About Me

My Name is Sophie Douglas from The Lake District Cumbria. I am a Professional Dancer who last year graduated from The Northern Ballet School in Manchester, England with a National Diploma in Professional Dance from The Trinity College London. Since then, I have been working with Jean Ann Ryan Productions based in Miami on various contracts totally 13months work which leads me to here!

My Dance Training began at the tender age of 3, my love and passion for Dance was apparent from an early age yet confirmed when I was awarded a place as a Junior Associate with the Royal Ballet School. I continued this training through the Mid and Senior Associate programmes attending classes in Manchester, Birmingham and Covent Garden. During this time period I also underwent lessons at both my local dance schools Eden School Of Dance and Maria Frances School Of Dance. Subjects studied here expanded further and ranged from Ballet to Jazz, Modern, Tap all general Performing Arts and Theatre craft. I gained various qualifications working my way through both IDTA and RAD as well as various other team awards, competitions, workshops and summer schools. Most notably were two weeks spent training at the Arts Educational at Tring Park and Northern Ballet Theatre where I was really given a taste of the life and demands of being a professional dancer. It was also here my love to expand out into other styles such as Jazz, Hip Hop, Commercial dance and specific West End Musical choreography and performance were realised and explored. I took part in various full length productions with the English Youth Ballet where my roles ranged from being part of the Corps de ballet to being awarded a scholarship and lead role in my favourite classical Ballet,
 At the age of 16, I was faced with the decision of continuing with my academics or accepting a place at the Northern Ballet School, a decision I compromised with by following my passion and choosing Dance as a career but undergoing my A Levels at a night school in Manchester itself.
　


My Professional Experience

My professional training began in 2006 where we were put through our paces with intensive daily
 During these three years I performed with the Schools professional performing arm ‘Jazzgalore’ for their annual musical, I worked as a regular catwalk model and dancer for ‘Wella’ and was a featured dancer in one of Glenn Balls ‘PR Flash Stunts’ with JK Commercial Dance Agency.Acting, perfecting accents, specifically Californian (Western), Southern and Standard American, Liverpool, Manchester (Northern),London (Cockney) , Extra Work for film and media, Yoga and Pilates. I make the most of living in such a beautiful National Park by exploring it’s landscape through swimming, cycling, running and walking, fitting in the odd hockey practise and Zumba and Circuit training at the gym. In contrast I love cooking and reading extensive gengres ranging from my favourite ’Sunday Times’ newspaper to Russel Brands novel ’Booky Wook’ via Bill Bryson, with a few breaks listening to my extensive Ipod music library too! My love for travel is extensive and I have plans to combine studying and working to encourage to promote the health and social benefits of Dance based in a school in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil provided funds will allow! I hope the Foundation In Dance Instruction qualification I have also gained may assist me with this and give me further experience into my love for teaching dance itself also.
Whilst at college we were continually assessed in the Ballet and Jazz disciplines to ascertain if we had gained the required standard in order to achieve our professional Trinity diplomas. We were all given marks in each assessed discipline that reflected how well we had demonstrated the techniques required to pass the assessment. We were also videoed during these assessments, this enabled us to have a feedback lesson with the teacher of that discipline and gave us a chance to watch ourselves in the class and learn from mistakes and judge our weaker points to hopefully correct these and gain a higher mark in the next assessments.

Further more from here, I have been working for Jean Ann Ryan Productions as previously mentioned. Initially based for two months in Miami and then spending 11 months touring the world as Dance Captain and Company Manager for Silversea Cruise lines.
　


Extra Skills and Interests
Jazz, Ballet, Pointe, Tap, Contemporary, Acrobatics, Gymnastics, Hip Hop, Double Work, Heel Work, Pas de Deux, Drama and Singing classes as well as special skills training in Advanced Acro and Gymnastics, Advanced Tap and Irish Dancing which, over a period of three years, would essentially prepare me for a career in either the classical or musical theatre industry. We were lucky enough to work under the credits of David Needham, Eric Carpenter, Tracey Baxter, Darren Suarez and our principal Patricia McDonald to name just a few.the ‘Nutcracker’.