Stardust Dance Centre welcomes back dancers

Stardust Dance Centre, like all dance schools in the country, had to temporarily close their doors in March of this year.

However the schools owner, former British Dance Champion Paula Graves, didn’t let the lockdown slow her down. She held weekly online lessons with her pupils and latterly, one-to-one, socially distanced lessons on her patio.

Stardust will be re-opening on the Saturday 12th September with a new timetable, including baby ballroom, latinacise and technique classes. This will once again be in their usual home of the mirrored dance studio in “The Place” within Glossopdale School.

Jean Graves MBE, (Paula’s Mother) founded the school in Glossop in 1967 which has been the number one place to learn and develop the skills of Ballroom and Latin American dancing. Of the lockdown Jean said “I’ve never known a shutdown of dancing on this scale. But luckily with the help of technology the dancers have been able to continue to learn at home.” Paula added: “We also arranged some special Zoom workshops for our pupils with none other than Strictly’s head judge Shirley Ballas! Shirley has a history with our dance school and it was great to see everyone engaging with these master classes.”

“During lockdown we also asked former pupils to get in touch on our Facebook page and share their photographs and memories, it was wonderful to see how much fun has been had over our 50 year history!” She added “Mum received her MBE for services to Ballroom dancing, (a well-deserved honour!) so for her it was great to look at these.”

We asked Paula about the future she said “Like a lot of people we’ve used the time to take stock and re-assess. We’ve put together the new weekly schedule, for all ages and abilities. We are also re-branding so watch this space! We want to be the place people of Glossop and the surrounding area’s think of if they want to learn or develop their Ballroom skills” adding “At the moment it’s all about providing a covid safe environment for our students in line with Government guidelines and we can’t wait to get back in our usual dance studio.”

If you are interested in joining Stardust dance centre please contact Paula Graves via their Facebook page: @stardustdancecentre website: www.stardustdancecentre.co.uk or by tel: 07709 936 026 email:latinline@yahoo.co.uk