SUZANNE’S SECRET

Few residents walking past Suzanne’s School of Dance (opposite the URC) would guess the amount of activity behind the façade.  Suzanne’s is big business, with nearly 600 current pupils of all ages over four learning to dance, act and sing, as well as a play group for 2-4 year-olds.  The presence of the two, purpose-built studios at the back of the dancewear shop comes as a surprise. 

Suzanne Ware is a human dynamo, passionate about dancing and the art of teaching it.  She has been dancing since the age of five and has achieved some of the highest honours in the field.  She has three daughters, aged 15 to 20.  Rachel and Georgia are full-time students with The Royal Ballet School and Sophie is training at the prestigious Laine Theatre Arts.  They share their training methods and experience with the pupils. 

Suzanne started the school with 150 pupils at the Village Hall in 1993.  Then, three years later when the premises at 69 Swakeleys Road became available, she saw the opportunity to expand.  So successful have she and her band of teachers been, that well in excess of a thousand students have now passed through her academy, the majority from Ickenham families.  Her annual concerts at the Beck Theatre, performed by current pupils, are always sold out. 

Many former students have gone on to pursue a career in the arts; six attend The Royal Ballet School and others have appeared in West End musicals including Les Miserables, The Sound of Music and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  If you’ve lived in Ickenham for a few years, the chances are high that you know someone whose life has been enriched by Suzanne’s secret. 

 

BURNS NIGHT IN ICKENHAM

The Ickenham Festival Team took on a new challenge recently when they organised a Burns Night in the Village Hall for over 80 haggis eaters. 

Festival Team member Doug Neilson, born in Glasgow, was in fine form as he addressed the haggis, reading the famous Rabbie Burns poem.  It sounded impressive, even if incomprehensible to us Sassenachs!  The haggis was just one of 17 of these strange creatures, cooked and served with vegetables, following a delicious cock-a-leekie soup to start.  Caledonian Cream dessert rounded off the meal.  Incredibly, practically all this was prepared in the Hall’s tiny kitchen under the supervision of Nikki Summerfield, the Festival Team’s Secretary.  Afterwards, she announced, “I don’t want to look a haggis in the eye again, not for a long time!” 

Those present really entered into the spirit of the occasion.  Many were dressed in tartan and most danced to the ceilidh music of O’Cagunal Playboys.  The real measure of success came at the end of the evening, when no-one seemed inclined to go home!