LEAP OF FAITH
It takes someone with vision to set up a ballet school on a working farm in the Highlands, but as Gillian Barton explains, this wasn’t part of her retirement plan
Ballet West is a school bringing the art of dance to the Highlands
Aballet school set in the rugged Scottish countr yside seems a litt le incongruous, yet for Gillian Barton and her company Ballet West, it is t he perfect location.
‘I came back to Scotland from the US to retire because my husband at the time wanted to farm. I wasn’t planning on doing any teaching, but I would see the young girls and boys hanging around the monument in Taynuilt and I thought I could give them something that would make t hem feel good about themselves and enjoy. I only had two students for a while, then all of a sudden I had a small group who did incredibly well and it just grew from there.’
Ballet West is celebrating its 25th birthday this year and is going from strength to strength, offering an HND and a BA honours in collaboration with Northumberland University, as well as workshops and classes around the countr y, plus a summer school and touring productions.
‘I think it’s unheard of to have a school doing such high-profile work based in a rural location,’ Gillian continues. ‘I think part of it is down to our ethos – we really care about young people and put them first.
‘ They get a tremendous benefit f rom dance – they feel good about themselves, it helps with posture and with sport, i n particular t he boys playing football and rugby tend to find their feet work much faster. They also learn to work as a team. I don’t really think you could put a value on the skills it teaches them.’
Ballet West graduates now work around the world with classical ballet companies, in West End theatres, and in universities. But what does the future hold for the school itself ?
‘We’ve been so successful that at the moment we desperately need a large, new studio, so we’re tr ying to raise funds for that and hope to have it up and running soon,’ says Gillian. ‘ We just want to keep delivering really high standards of dance and continue working with young people.’