MEET OUR TEAM

Martin is a former Principal Dancer and current dance teacher, director, founder of HowlyBallet, co-founder of Renaissance Arts, The Scholars & The Ballet Apprentice,


Originally hailing from Brighouse, West Yorkshire, Martin began his ballet training at the ‘Elwyn School Of Dance’ before successfully auditioning for the Royal Ballet School at the age of 11. He trained for 7 years at the lower and upper schools before graduating and beginning his professional career.


Martins first professional contract was taken in Düsseldorf with ‘Deutsche Oper am Rhein’ before taking further contracts in France and then back home with ‘London City Ballet’. A change of direction with Martin playing the role of Slavemaster, in Cameron Mackintosh’s ‘Phantom Of The Opera’ before heading over to the far east.


Martin worked with K-Ballet for 3 years before deciding to begin working as a guest principal dancer for several companies in Japan, Europe and finally Cape Town, South Africa, before bringing the curtain down on his performing career back home in the UK.


Teaching opportunities had already surfaced during the final couple of years of his performing career working with several schools, companies and most interestingly working with the principal performers of the ‘Billy Elliot’ musical. This lead to Martin working with their youth development, training their performers through the earlier years to enable their abilities into their show training.


With youth development in mind Martin returned to the north to open Renaissance Arts Dance & Musical Theatre Conservatoire in Leeds,  with 2 fellow directors, training students 16+ on a 3 year programme of elite training.


‘The Scholars’ Junior Associate programme quickly followed training elite students 11+ in classical ballet, before recently opening ‘The Ballet Apprentice’ training students 6-11 years of age elite ballet technique.


Outreach was and always has been an area of interest as decided to train 2 students with no ballet , for a whole year completely free of , to prove how positive, life affirming, joyful and transferable classical ballet can actually be. Especially with a thumping soundtrack.


Project Alpha gave birth to Project Resurgence CIC as the decision was made to further the project work to areas of disadvantage, primary & secondary schools, charity events and this year ‘Project Beta’ commenced working for another year of pro bono work with 25 children from a local primary school, to bring ballet to a whole new audience.

Martin is extremely honoured and focused on delivering his passion and knowledge of dance, to bring greater inclusion, diversity & access to his chosen art form.

Kay is a former professional dancer and current secondary educator, leader of teacher development and co founder of The Ballet Apprentice.

Starting her passion for Ballet, Kay attended The Lynette Merrick School of Dance from the age of 3 until 18, then successfully gaining a place at Laine Theatre Arts and entering into the world of professional dance.

Kay’s professional career consisted of numerous Summer Seasons, Pantomimes, UK & European Tours including Royal Variety Performances. Following a back injury in early 2001, Kay retired from performing and entered the Education Industry.

After completing a BA Hons in Education Studies, Kay immersed herself in teaching Dance & Performing Arts GCSE, GNVQ, A-Level & BTEC qualifications. Also choreographing the school’s Rock Challenge Competition for 14 years, with the school remaining in the top 4 in the Country.

With a passion and commitment to making a difference for children in deprivation. Kay took on a further responsibility of Minimum Entitlement & Enrichment Co-ordination, ensuring that every child received opportunities to engage and encourage Cultural Capital.

At this point Project Resurgence was born through the shared vision of 2 educators who committed to making a significant change and tackling the stereotypes surrounding the elitist world of ballet education. After the success of Project Alpha, Kay & Martin aligned their skills and years of experience to create the next generation of ballet training which could be inclusive to all.