Over the coming months, we will be rapidly increasing our school faculty to ensure we offer the very best of training to our pupils. Please follow our news pages for our latest team members!
Teachers & staff at the London Ballet School are vetted by DDC Ltd (Due Diligence Checking LTD) and hold valid Enhanced DBS certification.
MR JAMES ANTHONY CUNLIFFE (DIRECTOR)
James has been involved in theatre and the performing arts from a very young age and presently owns several theatre schools and other related businesses in South Wales and in the London region. James has worked in the primary education sector, and has a large amount of experience working with children as teacher, coach and other supporting roles.
James is also the owner and founder of the ‘London Boys Ballet School’ located in Islington. This unique school has seen national media coverage and has recently received the Dance School of the Year Innovation Award 2016 from Anne Walker MBE. The judges were Jonathan Gray (Dancing Times) and Angela Rippon OBE (TV presenter). Wayne Sleep OBE has recently accepted the position of school Ambassador.
Owner of an online Dance shop, dance clothing brand and numerous other industry related projects, James has been immersed in the performing arts world for many years. Having studied to Vocational levels in Ballet, James continues to develop in his training via the Royal Academy of Dance, London and is soon to begin work on two more large arts related projects.
MS VANESSA FENTON (SCHOOL PATRON), EX-ROYAL BALLET
Vanessa Fenton danced with The Royal Ballet for 13 years. She has also performed with Ballet Nationale de Marseille, Roland Petit, with ENB and with Wayne Sleep at The London Coliseum.
She has performed at The Paris Opera, La Scala Milan, The Metropolitan Opera House in New York and almost every other major theatre around the world.
Vanessa has choreographed numerous pieces for The Royal Ballet, The Royal Ballet School, The New English Contemporary Company, The London Children's Ballet and The Royal Opera House Educational Department on many of their programme's including A Chance to Dance.
She has choreographed for The Classic BRIT Awards at The Royal Albert Hall and has worked with artists such as Dame Shirley Bassey, Ronnie Wood, Erin O Connor, for London Fashion Week, Bryan Adams, Joe Corre, Martyn Ware, Mary McCartney, Sarah Lucas and the legendary filmmaker Stanley Kubrick.
Vanessa has also taught at the Royal Academy of Dance, Pineapple, Danceworks and with the Royal Opera House education department, both at ROH and the Lowry on chance to dance and east london dance programmes.
MR DAVID MURLEY (BALLET & TECHNIQUE TEACHER) ROYAL ACADEMY OF DANCE PDTD
A graduate of London Studio Centre, David worked professionally for 17 years before becoming a qualified teacher at the Royal Academy of Dance. He has performed with the Royal Opera, English National Opera, Glyndebourne Opera, Grange Park Opera and The Dallas Opera. Working in opera gave David the opportunity to work with Sir David McVicar and Sir Jonathan Miller on numerous occasions. David has also done film, body double work and toured nationally and internationally.
David has also assisted choreographer Lynne Hockney and was once Artistic Director of his own dance company
MR TIMOTHY CLARKE, RAD BALLET EXAMINER (HEAD SYLLABUS BALLET)
Inspired by his sister, Tim started dancing at local schools at 6 years of age.
After graduating from Arts Educational School London, Tim began a varied professional dancing career performing in Ballet companies, West End musicals, Royal Variety shows, Olympic Games opening ceremony in London, dancing throughout Europe and in New York.
After gaining all his teaching qualifications with the Royal Academy of Dance and The Imperial Society, Tim taught at various schools including: Italia Conti Academy, Brit School, Royal Ballet School Junior Associates, Mountview Academy etc.
Timothy is also a Ballet examiner for the Royal Academy of Dance.
MS HEATHER REES, FELLOWSHIP & EXAMINER ISTD, (HEAD OF TAP)
Heather Rees is the author of the book Tap Dancing, Rhythm in Their Feet and is a Tap enthusiast with a love of rhythm and movement. Her background in Tap covers more years than she cares to admit, having commenced at the tender age of three with a teacher who taught ‘American Tap’ and Classical Ballet. Her inspiration in the early years was Fred Astaire and his films but she now works and studies with many American masters of Tap whom she admires and emulates.
After a short period in theatre, she ran her own school and then moved on to teach at many of the full time theatre and teacher training colleges (inter alia, Laine Theatre Arts, Doreen Bird College, London College and Stella Mann College as well as at New Hall in Chelmsford). For six years, she taught at Bush Davies School, East Grinstead after which she spent four years at Hammond School, two of which were as Head of Dance. At present she arranges workshops and coaching in the UK and overseas.
She is a Fellow and Examiner of the ISTD for Modern Theatre, Tap Dance and National Dance and holds Licentiate for Imperial Ballet. In 1975, she joined the Committee of the National Dance Branch and is also a one-time member of the Boys’ Modern Theatre Sub-Committee.
MR ANDREW WARD (BALLET TECHNIQUE TEACHER) EX-ROYAL BALLET
Andrew Ward trained at The Royal Ballet School from 1970 - 1978, winning the International Ballet Competition, Prix de Lausanne in 1976. In 1978, he joined The Royal Ballet, Covent Garden dancing in all the major Classics at the ROH and around the globe. He appeared in numerous TV productions, including Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella, Isadora, Mayerling, Gloria, and Swan Lake. He danced in created roles by Ashton, MacMillan, Tetley and Nureyev. He was chosen by Ashton to appear in Rhapsody alongside Mikhail Baryshinkov and other soloists for The Queen Mother's 80th birthday celebration gala. He appeared in Freddie Mercury's pop video I Want to Break Free. He joined The Boston Ballet as soloist, dancing several principal roles including the Prince in the Nutcracker.
He became Director of the Benesh Institute and devised and produced several Royal dance galas with Wayne Sleep, attended by Diana Princess of Wales and Princess Margaret.
He also became the manager of the Wayne Sleep Dance Workshops securing sponsorship from Mattel and Disney for the National Tours.
Since 2005, Andrew has been a guest teacher for dance companies including English National Ballet and Rambert Dance Company as well as teaching for dance schools in the UK, USA and Europe. He has built up a reputation in the Dance World with an international faculty joining him including: Wayne Sleep, Federico Bonelli, Sarah Lamb, Marinela Nuñez, Steven McRae, Roberta Marquez, Maina Gielgud, Wayne Eagling, Jonathan Cope and Irek Mukhamedov.
MR JOEL MORRIS, (JUNIOR BALLET TEACHER), ROYAL ACADEMY OF DANCE PDTD
Joel has been a professional ballet dancer for over 15 years and has performed many principal and soloist roles globally, also in London's West End in musicals such as CATS.
Joel is a qualified RAD ballet teacher, choreographer and also teaches at the Royal Ballet School, Royal Academy of Dance, Urdang, London Studios etc.
MR LUKE ABNETT (LBS PHYSIO) EX - ROYAL BALLET SCHOOL HEALTHCARE
Luke Abnett specialises in dance physiotherapy, having overseen healthcare provision at the Royal Ballet School for six years and working with such companies as the Lion King, Royal New Zealand Ballet and Zoonation. Australian by birth and training, Luke has 15 years experience helping junior athletes achieve their potential by running injury prevention programmes and teaching dancers how to look after themselves.
MR GIACOMO CIRIARCI. (CONDITIONING COACH) EX - ROYAL BALLET
Giacomo Ciriaci used to be a Soloist Dancer with The Royal Ballet. In 2008, after 17 years with the company, he stopped dancing and became an Advanced Personal Trainer. He has trained many dancers including soloist and principals from The Royal Ballet and English National Ballet and he teaches Strengthening and Conditioning at The Royal Ballet School (since September 2010). Giacomo was a guest speaker at the 2016 Sports Injuries Conference for The Royal Society of Medicineour audience's attention...
