Bradford city centre ballet school is smashing stereotypes

The directors hope the school’s 150 young dancers will feature in the City of Culture celebrations next year.

“There is no dance space like this, I don’t think, in the world,” said Martin Howland, artistic director of Project Resurgence.

“Well, maybe in New York, where you have the skyline and stuff. But in the UK, there is nothing like this - and the imagination that the team have used to bring this to life is just next level."

The studio, on the fourth floor of the former HMRC building in Nelson Street, has been designed along classical French lines. 

“It’s old meets new – we have gone for a really classic French design. It’s a kick to a classical era gone by. Everything is very much of that era – 19th century. Wooden panelling, everything beautifully framed. Console tables, old classical French mirrors. It’s old to new - which really follows the company.

 “We’re doing something that’s an old classical art form, but we’ve modernised classical ballet training here - so we’re not doing it how other people do it. The building is very much a kick to that. We’re aware we’re in a modern building, but there’s something about it that when you walk in it feels really authentic. It’s just amazing."

Martin Howland with the team at Project Resurgence (Image: Newsquest)

But while Martin and his team at the community interest company have created a beautiful place in which to practice the art of ballet, they are smashing the stereotypes to make the school open to all, whatever the dancer’s background. 

“We need more diversity in ballet in terms of ethnicity. People need access to a place and a form of ballet where they can grow and develop and grow and not feel so suffocated by the mistakes of the past – there have been far too many mistakes made in ballet.

“We want to set up the first training programme for dancers from disadvantaged backgrounds to have an entire evening of dance training per week, for a year.

“Ballet can be very divisive, in that it’s always been taught a certain way. The way we teach ballet here is completely different to many other places.

"We have a different vision and a different process of how to accomplish the many skills of ballet. I have been part of that new way to train ballet - to remove a lot of the obstacles."

Community leaders, education leaders, politicians and charities and representatives from dance communities gathered for the studio’s opening day “to start taking ballet to a new audience”, said Martin, who is from Brighouse and successfully auditioned for the Royal Ballet School at the age of 11.

“It will take collaboration. I have the teachers and the coaches but what I want to do is to start connecting to our community and see how we can all help each other because we have this amazing place in which to train them.

“We all have an image of what a ballet dancer should look like. The ballet world is traditionally focused on the passage of the young dancer through to a big school – the kind of place that I went to.”

The studio is bringing something new to the city centre (Image: Newsquest)

He says some ballet colleges charge £40,000 per year for their courses.

“But what we are talking about here is people using ballet as a tool and as a method, to become better dancers, to become stronger, to increase their levels of posture, their strength, their power, their control.”

“Some people potentially will go on from here to become ballet dancers - but we don’t serve ballet as a master here. We serve dance, we serve the arts, we serve sport.

“First and foremost it is a place of business, so we can host our programmes, hire the space and deliver more dance classes for people, but one of the main focal points moving forward will be the outreach side and what we can provide to the city of Bradford.”

He paid tribute to the hard work of his business partner, dance teacher Kay Reardon, and her husband Kris, a stonemason, who have helped realise the dream.

Martin’s wife Natasha Howland, an interior designer, came up with much of the inspiration for the studio’s neoclassical French style and builders Tailored Contractors completed the building works.

The studio features a gym with a full strength and conditioning suite, and flexible studio spaces, which Martin says are linked together “in a very modern way”. Eventually, the spaces will be available to hire. 

“We have had lots of applications from lots of different teachers who want to work inside this building,” said Martin.

“We don’t just want this place to be a building of ballet – we want it to be a building of dance and creation, and art and sport. 

“We will have a rehabilitation area right inside the main studio for injured performers.

The studio has opened in the former HMRC building on Nelson Street (Image: Newsquest)

“Dancers do get injured, and yes there may be parts of the class or maybe all of the class they can’t do because of injury, but what makes it interesting is that we have machines that we are going to bring into the studio, and equipment so that they can still feel part of the class when they are injured, but also be challenged physically – to evolve and develop and grow in that class, even if they have sprained their ankle.

“It doesn’t mean that they can’t be challenged with other forms of exercise.”

TV screens can be used to set exercise programmes for injured performers, or to playback a recording so that students can master their steps.

The opening event involved Martin demonstrating a typical class, with nine dancers. 

“It’s a celebration of what we are going to continue to do here – of all the ballet steps and the exercise that go into a ballet class – in my own way. I use more contemporary music for my class, so it’s a bit different.”

Martin has high hopes of helping students from disadvantaged backgrounds. 

“We have been contacted by a trust to fund young dancers - including the clothes and equipment - and it might even include meals. It’s looking at the big picture. It’s creating a home. We even have a snug room.”

He is talking to a representative from the City of Culture today about plans for next year.

Dancers performing at the opening of Project Resurgence (Image: Newsquest)

“We will happily provide our services to help Bradford. I have 150 young dancers coming here to train and I am quite sure that there is something we can easily feed into if they need us. It’s definitely such a big year for Bradford - we’re there to support that."

Martin is well placed to help young hopefuls from all backgrounds, having come from a working-class Brighouse home but sent “to an alien environment” when he was 11.

“I have seen the fantastic things that ballet can do for people. I have also witnessed some of the more questionable things that ballet can do. I have taken all the good experiences and I have used common sense to hopefully create a training facility and platform for people so that they can come in and enjoy their dancing - and enjoy themselves.”

For more information, see https://projectresurgence.co.uk/