Budding young performers 
raise their voices for charity

Belfast School of Performing Arts, which has classes in Belfast, Lisburn, and Ballymena, was just one of the schools which had to find a new way of educating its students.

Tina McVeigh, managing director at Belfast School of Performing Arts, explained how lockdown has affected the school.

“As a theatre school catering for almost 700 students across Northern Ireland ,when lockdown hit we cancelled all our weekly classes in each of our eight schools across the province,” explained Tina.

“The students, aged 3-19, had all been rehearsing hard for their annual shows which are of course the highlight of the year.

“We cancelled 10 shows in total and it’s fair to say that there were many disappointed young people.

“We did, however, deliver a series of online classes which were well attended by our students and allowed both our group and individual training to continue for many of the students.

“This year we had nominated Cancer Fund for Children as our annual charity and we felt this was the ideal opportunity to pull together and do something positive for the charity, while at the same time creating a project that our students could work on together, albeit, virtually.

“We created two charity videos and managed to raise a fantastic £3381. Over 150 of our students took part and I am delighted we were able to help others during this difficult time.”

Thankfully, with social distancing and hygiene measures in place, the Belfast School of Performing Arts was able to hold its week long summer project at Breda Academy in August.

Aptly named ‘Light at the End of the Tunnel’, the course was open to young people aged 6-19 and offered attendees the very best in tuition, led by Artistic Director, Peter Corry.

The course consisted of a variety of classes in dancing, acting and singing, mostly hosted outdoors in an open-sided marquee.

With schools now back, BSPA is also looking forward to welcoming students back. “Come September we are looking forward to running our weekly classes again and we are in the process of confirming the details of this, we’ll be aiming to deliver the new term as close to normal as possible while of course adhering to all evolving Covid-19 restrictions and guidelines,” continued Tina.

Tina, and everyone at BSPA is hoping that audiences will continue to show their support for the arts as lockdown begins to ease.

“I fear the arts in general have taken a considerable hit and I would urge everyone to support artists in anyway they can,” added Tina.

“The arts is a vast industry and one we all benefit from, there is a long road to recovery but at Belfast School of Performing Arts we will continue to lay the foundations for the future – whatever that might hold.”