Ella has been acting, singing and playing the piano from an early age. She landed a role in her first professional opera just aged 16. Born and raised on the Isle of Man, Ella moved to Manchester as she loved the vibe and diversity of the city. She trained as a classical singer in Manchester and at the Royal Welsh College of music and Drama and sang professionally in operas and musical theatre. She has performed at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall and for the BBC PROMS at the royal Albert Hall as well as for the BBC sound festival in Scotland.

Over the last twelve years she has become a specialist singing teacher, voice coach and choral conductor working privately around the UK and in Manchester Schools and music services. Training in voice rehab, and concerned with correct and healthy singing technique, and the benefits of singing for mental health. Ella is also a founding member of Stretford Youth Choir.

Earlier on in her career Ella worked at a theatre school and since has always wanted to set up her own, and so Footlights Didsbury was born.

Alex is acting teacher here at footlights Didsbury. He trained at  the University of Manchester, and has taken part in several productions attached to the university, including King Lear, He is qualified at Level 8 in Lamda. His passion for Drama began at a young age after seeing a fabulous rendition of Julius Caesar at the Globe Theatre. Inspired by this performance he joined my local youth theatre group, Chichester Festival Youth Theatre and performed in several productions at The Capitol, The Hawth and The Minerva theatres. After deciding he  wanted to pursue acting and drama as a career, he successfully auditioned for The National Youth Theatre, becoming a full member in 2018. This is his  first year with Footlights  Didsbury and he loves working with our talented students. His focus is on technical skills in his classes, including how to fully control your voice and breath, how to maintain correct physicality on stage and how to engage effectively with a script. As well as this we explore the work of practitioners such as Stanislavski, Boal and Brecht in order to introduce the children and young people to what he considers to be the building blocks of a good performer, allowing them to access the base skills needed to blossom into a talented performer.

During classes your child will learn how to listen, discuss, question, analyse, trust; through these, their confidence will build as well as their social skills. Their performance skills will also improve and, through being part of a regular group with like-minded children and young people, their friendship groups will widen.

Eleanor is a singer and vocal coach from Glossop, Derbyshire. She undertook training in music and musical theatre at University of Chichester and Buckinghamshire New University, graduating with BA (Hons) Musical Theatre in 2014, and began work as a professional performer. During this time, Eleanor became interested in teaching and sharing her musical knowledge with others and so began further training to become a vocal coach. This has included the London College of Music Teaching Diploma in Music Theatre, Teaching Young Voices Level 4 Certificate with Voice Workshop, and most recently, studying for a Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) as a singing subject specialist.

Eleanor has worked as an individual vocal tutor and group singing coach in many settings including community choirs, theatre schools and her own private work. She aims to combine the knowledge from her teaching experiences to help support each individual student to reach their potential as a singer and performer.

Your child will discover their voice, build on existing skills and gain confidence in singing and most of all have fun!

Anii is currently training to be an early year’s educator through thrive childcare and education. Anii graduated with a degree in Acting and Drama in 2017. Passionate about early years performing arts provision, Anii has worked at Nottingham playhouse as a drama workshops assistant, and in a range of childcare jobs including working with SEN students.

Anii says ‘I love working with younger children and watching them develop skills is really rewarding for me. I love how fun it is to work with this age group and seeing how open they are to new experiences, ready to dive into anything creative.’

In Tiny’s your child is taught acting, singing and dance in bite-size chunks, so that they can grasp the techniques easier, have fun and  develop a love for the arts from a young age.

The Tiny’s concept is to prepare your child for main school. By the time that they leave the Tiny’s group, your child will be ahead of most 7 year olds who are new to performing arts. Our passion to teach will bring your child’s confidence to life.