Ex-Students of South London Dance School

Ruben started dancing at the age of 3, in the Nursery Dance classes at South London Dance School. When he was 6, Miss Zoe invited him to join the Festival Team. This was completely fortuitous, as he had been considering giving up at the time!

At his first ever festival Ruben came 1^st in his Ballet Solo. This, together with seeing an inspirational performance given by Carlos Acosta, was enough to get him hooked on dance. Alongside his classes at SLDS, in 2016 he also became a Junior Associate at The Royal Ballet School and enjoyed three years of weekly classes in Covent Garden.

During his time as a JA he was lucky enough to take part in three Royal Ballet productions at The Royal Opera House: ‘Sleeping Beauty’, ‘The Dream’ and ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’. He was also cast to appear alongside ballet superstar Sergei Polunin in his new ballet ‘Satori’ at the London Coliseum.

Ruben continued to have much success at dance festivals, winning numerous medals, cups and trophies. In 2017, having had fantastic success at the All England Regional Finals, Ruben went on to represent South London Dance School at the All England National Finals. He came away with medals for his Modern duet (with Nico Pereira da Silva) and both his Modern and Tap Solos.

In October 2017 he came 1^st at the ISTD Grade 2 Junior Ballet Awards and also won the Boys’ Cup. A few weeks later he won the Junior Ballet Premier Award at the Orpington Festival (a success he repeated in 2018!).

Shortly afterwards Ruben auditioned for the West End musical ‘Matilda’. He was selected from hundreds for the role of Tommy, and began rehearsals with the RSC in January 2018. He opened in March and enjoyed a wonderful six months of performances. He was offered a second contract, but made the difficult decision to turn it down in order to prepare for vocational ballet school auditions.

All of this hard work paid off, and in February 2019, Ruben was offered a full-time place at The Royal Ballet School. This was a dream come true!

Ruben was able to represent SLDS one last time at the All England Dance Festival in 2019. He reached the National Finals with both his Ballet and Song and Dance Solos, winning a medal for his Song and Dance.

Ruben was sad to leave SLDS, having enjoyed so many years there and having experienced so many wonderful teachers. He is now however in his second year at White Lodge, The Royal Ballet School, and loving every minute! His dream is to become a Principal dancer with The Royal Ballet Company…

Lukas began dancing at a young age at Grafton Dance Academy in Dulwich (now South London Dance School in Herne Hill) with the Principal, Zoe Dawson, who guided him to continue training at Arts Educational Tring Park.  During his training, Lukas had the opportunity to dance with well known choreographers such as Anthony Dowson and Wayne sleep.

After graduating from Tring in 2012 Lukas trained and danced in America with Dance Theatre of Harlem with choreographers such as Robert Garland, Virginia Johnson and other iconic figures.  Whilst in America he also danced with Mystic Ballet Company.  Lukas is now back in England and looking forward to the next exciting project!

Training: The Urdang Academy & South London Dance School

Theatre: Eddie Souther in Sister Act (Gordon Craig Theatre), Sal in A Harlem Dream (The Young Vic), Sammy Davis Jr in The Rat Pack (Adelphi Theatre & UK/ USA/Europe Tour), Little Moe in Five Guys Named Moe (English Theatre, Frankfurt), Tough Kid in Carmen Jones (Royal Festival Hall), Winston in The Screams Of Kitty Genovese (Edinburgh Fringe & Tête Tête Festival), Dad in BirdNet (Saddler’s Wells), Bollywood Knights (Wilde Theatre) & Walk In The Light (National Theatre)

Film and Television: In The Heart Of The Sea film (Village Roadshow Pictures), London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony (BBC), Cocktail film (Eros Entertainment), Desi Boyz film (Eros Entertainment), HMRC Tax Credits (Commercial), Whitney Marie Hair (Commercial) & BT Jiggle Of The Jargon (Online)

Music: Peace – Lost On Me (Music Video), Beau in Beauty Of The Beast (Recording), Norman in Spooky Noises (Recording), Jodie Connor – Now Or Never (Music Video)

Omari started his training at Grafton Dance Academy, now South London Dance Studios in Herne Hill.  He continued his training at Central School of Ballet for two years where he achieved a Foundation Performing Arts Degree. Omari then went on to Millennium Performing Arts for a further two years where he received a Musical Theatre Diploma.  Omari’s musical theatre workshops include ‘Hello Dolly’ and ‘Sweet Charity’ choreographed by Steven Mear; ‘Les Miserables’ taught by Claude-Michel Schonberg; ‘Brisk Singing’ choreographed by Richard Alston.

Omari’s profesisonal theatre work includes ‘The Philip Lawrence Awards’; ‘Cinderella’ (Pantomime); Lisa Donmall’s ‘One Woman Show’; Kerry Ellis’s ‘The Greatest British Song Book Series’ featuring Brian May; ‘Dick Whittington’ (Pantomime) playing Tommy the Cat; English National Opera’s ‘Two Boys’ playing Agent Sure; ‘The Prodigals’ playing Luke James A.K.A ‘Disco’’ English National Opera’s ‘Castor and Pulloxs’ playing Linsaous; ‘Starlight Express’ in Germany playing Hip Hopper.  Omari is currently appearing in the UK Tour of ‘Fame’.

Omari’s commercial and television work includes Nike Promotional Advert; CBBC’s ‘Numberjacks’; Katie Tunstall music video ‘Hold On’ video; More4 ident ’50 Greatest Musicals’; BBC ident ‘Strictly Come Dancing’; Tinchy Stryder music video ‘Take The World’.

Rachel started dancing at the age of 5 at Grafton Academy (now South London Dance School) for 11 years with Miss Zoe studying all genres. Rachel has participated in shows, presentations and festivals during her training. Also, she has danced with English Youth Ballet in Coppelia and the Nutcraker, National Youth Ballet in Captain Beaky and the Old Man of Lochnagar, London Childeren’s Ballet tour in the Little Princess playing Miss Minchin. Rachel will be continuing her training in dance and Musical Theatre at Arts Educational Schools London.

Tasha has had a flair for dancing ever since starting at South London Dance School (previously Grafton Dance Academy) at the age of 6. During her time at the studios, she took part in various youth ballet companies (performing the lead in English Youth Ballet’s ‘Nutcracker’ in 2013), and also successfully auditioned for Trinity Laban’s CAT scheme, English National Ballet youth company, and Royal Ballet Senior Associates. She also regularly competed in dance festivals winning numerous sections and reaching the All England finals.  Tasha was extremely excited to be offered a place on the three year Professional Dance and Performance Degree course at Central School of ballet starting September 2015. She looks forward to a career in classical ballet.

Nandi started dancing at Grafton Dance Academy when she was 5 years old and continuing until the age of 18 when it became South London Dance School.  During her time at SLDS she was a Junior Associate of the Royal Ballet, took lead roles in several school shows, successfully competed in numerous All England dance festivals and passed her Intermediate examinations in ISTD ballet, tap and modern with flying colours.

Nandi also trained at the BRIT school in music and musical theatre from the ages of 16 to 18 gaining distinctions and distinctions* in her BTEC diplomas.  Whist at BRIT, she performed in the Red Cross dance competition winning in the finals at 02 Arena, and she was lucky enough to travel to New York to perform as a singer.

In 2015, Nandi won a scholarship to train on the three year Musical Theatre and Dance Degree course at The Urdang.  After graduation, she would like to have a wide ranging career in the Performing Arts as a singer, dancer and actress.

Nico joined South London Dance School in Herne Hill to take street dance classes at the age of 7. The SLDS policy of doing street dance in combination with modern dance gave an important additional dimension to his dancing at the time. He was invited by Zoe Dawson, principal of South London Dance School, to join the Festival Team and when it was explained to him that, among other genre, this meant doing ballet too, he protested strongly. After some persuasion, he went along and never looked back. The excellent teaching and grounding in technique which he received from all his teachers at SLDS meant that he enjoyed success at the local festivals and gained associate places with the Royal Ballet School and London Junior Ballet as well as a part in London Children’s Ballet. All of these opportunities taught him discipline, performance skills and the benefits of lots of practice! He also made great friends and learned the important skill of dancing with others – particularly in a duet which was awarded silver at the All England National Finals. Nico was offered a place at the Royal Ballet School and is now training full time to become a professional dancer.