The Finchley Ballet School was founded in 1959 by Janice Brass with a class of only 3 children. Her reputation as an excellent teacher quickly spread in the local community and within a few years, to accomodate the increasing intake of new students, The Finchley Ballet School took up residence in the newly built ‘St Mary at Finchley Parish Hall’. St Mary is in the heart of Finchley and is a venue we still teach from to this very day.
Over the next three decades Janice Brass tirelessly built up the Ballet school acquiring a local reputation for excellence and in 1992 passed on the mantle of Principal to Helen Melissinou who had been teaching at the school for several years.
Our school, under the direction of Helen Melissinou, continues to build on the legacy inherited from its founder. We now operate from three premises and work closely with the Royal Academy of Dance whose syllabus and high exam standards are internationally recognized. Aside of Ballet, we also provide dance instruction in Jazz and Tap, run Summer workshops and from time to time put on large scale dance productions to showcase our students.
Over these 55 years we are proud to have taught thousands of children in the north London community some of whom have gone on to pursue a career in dance. Most of our students join us through recommendation by other parents and we know of at least one family who make up three generations of being students at our school.
In 2010 we celebrated our 50th Anniversary with a performance staged at London’s Bloomsbury Theatre where to a packed audience of families and friends, two hundred and forty of our students took to the stage and beautifully demonstrated why as teachers we are inspired by the children we teach.