Dance Direction, located in Liss Forest, Near Petersfield, Hampshire, is dedicated to teaching children and adults the art of Classical Ballet, Cecchetti Method. The school is run by Yolande Parkin, an ex-professional dancer, a qualified and experienced dance teacher.

Yolande Parkin, LISTD Cecchetti Classical Ballet

Yolande Parkin was a scholarship winner to Elmhurst Ballet School at the age of 11. She trained in Ballet under the direction of Bridget Espinosa, Modern under Ivor Meggido, Contemporary under Anitra Shore, Pas de Deux with John Raven, also stage craft and Drama. She gained her RAD Majors, leaving aged 17 to perform professionally for 10 years, dancing in all styles, abroad as well as in England, including with La Compagnia Di Operetta Italiana and Masque Dance Theatre (MDT). While with MDT, Yolande formed the first edition of Dance Direction, teaching Jazz and Ballet to adults. An enforced retirement due to injury led her into a new artistic career in Interior Design. She was highly successful in this field, also winning a national window display competition in 1989. After 12 years away from Ballet she returned to dance. Having originally trained as a young child with Gillian Dawson, Examiner and Fellow of the ISTD, and later inspired by Linda Ryder, the artistic director of MDT, who trained her in Laban and Cecchetti, Yolande trained as a teacher herself, gaining Cecchetti qualifications with the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing.

Dance Direction was formally established as a school in 1998. The school’s biennial performances are a culmination of all these experiences, amassed into a refreshing variation of the ‘school show’. Yolande is CRB checked and also gives private lessons at Bedales School.

In May 2006 Yolande was awarded the Peter Pearson Scholarship for Cecchetti Teachers (right) She is currently training (2006 onward) for the Advanced 2 Cecchetti Vocational dancing exam. The ISTD exists to promote knowledge of dance, to maintain and improve teaching standards and to provide, through the syllabi, techniques upon which to train dancers for the profession. Performing is at the heart of the art, and – coupled with a good technique – style, musicality and confidence flourishes.