Lincolnshire Dance

14 year old Ellie Stocks took part in the Lincolnshire Dance Academy in Louth last year, in which she and 9 others worked intensively with Libby Battaglia to develop their dance skills. Here, she shares her experiences.

"I loved the Lincolnshire Dance Academy programme! Not only has it helped me with my dancing for out of school activities, but it has helped me with actually creating dances too, because at the end we made a 3 to 4 minute dance .

In the audition we had to do various activities set around developing physical and expressive skills, behaviour and social and creative skills. One of the creative skills which I enjoyed the most was making up a short dance using light and shaded elements, for example high kick then a low turn into the floor. During the audition they would mark us on four things the Academy was based on and even though I thought I was rubbish at the physical skills, I became one of the 10 to be chosen for this programme through my confidence and my ‘never give up’ attitude.

The actual classes were hard but fun too, because even though Libby pushed us to more than our limit, we couldn’t help but return the next week to see if we could battle with the planks! Libby gave each of us a sheet of paper to list all the things we needed to focus on during the course, which helped as I knew what I needed to improve on throughout the sessions.

In the classes we usually started with a warm up and then went on to working on physical skills such as core stability, (which I didn’t even think about before the programme) strength, posture, flexibility and more. Libby has taught me loads through the course like staying engaged in the centre when doing planks and using the floor to gain more power through various moves. I’ve also learnt what attitudes are and how to perfect them. I think that I have improved on my turnouts and core stability during the course and that’s thanks to Libby and the Lincolnshire Dance Academy.

I’ve really enjoyed the experience overall and would definitely recommend it to a friend. I’m still hoping if there will be anymore programmes like this in the future. "

If you would like to find out more about the Children and Young People Programme please click here