate from Merseyside Dance & Drama Centre. Last week, she successfully autiotion for her first professional dancing job and is about to take to the seas on an American cruise ship. After 3 weeks rehearsals in Las Vegas, she will be cruising such places as Hawaii, Japan and the South Seas for 6 months - All the best from us and everyone else at the school - Well done!

Also, the school has just agreed to appear in a charity concert, again held at Clwyd Theatr Cymru in aid of the 'North Wales Super Kids' charity. The date is not yet confirmed, but it's thought to be some time around October 5th. More details here as soon as we get them.

3rd May

Well done to all of our dancers who took part in the 'Celtica' display at St David's Hotel last month, you did us proud. All proceeds from the event will go to the NSPCC. The set consisted of a 20 min Irish Dance section plus various festival and competition pieces. Some photos (a bit blurred we're afraid) have been posted on our 'pics' page.

Good luck to all of the dancers taking part in this bank holiday Monday's Welsh Championships at Rhyl's Little Theatre - updates and results will be posted here shortly after the event.

5th April

We know it's been a while since the last news update, but here we go.....

A big well done to the girls involved in the charity event at Chester Race Course last month. Our mini concert 'Celtica' was a huge success, so much so we have been asked to perform it again, this time for a NSPCC event to be held at St. David's Park Hotel, Ewloe on Sunday 14th April. Also appearing at the event is ex Elsber pupil, Lisa Messham with her Broadway show, due to open in Menorca in 2 weeks time. Email us if you are interested in tickets which are priced at £5.00 for adults and £3.00 for children - come along, it'll be a great show and is for a good cause.

So close, yet so far!!!!......Lots of credit has to go to Sara Bryan in her bid to get to the finals of this year's Miss Dance Of Great Britain. In the heats this week, she managed a 3rd place and a runner up (although we all think that she was by far the best!!). Keep trying and good luck Sara, you'll get there in the end (Rachel and Sarah - you could also get there if you attended the heats!!).

10th March

Loads of news this time, where do we start??? Ok, here goes......Festival time again! This time, Deeside. First up, a big "Well Done" to all the girls taking part in the Deeside festival held over the last couple of weekends. The girls did so well, we felt that some of them had to be mentioned.

Here are a list of some of the results....

Night Owls seems to be proving popular with festival judges, with it scooping up 3 awards this time - It won the best group in the section, the best choreography of the whole festival and highest mark of the whole festival with an impressive 96 marks.

Sara Bryan - 1st in her modern section, 1st in her ballet, 1st in song & dance, 2nd in musical comedy, 2nd in classical challenge, 2nd in caberet challenge and also the winner of the most promising caberet dancer of the festival.

Rachel Varney - 1st in her modern section, 1st in her national and 4th in her ballet section.

Sarah Russell - 2nd in modern, 2nd in ballet.

Rachel, Sarah & Sara - 1st in their trio section and won a trophy for the highest mark trio of the whole festival.

Vicky Williams - 2nd in her modern section, 2nd in character, 1st in the intermediate classical challenge.

Tamsin Law - 1st in her modern section, 3rd in song & dance and 4th in ballet.

Emma Fenlon - 2nd in her modern.

Lindsey Morris - 2nd in her ballet.

Rachel Harrison - 2nd in both her modern & character.

Jessica Ingham - Ist in her modern.

Helena Bronnert - 2nd in song & dance.

Hanna Graham - 1st in character, 3rd in modern.

Robyn Griffiths - 1st in modern, 3rd in song & dance.

Chloe Coles - 1st in ballet, 1st in modern.

Emily Richards - 2nd in ballet.

Rhian Cunnah - 2nd in ballet.

Sophie Davies - 1st in both modern and musical comedy.

Deanna Bowden - 1st in song & dance, 4th in modern.

Chloe Digman - 1st in character, 2nd in song & dance.

Sian Singleton - 2nd in ballet.

Sasha Wynne - 3rd in ballet.

Bethan Waite - 4th in ballet.

Getting away from the festival for a moment, we would like to with good luck to ex-Elsber girl, Rosie Taylor who has just left for Paris for her new job in EuroDisney as a character dancer.

Also, good luck to another ex-Elsber girl Lisa Mesham who is about to start rehearsal for another season in sunny menorca - for those that don't know,Lisa choreographs 3 shows for hotels on the island - and our own Rachel Catherall will also be choreographing some numbers for Lisa this year.

Also, don't forget that on March 17t - St. Patrick's day, some of our girls will be performing a 20 minute Irish Dance / Song programme at a charity event at Chester race course. The event is free to get in and is in support of cancer research. The routine is choreographed by Rachel Catherall, Sara Bryan & Trish Jones.

We have updated the photo pages at last, check it out for a laugh. We also have some more photos which will be online shortly.

23rd Feb

The web site has had a bit of a face lift - especially the photos page. More will be added soon so keep checking them out.

22nd Feb

Since our last update, loads has been happening. Starting with Frankenstein The Panto, recently staged by our friends at BADG. The panto was a great success (if a tadge too long!!!), the dancers Sara Bryan, Trish Jones, Vicky Jones, Alice Black, Kerry Piper, Tamsin Law, Sarah Howells, Vicky Williams and Emma Fenlon were a credit to the dance school and gave very polished, professional performances. Well done girls. Photos will be up soon (I know we always say this but we mean it this time - honest!!!) hurry up Sara with your digital camera.

Over half term, the dance school competed in the Wrexham festival and won many medals and cups. Night Owls once again gained the highest mark of the festival - putting Sara Bryan in second place with the next highest mark yet again (one day Sara)!!!

Coming soon, on March 17th - St Patrick's Day, the senior Irish class will be performing at Chester Race Course at a charity event for cancer research. Entrance is free so if your not doing anything, pop down and support the girls and a very good cause (not sure exactly what time yet, but we think it's the afternoon - keep checking here for more details).

Ex-Elsber pupil, Lydia Griffiths finally made here West End starring role debut recently. She has been part of the chorus in Les Miserables since November, she was rehearsing to go on for the role of Eponine as the lead was taking a holiday. Lydia got a phone call in the morning to say that the girl playing Cossette was ill and her number one understudy was off so she was on that night. There was no time for friends and family to get down and see her, so she phoned Rosie Taylor ( fellow Elsber girl ), who just happened to be in London that week, to see her make her debut. By all accounts Lydia was fantastic and has since played her rehearsed role of Eponine. We tried to organise a dancing school trip but it was sold out till April. Next time!!! Well done Flid!!!

Rosie Taylor has successfully auditioned to be a character dancer in EuroDisney, Paris. As yet she doesn't know which character she'll be. So if you happen to be visiting EuroDisney this summer and want to say hello to Rosie, email us here and we'll pass on the message to her.

30th December

Well, it's been a while and this will be the last bit of news of 2001 - and what a year!!! A lot has happened since our last update, so here goes.........

November saw the Holywell Festival, everyone danced well and lots of medals were won. Well done to the trio (Sara, Sarah & Rachel) for picking up one of the four trophies!!! Rachel Varney got the highest mark in the festival for her National.

Lisa Messham has now returned from that sunny island of Menorca (see 'our success'). In November, Lisa provided dancers for the Prince's Charity Trust Ball held at Manchester United Football Ground. As her regular girls weren't available, she supplemented her team with Rachel Varney and Sarah Russell, with a lovely photo of Rachel making it into November's edition of 'OK Magazine'(If you look carefully, you can also see Sarah's bum and Lisa's arm!!!). This photo will be added to the photos page (yes I know we haven't finished it yet or updated it in ages) as soon as we get our copy.

Rachel Catherall is now teaching at her old college, The Merseyside Dance And Drama Centre - Varney and Russel couldn't believe their misfortune when they turned up to class that sunny morning (and they thought they had escaped her for good - ha ha ha).

Rehearsals for Buckley & Broughton pantos are now underway. Unfortunately the Buckley panto has been postponed to February , the Broughton panto - 'Frankenstein The Panto' will be held at Broughton primary school at the end of January. Exact dates and tickets are available from their official web site. Photos of the rehearsal will be added to the gallery very soon.

Lydia Griffiths is now performing in the West End in 'Les Miserables'. She is first cover for Eponine and second cover for Cossette. Eponine is taking a holiday in February so for 2 weeks, Lydia will be taking the role. We hope to run a bus trip to see her - watch this space!!!

Rosie Taylor is now back from her Europe / Caribbean / North American Cruise where she was one of the production show dancers. She had a fantastic time (thanks for the postcards) and will be re-locating to London in the new year to concentrate on forthcoming auditions - Good Luck Rosie!!!

22nd October

Congratulations to everyone who performed at the Hope festival this weekend. Everybody danced incredibly well and it was satisfying to see how much everyone has improved. A few notable performances - Sara Bryan, 1st in Modern, 2nd in Ballet and Song & Dance and 3rd in Musical Comedy. Sara also held her own today in the ballet challenge.....( that's right....BALLET !!!! challenge!!??!) Sara won 2 trophies, 1 for the highest mark of the festival in solo competition and the other for the best jazz dance of the festival. Well done Sara.

Sarah Howells came 1st in the Novice National section, Lindsey Morris won the Novice Modern and Emily Richards came 1st in the Novice Ballet.

There were many other 2nd and 3rd placements from our girls - well done!

The biggest triumph from the festival was the revival of the old favourite, 'Night Owls'. This was the first time in 2 years that this number has been performed. There were only 4 original group members from the first time round and the group were complimented on their precision and choreography. As you might have already guessed, this group came 1st with the highest mark of the whole festival and won trophies for the high marks and best choreography of the festival - hooray.....( we're back!! ).

We've also just heard that ex-Elsber pupil, Lydia Griffiths has just got into the West End production of Les Miserables. We're not sure yet what part she has (we'll let you know next week after we've spoken to her). In the mean time, don't forget that Lydia and some of the Elsber dances will be appearing at a charity concert at Clwyd Theatr Cymru this Saturday ( October 27th ) - email us now for ticket details!!!

18th October

The term is now well underway and already a lot has happened. This weekend sees the Hope festival taking place. Good luck to all our girls. The senior groups have been rehearsing for 2 months now and will perform 'Night Owls' for the first time at the Hope festival - Good Luck!!!

The School has now started adult tap classes. We have 2 classes each week, Monday - Advanced, Wednesday - Beginners. See time table for times / venues etc.

Rachel Varney and Sarah Russell are enjoying their time at Merseyside Dance and Drama Centre. The still come to Irish and limbering every week to keep up with all the gossip!!

The Elsber School Of Theatre Dance will be performing at a charity concert on October 27th held in the Clwyd Room at Clwyd Theatr Cymru (email us now for ticket details). They will be performing and adaptation of the Fosse scene from 'When I Get My Name In Lights' and the opening from 'Lord Of The Dance'. They will also be teaming up with ex-pupil Lydia Griffiths who is also performing at this concert.

4th September

We have just added the autumn time table to the site - click here to see what time your lesson is (now there's no excuse to be late ever again!!!).

10th August

We've just managed to upload some video footage from this year's show, 'When I Get My Name In Lights' held at Clwyd Theatr Cymru. The clip is one of the numbers from the 'very popular' Fosse scene. Click here to find out how to watch it.

The Summer School is now over, thank you and well done to everyone who came.

Holiday classes have now begun on Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights - phone or email us for more details.

31st July

Congratulations to Rachel Varney who has just passed her Intermediate 1 ballet exam.

Congratulations also to both Sarah Russell and Rachel Varney who have just been cast in their first professional production - 'Aladin' this years pantomime at the New Pavillion Theatre, Rhyl, They will be performing along side stars from Eastenders, Coronation Street and Brookside (amongst others)....."Oh no they won't....oh yes they will"!!!!!

Well, the videos have arrived and are available to buy at the price of £12.95. Just see Mrs Catherall or email us here at info@elsberdance.co.uk

Within the next few weeks, we are hoping to have some video clips from the show available to view from this web site (if we can work out how to do it).

A full review on the show will be posted up here very soon, so keep checking for updates.

Also don't forget the 'Flintshire Summer Dance School' which takes place at Holywell Leisure Centre from 6th - 8th August, where a number of classes including, ballet, tap, modern jazz, musical theatre and Irish dance will be taught by fully qualified professional staff. Email us for more info.

12th July

Check out some of the photos from tuesday night's rehearsal on our photos page.

10th July

The Elsber School Of Theatre Dance's new web site is launched - alyhough in quite a basic format, it promises to grow much bigger over the next few months.

The Elsber School Of Theatre Dance is proud to announce it's new production, taking place at Clwyd Theatr Cymru on 12th, 13th & 14th July.....

WHEN I GET MY NAME IN LIGHTS

Check out the photos pages very soon for photos from this production.