Breakthrough moves for Quin’s own dancing queen

FOLLOWING on from hugely popular TV programmes including Gotta Dance and Dancing with the Stars, more and more parents are opting to send their children to dance classes. More teenagers are continuing on with the hobby and opting to stick with it in their adult years.

In past generations, the main dance options available in terms of classes were Irish dance and ballet for girls, but nowadays, dance classes are available in all dance styles.
Laura Jane Allis has been running classes through Breakthrough Dance Company for four years but she is opening a new dance studio in the Quin Road Business Park, Ennis later this month.
She decided to call it a dance company, because in the long run, she is hoping that with some of the students going forward, she will have a dance company.
Originally from Surrey, her mother moved to Quin and she moved with her. She then went to London where she studied dance and performing arts in the Cambridge Performing Arts College. She started ballet dance classes at the age of three.
“From the age of 15, I was performing in West End shows in the dance chorus and dance in Robin Hood, pantomines and in the royal variety performances,” she said.
She also auditioned for a few of the bigger shows but she explains that it’s a very competitive business and very hard to get good dance roles. She also sings and acts, but dancing is her forte.
“I moved back to Clare and choreographed for a local drama school in Quin and from there, word of mouth spread and parents started asking me to teach dance to their children, so I started giving classes and Breakthrough Dance has emerged from that,” she added.
Her dance school offers ballet, tap, jazz, hip-hop and contemporary dance.
“Students start learning general dance, a mix of all disciplines and as the time goes by they can focus on one style, if they choose.
For the past four years, she has had two shows a year, one around Christmas time and one at the term end at the start of the summer.
“I take children from the age of three and have classes right up to adult level. A lot of the younger girls want to start with ballet but when they start with general dance, they love it too. As children grow up, I’m finding more and more that they want to do hip-hop because it’s perceived as being cool. I stress as much as possible that it’s good to try different styles and to keep an open mind. Some students from the age of 16 have made their minds up that they want to go on and train to be a dancer, which I’m delighted with,” she commented.
She said that from feedback from her students’ parents, they find dance classes help to build their child’s confidence. “Obviously, it’s also great exercise but yet it’s exercise that the children don’t even realise they’re doing because they’re having so much fun. It is also a great way for children to make friends. It’s also great for developing discipline and concentration, as well as for posture and balance and a very healthy use of energy. Not every child is into sports and dance is a great option for non-sporty children,” she said.
“Some children have a natural talent too and there are children who come in at the age of three and four and I can spot their natural ability already. A person needs flexibility and rhythm to dance well too but that can be learned. There are just some children who have a natural ease when it comes to dancing and ooze an obvious confident ability,” she said.
She also admits that it is quite challenging teaching children as young as three to dance because their concentration still isn’t very well developed at that stage. “I make their classes as imaginative as possible, asking them to be different creatures and teaching them movements that make them appear like that,” she remarked.
“The other fact that makes dancing a good option for children is that the only cost other than the classes themselves are possibly the shoes, for ballet or tap, which are no longer that expensive. These can now be bought quite reasonably on the internet,” Laura Jane said.
Laura Jane is holding an open day ahead of the coming season on Saturday, September 18. For further information contact 085 7771328.