Wigan teacher to take her revolutionary seniors’ ballet course to Italy

Kerry DeVine, who founded Dancesteps school in Standish nearly 25 years ago, will be travelling to Italy to share th e revolutionary and pioneering Silver Swans project, which uses ballet to help older, mature learners improve their mobility, co-ordination and posture.

She will be teaching the course under the auspices of the prestigious Royal Academy of Dance (RAD), of which she is a member.

Kerry, 44, will be visiting the city of Trento, which nestles in the shadow of the Dolomite mountains, to give Italian ballet teachers the benefit of her experience so they can gain their licence and qualifications to teach the course themselves.

She said: "Ballet's been my life, I've made a vocation out of it.

"I started Silver Swans because as we get older, our bodies are changing and balance is one of the first things to go.

"Some people now come to the class twice a week and they report a massive improvement in everything.

"There's also the psychological aspect – it's a good friendship group, people go out and do things together."

It is not the first time Kerry has been invited to take her ground-breaking dance course for the 55-plus age group overseas – last year she visited Norway so it could be rolled out across Scandinavia.

She was invited to Oslo by RAD Scandinavia manager Karen Lund and she has also expanded the Silver Swans programme to other parts of the UK, such as London, Edinburgh and Manchester.

Kerry was one of Britain's first Silver Swans tutors, launching here in 2018. The classes cover ballet moves adapted to suit the different abilities of the people there.

The Dancesteps studio, on Bradley Lane, Standish, provides tuition in all aspects of dance for children from the age of two up to adults.

Kerry now also teaches, under the RAD umbrella, other licensed tutors to teach the programme "safely and professionally".

RAD is a UK-based examination board which specialises in dance education and training. It was created to improve the standard of ballet teaching in the UK.