JANUARY 2010

Happy New Year and Welcome Back! We hope you have all enjoyed the festive season and are looking forward to the new term ahead.

Apologies for the late arrival of our January Newsletter but as some of you will have already discovered we are out of office for the time being due to a leaky roof and flooding which amongst other things destroyed our computers.

2009 finished the year with our Junior School Show "A Nutcracker Tale". Well done to everyone who took part and thanks to all those who supported us with rehearsals, performances, costumes, front of house, chaperoning and all the other jobs too many to mention that we couldn't do without you. DVD's of the show are available to purchase and if you missed collecting an order form at the show you can contact Ian Forbes directly on 0131 476 2174. We also had a number of our Scholars who performed in Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall and Edinburgh's Queen's Hall with The Children's Classic Concerts and would like to thank those who took part for all their hard work. Four of our Junior Scholars also represented the school by performing in the St Serf's Panto "Goody Two Shoes" in December and our thanks also go to those girls involved.

The Manor School of Ballet has been invited to work in collaboration with EGSPL (better known as Gang Show) and The Festival City Theatres Trust in producing a youth adaptation of Billy Elliot the musical in the King's Theatre Edinburgh at the end of May / beginning of June. Dates are still to be finalised. This is part of the Billy Youth Theatre project, instigated by the show's author Lee Hall, under which 115 youth companies across the UK have been given the rights to perform the show.

Gang Show will be casting the show and the Manor will be providing additional dancers. There are numerous rules and conditions that we have to meet in order to put on this production and therefore this will only be open to girls of Grade 4 standard and above in Ballet and Tap but you must also be aged between 10 and 19 years by the 19th March 2010. There will be a open dance workshop on Sunday 31st January in Scout Headquarters on Valleyfield Street from 2pm - 5 pm and auditions on the following Sunday the 7th February. To be included in this exciting project a £5.00 audition fee is required and on successful audition a £20.00 fee will be charged for doing the show.

We apologise for the extremely short notice but we have only just had confirmation this week. Anyone interested in auditioning should speak to their class teacher and when we have the full information we will letter those interested in taking part.

On a more serious note we would like to highlight the amount of hard work and organisation that needs to be prepared in advance of us producing our own school shows. All our volunteers and staff assist out with their own work hours, without pay because we believe we are offering the pupils a valuable learning experience, gaining confidence and giving them something fun and exciting to work towards. Unfortunately this year there were a small number of parents whose behaviour was unacceptable. Our staff and volunteers deserve the right to work without fear or abuse and this will not be tolerated in any form. Any parent unable to adhere to the protocols given will be asked to remove their child from the school and no refunds will be given. This was such a problem that many members of staff and volunteers no longer wish to participate in any future shows. As this applies to a small number of people we feel it is unfair to jeopardise the entire school production so we will be looking into these matters further and would like to thank the majority of you who were happy and courteous throughout and who always show support.

OFFICE NEWS

Due to the difficulties with the flood damage and repairs being carried out at our office in Kirk Loan we are trying to run the office from two separate locations, which means things may take longer to be done than usual. While we cannot work in the office we can still gain access to collect mail so please still use the office address as usual but as we cannot be there to answer phones and pick up messages we are asking everyone to try contacting us via email for the time being on enquiries@manorschoolofballet.co.uk or speaking directly to staff members or branch secretaries for any queries until we gain full access to the office again. We have in the mean time set up a mobile phone number for urgent calls and requests but ask that you only use this for emergencies as we do not have access to all our paperwork and computer where we have the phone. Please remember you can always check on general queries at our website and can be found at www.manorschoolofballet.co.uk. Please also direct any new enrolments to us via the website. We will try to answer the new mobile number during our revised office hours, which are Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays from 9.30am - 12pm, again until we gain full access back into the building.

EXAMS

Our Winter Exam/Presentation Sessions were held in November 2009 and congratulations to everyone for a successful session.
Well done to Gabriella Lang who was awarded Merit for passing her Intermediate Major in Ballet.

RAD Major Exams Spring Session Feb/March
RAD Graded Exams and Presentations Summer Session May/June
UKA Jazz, Tap and Highland Awards February/March
UKA Ballet, Jazz and Tap Awards June
Classes due for exams and presentations will be notified by letter please adhere to the closing dates as No late entries will be accepted under any circumstances.

TERM DATES

Spring Term commences Monday 4th January 2010.
Spring Term finishes week ending Saturday 27th March 2010.

The School will close for 1 week holiday in February from
Monday 15th - Saturday 20th February 2010 inclusive.

Summer Term commences Monday 19th April 2010.
Summer Term finishes Saturday 26th June 2010.

GALASHIELS BRANCH

Due to the weather conditions on Saturday 9th January it was necessary to cancel classes in our Galashiels branch on that day and arrangements for a replacement lesson will follow.