Ten glorious years of Princess Margaret Awards at Francis Holland School, London SW1

Rimbaud Patron and Mami Fuji
 danced the Pas de Deux
 from Raymonda by kind permission
 of the Directors, 
English National Ballet School.Photo:David Neville.

Val Hitchen has taught at this prestigious Chelsea school for 46 years! In fact since leaving the Royal Ballet School where she was the first student enrolled on de Valois’s newly formed Craftsman’s Course for Teaching. 

Princess Margaret who at the time was Patron of both the Company and the school sent her daughter, the now Lady Sarah Chatto, to Francis Holland School. HRH was extremely supportive of the ballet at school throughout Sarah’s years and beyond. Sarah took all of her RAD Grades with Val and was also accepted onto the Associate programme of the Royal Ballet School. It is not surprising therefore that shortly before she died, she generously gave her name to this unique and very special competition which is now an eagerly awaited for annual summer event at the school. 

The silver rose bowl with the ‘princess’ figurines at the rim was made in Birmingham and dates back to 1910 but perhaps even more special are the two awards which were especially commissioned by parents at the school and made at the David Linley work-rooms. Lord Linley is the son of Princess Margaret. 

The Coronet and the Obelisk both bear the initial ‘M’ in the style used by HRH and the dancers on the Obelisk are taken from photographs of Fonteyn by Jennie Walton. A separate award is named after Dame Antoinette Sibley whose daughter, Eloise, also attended Francis Holland School. 

For ten years both the Royal Ballet School and English National Ballet School have sent students to dance at the Awards Day and this is only made possible by British Harlequin who provide the Harlequin Cacsade dance floor that is laid in the school hall. 

Usually about 24 children are chosen from all those who compete in classes earlier in the year. Once the finalists have been chosen they have to commit to 2 week-ends of new work to be shown on the Awards day. Ages generally range from 4 years to 16 years. 

Over the years the competitors have danced for very special Guests of Honour: Lady Sarah Chatto, Dame Antoinette Sibley, Lady Anya Sainsbury CBE, Sir Peter Wright CBE, Miss Doreen Wells, Miss Lesley Collier, Mr Will Kemp. 

"The surface on which we create our art"

Rafael Bonachela

"We chose Harlequin floors for our studios because we had to have the best," said choreographer and Artistic Director of Sydney Dance Company, Rafael Bonachela in a newly published video interview on the Harlequin Floors website. 

"We approached the purchase of the floor for our four studios with great care and consideration. The floor is a great asset for our daily working lives, it is the surface on which we make our art, so yes, we could only have the best". 

Harlequin Australasia recently installed Harlequin Cascade™ and Harlequin Studio™ for the Sydney Dance Company, working over night to avoid disrupting a busy rehearsal schedule. Rafael Bonachela explained, "the technicians came and laid the floor. We came in the morning after and it was all done, to the 100% perfection we expected, flawless and like magic! "

"When someone says to me Harlequin first of all I feel relaxed, I know I can trust it and I know its going to be a very, very professional surface and that we are going to be able to work very confidently – it’s the best we can have! " 

Rafael Bonachela concluded, "The dancers love the new floor, they are enjoying dancing on it because it’s not slippery and doesn't prevent you from turning or anything like that. Also in contemporary dance there is also very rigorous floor work that we do, that’s why it’s so important we have a great floor. " 

Sprung floors reduce impact injuries at new training centre

"When you are the market leader in Dance Floors, it’s fair to say the one call you don’t expect is from the Australian Commandos!” said Guenther Goetz of Harlequin Australasia recently “…whilst I was still coming to terms with who I was talking to, they casually dropped into the conversation ‘by the way, can your floors be mounted to the wall?’ ” 

Paul Cale, who works for the Integrated Combat Centre at Holsworthy Barracks, NSW and is President of the service’s Integrated Combat Club explained why. “We are increasing our work rate in close quarter training from something that we do a couple of times a year to something we are doing every week. We needed to reduce the rate of injury to achieve that and decided we needed a sprung floor. We needed a floor that didn’t produce a trampoline [effect] but reduced impact without destabalising the members using the facility.” 

The products the Commandos chose were Harlequin Liberty™ sprung floor panels with Harlequin Cascade™ vinyl surface. Technical support on wall-mounting the floor came from Harlequin engineers in the UK and the installation was carried out by Harlequin’s Australian installation team, described by Paul in typical military fashion as “quick and efficient”. 

When asked about the finished result Paul said “It’s something that has very much impressed people that have come to see the centre, particularly when they realise how much effort we have put in to reducing risk and creating a world class facility. Now Commandos can train at full power and full impact…and not sustain an injury.” 

The way that Harlequin Liberty™ sprung floor panels create an even return of energy rather than a bouncy, trampoline degree of spring is exactly why dancers appreciate the impact absorbing properties of the floor. Research continues to demonstrate that a sprung floor of this type can help reduce injuries that dancers receive. Now it seems these properties are also helping Australian Commandos reduce injuries in training.