My story

Hi, I’m Sally! I live on the Island with my husband, our daughter and our dog, Benji! We live a fairly chaotic lifestyle (who doesn’t when a nearly 2-year-old is involved?!) and love to keep busy and active. You’ll often find us walking Benji, playing on the beach, splashing in puddles, dancing, socialising with friends and eating delicious food (mainly cooked by my husband…I’m a keen and enthusiastic baker but the end product is usually fairly hit and miss!)

Dance has always been a huge part of my life. I grew up on the Isle of Wight and danced with Shirley Stone at the Elmwood School of Dance; leading me to complete my Advanced 2 exams in Ballet, Modern Theatre and Tap. Becoming a dance teacher was always something I knew I wanted to do, I assisted and taught classes for Shirley from an early age, helping to prepare students for exams, choreographing show pieces and supporting students in everyday classes. When studying for A-levels I started my initial dance teaching qualifications at Roynon Dance School, Woolston, and then continued my dance and teacher training with a 3yr degree course at the Royal Academy of Dance, London.

Straight after graduating I landed a dream job out in Nairobi, Kenya, opening and establishing a brand-new dance school. I threw myself in at the deep end and embraced all the challenges and new experiences this threw at me. I have so many wonderful memories and friends from my time in Africa it’s hard to pick just a few to share with you. I found my students there to have a completely different level of resilience and a deep passion for moving and dancing. The rhythm and pace of life was something I loved - although I quickly realised that if I wanted our pianist (a local Kenyan man called Mozart!) to turn up on time for classes I needed to tell him the time was 3 days earlier than I actually wanted him to arrive…that way we more regularly ended up in the same place at the same time!! Our first ever RAD ballet exam session in Kenya was also an experience I will never forget- it was such a prestigious occasion that the floors had been specially polished for the exams making them very much like an ice rink! 

A huge part of the work that I loved in Africa was working in the local primary schools and with charity dance projects in Kibera (the largest slum in Nairobi and urban Africa.) One of my longer-term aims is to establish a dance school here on the island with links and partnership to an African school. I am also keen on developing a dance scheme enabling disadvantaged children here on the Island access to dance classes and training.

After 3 years living in Africa I decided I wanted to further my education and teaching experience back in the UK and moved back to London where I worked freelance for a number of different dance schools in London, alongside gaining my BASI Pilates teaching qualifications. From this I gained valuable experience regarding the running and workings of different dance schools, which led me to the next step in my career – becoming the Principal of Dance at St Catherine’s School, Bramley. I built the dance school at St Catherine’s into a busy and thriving school and developed many opportunities for the dancers including biannual shows, RAD and ISTD exam sessions, and festival entries. I also had students join the Royal Ballet Junior Associates and dance with English and Surrey Youth ballet companies. My 4 years at St Cats were absolutely jam packed; by far the busiest of my career so far – I poured my all into the school and the students, and I look back fondly on my time there with so many special memories.

Fast-track to now, we moved to the Island when expecting our daughter - my feet got fidgety just 3 months after having her and I started teaching at the Elmwood School of Dance. Since March 2020 I have been solely teaching the ballet classes for Elmwood, alongside teaching the Tap, Modern and Jazz as maternity cover.

I am now at the point in time where I am craving more dance in my life and am ready to start and build my own school. I am so excited for this challenge and I cannot wait to get up and running (the current pandemic isn’t ideal – but I am grateful that we can stay safe, connected and work online throughout it.)  

I teach because I want to share my love of dance and movement, and hope to ignite this same passion in all my students – so pick up your dancing shoes (or your Pilates mat) and come and join me!