On pointe for Easter’s Aiming High assembly

We are delighted to announce that Charlotte Porter, alumna, will be the guest speaker at our Easter Aiming High assembly. Charlotte attended Richmond School from 2005 to 2010 and is now the proprietor and teacher of a highly-successful and award-winning dance school, based at The Station, in Richmond.

After beginning ballet lessons aged ten, with the Janet Seymour School of Theatre Dance in Reeth, Charlotte went on to learn tap and modern and studied GCSE dance at school. She went on to Preston Dance College where she gained her teaching qualifications in Tap Dance and Modern Theatre. Whilst studying she was awarded the Faye-Knowles Chapman Award for Choreography and selected to dance as a northern associate for the UK Tap Dance team, Tap Attack. Following college, whilst working as a professional dancer and choreographer, Charlotte continued her studies with the Royal Academy of Dance gaining a Diploma in Dance Teaching Studies qualifying her to teach the RAD’s world-renowned ballet syllabus.
Charlotte has danced professionally in the UK and France, and was later head-hunted for a position in Geneva, Switzerland to teach contemporary dance having been trained by Donald Edwards, teacher at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance and founding member of Phoenix Dance Theatre.

Charlotte started her dance school in 2017, Charlotte Jacqueline School of Dance, moving to the spacious and light-filled premises at the Station in January 2019. She now offers a breadth of dance classes, leading to exams if desired, across the generations, from as young as two through to seated dance classes for the elderly. She expanded her offering to include singing, for children, the aptly-named major and minor classes, drawing on the talent of fellow alumna Sophie Montgomery to lead these groups. Keen to support the local community, Charlotte actively shares her love of dance with many other local groups. She can frequently be found volunteering her time to choreograph for local village choirs, amateur dramatics and pantomimes. She is always looking to enrich her students’ dance experiences.