Jackson’s School of Performing Arts takes to the stage tonight with a tribute to 70 years of dance.

Called Looking Back, the performances will be set to music from when the school opened until today.

“Jackson’s has been around since 1953. Last year we celebrated Barbara Frith, one of our teachers who had her 50th anniversary with us, and this year is a big year again, the school's 70th anniversary,” said Alexis Richens, a dance instructor and co-owner of the Burnaby Street school with Brittany Adams.

“We're basically doing all the decades. So we're starting in the 1950s and we'll move on to the Sixties, Seventies, Eighties, Nineties and so on up to present day.”

Ms Richens, 30, is thrilled to be back at the school that gave her her first dance lessons.

“I actually trained with Jackson's growing up. So basically I've come full circle, back to my roots,” she said.

She studied dance at Jacksonville University in Florida and, near the end of four years of training, decided to become a teacher.

Back in Bermuda, she started with DanceSations but when the opportunity to own her own school came up, she grabbed it.

“I always knew I was going to be doing something with dance – the dream was to always own a dance studio. So when Brittany reached out to me, I was like, well I can't pass up this opportunity. Jackson's was the place that I started.

“Did I ever see myself going back and being an owner of that school? Not necessarily, but things have a way of working out.”

She joined Jackson’s in 2019, the summer before Covid-19 became a pandemic.

Classes moved online as the world shut down but “now here we are”, Ms Richens said.

“I’ve been here ever since. I mainly teach ballet. Ballet is definitely the focal point of even my Instagram – bermudaballerina.ar. So it kind of ties in there but I also teach things like hip-hop, tap. We offer salsa. I think we are the only dance studio that actually offers salsa [on island].”

As one of only four instructors, she is teaching 15 classes this year and has 20 dances in the recital.

“So just over half of the show is going to be choreographed by me,” Ms Richens said. “But a highlight, something that I don't teach actually, is our musical theatre ensemble. Barbara Frith teaches that and this year she's doing Grease and Matilda.”

The late Louise Jackson founded the school to give “everybody an equal opportunity to dance”. It’s an ethos that has carried forward over seven decades. Today prices are set so that the more classes a dancer takes the cheaper each becomes.

“Like any small business here, we've got limited resources – there's only four of us teachers, but we're all very passionate about it and I think that's the key,” Ms Richens said.

“That's the key to surviving, to persevere through all the challenges life throws at you. And I mean, the kids, if you see them on stage, it's clear that they've found the passion for it as well. And I think that is how the dance school has survived.”

Ballet, tap, jazz, hip-hop, musical theatre, creative dance and salsa are among the dance styles that will be performed at Earl Cameron Theatre.

Every single piece was choreographed especially for Looking Back.

“Everything has a way of working out. Sometimes I don't even know how I do it. When you've been in it for so long – I've been dancing since I was four years old; I just turned 30 – if you've got a passion for it, I just think the creativity continues to flow year after year. You're inspired by the different groups of kids that you have coming in as well.”

Intensives such as attending Broadway Dance Centre in New York City, where eight dancers from Jackson’s recently went, also help “get the creative juices flowing”.

“Having those kinds of outside influences, it's definitely helpful,” Ms Richens said.

“[For this show] we’ve got Grease and Matilda; we've even got a Harry Potter dance. There's a Rihanna hip-hop piece that should be good as well. And we're doing ABC from The Jackson Five so definitely there are some classics in there.”

Her hope is to introduce more boys to dance.

“We've got one in ballet. We've got one in musical theatre, we've got a few in our creative dance classes, which are like an intro to dance class, and we've got two in our tap class,” she said. “We used to have an all boys hip-hop class, but there's just one boy now in hip-hop and so yeah, we are trying to bring them back.

“I think Bermuda as a whole is quite conservative. I do think that there's room for change there and I think that's slowly starting to happen.”

A reception at the end of the final show tomorrow night will serve as a celebration of Jackson’s 70 years of dance. Patrons and invited guests are welcome to attend.

Jackson’s School of Performing Arts will hold a dance camp this summer. To register for the camp or buy tickets for Looking Back visit jspabermuda.com. Tickets for Looking Back are also available on bdatix.bm