10:02am Friday 9th May 2008
By Benjamin Parkes
WAYNE Sleep, the famous Royal Ballet School dancer, visited St Augustine's Catholic College to teach a series of master classes on Sunday.
More than 160 dance students attended the workshops with Wayne throughout the day to pick up tips from the master.
Boys and girls from dancing schools across West Wiltshire and beyond signed up for the unique opportunity and locals from Trowbridge, Westbury and Melksham took part.
The event was organised by head teacher Brendan Wall, school governor and former British Ballet Organisation teacher Jennifer Polledri and Trowbridge dance teacher Diane Scott.
Not to be outdone by his students, headteacher Mr Wall joined the junior and senior jazz class and showed a surprising degree of elegance, according to onlookers.
Wayne also commented that he was the first head teacher ever to take part in one of his classes.
He also commented favourably on the good turnout of boys at the event, saying he was viewed as something of an oddity in the industry when he first started dancing.
School governor Mrs Polledri said: "Wayne was vivacious, very dramatic and had excellent stage presence. You could here a pin drop during the tutorials because he absolutely commanded everybody's attention.
"The great thing about Wayne is that he is fun. Although he takes dancing seriously he encourages young people to get up and have a go and they love taking part."
Sleep is currently appearing in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in Sunderland and travelled down on Saturday night at the invitation of St Augustine's to promote the importance of dance.
The classes, which took place in the sports hall of the school, were well supported by an enthusiastic audience of parents, grandparents, friends of students and teachers.
The only regret was that more people did not take part. Mrs Polledri said: "I was disappointed that there was so little take up from GCSE and A-level dance students. We had to cancel the classes for the dancer students which was a real shame."
Andrew Ward, who trained at The Royal Ballet School between 1970 and 1978, was assisting Wayne on the day.
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