JESS AND GEORGIE MAKE A FANTASTIC DANCE PARTNERSHIP

Jess Clapton, in Year 7, is excelling at ballroom dancing and has developed a fantastic dance partnership with Georgie Swift, a former student at Richmond School and Sixth Form College.

Jess first showed an interest in dance from watching Millie, her older sister, dancing at Applegarth Academy of Dance and, from being born. Jess would come along to watch while Millie had her Saturday morning lessons and she would dance along on the sidelines trying to follow the older girls.  It was from this Jess asked if she could start dance lessons too and she has been training the Academy since she was 3 ½ years old, travelling to West Cornforth for training for many hours each week.

Jess does a range of dance styles, including Classical & Modern Sequence as well as Ballroom and Latin American.  She also started to compete in freestyle in the last couple of years. Jess’s favourite genre is Classical and Modern Sequence with her most favourite dances being dancing the gavotte and waltz.

Jess began competing when she was five and she qualified and danced her first nationwide at the Winter Garden in Blackpool at age six.

Jess has placed in many competitions and has often reached the final. Her main accolades include winning Rosette Medallist of the year.   Her biggest achievement is becoming a finalist at the IDTA Stardance Nationwide Medallist of the Year- Classical & Modern Sequence. Jess moved up a section last year dancing in the 12 and under reaching the final 8 which is fantastic as this is such a large category.

Georgie first partnered Jess when she was one of the older girls assisting the dance teacher, partnering the children learning to dance.  It soon became clear they were very similar and an excellent match.  Georgie is Jess’s main partner, however Jess has been super lucky to have Georgie partner her for the majority of competitions for a number of years in Classical & Modern Sequence, as well as Ballroom and Latin American.  Georgie has been a fantastic influence on Jess with her aspiring to dance as beautifully as Georgie.  Jess is like Georgie’s ‘mini me’ with Georgie being an amazing support for Jess.

Jess is looking forward to competing this year working on her technique and dances, pushing herself to continually improve and be the best dancer she can be.