Beth Uprichard talks to Rebecca Leonard
FINAL
year consumer studies student Rebecca Leonard, 23, from
Lisburn takes pleasure in filling her days to bursting
point. As well as attending classes at university in
Coleraine she teaches dance at the Bridge Community centre
in Lisburn and in Wallace HS. Recently Rebecca was involved
in Belfast Fashion Week as part of a team of dancers from
Tribal Dance Agency and brushes up her own technique with
weekly ballet classes. Rebecca shot to fame on BBC programme
Strictly Dance Fever and is continuing to enjoy the
spotlight with her very own show on Cool FM.
My day starts very early in the morning as I have to drive from Lisburn to Coleraine. So I usually leave around 7.30 to get to classes for 9am. I'm at university three days a week and as it's my final year I am finding it pretty intense. T0here is a lot of work and I always want to do my best. I really believe in getting qualifications for things and putting your all into everything you do.
After my classes at university in Coleraine I am usually rushing off to do something else.
I don't get the chance to hang around like other students but I don't mind as it keeps me going. I love being busy.
On a Monday I'm rushing off to Wallace where I teach an after school dance workshop. It's for first to third years in the junior school and there are about 25 in the class. I like to run a structured class and I can be quite strict as I want the kids to do well.
They are learning ballet, tap and I have been doing a lot of musical theatre with them, really just the things I enjoy doing as you teach better when you are passionate about it. The children really enjoy it and it's good to get people trying something new. I also have my own dance classes which I teach in the Bridge Community centre in Lisburn for 6 to 18 year olds.
I teach a variety of styles including street dance, pop and musical theatre. I keep it lighter than other classes - it's more keeping fit through dance and enjoying yourself while gaining some basic dance skills. I also still take classes in ballet with Laura Walker in Belfast. It's important for a dancer to constantly be keeping up their skills and striving to be the best they can be and you can only do that with instruction otherwise bad habits will sneak in and you don't want to pass those on to our own students.
I often have to do dance shows, promotions and classes for Tribal Dance Agency in Belfast. We do a lot of commercial work. For example we did a few shows in Belfast Fashion week. Usually in the evenings I have something planned. I am involved with Fusion in Lisburn. l do the choreography for their shows and coming up to a performance it can take quite a bit of my time. Lisburn is very fortunate to have so many very talented young people and it's a pleasure to work with them. We have just finished Oklahoma and it was a great success and the kids were just fantastic.
My day and week ends with my show on Cool FM. I do the over night show from 1-4 in the morning. I've done hospital radio in Lisburn before and that was a good beginning but I'm still learning the ropes. It's a very full day I try to fit in a much as possible. I choose to do them all I really wouldn't know what to do if I had nothing planned.
Ulster Star
07/04/2006
