Introducing Sophie Richardson

Photo Sue Pritchard

Last Saturday Sophie Richardson offered us a last-minute extra class between 12:00 and 13:30.  Bo, Emmeline, Helena, Sarah and I were able to accept that invitation and I think it is fair to say that we had one of the most demanding but also one of the most enjoyable classes ever.

Sue said:

 Sophie’s routines are very different. I had a full workout as well as all the ballet techniques! X

Helena added:

Wonderful class and a good surprise for today. Thanks Jane and Sophie

I'm looking forward to Saturday's class. I enjoyed it very much. Thank you for the corrections and advice.

Sophie's class reminded me a little of Maria Chugai's class and I do not believe that to be coincidental. because Sophie is a member teacher of the Association of Russian Ballet and Theatre Arts and an affiliate teacher of the Society of Russian Ballet in Canada.  She has actually studied Russian for the last 2 years and would have taken a teacher retraining course at the Vaganova Academy had it not been for the pandemic

She has, of course, all the usual British qualifications and some performance experience.   What impressed me most was that the Principal of the school where she trained inscribed on my Facebook post:

Gillian Barton Love this girl! ❤️

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Sophie has a quiet calm voice and a charming manner but it is clear from the start that she has very high standards.  I don't know how far I or the rest of the class came towards meeting them but she coaxed extra effort out of me.

We started with floor exercises for our core, feet and turnout.  We progressed to barre.  When we came to frappés she explained that there was a difference between Russian and Western teaching and she let us try both. When we moved to the centre she created a delightful adagio for our limited space.  I don't think we omitted a single exercise and she gave us quite a bit of extra time to enable us to do a petit allegro at the very end.

Sophie will teach us again at 12:30 on Saturday 13 June 2020.  I strongly recommend that class..

If you want to attend that class, register here.