Ballet-medley applauded

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KNYSNA ENTERTAINMENT NEWS - Setting out to dazzle a sell-out crowd, dancers from Sidwell Roman School of Ballet and Elvinia's Dance Academy rounded out a successful year with their stunning year-end show, A Medley of Dances.

The show took place on Friday 29 November at the NG Church Hall in Knysna, and featured more than 50 dancers who were choreographed by Knysna ballet veteran Sidwell Roman with help from the latest addition to his teaching team, Courtney-Drew Meyer.

The show was made up of 27 dances split into two acts, with 10 dances choreographed by Meyer, 16 by Roman, and one dance from the Elvinia dancers.

It has been a triumphant year for Roman and his dancers, with 20 dancers taking part in the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) exams at the beginning of the year and 12 dancers bringing home awards from the Friendly City Dance Festival in August, when Hannah Micklewood was crowned senior ballet champion with Zoë Metelerkamp the runner-up. This wouldn't be the end of their achievements however, as 42 dancers took part in the American Academy of Ballet Performance Awards with 15 being granted scholarships for the New York Summer School of Excellence in 2020.

Photo gallery: Dazzling ballet-medley

All of the achievements throughout the year fuelled the dancers during their year-end show which was led by Micklewood and Metelerkamp, who have been dancing with Roman for 14 years but will now be graduating high school and moving on. The duo have grown up in the studio and poured countless hours into practice and Roman extended a heartwarming thanks to the girls in an emotional goodbye after the show.

The girls said farewell to Roman and their fellow dancers in the best way they could – with emotional yet charismatic performances in every one of their seven dance routines of the evening. Their fellow dancers were phenomenal too, putting on a brilliant show of contemporary ballet aided by simple, yet elegant stage sets and costumes.

Sophie Swire-Thompson during her performance.