Dance teacher Kim set to become examiner

A Portadown dance teacher has become the first in Northern Ireland to be accepted as a trainee examiner by the British Theatre Dance Association (BTDA).
Kim Bailie.Kim Bailie.
Kim Bailie.

Kim Bailie, who has been dancing since the age of three, runs the Kim Bailie Dance School in Portadown.

She has already successfully completed the necessary exams and interview which took place in Leicester.

The next step is shadowing an examiner for the next few months, before she becomes a fully fledged examiner.

The BTDA runs exams in ballet, modern, tap, acrobatics and lyrical, and Kim can look forward to travelling to a number of countries which are members of the BTDA including Dubai, New Zealand, Australia, Malta, Spain, England and all over Ireland.

Kim, who runs her classes from the former Mothercare unit in High Street Mall, trained at the BTDA Ann Oliver Stage School in Leicester, qualifying after three years.

She then travelled regularly to London to take part in workshops at Pineapple Dance Studios, where she learned from some top names, “I danced with Arlene Phillips, one of the judges on Strictly, and had tap lessons from Roy Castle as well as lessons with Derek Hartley, a prominent dance teacher, and renowned choreographer Dougie Squires.”