MEET THE TEAM
Rosemary Lane RAD RTS
Principal & Ballet Teacher
Rosemary has been teaching dance in and around Milton Keynes since 2001. Born and raised in Manchester, Rosemary trained as a teacher with the Royal Academy of Dance following her own professional dancing career. She co-founded the school with esteemed local teacher Kathleen Woollard. Kathleen retired in 2005 and Rosemary will always be indebted to her for her guidance and inspiration.
Throughout her years of teaching, Rosemary has prepared many children and young people for successful attainment in Royal Academy of Dance ballet examinations. She has also embraced the Academy’s new curriculum designed to improve the teaching of pre-school children, ensuring her very youngest dancers receive the best possible start.
Past and present students have successfully auditioned for associate programmes and full-time vocational training at leading ballet schools including The Royal Ballet School, Elmhurst School for Dance, English National Ballet School and Central School of Ballet.
Passionate about teaching ballet to students of all ages, Rosemary aspires to use her expertise to help every child, teenager and adult who enters her studio to reach their full potential.
Owen Lane
Vice Principal, Ballet & Contemporary Teacher, ARAD
Owen Lane began training aged 7 at the Rosemary Lane School of Ballet. During this time he completed multiple RAD and ISTD examinations and furthered his training in ballet at the Royal Ballet School Junior Associate Program in London. Using this training he was able aged 11 to gain a full scholarship to the Vocational ballet school in association with the Birmingham Royal Ballet School. He furthered his studies in Classical Ballet and various other styles over 8 years at the school.
In the early stages of his career, he performed on multiple occasions with the Birmingham Royal Ballet in productions including Cinderella, The Nutcracker, Beauty and the Beast and Two Pigeons before embarking on an international career. His first international contract came in 2014 when he joined the Croatian National Ballet. In his first season with the company, he performed roles including Prince (The Nutcracker), Don Jose (Carmen), Romeo (Romeo and Juliet), Young Prince (Scherezade) and Puck (Midsummer Nights Dream). After this time Owen was invited as a guest artist of the Slovenian National Ballet in Ljubljana for the creation of a new ballet “Doctor Zhivago” with renowned Czech choreographers Jiri and Otto Bubenicek, he was then offered the chance to join the company on a full-time basis. Over the next years, he performed in multiple productions of the Slovenian repertoire including Prince/Policeman (The Nutcracker), Benvolio (Romeo and Juliet), Benno (Swan Lake), and Orpheus (Orpheus). During his time with the Slovenian National Theatre Owen managed to attain Principal Dancer Status and toured to multiple places including theatres in Asia, South America & Europe.
Following this Owen decided that he would take the knowledge gathered during his professional career and give it back to the local community of his youth. He turned down multiple offers to continue his performance career and decided instead to launch
Milton Keynes Dance Theatre.
Owen has since gained a strong reputation for working with and developing young dancers into the best versions of themselves both on and off stage. He now holds multiple years of teaching experience both locally and internationally and dancers of the company have gone on to achieve and further their ambitions as professional dancers at vocational schools across the country.
Owen has also built up a strong choreographic repertoire during this time including: ‘Savage Beauty (Stantonbury Theatre, 2019), ’Romeo & Juliet’ (The Venue, 2020), ‘The Quality of Mercy’ (Slovenian National Ballet, 2020), ‘Pandora’ (The Venue, 2021), 'Electric Pow Wow’ (Junction, Northampton) and now ‘Sleeping Beauty’ (The Venue, 2022).
Gemma Clark ARAD, RTS
Head of Junior School, Ballet & PBT Teacher
Gemma began dancing at the age of 2 in her home town in Scotland. She studied the RAD syllabus and at age 9 successfully auditioned to join the Junior Associate programme of Scottish Ballet. Gemma then went on to full time vocational training at The Dance School of Scotland where she gained her Advanced 2 Ballet with Distinction and was awarded ARAD from the Royal Academy of Dance.
In 2013, Gemma furthered her vocational training at Elmhurst Ballet School in Birmingham where she gained a Diploma in Professional Dance. During her final year of training Gemma was given the opportunity to perform the soloist role Alaskan Rag, in Elite Syncopations and was privileged to perform with Birmingham Royal Ballet on the UK tour of Sir Kenneth Macmillan’s "Romeo and Juliet”
After completing her education Gemma made the decision to pass on her knowledge to the next generation of dancers and completed her teacher training with the Royal Academy of Dance, under Rosemary’s mentorship and was awarded Registered Teacher Status in 2019. During lockdown Gemma trained in Progressing Ballet Technique and was delighted to become a certified teacher.
Gemma has been teaching at RLSB for 6 years and has received great praise for her commitment and hard work to each and every student, encouraging them to reach their full potential and develop a true love of dance.
Olivia Beckett ARAD, RTS
Ballet Teacher
Olivia began her training with The Rosemary Lane School of Ballet at the age of 2 and has worked her way through the Royal Academy of Dance Syllabus to Advanced Level. She has performed regularly in the local area in various productions including “Swan Lake”, “Sleeping beauty” and “The Nutcracker” the last of which in soloist roles.
Whilst training, she has had the opportunity to pass on her love for ballet and performance through assisting with the junior school. Olivia recently achieved her Advanced 2 Ballet, gaining her ARAD title and is very grateful to Miss Rosemary for teaching her from pre-school all the way to graduation in a nurturing and kind environment.
Olivia continues to dance and has recently completed her Certificate in Ballet Teaching Studies with the Royal Academy of Dance under Rosemary's mentorship. Olivia is enjoying passing on her love for dance to our youngest pupils.
Hannah Smith
Teaching Assistant
Danielle Casey
Teaching Assistant
All of the teaching faculty at The Rosemary Lane Ballet School are fully qualified and DBS checked.