When teenage girls go shoe-shopping, it’s probably not for ballet shoes, but at the rate Holly Ross-Macdonald moves through her day (3 lots of ballet lessons already this week) she must get through a lot of leather.

Holly, Year 8, spent some days last week dancing with the London Children’s Ballet, with 11 other children, in a highly professional production. Being part of the ‘Snow White’ company was an amazing experience; touring to 9 venues including two special needs schools, six homes for the elderly and a hospice made it unforgettable and gave her a fresh perspective on life.

Since she was two, Holly has enjoyed ballet lessons, and she now attends the Central School of Ballet in Clerkenwell. Her experience is wide-ranging: working with choreographers at the Laban Theatre, and in a masterclass with British ballet dancer, Lauren Cuthbertson; Holly has also taken part in a contemporary piece, ‘A Simple Man’, about a painter, with the Northern Ballet Theatre at Sadler’s Wells. Being part of the London Children’s Ballet gave Holly the chance to form friendships with young people from all over London and the South East who share the same passion for dancing and who show star quality in performance.

The next LCB production will be of ‘Ballet Shoes’. Holly was surprised to hear that the dvd she’d borrowed from our Library stars Lucy Boynton, now in Year 11 at JAGS. Another pair of dancing feet! Lucy was in Year 7 when she won the role of the young Beatrix Potter in the film ‘Miss Potter’.    

www.londonchildrensballet.com