Two dance students from Plymouth have qualified to compete in the All England Dance regional final at Cheltenham this month. The organisation is committed to nurturing and developing the talents of exceptionally gifted individuals in the field of dance.
Amelie Murray and Darcey Holden both train at The Dance Shed in Plymstock and regularly take part in regional dance competitions throughout the year. This entails undertaking extra training on top of their regular classes in tap, ballet, modern, jazz, contemporary and musical theatre in order to learn a dance and perfect it to the point where it is ready to be performed and judged by an adjudicator.
Dancers need to gain a certain mark in order to qualify for the All England regional finals and compete to win a place in the national final which takes place later this year.
This year 11-year-old Amelie has qualified with her musical theatre piece, modern dance solo, lyrical solo and her tap solo.
She has been a student at The Dance Shed since 2020 and said:
“I’m really pleased that I managed to qualify with four of my dances for the all England semi-finals. I am excited to take part for the first time as I really enjoy the pieces I will be performing. I think it’s going to be such a memorable experience. I love dancing at The Dance Shed and Melissa and Sonja have really helped to teach me with some brilliant dances.”
Darcey has been a student of The Dance Shed since the school began and she was just three years old. She is now 12 and has qualified for her lyrical solo in the All England Dance regional final. She said “I’m excited to get the opportunity to perform and be able to watch all the talent from across the region.”
Their teacher and principal of The Dance Shed, Melissa Fensom will be accompanying them and providing support. She said:
“I am incredibly proud of both of them. They are extremely dedicated and talented students and we work very hard as a team so to reach this point is a great achievement for all of us. We are very excited to take part and looking forward to the whole experience.”
This is a special year for The Dance Shed as it is celebrating its 10th anniversary. Melissa who is originally from Plymouth and trained and worked professionally in performing arts started the school in 2014 with just a small handful of students and has carefully nurtured it into a vibrant and popular school.
Melissa has two other teachers in her team who coach around 150 students ranging in age from three to 80 plus years. Their classes are designed first and foremost to be fun and enjoyable.
“We are firm believers that a child thrives on encouragement and praise and this, together with developing self-discipline forms the basis of our approach to teaching,”
added Melissa.
“We don’t just teach children though – we have a thriving community of adult dancers too! Our aim is to maximise a student’s confidence, coordination, self-expression and appreciation of music within the framework of the performing arts.”
The school offers a wide variety of classes to choose from and they cater for all abilities and all levels of ambition so any child or adult who wants to learn more skills and cultivate existing ones or find out how to book free trial classes can visit their website at
