Jewels of the Dance

2011 Jewels of the Dance
Review by Roy Sharp, Evening Echo 30th November 2011
SPLENDID, wonderful, exhilarating, spectacular – how else can one describe this delightful, colourful show?
More than 200 talented young dancers, drawn from eight affiliated dance academies and schools in Dorset, came together for their annual display.
The show opened with the First Position School of Dance aboard a pirate ship. An acrobatic crew led by Captain Jack, splendidly danced and performed by Lewis Palfrey, who sets out around the world stealing precious jewels.
The first destination is the South Seas from where he obtains a priceless pearl. The Rita Jenvey School of dancers are aboard a cruise ship and took us back to the days of the charleston.
In South Africa, he meets natives in the jungle, the Jan Mizen Dancers, and steals a diamond.
China is represented by the Jane Farrell Ballet School and here Jack steals a piece of Jade from the Emperor.
Jack arrives in New York and is caught up in the flight between the Jets and the Sharks in West Side Story, enacted by the Academy of Dance. Here is manages to retrieve a belt made of Jet.
A healing Topaz stone is obtained from the followers of the Egyptian sun god Rah, alias the Spotlight School of Dancing.
This is followed by a visit to outer space from where he obtains a moonstone from the Wessex School of Dancing.
Jack’s final rendezvous is in Venice where the Carrington Hollywood Academy of Dance attend a masked ball to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Masquerade, Jack’s trophy is a Ruby.
Having collected a chest full of jewels, Jack returns to the pirate ship, thus concluding one of the best shows presented by the Western Association of Ballet Schools.