Sandra
BALLET TUTOR
Trained at The Royal Ballet School Sandra was chosen by Sir. Frederick Ashton in her graduation year to dance the lead role of Lise in his ballet La Fille Mal Gardee at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Her professional ballet career was with Birmingham Royal Ballet (BRB) spanning 19 years, with 15 of those years at principal level dancing most of the major roles in the repertoire, including Swanhilda in Coppelia, Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, Clara and the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, The Girl in The Two Pigeons, Poll in Pineapple Poll and Vicky Hobson in David Bintley’s Hobson’s Choice together with the principal role in Balanchine’s Theme and Variations and Twyla Tharp’s In The Upper Room. Sir. Kenneth MacMillan also personally chose her by to dance his Juliet in Romeo and Juliet. During her time at BRB Sandra also worked in many local and international community outreach programs, including a dance project in the townships of South Africa and being on the original panel to assess children with no prior dance experience for a place on the BRB Dance Track Scheme.
Guest appearances include The International Dance Festival in Vail partnered by Kevin O’Hare, and lead roles with ballet companies in Turin, Essen and Hong Kong. Television credits include The Hot Shoe Show with Wayne Sleep, Swanhilda in the BBC Christmas production of BRB’s Coppelia. DVD’s of Hobson’s Choice and Clara in The Nutcracker. Guest teaching includes The Mark Morris Dance Company, Matthew Bourne’s Company (The Car Man & Red Shoes) together with international Summer Schools for English National Ballet School, Central School of Ballet and The Royal Academy of Dance (RAD).
Since her retirement from professional dancing Sandra has been teaching ballet at Performers College and for the DanceEast Centre for Advanced Training whilst also being a tutor for the University of Chichester BA (Hons) Musical Theatre (Dance) Degree and for the RAD Dance Certificate in Ballet Teaching Studies. Sandra is also a panel member at Trinity College London as an Assessor and Moderator for the Professional Performing Arts Diplomas (PPAD). Sandra has an M.A in Dance in the Community and Education, Professional Graduate Certificate in Education PGCE (Lifelong Learning) and the Royal Academy of Dance Ex-Professional Teaching Diploma (London) with Distinction.
