Alta Spring 2025 Newsletter

Spring Term 2025 Newsletter

It was lovely to see so many parents and extended family during classes last week for our open week. We hope you enjoyed seeing our classes in action.

As we head into Easter break, we’d like to thank our dancers for their energy and focus in classes this term, parents for your continued support and finally our dedicated team of teachers for their hard work, passion and inspiration.

Latest News

FESTIVAL UDPATES

Some of our dancers have recently been taking part in local festivals.

Pictured here are Sophia (left) and Gaia (right) who performed ballet solos at Eastbourne and Worthing festivals.

Congratulations to Sophia who gained 3rd place at Worthing!

More good news from Worthing Festival…

Zak was awarded 1st place with 90 marks (Outstanding) for his new lyrical and contemporary solos, both choreographed by Miss Anya.

We also entered a small group for the first time at Worthing festival with two dances.

Ella (top and bottom left) was awarded 1st place for her commercial solo at Worthing festival. She also performed 3 new solos - contemporary, lyrical and jazz!

Maia (top and bottom right) performed two solos for her first festival season - lyrical and contemporary. She received lovely comments from the adjudicators as well as Honours marks.

COURSES & PERFORMANCES

Matilda had a wonderful time at the English National Ballet School on the Spring Intensive earlier in the term.

She has been offered places on the prestigious Royal Ballet School Spring Intensive and Central School of Ballet course over Easter.

Annis, Bella, Charlotte, Matilda, Sophia and Zak have been offered places on the sought after Yorkshire Ballet Seminars Summer Intensive. Sophia was also awarded a place on the Easter course.

Dancers are selected for this course based on their audition photographs. (Charlotte, Sophia, Zak and Bella pictured clockwise from top left).

Rhona (top left), has been offered a place on the Acosta Dance Centre spring course.

Having made great progress with their pre-pointe preparation, Jess and Molly (top right) got their first pointe shoes at the start of the term.

Siblings, Zak and Ella (bottom left and right) have been offered places in the National Youth Ballet Senior Performance Company 2025 for this summer.

Zak has recently been in France filming for an new SNCF Connect advert which features him portraying a hopeful dancer travelling to Paris for an audition.

We are delighted for former student, Marcus, who having spent a year at LV Ballet School has been offered a full time place at the Royal Ballet School. We are pleased we were able to help Marcus for his recent audition success.

Grade 4 and Intermediate Foundation student, Phoenix, recently enjoyed performing in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the Theatre Royal with Brighton Theatre Group.

* Well done to everyone on all your achievements! *

Follow us on instagram or facebook to keep updated.

Please get in touch if you would like to know more about auditions, associate programmes and festivals. We can also help with dance photos which are often required for applications.

RAD Ballet Exams

We are thrilled with our last set of RAD (Royal Academy of Dance) exam results.
A staggering 80% of our students achieved distinctions of which a quarter were high distinctions. The highest mark was 97%!

The Bibby family had triple exam success - mum Hannah took her Advanced 2, while daughters Alana (far right) and Laila (left) took their Primary and Grade 3 respectively.

Pictured below are the Grade 4’s who took their first Solo Performance Award,
Grade 5’s, Grade 7’s and Intermediate Foundation’s with their certificates.

We held a day of exams in Brighton just last week and a few vocational students headed to RAD HQ in London for their exams.

One Primary student came out saying she wanted to go back and do it all again!

It is wonderful to see how the process of preparing for exams and class awards really boosts childrens’ confidence.

Easter Workshop

Miss Sian ran a themed Easter workshop where children learned about the ballet Beatrix Potter and made Easter crafts.

Thank you to Matilda who came to help out and inspired the youngest group with her dancing.

A Variety of Dance Genres & Classes

We have a full range of ISTD modern classes on Mondays from Grade 1 to vocational levels.

Many also enjoy our Jazz (Wednesday) and Contemporary (Monday) classes.

In addition, we offer conditioning, pointe and Stretch & Technique classes to help dancers improve their strength and flexibility.

Please get in touch to find out more and to book a trial for any of these.

Classes for Adults

Our adult Intermediate level ballet class on Wednesday mornings can be booked on a drop in or block booking basis.

We are hoping to introduce a beginners / improvers adult ballet course next term. Please get in touch to register interest for this.

Did you know that adults are also welcome to attend higher grade and vocational classes and many have gone on to take exams with us.

Please email info@altadance.co.uk for further information on any of our classes.

Summer Term Dates & Showcase

Starts: Tuesday 22nd April 2025
Ends: Monday 14th July 2025

Half term:
Mon 26th May - Sun 1st June

See Alta website timetable page for current and future term dates.
Click here to download the timetable.

Exam Dates:
ISTD Modern exams: 26th June
Provisional Brighton RAD ballet exams: 11 & 17 July
Provisional RAD HQ vocational ballet exams: 1- 16 July

Showcase Dates:

Showcase 1: Saturday 12th July
For Preschool, Pre Primary, Primary and Grade 1 ballet and Grade 1 modern & some additional dancers from higher grades.

Showcase 2: Sunday 13th July
For Grade 2 ballet and Grade 3 modern upwards, jazz and contemporary.

Uniform

Why not invest in one of our popular Alta Jackets to wear to and from classes. They make great birthday presents, are incredibly long lasting and hold their value very well for secondhand sales.

We are planning to introduce Alta T-shirts in the near future - further details coming soon.

If you need any uniform for next term, you can use the ordering page on our website or email us. We have a stock of second hand uniform as well as a facebook page for buying and selling uniform.

Fee Increase

We have been mindful of keeping costs down for families so have not increased our class fees for over 2.5 years (even longer from some classes). However, as a result of rising costs we will be increasing fees from September 2025. Information on the new fee structure will be emailed shortly.

As ever, we are committed to providing the highest quality of teaching with a wonderful faculty of very experienced teachers and we greatly appreciate all your support. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

… and finally

We wish you and your family a wonderful Easter break and look forward to seeing at the start of the summer term!

From all of us at Alta Academy of Dance