'Exceptional' young dancers land places at leading colleges

The owner of a dance school in Windsor is hoping her students can dazzle on the big stage after several of her young dancers were accepted onto some of the UK’s leading dance courses.

Heidi Rhodes has been running the Heidi Rhodes School of Dancing since 1993 and the school now has three studios at the Fairacres Industrial Estate in Dedworth Road.

The long-serving dance teacher paid tribute to her current crop of students as she told the Express that this year had been ‘exceptional’.

She said: “It’s not an easy profession and they just work so hard. If they didn’t work hard they wouldn’t be where they are now.  

“It just shows that normal children can come once or six times a week and they can achieve their dreams by hard work.”

Following a successful summer, a host of students will now move on to some of the country’s leading dance colleges.

Lucy Pollard, 16, who has already featured in productions including the Sound of Music UK tour has bagged a place at the Laine Theatre Arts in Epsom.

There was also success for Isabella Billingham, nine, who will be attending Maidenhead’s Redroofs Theatre School in Bath Road, after she was awarded a Young Performers Exhibition scholarship.

Luca Judge, eight, and Marcia Karavis, 11, also successfully auditioned for London Junior Ballet and the Central School of Ballet Associates respectively.

The school also took 35 dancers to London’s O2 arena in June to perform at Indigo at The O2, a 2,750 capacity live music venue.

And Heidi said she is hoping her students will end up on some of dancing’s biggest stages.

“They know they’ve got a lot of hard work ahead of them and hopefully they’ll be inviting us to watch them in their ballet companies in the future,” she added.