Adult Dancer Spotlight: Dr Fanny Leech

We are delighted to share a story from adult dancer, Dr Fanny Leech, who just completed her Grade 2 Classical Ballet Performance Award Examination, and received the amazing result of Distinction. Not only that, Fanny also just celebrated her 90^th birthday!

Dr Fanny Leech

Fanny discovered ballet later in life when she asked to join a class at age 87. She had a nasty climbing fall so found it difficult to start with. However, she fell in love with dancing after starting classes with Christina Elazab at Blue Moose Dance Company, a fantastic community hub based in and around rural areas of Preston. Christina was a bbodance student herself, completing exams all the way up to Grade 8 and also holds a degree from NSCD.

Once Fanny’s dance journey began, bbodance Registered Teacher, Senior Examiner and Fellow, Sharman Robinson guided Fanny and her classmates through their bbodance Grade 1 Performance Award Examination whilst Christina was on maternity leave. Christina then returned to teaching and taught the class Grade 2, with support from Sharman. One quote from the classes that particularly stood out to Sharman was when Fanny said “dance classes should be on prescription, it makes me feel wonderful after class”.

Dr Fanny Leech and Christina Elazab at Fanny's 90th birthday celebration

Fanny is now working on Grade 3 and everything is getting easier, so much so that she danced a “pas de deux” in a winter concert. She tries to dance most evenings, Fanny started with just 10 minutes per day but now tries to dance up to an hour. She mostly works on Barre and Centre exercises and is hoping to improve her turns ready for more exams in the future!

It is so wonderful to hear that our ballet syllabus is being danced by dancers of all ages and for so many different reasons. We believe dance enriches lives and enhances communities, and Fanny is one amazing example of this vision coming to life.