Isla Paterson

Isla has been with Danceworld since she was a Tiny right up to Pre Senior Level, read what she has to say about her experience at Danceworld.

I started my Danceworld journey at age 3 with my first teacher being Miss Lesley on a Saturday morning in Bathgate. My mum put me into the Bathgate branch as she wanted me to find new friends and mix with new people, this allowed me to become more confident and explore all varieties of dance. Despite all the struggles during covid-19 I stuck with Danceworld and danced as much as I could throughout the pandemic allowing for my passion to grow day by day. Eventually getting back into the studios was one of the most relieving feelings, finally being face to face with teachers again. I began competing with Elevate Junior in the season 2022-23 and fell in love with competing. I am now in Elevate Senior continuing my love I have for the team. As well as the skills I have gained from being on the team I have also gained friendships that will last for life. I also began helping as a class assistant in 2022 with Miss Lucy on a Thursday evening, it feels so rewarding watching the little ones progress week by week and seeing how hard work makes a difference. This has also allowed for me to build relationships with the younger dancers lower down in the school and seeing how much they look up to older pupils. Being a class assistant has really helped with my confidence and enthusiasm for dance. As of the start of this year I have thoroughly enjoyed the ‘heels’ class with Miss Lauren on a Wednesday evening allowing me to have a more diverse dance range and explore a new found passion. I have my jazz class with Miss Elaine and will be sitting my ISTD Intermediate Modern exam at the beginning of June which is something I look forward to achieving. I have many ballet classes with Miss Lucy per week and I am sitting my RAD Intermediate Ballet exam in the next few weeks which has been a goal for many years now. I feel very proud that I have been put forward to sit these exams but this is also down to the hard work of my teachers in all classes. As well as seeing Miss Lauren for the competition class on a Saturday morning, she also takes our heels and musical theatre class allowing for us to grow our confidence in not only dancing but singing and acting also. All of my classes compliment each other, and I find it very important to attend each with the same importance as I know the more I am in the studio the better I will become. Miss Lauren has one of my favourite quotes which she often reminds us “Practice makes progress” as perfection simply doesn’t exist!