got a link to the school website??

Interesting first post- how do you know this? Also- modern dance- she is 40 what would this have comprised of?

Also she hasn't danced in any of her years of acting since so what difference will it make?

Cherie is 56-7 not 40!!

Arts Ed (http://www.tring.gov.uk/info/artsed.htm ) is a proper training school for performing arts - Fiona Fullerton and (I think) Jane Seymour are amongst its graduates - most of the pupils go into acting rather than dancing so it must rank with the other schools in that respect...

That said - "dance" does feature strongly as Fiona Fullerton is on record as saying she had to choose between BALLET and acting...... but there's no mention of ballroom in their dance curriculum

Are you sure that's where she went? It's not in London and I thought she went to somewhere in London (Central School of Speech and Drama?).

Nope not sure that Cherie went there at all - I was just correcting the misconception that Arts Ed was a dancing school!

Ah, now I understand!

You are wasting your time pointing out the facts here - you will merely be branded, without any apparent irony, 'one of Cherie's knockers' and told that her pretty obvious technique is all down to Pilates!

In case anyone is interested in facts:

1 Arts Ed is in London - the main buildings now in Chiswick.
2 The current curriculum does feature ballroom amongst many other dance options.
3 Like most stage/acting schools it offers national curriculum alongside intensive performing arts training.
4 Unusually for stage/acting schools it specialises in both acting and dance. Darcey Bussell is one of its more famous dance allumni.
5 Central (although confusingly called a school) is a tertiary institution (ie you go there post 18 years). It is one of the big three performing arts 'schools' for post school training in London. Cherie trained there as a young adult.
6 Cherie has, to my knowledge, danced in the course of her stage career (certainly during her time at the RSC). Obviously this is very different from earning her living by dancing.

According to the Arts Eds own website ( http://www.aes-tring.com/ ) its still based in Tring in Hertfordshire - no mention of Chiswick

This what they say about their dance curriculum

"Welcome to the start of your career in Dance. In selecting this school and in being selected for this course, you have placed yourself in an exciting and demanding profession. The Dance course is physically, emotionally and personally challenging. Dance requires a unique fusion of a trainable physique, a commitment to the daily hard physical demands of training and a strong sense of personal knowledge and inner strength and determination.

Not all dancers on this course will want to be Classical dancers. The course work will involve a strong classical training, but dancers are also prepared for work in Contemporary Dance, Jazz or Commercial dance, and teaching. Some other destinations of past graduates have included Musical Theatre, Notation and Choreography, Dance journalism, Dance medicine as a physiotherapist, and Dance Administrators.

Whatever your own personal desires may be, you can be assured that you will be encouraged to reach your own goals and find your own fulfilment in Dance. We believe that this school will give you not only technical skill and artistic understanding, but also the emotional satisfaction of studying something that you love.

We believe that Dance Training should be life enhancing"

No mention anywhere of any ballroom dancing in their curriculum either

Sorry Caro- I meant to say she stopped dance training 40 years ago!

So question remains- what type of modern dance- and she said herself she chose the 'acting' track not the dancing so she hasn't denied doing the training at all- whatever some people have said.

Can someone let me know in detail please what training Lisa did at her stage school and how this plus modelling plus her age will be an advantage?

But Phil Daniel's stint at a theatre school certainly did not help him at all when it came to controlling his nerves in front of live SCD audience . And it looked as if dance was never on the syllabus at Anna Scher, if Phil's performance were to be taken into account.

I'm not sure what the Tring one is but the Arts Ed that Cherie went to is a secondary school in Turnham Green, Chiswick.

http://www.artsed.co.uk/secondary_school.asp

"The Arts Educational Schools London are committed to developing to the full the potential of each and every pupil. High quality vocational, academic and social education, in a warm, friendly, caring environment, ensures that our pupils feel challenged and fulfilled throughout the whole of their exciting careers at the school"

Arts Educational Schools London, since 1919 been educating young performing artists since 1919, and there is nothing quite like it in the United Kingdom. The School has produced many distinguished graduates who have achieved professional acclaim in their chosen vocational fields. Julie Andrews, Darcey Bussell, Nigel Havers, Bonnie Langford, Cherie Lunghi, Jane Seymour, Hugo Speer, Will Young, Samantha Barks and Summer Strallen are just a few of the exceptional talents who have trained with us. Although we are pleased that so many of our former pupils have gone on to be famous, more importantly, we are proud that so many of our former pupils have become such wellrounded, well–educated and confident adults.

Based in Chiswick, London, we are one of the leading Performing Arts Institutions in the UK and cater for young talented people from the ages of 11 to 18 years in our Independent Vocational Day School, and those 18 years and above seeking professional training in Acting and Musical Theatre.

We also offer a comprehensive range of professional part–time, short evening and weekend courses for almost every age group with ballet, jazz, drama and many more classes on offer, the evening classes for adults who are looking for an introduction to the profession or those wishing to develop existing skills; and exciting Easter and Summer programmes for all abilities.

Arts Educational Schools is a very special place. We are small, focused, professional and idealistic. But we are also profoundly aware that we owe it to our pupils to help them be the very best that they can be. Dancers learn to act and sing, actors learn to sing and dance, musicians learn to do more than play their instruments well, and everyone has the opportunity to be grounded in the visual arts, languages, humanities, sciences, and mathematics.

We are proud that this small school has produced so many imaginative, creative and successful members of society. We aim to produce writers, dancers, actors, musicians, artists, designers, film makers, doctors, teachers, therapists, lawyers, composers, choreographers and top professionals in every imaginable field. The curriculum is wide – but our focus is narrow: the individual. We believe that the creative impulse, properly nurtured, can produce great artists as well as great thinkers.

We also believe that a person whose creative instincts are not fed can never be fully happy. Our job is to develop the soul, as well as the intellect, of our students. In so many cases, our students excel in the professional world of the performing arts because of the quality of our teaching. But at the same time, we would deny that we are a stage school. What we do is far more important than that!"

Quite, Vitalia. I don't know why people keep making references to Tring. Some duff internet 'research' I suspect.

Nope - the Arts Ed in Tring has been established for many many years and with a very impressive list of ex pupils..... check out the website above. No duff research at all - its definitely far better known than the one in Chiswick.

It was deemed second only to the Royal Ballet School for dancers.

Chiswick Arts Ed...

http://www.artsed.co.uk/location.asp

Arts Ed Tring...

http://www.aes-tring.com/

So you're both right! According to the London website Cherie went to that one.

andrew lloyd webber is the president of the chiswick arts ed, which is well known for higher education in the field of arts

But it is not the school Cherie attended so its reputation, curriculum and existence is absolutley irrelevant to the thread topic .
www.artsed.co.uk/students.asp
Tells you which school Cherie attended. Try looking at the history section for a little informed perspective on the dancing credentials!

Nor did 30 years of theatre experience help him or Don either.

Depends on your background knowledge of performing arts schools Frankie !

A couple of the girls i was at ballet classes with auditioned for Royal Ballet school didn't get in but DID get into Tring. Given the very close similarities in name and what they deliver some confusion is understandable - you hadn't heard of the one in Tring - I hadn't heard of the one in Chiswick... - we've both learned something....

When I heard Cherie had gone to Arts Ed - I assumed it was Tring whose dancing credentials are deemed second only to the Royal Ballet, and especially as Chrie has said that her early training was in ballet

.........![/quote]

I felt a bit unfair putting Alesha's drop-in street dance club in the list, because the only assistance I think it gave her is in the count and in learning a routine - even in the final she did not finish her moves perfectly! However, if I had left it out, someone would have told me off![/quote]

to be fair to Alesha re attending this dance school she was discovered for mystic when returning home on the train after her second lesson so dont know that 2 dance lessons would really count.

Having watched her live with mis-teeq she was always just fab always stood out even though not lead singer so she was always going to do well...just see their videos.


re Matt...claims he didn't turn up for his dance lessons yet remembered his tap danceing training ???


Thanks for al the info

I was at Arts Ed. Cherie Lunghi was 3 years my juniour. In other words I'm 59. Arts Ed was then based at Hyde Park Corner on the corner of Park Lane. After I left it moved to Golden Square EC1. I didnt know Cherie but remember her name being called and that she was known as being good at dancing.She did well in the ballet and stage dancing cups(whole school dancing competitions).
It is true to say that at that time Arts was considered to be an excellent grounding for dancers. 95% of students studied ballet 5 timesper week followed by stage (show dancing), contemporary, jazz, tap and YES ballroom. I still have my medals somewhere for waltz, quickstep and foxtrot an can well remember the excrutiating sessions with Miss Sly where the poor boys had to ask a girl to dance before we could begin. I myself was a drama student, which meant I did drama instead of ballet. But I still did all the other dancing. The standard was high and even I did the rehearsals for The Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty with the Kirov. (I was too tall to be included at the end).I think it unlikely, given my training that Cherie never studied ballroom but she may not have done much latin. I only did a bit of basic cha cha.I think it most likely she was a regular student doing 5 ballets a week plus all the rest.

That's interesting to know thatks! Looks like Cherie has had the most training then!

Thanks for that info.

Do you think 40+ years on from the dance training you all had there, everyone would be as good as Cherie is now or is she a natural?

From an article in The Times on 28 October (you can read it all on line), Cherie says:

"I had a happy childhood and was always running about barefoot, singing and dancing. From the age of four, I had classes at the Ballet Rambert in Notting Hill".

I'd have said Ballet Rambert was serious ballet training.

I noticed that too LOL!


Yes, it would be worth noting if a contestant had had 7 years of patchy training. No, it would not equate to being dance trained or attending a stage school with any sort of specialism in dance. Even assuming someone did only learn "the basics", doing those basics several lessons a week every week for several years as a youngster in a stage school devoted to the performing arts would be a vastly different thing to someone learning casually on and off as an adult.

Cherie has said that she concentrated on the drama side of her stage school, so it's hard to say how much dancing she actually got, though I for one would be interested to know details.


The Rambert Dance Company is a serious dance company (I saw a performance last year, it was excellent, though they now are throroughly contemporary, not a classical company... I don't know off hand how long they have specialised that way though to my understanding the school teaches both and certainly the dancers we saw were largely clearly highly trained in classical technique too), but having lessons at the Ballet Rambert at the age of four would in many respects be no different from learning in any dance class at the age of 4 - 4 year olds for quite some time will learn only very basic things, and serious professional dance training will not start at that age. The risk of damage to a growing child's body would be far too high.

I dare say that dance lessons for 4 year olds at the Rambert would be of very high quality, but it does not equate to serious dance training at that age.

Personally I would like some clarification of how much dance training Cherie had and in what disciplines she trained, but I'm yet to see much convincing evidence either way.