We have a company

Founding members of Powerhouse Ballet

Author Jane Tucker
© 2018 Powerhouse Ballet Steering 

Jane Tucker promised me one of her best classes ever and that is exactly what she delivered. Rarely have I seen so many happy faces.  As I had feared we had several last minute cancellations but everyone who cancelled asked to be kept in the loop and assured us of their interest and commitment.

Members of our class came from Salford in the west and York in the east, from Harrogate in the north and Birmingham in the south and all points in between.  Although all of us attend adult ballet classes regularly several of us brought other valuable skills and experience. Amelia Sierevogel, for example, has just completed a bachelor's degree course in costume design at Huddersfield University. As an intellectual property lawyer I can help with rights and licensing.

At the end of the class I asked the attendees whether we wanted to train together regularly with a view to staging a ballet.  Everyone agreed that we did.  We have elected a steering committee of four to take us to the next level.

We now have to keep the momentum going.  Our aim is to stage The Nutcracker next year.  Jane has kindly agreed to give us some more classes in Yorkshire.  Mark Hindle has offered to do the same in Manchester.  Karen Sant has agreed in principle to subject us to a high pressure ballet boot camp.  Ballet West has offered us a week's residential training in Scotland.  Terence Etheridge has proposed a first class programme in Cornwall.

If we open up some of these programmes to dancers from outside the company they may well be a source of revenue. We shall also have to look for sponsorship, grants and other sources of funding.  We shall try to learn as much as we can about fund raising from folk who have run companies before.

Anyone wishing to discuss this article or Powerhouse Ballet in general should send me a message through my contact form.