Thanet dance festival!

The Thanet Music and Drama Festival was founded in 1921 with dancing not making an appearance until 1929 where there was a Folk Dancing section. Adjudicators' comments were actually published in the local paper, can you imagine!  

The dance part of the Festival is coordinated by Ray and his daughters Lucy and Laura Tamulevicius.  Sadly Ruth  (Ray's wife) passed away in the summer of 2016 and she will be sorely missed this year.  Ruth was a wonderful vivacious lady who was always full of fun and laughter, and this festival will be held in her memory.  I'm sure she will be in everyone's thoughts.

The festival this year is very lucky to have one of our local musical theatre stars as adjudicator.  Mr Alan Burkitt who grew up in Chestfield initially started dancing with Helena Griffiths before moving to Deborah Capon's School of Dance.  He has gone on to appear in numerous shows, including Top Hat where he played the lead role of Jerry Travers (who has been played by one of his dance heroes - Fred Astaire).  Most recently he has been been wowing critics in Kiss Me Kate with the Welsh National Opera- his fab tap number is viewable below.

The festival takes place on Saturday/Sunday 11th,12th, 18th, 19th, 25th March in Birchington at The Centre, Alpha Road, Birchington, Kent CT7 9EG.  Anyone is able to go and watch with tickets available at the door.  There are lots of different sections  including Ballet, Greek, Tap, Character, Song and Dance, Modern, Lyrical, National; from tiny little ones to adults.  If you love dance and enjoy girls and boys having a lovely time on stage then its worth a watch. Any enquiries please check the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pg/Thanet-Dance-Festival-952301974799011/about/?ref=page_internal
or the official webpage: www.thanetfestival.org

And of course, here at Encore we have all those bits and pieces which are imperative for a festival!