Dancing to a familiar tune

Saturday 23 February 2019

Some businesses are built on a spur-of-the-moment brainwave, reacting to a gap in the market, and disappearing again once the market moves… and there are some which are precisely the opposite. They are part of the fabric of a community.

Enter stage left: the Jersey Academy of Dancing. Generations of islanders have been through its doors, and then asked their children to do exactly the same thing.

Express went to meet the lady making sure islanders can put their best foot forward...

For the thousands of Jersey folk who remember their first plié in the ‘front room’ of the fairly unassuming town house which accommodates the Academy, it is tempting to think that it has always existed, and that the rest of David Place actually grew up around it.

It is fair to say that for at least two generations of former pupils, the Jersey Academy of Dance is synonymous with two names: Valerie Guy, who set up the JAD in 1941, and Annette Perkins who has worked alongside her for many years. For those for whom this is true, it is time to move with the times and add a third name: Laura Reynolds.

Pictured: Although the Academy is "synonymous" with its founder Valerie Guy and long-time teacher Annette Perkins, "it is time to add a third name: Laura Reynolds" (Gary Grimshaw).

This will not be news to the many pupils who have been taught by Laura, but the surprise for the casual observer is that she has been teaching at the school for 23 years. She took over the running of the academy in 2015 when Miss Guy retired. Although in this case, retired is a bit of a strong word to use, given that it doesn’t usually imply teaching a keep fit class at the age of 97.  

It would be really easy to be overly sentimental about this business journey and to see fairy tales, when the reality is hard work; but nevertheless, there is something quite heart-warming about this story. These three women have created a family around the work that they love to do, and this really isn’t an ordinary day job. Teaching dance is what makes them tick, and their passion for it is obvious in the JAD’s continued success and reputation.

Laura arrived in Jersey aged just 19, fresh out of dance training school, as a new recruit teacher for Miss Guy. She lived with Miss Perkins when she arrived, and for some time after that, and it is absolutely clear, from the way that she talks, that these women are family. 

There is a sense that Laura is the supremo of apprentices. She has grown up with the business, and while she has now taken the helm there is an obvious, deep respect and affection for Miss Guy and Miss Perkins, which means that their influence and support still anchor her and the academy.

Pictured: "There is a sense that Laura is the supremo of apprentices" (Gary Grimshaw).

“She (Miss Guy) is still very much involved. I won’t go a week without seeing her. She comes to all our rehearsals and every week I go up there and do the books. She also still teaches her keep fit class.” A mark of the relationship is that, together with Laura’s three children and husband Chris, they all spend Christmas Day together as a family. 

The career path Laura was going to take was always likely to involve dance in some way. Her mother was a gym teacher, so there was briefly a choice to be made at secondary school between the two disciplines, as she was training in both, but something had to give. “I just loved everything about dancing. I loved Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and my Grandad was also responsible for encouraging me. He loved ballroom dancing. I just bugged my mum to go to dancing. I loved the music, and would dance around the house non-stop." 

And while that love of dancing encompassed all forms, her absolute passion was, and is, tap and modern dance. “I think I pretty much ruined my mum’s kitchen floor.”

As is also the case with both Miss Guy and Miss Perkins, there is a danger in belittling someone’s talent for their art form because they have chosen to teach it. But particularly in this profession, there are a couple of really important points to remember. The first is that no matter how brilliant your talent, shining brightly enough to get work and attention in the performing arts remains extraordinarily difficult; and making a decent living at doing it, is harder still. And the second thing is that those who are teaching it, have trained to a high level.

Pictured: Laura says her love of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire played a part in why she went into dancing (Gary Grimshaw).

For instance, in something of a throwaway line during the interview, Laura mentions in passing that she has been teaching two days a week at Bird College near Sidcup since 2017. If you’re not already in the know, Bird is one of the foremost dance and music conservatoires in the UK. Here, she teaches future professionals who are in full-time training for their degree courses in musical theatre. In other words, it’s not a gig you just turn up to.

“It is very different teaching that age group, they are far more passionate and are hungry to succeed and do more, and they want to develop. They do take it very seriously,” she said.

It is probably true to say that the core of the business – teaching young children to dance – is unlikely to disappear, but it is no longer true, if indeed it ever was, that as long as you are providing that to a good standard enough people will still come through the door. 

As every parent knows, there are many, many activities competing for children’s time outside school hours. Learning how to finesse ballet positions has to take its turn alongside swimming, football, karate and homework, and eating has to magically fit in somewhere too.

“We have to adapt our timetable to fit in with other activities and we have to make sure that we are offering the things that keep them interested, and be aware of the trends that are out there.”

Pictured: Laura also teaches at Bird College near Sidcup, "one of the foremost dance and music conservatoires in the UK" (Gary Grimshaw).

Those trends include the body-bending that is Acro – a class that focuses on the fundamentals of acrobatic technique, increasing flexibility, muscle strength and discipline. As well as extending the class base available to children and young people, the school also has a range of classes aimed at adults, including Pilates and stretch and tone classes, and an adult ballet class taught by Miss Perkins on a Wednesday evening. 

“Nearly everyone who comes to the adult ballet is coming back to it, having done ballet as a child and wanting to take it up again.” 

At the other end of the spectrum, Laura and her teaching colleagues train lots of young bodies, increasing fitness and mobility and sometimes finding young people with a true talent. 

“You can tell quite early whether a child has a talent for dancing and has rhythm. Sometimes you will see the talent but they don’t have the passion for it. They might be physically excellent but you also need to be passionate about it. It does happen quite often that you will see that spark in someone but not that often that they will take it up as a career, although we are one of the schools that has the most pupils who go away to train.”

But the fact is that this is a notoriously difficult business in which to thrive and repeated rejection is a part of the landscape even at the earliest stages auditioning to get into colleges. “Preparing them for rejection is hard. You have to just be there to say that if they do get rejected then that wasn’t the right place for them and that they will know and feel it when it is right.”

Laura Reynolds' own career seems to be an excellent lesson itself in knowing when something feels right and to making a long-term commitment to a career-choice. “I found everything that I wanted here,” sums it up quite neatly. 

As a result, the Jersey Academy of Dancing continues to thrive and offer more to the young people and adults who walk up the stairs (and then down again) into the David Place studio.

This article first appeared in February's edition of CONNECT magazine. Read it in full here.

Pictured top: Laura in the studio. (Gary Grimshaw)