Company Class
The Chelmsford Ballet Company offer professionally taught Company classes throughout the year.
The class is open to all, not just our Company members.
They currently run as Junior/General level and a Senior level.
The classes are held on the first Sunday of every month, with the exception of August and January, at CYGAMS HQ, Meteor Way, Waterhouse Lane, Chelmsford. The class dates are shown on our current events calendar page.
The Junior/General class 09.30 – 11.00 is for dancers age 10 and above. This class will include work to suit those working at grades 2 – 5 or an equivalent level.
The Senior class from 11.15 – 12.45 is for dancers aged 13 and above. This class will include work to suit those working at or above Grade 6/Intermediate or equivalent level.
The classes are open to all, not just our Company members.
Cost is £7.00 for dancing and associate members and £8.00 for guests
Christopher Marney
Christopher is a freelance Choreographer and Director having most recently held the position of director at the Joffrey Ballet Studio Company in Chicago.
Previously he spent five years as Artistic Director of Central School of Ballet in London and its professional touring company, Ballet Central. During his time at these organisations he programmed and commissioned work by prolific Choreographers such as Wayne McGregor, George Balanchine, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Liam Scarlett, Christopher Bruce and Jasmin Vardimon, to name a few. He has also staged works by Kenneth MacMillan, Matthew Bourne, Marius Petipa and Frederick Ashton.
As a Choreographer, Christopher most recently created ‘Eve’ at Sadlers Wells and ‘Lady Macbeth’ for Fabula Collective at Tokyo’s New National Theatre and ‘The Four Seasons’ for Joffrey Ballet’s Studio Company. He has created five works for Ballet Black, for English National Ballet’s Emerging Dancer, as well as numerous pieces for Ballet Central, Images of Dance, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, DanceEast and the Edinburgh Festival.
In London’s West-End, he has choreographed ‘McQueen The Play’ (Theatre Royal Haymarket), ‘Tell Me on a Sunday’ (The Other Palace), ‘Hotel Follies’ (Arts Theatre) and for New Adventures he was the Associate Choreographer for ‘Sleeping Beauty’ at Sadlers Wells which toured worldwide.
Whilst a dancer Christopher performed internationally for companies; Balletboyz, Gothenburg Ballet, Ballet Biarritz, Bern Ballet and in Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures he danced many principal roles including the Prince in ‘Swan Lake’, throughout numerous world tours.
He has performed ballets by William Forsythe, Jiri Kylian, Nacho Duato, John Cranko, Cathy Marston, Will Tuckett and for Michael Clark in ‘Rite of Spring’ & ‘Les Noces’, notably at Rose Hall, Lincoln Center New York.
His final performance, in 2016, was with Ivan Putrov’s Men in Motion as the Faun in Nijinsky’s ‘L’Apres Midi d’un Faun’.
Christopher was nominated for Outstanding Performance in Modern Dance at the Critics Circle National Dance Awards for two years running, as well as being featured in Dance Europe’s Outstanding Male Dancer 2013 list.
He was named associate artist of the UK Foundation for Dance, Patron of the Chelmsford Ballet and holds a Master of Arts degree in Choreography from the University of Kent.
Brian Loftus
Brian trained in London and Paris and danced professionally with Sadlers Wells Opera Ballet and La Grande Ballet Classique de France. For 23 years he taught and directed the Student Dance Program at The Arts Educational School in London.
Brian has been a guest teacher with numerous large ballet companies such as: London Festival Ballet (now known as English National Ballet) where he taught famous personalities such as Rudolf Nureyev and Elisabetta Terrabust.
He has taught at London City Ballet, Rambert Ballet, London Contemporary Dance Theatre, and in Germany at Koblenz and Kiel Companies. Brian also helped Harold King of London City Ballet mount the “Pas de Six” from Napoli for the company.
An international guest teacher, lecturer and choreographer, he teaches regularly in London, Paris, Japan, Germany and the USA. He recently had the pleasure to give company classes to Les Ballets Trockadero de Mont Carlo and the Deborah Colker Company when these two companies visited the UK.
Andrei Teodor Iliescu
Born in Constanta, Romania, Andrei started dancing at the age of 11 at the National College of Arts in his hometown. Following the win of his first major competition at the age of 14, Andrei moved to Bucharest to join a prestigious ballet school in Romania to further his training.
At the age of 17 he competed in the international ballet competition ‘Prix de Lausanne’ in Switzerland. He was immediately awarded a full scholarship to attend Central School of Ballet.
After graduating with a First class degree, Andrei made his debut in the West End joining the new production of “McQueen” at the Theatre Royal Haymarket.
Richard Bermange
As a performer Richard Bermange has worked with K-Ballet, Tokyo, Tivoli Ballet Theatre, Copenhagen and The National Ballet of Ireland, Dublin, as well as guest artist with companies including English National Ballet, Peter Schaufuss Ballet, Opera North and freelancing with a range of independent choreographers. He also had the pleasure of guesting with Chelmsford Ballet, performing principal roles in productions of Coppelia and The Nutcracker, and returns to teach company class whenever he has the opportunity.
Richard has been a member of the teaching faculty of London Studio Centre since 2016, teaching ballet and Pas de Deux across all course. He completed a Masters Degree in Choreography in 2016, was appointed Creative Director of English National Ballet’s Youth Company (ENBYouthCo) in 2019 and is a frequent guest teacher and ballet master at a number of vocational schools and professional companies.
As a choreographer Richard has had his work commissioned both in the UK and internationally, notably creating his production of Swan Lake for The National Ballet of Ireland (2014), La Belle Époque for Ballet Central (2016), Carnival for National Youth Ballet (2019) ...Of Whats to Come (2020) for English National Ballet's 70th Anniversary Gala at the London Coliseum, and A Comedy in Long-shot for ENBYouthCo 2021. In 2017 Richard choreographed an original musical production titled Silk, The Eternal Road, premiered in Beijing and tour to Europe in 2018. Other notable works include In Other Words (2016), The Tell-Tale Heart (2017), and for London Studio Centre’s Dance Overture; On The Town excerpts (2018), Bye Bye Blackbird and Sweepstakes (2019), Divertissement and Abigail’s Party (2021).
Denise Roberts
Denise Roberts studied ballet with Catherine Blellock in Westcliff-on-sea she also studied with Ruth French and Alex Morrow in Chelsea on a Saturday, then completing her training at Bush Davies School Sussex.
Denise went on to work in Ballet Companies dancing soloist, Principle, and Corps de ballet roles with Irish National Ballet, Ballet for All, British Ballet Theatre, Dublin City Ballet plus TV and Films.
Denise worked with many wonderful teachers and choreographers in her career including John Gilpin, SIr Anton Dolin, John Field, Kerrison Cooke, Janet Lewis MBE Brenda Last and Brian Loftus. She travelled extensively.
Denise had her own school in Southend for 20 years and started the first Adult Ballet classes in 1990 for 20 years, she also teaches at the Graham school of dance and now this term Sandford school of dance with amazing ballet results for RAD.
Denise has been associated with Chelmsford ballet for many years, as a Company class teacher and also at lets make a ballet. She also produced the Grand pas de duex for The Nutcracker in 1993 and also a guest dancer in La Slyhide in 1999. She looks forward to working with this talented and amazing Company always!!!!
Evangeline Ball
Evangeline trained classically for 8 years at The Royal Ballet Lower and Upper school gaining many achievement including prizes from The Young British Dancer of the year and Genee International Dance Competition. Her professional career includes working with The Royal Ballet Company, English National Ballet, Opera National de Bordeaux and Ballet du Capitol de Toulouse. Over the course of her 8 year career she has performed in many great classics including: The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, Giselle and many more around the world.
Owen Morris
Born in Cornwall Owen began his dance education in the South West before pursuing formal vocational training in Scotland. Whilst still a student he performed in three full length touring productions around Scotland under choreographer Daniel Job. He gained his Bachelor of Arts Honours Degree and his RAD Advanced 2 Ballet.
He graduated in 2016 and has gone onto work professionally in a multi-genre capacity, working and performing with different companies and projects. He has taught as a ballet teacher with outreach programmes in the Western Cape, South Africa and as a guest teacher for Cecchetti Ballet Associates, Chelmsford Ballet Company and Pineapple Dance Studio. He holds his Level 3 Diploma in Teaching Mat Pilates which he teaches regularly.
His classical work includes work with the Cape Town City Ballet in South Africa and the State Opera Varna Ballet Company in Bulgaria.
Additionally he worked on the Disney Movie 'The Nutcracker and The Four Realms' directed by Lasse Hallström and choreographed by the Royal Ballet's Liam Scarlett.
As a freelance dancer he has worked in productions at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden and at Glyndebourne Opera Summer Festival in East Sussex.
He danced in the production of 'Leila - The Land of Imagination' at the Riyadh Cultural Season in Saudi Arabia.
He played the role of Tom in the UK 2021 Summer Tour of 'Tom's Midnight Garden' choreographed by Gareth Mole. This production was for Frankly Speaking Productions.
Kasper Cornish
Kasper’s performing work ranges from “Ballet Dancer to Wrestler” for the BAFTA winning Channel 4 series Faking It, to creating the title role in The Snowman (Birmingham Repertory Theatre, West End & BBC film of the stage show). Other credits include The Phantom of The Opera feature film and national tour, playing the Prince of Transylvania in the National Theatre production of My Fair Lady at Theatre Royal (Drury Lane) and as principal dancer at Glyndebourne Festival Opera. He toured France and Switzerland in Maurice Bejart’s Bolero with Sylvie Guillem. and as a freelance principal artist danced ballet pas de deux as far afield as Japan.
Choreographic work includes: The Classical Brits, Comedy Shuffle (BBC3), “Canvas Bag” for Tim Minchin, Shakespeare’s Happy Endings (BBC4), The Terence Higgins Trust, Nickelodeon TV, Betty Blue Eyes, My Fair Lady, “Degas – A Passion for Perfection” (Exhibition on Screen)
He has taught Classical Ballet and Pas de Deux since 1997 for performing arts colleges, conservatoires, international summer schools, dance companies and open classes.
Kasper also writes modern classical music for various ensembles and soloists, including 7 ballet class albums, a clarinet sonata, brass quintet, works for string quartet, an oratorio and recently; a book of musical theatre songs co-written with his dear late friend Elva Makins. www.kaspercornish.bandcamp.com
