Lantern Dance

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Ballet, Jazz and Balletone classes

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Lantern’s Artistic Director Helen Pettit founded Lantern Dance Theatre School in 2005. Ballet classes follow the Russian style Classical Ballet syllabus of the NATD, the National Association of Teachers of Dancing.

It’s a lyrical style that creates strong expressive young dancers with a good technical foundation.

At the school, pupils take part in a wide range of performances - in the community at events such as Ely Eel Day and in specially-devised ballet shows. Helen has created ten original full length ballets for the school: The Fountain (2005), Ruslan & Lyudmila (2006), The Stone Flower (2008), The Little Humpbacked Horse (2009), Peer Gynt (2012), Coppélia (2014) A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2015), The Nutcracker (2016), Cinderella (2018) and Peer Gynt (2020).

Helen trained with June Wallman in Cambridge and at the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance in London before becoming a professional dancer and prize-winning choreographer. She taught and studied contemporary dance in Finland and was head dancer and choreographer of a touring Opera-Ballet company in Italy, where she lived for many years, founding and running two dance schools on the Riviera. She has an exceptional record of teaching all ages and abilities and of preparing pupils for success in performance and examination.

She ran dance classes at Highfield Ely Academy, Ely’s Special School, for fourteen years and produced an annual Musical Theatre show there. Recent shows included Beauty and the Beast, Jungle Book, Alice in Wonderland, The Snow Queen, Tiana’s Dream, Flying without Wings, Over the Rainbow, Wouldn’t it be Luvverly, Circle of Life, Climb Every Mountain and Where is Love?

Helen ran the after-school Dance Club at King’s Ely Acremont for 12 years and taught GCSE & A Level Dance at King’s Ely Senior. She created and directed the choreography for seven King’s Ely Senior musicals: Grease!, Fiddler on the Roof, Return to the Forbidden Planet, The Wizard of Oz, Jesus Christ Superstar, Jekyll & Hyde and We Will Rock You.

Lantern Dance Theatre School meets all the requirements of the Council on Dance Education and Training for a Recognised School. Full Public Liability Insurance. DBS Enhanced Disclosure. We have our own PRS and PPL online music streaming licences for our Zoom classes. Helen is a professional Licensed Chaperone.