Over the summer, some of our MGGS girls who train at Hilton Hall Dance Academy (St Peters’ Street) took ISTD exams and competed at Canterbury Dance Festival. They achieved some fantastic results:

Exams: 

• Mille S (7S) achieved Distinctions in both her Cecchetti Ballet and Bronze Jazz exams.
• Isabel W (8S) achieved Distinctions in both her Grade 5 Imperial Ballet and Grade 4 Cecchetti Ballet exams. 
• Keira P (8F) achieved Merits in both her Cecchetti Ballet and Bronze Jazz exams. 
• Sarah M (8A) achieved a Distinction in her Cecchetti Ballet exam and a Merit in her Bronze Jazz. 
• Unfortunately, Harrie N (8A) wasn’t able to take exams this time due to a foot injury, but she has been resiliently helping the junior HHDA students whilst recovering.
• Maisie C (10N) took five exams – Grade 5 Imperial Ballet, Grade 5 Tap, Grade 4 Cecchetti Ballet, Grade 5 Modern and Silver Jazz. She achieved two Merits and three Distinctions including a super high score of 96% in Modern and Jazz! 
• Brogan W (11A) achieved Distinctions for her vocational Intermediate Grade Imperial Ballet and Intermediate Grade Modern – including a score in the 90s for Modern. 
• Amelia H (11C) achieved Distinctions in her Grade 6 Imperial Ballet and her vocational Intermediate Grade Modern.
• Emily L (12S1) achieved a Merit in her Grade 6 Imperial Ballet and a Distinction in her Advanced 2 Tap (this is a superb achievement as this is a Level 4 diploma – the highest level ISTD vocational exam).
• Isabelle S (12V2) achieved a Merit for her Grade 6 Imperial Ballet. 
• Tanzie H (12S2) achieved a Distinction in her Grade 6 Imperial Ballet exam. 
• Lydia K (13S2) achieved two very high scoring Distinctions – 95% for her Advanced 2 Tap (the highest ISTD vocational exam level) and 100% for her Gold Jazz! Just amazing Lydia!

At Canterbury Dance Festival: 

• Mille S (7S) qualified her character duet for the regional final.
• Sarah M (8A) performed her character, ballet and tap solos as well as her modern and tap duets. 
• Maise C (10N) qualified her contemporary solo for the regional final placing third. She also placed third in her ballet solo and first in her ballet trio. 
• Brogan W (11A) qualified her five solos and one of her duets for the regional final. She placed first in her Greek and character solos, second in her lyrical and ballet solos and third in her modern solo, as well as fourth in her ballet duet and second in her lyrical duet. She was awarded The SRF Classical Aggregate Award and The Georgia Leigh Character Award. She was also chosen by the adjudicator to win the Canterbury Dance Festival Bursary. This is £500 to be put towards further dance tuition opportunities. 
• Emily L (12S1) placed 4th in both her tap and contemporary solos and third in her tap duet. 
• Isabelle S (12V2) qualified her lyrical solo for the regional final. 
• Tanzie H (12S2) came first in her ballet solo and was awarded The Martin Trophy for Senior Ballet. 
• It’s so lovely to know that they’re back on stage doing what they love.

The girls (including Orla in 7N) are now preparing for the Beckenham Dance Festival which takes place over the next three weekends. Here they will dance their solos and also group numbers. They’ve achieved so much after months of lockdown, where they’ve had to dance at home via zoom classes. They should all be incredibly proud.