Pineapple Dance Studios thrill for Sprowston students

On Thursday 5 July 42 students ranging in age from 14 to 18 made the trip down to London to take part in a workshop at Pineapple Studios followed by the matinee performance of Billy Elliot the musical.

The journey to London went smoothly despite a small delay to allow the Olympic torch to come past! We reached our meeting point in London with minutes to spare and were met by our guide Rich and his Jack Russell Dilly, after a swift walk through Covent Garden we reached the Pineapple Dance studios and split into two groups for our workshops with past and present members of the cast from Billy Elliot.

The workshops were fast paced and engaging with students raising the bar on their effort and performance levels to try and match their professional coaches. The session was over before we knew it and the room were filled with happy but exhausted students!

Lunch was spent in Covent Garden, celebrity spotting and window shopping taking up most of the free time.  We then boarded our coach to head over to Victoria Palace for the matinee performance of Billy Elliot.  With fantastic seats in the stalls we settled down for over two hours of electrifying performances from the incredible young cast of performers. With laughs and tears we all sat spellbound through the performance.

Back onto the coach with a chorus of ‘Electricity’ ringing through our ears and through London past the Olympic park. Most of the journey home seemed to be spent by the students either singing or deciding what show they want to return to London to see next!

This was a fantastic trip with all of the students behaving amazingly through the whole day, they all took the responsibility of a mixed site trip in a mature and calm manner and their fantastic attitude was noted on by our guide Rich (and Dilly) and our Billy Elliot cast members.

{article submitted by Amy Bedder, Dance Teacher}