Claire Louise School of Dance to open in Waterlooville's Wellington Way

Claire Louise Ryder first opened Claire Louise School of Dance in 2000 and it has been operating out of community and village halls ever since. However the school will now have a permanent home in Wellington Way with open days set to take place on Saturday and Sunday this weekend (November 30 and December 1).

The open days will feature sessions for existing pupils as well as a chance for others to come and see what is on offer. Claire Louise said: “We are doing open days for our pupils to come and enjoy it, as they have not seen it yet.

“It will also be a chance to open it up to new people and to let them know we are in town now. We will be running classes, having fun, and hope that people will come in and have a look.”

The school currently has 75 students on its books, the youngest being two and the oldest 75. It caters to all ages and abilities with beginners welcome. Claire Louise has had a number of students come in from a young age who are now 18/19 and performing at an advanced level in competitions around the country.

The new home allows the school to have flexibility in the sessions that it runs. Claire Louise said: “We only run evening classes at the moment as children are at school. However, now that we have our own place we can extend it much further and don’t have to worry about the time restrictions at village halls.

“We are now going to start running day time classes, there are some ladies that will be coming in to run fitness classes for mums while kids are at school. There will be Zumba, pound fit, body combat and I am going to be running an adult ballet class.

“There will also be a parent and toddler musical movement class and all of that will happen in the daytime.”

The studio has been a long time coming for Claire Louise, who has been looking to open one for many years. Just as covid hit she was in the advanced stages of leasing another unit in Waterlooville precinct but after lockdown ended the rates had almost doubled and became unaffordable.

The new unit has worked out well, with Questmap and Havant Borough Council continuing to revamp Wellington Way, the school will be another new place to encourage footfall to the area.

Claire Louise is excited to open after weeks and months of hard work. She said: “I’m a bit nervous now that is it so close to opening but it is exciting, we are almost there. It was just an empty unit so a lot of work has gone in to kitting out. It’s taken a few weeks to get ready and months of planning even before we got the keys.”

Claire Louise School of Dancing open days are taking place 10am to 4pm on Saturday, November 30 and Sunday, December 1.