Beverley Graham Interview: The Theatre Royal's 55+ Dance Group
Title
Beverley Graham Interview: The Theatre Royal's 55+ Dance Group
Date
26 July 2018
Description
Oral history interview with Beverley Graham, a keen amateur dancer, and also a long-time supporter, valued audience member and active participant of the Theatre Royal.
What's the story?
Beverley Graham was born in 1953 in Kirkby-in Ashfield in Nottinghamshire.
From having attended dance schools from an early age, Beverley has always had a passion for theatre and performing. This has developed into a genuine love for the Theatre Royal, which shines through in her interview.
She has attended numerous shows over the years, more so since becoming a Premium Member of the Theatre Royal in 2013. She is also a regular participant in the venue’s dance classes and has even performed on the stage.
In this interview Beverley talks about her enjoyment being a member of the Theatre Royal’s 55+ group. Created by the Theatre Royal’s Creative Learning department, the 55+ arts courses are run weekly during term-times to enable older people to develop arts skills, as well as enjoying a healthy life-style and making new friends.
Courses are run in dance, creative writing, drama and song-writing, as well as providing opportunities for participants to engage in workshops run by some of the venues’ visiting companies, such as Northern Ballet, Matthew Bourne and Birmingham Royal Ballet.
Unfortunately due to funding and management difficulties, the 55+ courses were no longer able to continue after summer 2019.
Beverley says:
I was lucky enough to get onto the 55+ Dance Class that’s held three terms of ten weeks at a time. They’re such a lovely group. We’ve got a brilliant tutor and this was devised by the theatre to get people active and I’ve been coming now for four years/five years and I wouldn’t swap it.
Some of the advantages and some of the things that we’ve been able to do is: on occasions we have visiting dance groups, ballet companies, who actually will take a workshop for us: designed specially for the 55+, I might add. Or they might just teach us a small part of the dance that they do actually on stage, which is quite nice, because if you see the production after you’ve done that class, you sit there and you elbow whoever you’re with and say “I was doing that this morning”. It’s nice just to recognise what you’ve actually been taught by some of the …. And it’s always the company members that do it. Northern Ballet and Birmingham Ballet have done where we’ve had a workshop in the morning, we’ve been able to watch the dance class of the company and occasionally had a talk about what the company have done and where they’re going. We have lunch at the theatre and then we’ll stay for the matinee performance in the afternoon, which is really nice because you get a good feel about what the company is all about and how they are trying to promote dancing amongst the community, so that’s really, really nice.
You don’t have to be a ballerina. I know I’ve done dancing before. Some people have never done it at all. And it doesn’t matter. You are there to enjoy what you can do and there’s never any criticism about “She’s not very good”. We all understand that we’ll all at different places. We all enjoy it. It’s just for our enjoyment and getting fit, or hopefully getting fit, and the wellbeing that we get from that.
From having attended dance schools from an early age, Beverley has always had a passion for theatre and performing. This has developed into a genuine love for the Theatre Royal, which shines through in her interview.
She has attended numerous shows over the years, more so since becoming a Premium Member of the Theatre Royal in 2013. She is also a regular participant in the venue’s dance classes and has even performed on the stage.
In this interview Beverley talks about her enjoyment being a member of the Theatre Royal’s 55+ group. Created by the Theatre Royal’s Creative Learning department, the 55+ arts courses are run weekly during term-times to enable older people to develop arts skills, as well as enjoying a healthy life-style and making new friends.
Courses are run in dance, creative writing, drama and song-writing, as well as providing opportunities for participants to engage in workshops run by some of the venues’ visiting companies, such as Northern Ballet, Matthew Bourne and Birmingham Royal Ballet.
Unfortunately due to funding and management difficulties, the 55+ courses were no longer able to continue after summer 2019.
Beverley says:
I was lucky enough to get onto the 55+ Dance Class that’s held three terms of ten weeks at a time. They’re such a lovely group. We’ve got a brilliant tutor and this was devised by the theatre to get people active and I’ve been coming now for four years/five years and I wouldn’t swap it.
Some of the advantages and some of the things that we’ve been able to do is: on occasions we have visiting dance groups, ballet companies, who actually will take a workshop for us: designed specially for the 55+, I might add. Or they might just teach us a small part of the dance that they do actually on stage, which is quite nice, because if you see the production after you’ve done that class, you sit there and you elbow whoever you’re with and say “I was doing that this morning”. It’s nice just to recognise what you’ve actually been taught by some of the …. And it’s always the company members that do it. Northern Ballet and Birmingham Ballet have done where we’ve had a workshop in the morning, we’ve been able to watch the dance class of the company and occasionally had a talk about what the company have done and where they’re going. We have lunch at the theatre and then we’ll stay for the matinee performance in the afternoon, which is really nice because you get a good feel about what the company is all about and how they are trying to promote dancing amongst the community, so that’s really, really nice.
You don’t have to be a ballerina. I know I’ve done dancing before. Some people have never done it at all. And it doesn’t matter. You are there to enjoy what you can do and there’s never any criticism about “She’s not very good”. We all understand that we’ll all at different places. We all enjoy it. It’s just for our enjoyment and getting fit, or hopefully getting fit, and the wellbeing that we get from that.
Type
Oral Interview
Location of item
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall Nottingham
Rights
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall Nottingham
Contributor
Interviewers: Sue Threakall & Julia Holmes
Transcriber: David Chilton
Transcriber: David Chilton
