In the Summer of 2023, The St. Lucia School of Ballet and Modern Dance had a visit from Miss Jackie Nicholas of Dynamicmotif Dance & Performing Arts Academy in the UK. We had a wonderful visit with her as she engaged with the students.
From dynamicmotif.co.uk
Miss Jackie first began dancing at the age of 13 and studied at the Gieralt School of Dancing in Bramcote, Nottingham. There Miss Jackie was taught Classical Ballet and by the time Jackie was 15 she was shadowing her teacher and helping out at the school all day on a Saturday. After successfully studying her GCSE’s at School Miss Jackie attended college and achieved a level 3 Diploma in Performing Arts enabling her to study a degree at the prestigious Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds. It was during Miss Jackie’s second year where she began teaching modern and contemporary dance classes as part of the Saturday school ran by the University that Miss Jackie first became interested in pursuing a teaching career. After graduating in 2000 Miss Jackie began working as a freelance artist and dance teacher in and around the East Midlands performing and working for Dance4 of Nottingham and Derby Dance Centre (now known as DeDa). Jackie also took up more teaching work and qualified as a fitness instructor at the same time as gaining her PGCE. Miss Jackie has worked with a range of children and adults from running Dance Breakfast clubs at Primary Schools to teaching and coordinating GCSE and A Level Dance and BTEC Performing Art courses at various FE Colleges and Secondary Schools around the county. In 2017 Miss Jackie joined The Primary Steps programme, which is part of the Training and Access department at The Royal Ballet School, one day a week teaching on the Primary Steps Programme in Mansfield. Opening Dynamicmotif Dance and Performing Arts Academy fulfils a life long ambition that Miss Jackie has had since first discovering the arts.