Tracey Warner Dip RBS TTC, FISTD (Examiner), ARAD

Tracey Warner began her training with Elizabeth Hodgshon in Shoreham. She then attended the Royal Ballet School Teacher Training Course, and on graduating joined the staff at Bush Davies School and was there for six years before joining the dance faculty at Tring Park School for the Performing Arts. Tracey taught ballet throughout the school, Benesh Notation, A level dance and choreographed for the Junior dance productions for 20 years until moving to Germany where she is now a freelance ballet teacher. Tracey is also a committee member and senior examiner for the Imperial Classical Ballet Faculty of the ISTD and examines both in the UK and Internationally. She recently choreographed the new Advanced 1 alternative variation for the Imperial Ballet syllabus and has taught the Senior Awards and Bursary classes many times as well as numerous Summer Schools for the ISTD and RAD for both teachers and students.

Memories of the festival:

I first danced at The Brighton Competitive Festival when I was about 6 years old and competed every year until I left for the Royal Ballet School at the age of 16. My mother had also competed in the Festival as a child and then as she was a teacher who was very involved, it was natural that I was hooked! Every March there was a sense of excitement to perform at the Dome, to meet up with friends from other schools in the area and to have the thrill of dancing on that big stage. We would arrive in the dressing rooms with fabulous costumes, props, make up and of course hairspray. It was a real family atmosphere, although we knew it was a competition too, but we all loved it. Rushing to change for the next section, hoping to do your best, waiting in anticipation for the adjudication. The solos, duets, the group dances every moment was fabulous and when I close my eyes, I can take myself back to that very happy time and the opportunities that it gave me. As a teacher I also came back and choreographed for the Junior and Senior Ballet awards, which was such an honour. Meeting up with teachers who I remembered as a child and seeing the progress of the next generation. Thank you, Brighton Competitive Festival, for giving me such a happy start to my career.