BABY BALLET East Thurrock and The Evans Academy of Dance raised £101 for Comic Relief recently.
All the children wore something red during their classes.
Keiley Evans runs both Babyballet in East Thurrock and also the Evans Academy of Dance in Grays.
Keiley didn’t walk until she was two-years-old and doctors warned her parents she could end up in a wheelchair. But the 28-year-old defied doctors by not only leading a normal life but becoming a dance teacher and opening her own dance academy.
Around 10 million people in the UK have arthritis which causes pain and inflammation in joints. It affects people of all ages including children. Very often symptoms improve as a child gets older which was the case for Keiley, who lives with her husband, Matthew and their 19-month-old son, Joshua. She took up dance as a youngster and went on to teach at her former dance school. She also worked in the fitness industry and taught classes. At the age of 22 she went to university to get a degree in teaching and now works part-time at St Thomas’s Primary School in Grays.
It was becoming a mum that made Keiley think about opening her own business. “I really enjoyed going to mother-and-baby events with Joshua and came across babyballet the UK’s leading pre-school dance academy and knew instantly it was for me,” she says. Babyballet was set up in Yorkshire in 2005 by mum-of-four- Claire O’Connor and has almost 70 franchisees (all women) across the country with over 10,000 youngsters attending more than 1,000 every week. Keiley signed up to Baby Ballet in October 2014 to become a franchisee and in January 2015 opened classes at Homesteads Village Hall, Stanford-le-Hope and St John’s Ambulance Hall, Corringham on Saturday, Monday and Friday mornings. Classes are for youngsters from six months to six years.
Keiley also runs adults intermediate/advanced modern, lyrical and tap classes on a Thursday which are proving to be very popular. In January 2015, Keiley also took over another established dance school in Grays which she has renamed The Evans Academy of Dance which has classes on a Sunday morning in ballet, pointe, tap, modern and musical theatre for children aged 3-18 years. All of the children that attended the Sunday classes were extremely grateful to Keiley for taking over the dance school as the previous teacher had to give up as she had moved out of the area and the 80 children would have been extremely sad if the dance school had to close. Hard work is already happening to ensure the children are ready for competing in various festivals this summer and the first Evans Academy of Dance Show is booked for February 2016 which is very exciting. The children are also preparing themselves for various exams for later in the year.
“I am really excited about starting my own dance academy and although my arthritis still flairs up from time to time it has never stopped me from dancing. I want to share my passion and enthusiasm for dance with youngsters. They will get a strong foundation in dance but still retain that all important element of fun,” says Keiley.
Anyone who would like more details about babyballet, the adult classes or The Evans Academy of Dance should contact Keiley on Tel: 01375 406669 or Email: [email protected]
