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“We will be able to share our facilities with the community and hopefully make dance and the arts more accessible”
fundraising project to allow the school to realise a long-held goal of moving to a new home in the South Bank arts community. Her determined efforts, which saw her recognised in the Third Sector Awards last year, have resulted in work commencing on this dynamic new hub, which will offer training for Central students, as well as general dance classes. With seven studios, a fully equipped theatre, study and resource centres and a state-of-the-art health suite, the new venue will give Central some of the most impressive dance training facilities in the country. Far from parachuting into the area and creating a closed shop, Heidi and her team are committed to opening up this impressive centre to the community as a whole, encouraging people from all walks of life get involved with ballet and, hopefully, inspiring a new and diverse generation of dancers. It continues the ongoing work of Central to address the issue of diversity in the world of ballet, which includes offering free dance classes for school
looks like by creating opportunities.” “I think dance, drama and singing are great levellers”, she says. “It instils a sense of discipline, but also enjoyment and opportunity. A lot of the students at Ballet Central are from low-income families; they’re taken purely on their talent. Nobody is ever turned away for financial reasons. We hope that by working in the community we can make that degree even more accessible.” Heidi now divides her time between the school in Clerkenwell, the new South Bank premises and touring with Ballet Central, but has chosen to keep her base here in Cambridgeshire. “I absolutely love it here!” she laughs. “It’s a big commute, but it’s worth it. The job is very full-on, but I get a bit of distance from it by living in Gamlingay. For a long time, my son was a chorister at King’s College. I used to go and watch Evensong, because for 45 minutes I’d have my phone switched off!” See Ballet Central in action this month on 22 and 23 April at the ADC Theatre. l adctheatre.com
children in Southwark – home to one of the highest rates of child poverty in the country. The results for the participating children have been far-reaching, as Heidi explains: “The first cohort of those students have now gone to senior school and the headmistress has reported better focus, better concentration and better self-esteem – especially among the girls. We hope that moving into our new building will be an enabler to do more of this kind of thing. We will be able to share our facilities with the community and hopefully make dance and the arts more accessible for those who might not ordinarily choose this as a career.” It’s only through providing access from an early age, thinks Heidi, that ballet can hope to become truly inclusive. “I work closely with some of the top dance companies in the country – I know they are all passionate about changing the face of what dance looks like, but they can only do that if the schools are doing that,” she stresses. “We’re committed to changing the face of what the dance world
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