Maltese dancers at top vocational dance schools

The success of some of the senior students at the school is a showcase of the professional and dedicated attitude of students and teachers towards the Dance Arts.

17-year-old Advanced 2 dance student Roxana Dimech has just returned from a two-week intensive at one of Britain’s top ranking dance schools – The English National Ballet. Roxana, a pupil of Deborah McNamara LISTD, SDS PdB and Examiner, was selected out of hundreds of hopeful applicants last March to attend this exceptional course. Roxana will complete her A-Levels this year and intends to follow in the footsteps of fellow Advanced 2 dancer Elena Zammit.

Zammit, who has also trained with Deborah McNamara for the past six years, has been offered a place at the prestigious Northern Ballet School for three years. Due to her extraordinary talent, not only did Zammit successfully audition but was one of the few dancers to be offered a full Dance Award from the Northern Ballet School to cover tuition for the next three years as well as a scholarship from the Malta Arts Council, to aid with living expenses.

Talented Spanish Dancer Bettina Von Brockdorff has also been granted a full scholarship from the Malta Arts Council to attend the Centro de Baile in Jerez, Spain for the next two years. Von Brockdorff has just successfully completed her teaching qualification of the Spanish Dance Society Instructor de Baile – Part One under Ms McNamara’s tuition.

As from September 2010, the School will operate under the name of Academy of Dance Arts. Ms Rowena Grech AISTD, has taken over the running of the Deborah McNamara School. McNamara will continue to examine for the Spanish Dance Society in Mexico and the USA and hopes to introduce the Cecchetti Method in this region.

The former faculty of the Deborah McNamara School, Fiona Anastasi (Barthet) AISTD dip, SDS IdB 2, Christelle Borg D’Amato AISTD, Emma Loftus LISTD, SDS IdB 1 and Robert Scicluna SDS IdB 1 will continue to assist Ms Grech who has been both a pupil and teaching member of McNamara’s school for many years. Ms McNamara will act as mentor and guest teacher for Academy of Dance Arts.

The new term at the Academy will commence on October 4. The Academy will be open for registration on September 13 and 14 from 16:00 onwards. For more information log on to: www.dancearts.com.mt or contact Rowena Grech (Principal) on 99018726 or send an e-mail to [email protected].