About Us

ABOUT THE PRINCIPAL

Leonie started her dance training at the age of 4 where she took weekly classes in Cecchetti Ballet, Tap, Jazz and Modern Theatre. She took part in many school shows and exams throughout these years, and also appeared in productions with the English Youth Ballet and was an Associate with the Urdang Academy in Covent Garden.

At the age of 18, Leonie successfully auditioned for a full-time professional dance college, the London Studio Centre. Here, she studied Ballet, Contemporary, Jazz, Musical Theatre, Singing and Acting as well as having regular lectures in History of Dance, Anatomy, Music, Dance Notation, Dance Theory and Criticism, Choreography and Dance in Popular Culture. Her third year at London Studio Centre was spent touring aound the country visiting many established theatres, dancing as part of the Jazz Dance Company, and of course writing her Dissertation!

From here, Leonie decided it was the teaching aspect of dance that she was truly passionate about. She successfully auditioned for a place at The Dance College in Royston, under the direction of ISTD Examiner, Penny Meekings. It was here that Leonie finished her ISTD Vocational exams, gaining ‘A’ grades in all her final Advanced 2 exams in Ballet, Tap, Modern and National.
Leonie was asked to return to The Dance College as part of the Teaching Faculty on the Teacher Training course. Here, she taught many new and up & coming teachers, including Ciara & Klarissa!

The majority of Leonie’s time is now taken up with running Aspire & working as a Professional Chaperone for TV and film.

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ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Aspire is based in our very own purpose built dance-studio on Wilbury Way in Hitchin. Our studio is very large with one wall of mirrors, wall mounted barres and a fully sprung floor. Here, our dancers are able to practice and perform to the best of their ability without being confined by lack of space.

Regular exam sessions (in Ballet, Tap & Modern classes) are held at the school each year, and although these are not compulsory, they give each child a sense of achievement and reward when they progress through each grade.

Our Gymnastics classes follow the British Gymnastics Badge structure, and the focus of our Street Dance classes are performances & competitions throughout the year!

Once every two years is the school show, which brings much excitement to each child! During the term before the show each class becomes a ‘show’ class dedicated to learning a dance (or more!) for the production. Nearer to show time, costumes are given out and tickets are sold to parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles, cousins, friends and more!