A welcome return to St Monica Trust for the 3rd year running.  It was a great pleasure to be asked to dance there again and we gave two performances at this beautiful venue.  The programme included extended highlights from The Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty as well as dances from The Seasons and Coppelia.  This event also saw the debut performance of another new member of the Ballet Bristol family.  Congratulations to Sarah G who made her debut in the Spanish Dance from The Nutcracker 'Kingdom of Sweets'.   Sarah, on the far left, is pictured here with other company members following the show.

Gemma did a great job representing Ballet Bristol when we were invited to take part in a new short film produced by First Lady Films to promote dance in Bristol.  The filming took place on Friday, 17th June in a Bristol warehouse. Featuring dancers of all different styles, Gemma got lots of screen time in her tutu!  A great day was had by all and the completed project was entered in the Encounters Festival Competition coming in the top 5 out of 53.  You can view the film here. 

Happy Birthday Ballet Bristol!

We celebrated our 2nd birthday on the 1st December.

From a handful of dancers who first met in a community hall, using the backs of chairs as we had no ballet barres, and with a costume department of ony 3 tutus, we have grown to a company of over twenty performers. With numerous performances already behind us and many more to come - we are looking forward to 2011 and beyond.

October 2010

St Monica Trust Performance

We made a very welcome return to St Monica Trust, Westbury-on-Trym this month with two performances of a variety packed programme.  The Nutcracker kicked off the show with Ellie tinkling her way though the Sugar Plum Fairy.  New additions to our Nutcracker highlights was the Chinese dance by Alice and Hannah, Spanish Dance with Elizabeth, ending with a lively Russian Dance by Gemma. The second part comprised of a series of Divertissements, which included the premiere of Picasso Blue - Two Sisters choreographed by Sian, and Emily making her debut in a variation from Don Quixote.  Dances from Sleeping Beauty saw the first performance of Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf by Kate and Lee.  'Ballet After Degas' by the whole company brought the performance to an end.

We would like to thank the residents and staff for their warm welcome and kind comments. Special congratulations goes to Lee, Chloe and Kate, who all made their debuts with the company at this performance.

September 2010 New Home Ballet Bristol Company have found themselves a new home in the Dance Studio at Bradley Stoke Community School. Working in this spacious studio with wall to wall mirrors and high ceiling has greatly benefited Ballet Bristol. The studio is so large that we are able to hold three separate rehearsals at the same time and now dancers don't have to worry about hitting their heads on the ceiling in high jumps or lifts!

November 2009

Art of Ballet Exhibition - 27th - 29th November 2009

As part of the North Bristol Art Trail, Artist Robert Antell presented his most recent work celebrating classical ballet. As models for Robert, Ballet Bristol dancers were very happy to be present in costume at the preview evening. We were delighted to view the work and to see us featured so beautifully in Robert's photography and pastel paintings.

June 2009 

Race for Life

On Sunday 14th June, Ballet Bristol changed pointe shoes for trainers and joined in the 5 km Race for Life raising over £400 for Cancer Research UK.

May 2009 

Bristol Artists

Ballet Bristol is delighted to be working with Bristol based artist Robert Antell. Robert has be commissioned to provide a series of images for a new collection of danced themed cards by Glebe Cottage. Ballet Bristol members are very happy to help out by being the dance models for his sketches. Photographer, Stewart Mcpherson, is also assisting on this project by providing wonderful photographs for Robert to work from. Ballet Bristol looks forward to continuing to work with both Robert and Stewart in the future.

Dancing on Water

On Monday, 20th April, Ellie danced on water as she tested the stage especially constructed at the Clifton Lido in preparation for the Bristol Fashion Show. Read more and see the video on the This is Bristol website.

Congratulations to Ballet Bristol member Emily Burke, who modelled the winning dress at the Project Designer Fashion Competition on Wednesday, 15th April. Read more about the event on the This is Bristol  website.   The work of the designer, Jean Walker, was seen at the Bristol Fashion Show on 16th May. 

The week before Easter Ballet Bristol took to the airwaves again with another radio broadcast. Ellie took part in a local radio competition on Original FM, She was interviewed about the work of Ballet Bristol and was given the chance to compete in a word competition to win Easter Eggs. She was successful in wining 18 eggs on behalf of Ballet Bristol and they were donated to the Bristol Children’s Hospital.  Well done Ellie!    

Laura, Ellie and Sian would like to thank Tom Bigwood and the team from BCfm, for inviting them to take part in the Drivetime program on Monday, 16th February.  Tom had this to say...

“Everyone at BCfm is still getting over the visit from the brilliant Bristol ballerinas - in a good way!  The outfits are amazing and the dancing’s even better.  We all hope their enthusiasm and talent gets the venues and interest they deserve.”

New Beginners Class

Well done to all our new members who joined our first Adult Beginners Class on Monday, 16th February. 

You were wonderful!

Ballet Bristol now features on the BBC Bristol website.  Follow the link to read more!

Laura and Sian were thrilled to be invited on BBC Radio Bristol's Drivetime show with Ben Prater on the 3rd February to talk about Ballet Bristol.  After the show Ben has this to say...