Eccleston School of Dancing​ and Excel Dance

Our history...

 

The dance school was set up by Mrs Ann Burns, who used her maiden name of Winrow and her married name Burns to come up with the name Winburn School of Dancing.  She had three dance schools, one in Eccleston, one in Prescot and another in Rainford. The Eccleston school was started in 1958.   After many happy years of dancing, she decided in 1998 that she should hang up her ballet shoes, with her last farewell theatre shows in 1999.  She had decided to divide the three schools and Eccleston School of Dancing was born! We are delighted that Mrs Burns comes to all our shows and has an honorary President role on our committee.

 

Fiona had been teaching for Mrs Burns since 1985, passing the Associate exam qualifications as a Dance Teacher with Honours in 1989, and teaching every Saturday at Eccleston and Rainford, even whilst at University studying a degree in Education, PE and Dance, with primary teacher training. Fiona has worked as a manager in Special needs education for 17 years, now teaching in specialist alternative education, as a qualified teacher with  educational psychology Masters degree. She has trained many of the dance teachers in St Helens, and has taught hundreds of pupils over the years.

In 2006, ESD moved to St Luke's community hall, in Knowsley Road, which has been the home of our Saturday classes until they were forced to close by flooding last year.  Our new home for Saturday classes for the 2023/24 season, is The Nest studio, in Eccleston.  We also hope to return to St Lukes for some classes, once it reopens.

We have our own barres which are used every week for ballet, for all ages, and we are very lucky to have amazing spaces to dance in.