About Us
Parkewood School of Dance was founded in 1965 by former principal Miss Pearl Nicholl.
Miss Nicholl trained at The Royal Ballet School under the direction of Miss Ursula Moreton.
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Lynne Wiltshire, having joined Parkewood at the age of 11, trained under the watchful eye of Miss Nicholl until the age of 16 when she went on to further her training at The Royal Ballet School. In 1972 she joined the Linz State Ballet Company in Austria as an artist but was soon promoted to soloist and remained in the company for the next 7 years. In 1979 Lynne returned to Southampton to join Pearl as an assistant teacher and became principal of Parkewood in 1984 on Pearl’s retirement.
Over the years the school has produced many successful students who have gone on to perform with companies such as Birmingham Royal Ballet, Scottish Ballet, Northern Ballet Theatre, Ballet Rambert, English National Ballet, Balletboyz as well as those who have successful careers in many leading musicals in the West End, abroad and on cruise ships.
Lynne has now been joined by an excellent team of assistant teachers covering many genres in addition to Ballet and is continuing to nurture the future generation of dancers and teachers and those children who just want to dance for fun!
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Photos- Lucy Creighton