HONOR DIXON

Honor’s first ballet lesson was with The Lisa Gilbert Academy (LGA) in St Barnabas Church,  Bethnal Green, in September 2009, aged 5.  From one ballet lesson a week at the beginning to taking lessons in all the genres on offer, Honor is always keen to learn something new.  When not following the set syllabus, ‘making dance’ herself is a real passion.  During the 2018 season with National Youth Ballet (NYB) Honor won the Frank Freeman Award for her age category and also the Nijinksa Award for overall female choreographer.  She was further selected to dance her self-choreographed solo, ‘Live Fully Now’, both in Birmingham and on the Sadler’s Wells stage.  For the last couple of years she has organised workshops with the LGA using her own choreography and was invited to choreograph the opening number for 22 dancers for the LGA’s 10th Anniversary Show at the Hackney Empire in July 2019.  Honor has danced with London Children’s Ballet both on Tour and in Main Company, most recently she was Nana in Noel Streatfeild’s Ballet Shoes.  This summer she has had her 6th season with NYB.  At the LGA she teaches graded work and performance classes to several younger students; and is learning ‘Benesh Dance Notation’ so that she will be able to ‘read’ and ‘write’ dance (it blows her mind every lesson!)

It is always a pleasure to dance with live music, though not a common experience, so this opportunity to perform solo and interpret Ravel’s ballet score for herself is an exciting challenge for Honor.  She has decided to improvise rather than choreograph in this instance.