Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from everyone at Alison's Studio of Dance! I'll be returning in January 2017, and the studio will reopen 6 February 2017. Until then, enjoy your holidays! - Selene

Today's #ThrowbackThursday focuses on everyone's favourite Christmas ballet: The Nutcracker. Though productions of The Nutcracker differ from company to company, the basic story remains much the same. The ballet starts on Christmas Eve, with a party at the Stahlbaum household. Clara and her friends play with their new toys, but are interrupted by the arrival of Clara's godfather, the magician Drosselmeyer. A talented toymaker, he has brought the children gifts for Christmas.

It's the last Tutu Tuesday of the year! Here's Alina Cojocaru and Vadim Muntagirov in English National Ballet's 2013 production of Le Corsaire. Enjoy! - Selene

Today's Spotlight Saturday, the last of the year, focuses on Russian dancer and choreographer Michael Fokine. He was born Mikhail Mikhaylovich Fokin in St. Petersburg on 23 April, 1880. He was accepted into the Imperial Ballet School at the age of 9, and made his debut in the ballet Le Talisman that same year, under the direction of Marius Petipa. On his 18th birthday in 1898, he debuted with the Imperial Ballet at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in a production of Paquita. Wi

This week's #ThrowbackThursday focuses on a more recent ballet, A Christmas Carol. Based on the Charles Dickens novel of the same name, the ballet has become a Christmas classic. The ballet begins with a short prologue showing the funeral of Jacob Marley, where the late man's business partner, Ebenezer Scrooge, is the solitary mourner. Act I opens on a busy London street on Christmas Eve; a group of carol singers are collecting money for the poor outside the counting house wh

We had our end-of-year concert at Highlands Intermediate Hall last Sunday; as well as being the finale to another year, it was the celebration of 25 years of Alison's Studio of Dance! Quite an achievement for Alison, who also celebrated becoming an official IDTA examiner earlier this year. (long post warning! - more pictures can be found on our Facebook page). To celebrate, myself and several other former 'senior girls' of the studio surprised Alison with flowers, a cake made

Here's Ingrid Gow of The Australian Ballet in David McAllister's gorgeous production of The Sleeping Beauty, currently touring Australia just in time for Christmas. Enjoy! - Selene

Today was the end-of-year concert (photos to come), which means the studio is officially closed for the summer - but I'm still here, so here's Spotlight Saturday, on American dancer and Hollywood film star Gene Kelly. Kelly was born Eugene Curran Kelly on 23 August 1912, the son of James Kelly and Harriet Curran. When Gene was 8, his mother enrolled him and his older brother James in dance lessons. Neither boy enjoyed it very much, getting into fights with the neighbourhood k

I'm afraid #ThrowbackThursday has been a bit rare in recent weeks, but it's back and focusing on the ballet Madame Butterfly. The story starts with an American naval officer, Pinkerton, and his friends being entertained in a geisha house. Pinkerton is transfixed by one particularly beautiful girl, Butterfly. Goro the marriage broker tells him that she can be 'bought' as a bride, and Pinkerton agrees to the deal. Butterfly is hardly more than a child and believes this arrangem

It's that time again - here's Gillian Murphy of American Ballet Theatre as Odette in the company's amazing production of Swan Lake. Enjoy! - Selene