Staff

Gillian Barton - Principal

A member of the Royal Academy of Dance, Gillian has danced with companies in the UK, Europe, the Far East and the USA.

Born in Glasgow, she has spent many years teaching and dancing in the United States and was the director of the Mira Mesa Ballet Company. In 1991, she returned to Scotland and founded the Ballet West School and company. She choreographed the early productions of the company. Gillian also has extensive experience working in film and television, on the Michael Caton-Jones film, "Rob Roy" and on "Mrs Brown" a film starring Dame Judi Dench and Ballet West patron, Billy Connolly.

Gillian is the founder of Ballet West and has steered the company through its development from early beginnings to the present day.

Kenn Burke - Artistic Advisor

Fife born Kenn trained in his home-town of North Queensferry before joining Scottish Ballet's scholarship scheme. After completing his training at the Royal Ballet School in 1975, he returned to Scotland to dance with Scottish Ballet and was soon promoted to soloist. During his time with the company, Kenn quickly became one of Scottish Ballet's most popular dancers with leading roles in "Othello", "Romeo and Juliet", "Le Spectre de la Rose" and many other works. In 1988, he was invited to join the Hong Kong Ballet as principal dancer.

He was appointed Artistic Director of Scottish Ballet 2 in 1990, which performed small scale touring works to isolated communities throughout Scotland. He was Assistant Artistic Director of Scottish Ballet under Galina Samsova and subsequently became the Acting Artistic Director, during which time he staged the ambitious and highly successful "La Fille Mal Gardée".

Since leaving Scottish Ballet he has worked as guest teacher for a number of high profile companies throughout the world. He teaches regularly at Ballet West and works very closely with the company in rehearsal and on tour. In 2004 he created "Los Juegos de los Chicos" for the production of "Upstage".

Noriko Ohara OBE Guest Teacher

Noriko is a former Principal Ballerina with Scottish Ballet. She was born and trained in Japan and came to London in 1974 to dance with the New London Ballet and subsequently the London Festival Ballet as Principal Dancer. She joined Scottish Ballet in 1976 and since then has danced all of the major roles in the company's repertoire. Noriko has received critical acclaim throughout the world, not only for performances in the great 19th century classics such as "Swan Lake" but also as an accomplished actress in the more modern, dramatic ballets, notably as Juliet in John Cranko's masterpiece "Romeo and Juliet". Noriko danced Hippolyta in Robert Coham's "A Midsummer Night's Dream", the title role in "Anna Karenina" and Carabosse in "The Sleeping Beauty".

Noriko is regularly invited to join the jury of the prestigious Prix de Lausanne competition in Switzerland. She was awarded and honorary OBE in the 1997 New Years honours list for her services to dance.

Jordi Guitart - Head of Jazz

Jordi Guitart was born in Venezuela but lived most of his life in Spain before moving to England. Together with his wife, Nicola, he runs the Guitart School of Performing Arts in Cambridge.

His past work involves television variety shows in Spain and the UK and he has performed lead roles in "West Side Story" and "Jesus Christ Superstar" as well as dancing, teaching and choreographic work throughout Europe.

Recently, he has performed in "Fame" in Oslo, "Saturday Night Fever" at the London Palladium and "La Cava" at the Victoria Palace Theatre.

He has been head of jazz since 1995 and choreographed the Ballet West productions of "Fame" & "Soundtrack", the jazz part of "Upstage". He also co-directed and choreographed "Love Central" in 2008.

Nick Fogarty - Vocal Coach

Nick is a vocal coach, author and composer. As a song writer he has amassed over sixty releases in his career, and as an artist had two major record deals, one with RCA and the second Warner Bros, some of his biggest successes were in Germany where he also performed with the Berlin Philharmonic.

As a vocal coach he prefers to work with inexperienced and college level students, because this is where great singers are nurtured or (if they fall into the wrong hands) destroyed.

Some of Nick's pupils are now making a splash in the west end... Leanne Jones, William Peaco, Adam Hills and Colin Charles to name a few, but even though he does work occasionally with professionals, he finds it much more rewarding to help created a star than reshape one.

As an author Nick has just work-shopped his first musical CHARIOT at Danceworks in London. Where it has caught the eye and imagination of some very influential people in the industry. He is now is the process of getting it produced... this will be a milestone in his career as he single-handedly has written all the music, lyrics and book. Nick is Musical Director at Ballet West and has written script for shows such as Upstage. He also wrote "Love Central", which he is co directing with his friend and colleague Jordi Guitart.

Frank Freeman FRAD ARAD PDTC (Dip)

Frank Freeman is an international freelance teacher and choreographer, and a Vocational Grades Examiner for the Royal Academy of Dance. Entirely trained at The Royal Ballet School, White Lodge and the Upper School, he graduated into the main company of The Royal Ballet at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. He was also a member of The Royal Ballet's educational group "Ballet For All" and later joined English National Ballet.

Frank is a founder patron of The National Youth Ballet Of Great Britain, and his ballet The Four Seasons, choreographed for the company in 2002, was revived in 2004 for the Birmingham Hippodrome and the London Palladium. His latest ballet, I Palpiti to music by Paganini, was choreographed for Scotland's Ballet West. He writes articles and reviews for the leading dance magazines, and he was a member of the artistic panel for the creation of The Royal Academy's two manuals The Foundations and The Progressions of Classical Ballet Technique. His articles on technique are now required reading worldwide for the RAD's Certificate in Ballet Teaching Studies.

He has frequently taught and lectured on The Royal Academy's Professional Dancer's Teaching Diploma Course, of which he is a graduate, and he is regularly involved in the training of new examiners. He served for two years as a member of the judging panel for dance for the Sir Laurence Olivier Awards, and he is now conducting a series of interviews for the sound archive Voices of British Ballet.

In April 2000 he was awarded a Fellowship by The Royal Academy and was co-opted onto the Artistic Committee. He has taught at most of Britain's leading vocational schools including both White Lodge and the Royal Ballet Upper School. His current teaching commitments include Performers College, Guildford School of Acting, Central School of Ballet, Ballet West, and The Royal Ballet School.

He has recently been appointed Artistic Mentor to Elmhurst School of Dance in association with the Birmingham Royal Ballet, and in 2006 he was invited to join the Board of Governors of The Royal Ballet.

Sara-Maria Smith - Senior Principal Dancer/ Teacher

In her first year of full-time training at Ballet West, Sara-Maria Barton was awarded honours for the advanced (now advanced 2) Royal Academy of Dance exam, an achievement that made her eligible for the Adeline Genée award. Sara-Maria attended the competition along with only 44 other dancers in the world and was awarded the bronze medal. This achievement made her the first Scottish female medallist in the history of the competition and the first female UK medallist for six years.

This success led to a short contract with English National Ballet in their production of "Swan Lake", which in turn led to working with Scottish Ballet on "La Fille Mal Gardée" and a return to English National Ballet for "Romeo and Juliet". She was awarded the Solo Seal of the RAD, the highest accolade that the academy can bestow on student dancers.

Sara-Maria appeared on Blue Peter, dancing the Genée Variation and modelling one of Margot Fonteyn's tutus. She also starred in a Scottish Television Christmas ident that appeared between programmes throughout the festive season. Sara-Maria went on to join Birmingham Royal Ballet and was subsequently offered a contract at the Royal Ballet Company. She has partnered her brother, Jonathan, as guest artists in numerous productions at home and abroad. She has also worked with English National Ballet as ballet mistress for the children in the UK tour of Swan Lake. She is a senior principal artist and ballet mistress for Ballet West and been critically acclaimed for her roles in the company's classical repertoire, as Juliet (Romeo & Juliet), Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), Odile & Odette (Swan Lake) and her "effortlessly elegant" Sugar Plum Fairy (The Nutcracker).

Jonathan Barton - Senior Principal Dancer/Teacher

Following his Highly Commended result in the RAD advanced examination; Jonathan was awarded the academy's Solo Seal. He has partnered his sister, Sara-Maria, in numerous Ballet West productions and as guest artists in productions in Malta, Cornwall and Liverpool.

Jonathan entered the Adeline Genée competition and followed in his sister's footsteps by winning a bronze medal. Jonathan has danced with English National Ballet at the Royal Albert Hall and in their Australian tour of "Romeo and Juliet". He returned to Ballet West as a senior principal artist and has performed the roles of The Prince in "Sleeping Beauty", Romeo in "Romeo and Juliet", The Cavalier Prince in "The Nutcracker" and Siegfried in "Swan Lake" with the company.

He teaches on the HND Professional Stage Dance and coaches exam work at the school.

Kelly McCole - Principal Dancer/Teacher

Originally from Perth, Kelly McCole trained at Ballet West. She was awarded honours in her advanced RAD examination and competed in the prestigious Adeline Genée Award. She was the only British girl to reach the finals of the competition and was one of four students from Ballet West who took part in the competition that year. Kelly has also been awarded the Royal Academy of Dance Solo Seal. Kelly joined English National Ballet for their Far East, Australian and UK tour of "Swan Lake". Kelly has performed with the Ballet West Company in "Swan Lake", "Celebration" and in the tours of "Romeo and Juliet", "Sleeping Beauty", as the Lilac Fairy, "Swan Lake" and "The Nutcracker". Kelly is also a teacher for the Ballet West outreach programme.

Amanda MacArthur-Sloss - Outreach Teacher

Amanda has been involved with Ballet West since its foundation in 1991. She was one of the first to join the full-time course and during her time at the school gained a wealth of experience as a performer and teacher. She has been teaching the younger Ballet West students at Taynuilt for a number of years and has helped many of them to achieve excellent results in their Royal Academy of Dance exams. She teaches classes around Oban, specializing particularly in working with local nurseries and other pre-school groups. She has contributed enormously to the great success of Ballet West's junior productions of "Hansel and Gretal", "Swan Lake" & "Coppélia" and is keen to involve children from her classes in future productions.

Contact us today on 01866 822641 or by email to secure your place for September 2010!