We are an Associate School with the Royal Opera House with both Elaine and Natasha working as Associate Artists in local First Schools Adderlane and Prudhoe West. We work with a group of Year 3 children within their school for 6 weeks using building blocks to create their own dance work; using choreographic tools to develop the children’s own choreographic voice. The children then have an intensive 3 days with both ourselves and Lead Artists to create a full dance piece which is performed alongside other local Associate schools and Royal Ballet Dancers at Dance City. Following on from this experience some of the children then receive bursaries from the Royal Opera House to attend a creative dance class at the dance school on Thursdays 4pm-5pm for a full academic year. Elaine and Natasha have completed their first year in the Chance to Dance programme and have gained so much from the CPD delivered at the Royal Opera House and working alongside the Lead Artists and children in schools. It has given us new skills in our teaching to take forward both in First Schools as well as the dance school and we’re excited to continue the journey.