A shy girl whose grandmother sent her to dance classes to help boost her self-confidence blossomed not only into a beautiful dancer but, like a swan has spread her wings and gracefully flown around the world gathering and sharing her talents.

Today Teresa Randall is an accomplished teacher who regards her students as if they were her own children and enjoys nothing better than seeing them succeed.

?It?s more fun than performing yourself,? she said, ?It?s like ? yes well done ? they are your babies out there.?

Mrs. Randall trained at Royal Academy of Ballet, in England as a scholarship student. She has performed, taught and choreographed and has worked with members of the Royal Ballet and the Royal Swedish Ballet. She brings a comprehensive knowledge of ballet, repertoire, national and character dance.

Mrs. Randall has studied the methodology of dance pedagogy with some of the world?s most respected teachers, at the Bolshoi, in Russia, and the National Ballet of China.

She currently teaches at Canada?s National Ballet School and is an examiner for the Royal Academy of Dance.

She is on the Island teaching 25 dance students from a variety of backgrounds at the Civic Ballet.

Mrs. Randall began taking dance lessons when she was five-years-old and has been fortunate enough to be able to do exactly what she loves as a career.

?You know it is a nice life when your hobby turns into your job,? she said, ?And then you turn into the teaching part and start giving back and then somebody pays you to do it.?

She began learning to teach when her dance career was coming to an end.

?It just seemed like a natural progression ? once you have finished your dance career there are various avenues that you can take, such as becoming a choreographer,? said Mrs. Randall.

?I had already started coaching the younger dancers without even realising it and was enjoying their success.

?When they are on stage doing that Swan Lake part, I think, ?hmm I did that!??

But not all dancers can develop into dance teachers, regardless of their talent

Mrs. Randall said: ?You have to start the process all over again and not just the steps. You have to learn the anatomy, psychology, as you have this person here, how do you motivate them.

?It is an awful lot more to being a teacher. When you are a dancer, you just have to worry about yourself.

?You have a whole class, with a lots of different individuals in that class and just because I say ?put your arm here?, it doesn?t meant that they all get it or understand it. Just saying it louder won?t help.

?I get a lot out of teaching, trying to motivate the students, just to make them think of something in a different way and when you see it click it is worth everything.?

Mrs. Randall, who refers to herself as an ?old dancer?, said she rarely performs at this point in her career.

Laughing she said: ?I don?t perform anymore ? the old legs don?t go up anymore, but us older dancers can perform from the waist up.

?The only times when I do perform is when a choreographer has specifically done a part for me and then he knows what I am capable of doing and I can work with it.

?Usually he is looking for a piece with more feeling and movement or artistic quality. It is really nice when a choreographer will do that for an older dancer.?

During her career she had roles in all the classical ballets such as ?Swan Lake?, ?The Nut Cracker? and ?Cinderella? and said her claim to fame was dancing with the legendary Rudolph Nureyev.

?I could say I danced with Nureyev, but I wasn?t actually his partner, I was one of the kind of so, sos,? she giggled. ?But there was a little bit were we danced together ? that is my claim to fame ? I danced with Rudy! It was a good five minutes of a piece.?

When carving her new career Mrs. Randall travelled to the Far East to learn the science of dance.

?I studied pedagogy in both China and Russia and I only guest danced in those places, but I actually learned to teach there for a period of time,? she said.

When asked if she specialised in the Russian style of ballet she said: ?Not necessarily.? For her it was seeing the way a lot of people dance.

?We sometimes tend to get a bit narrow minded in this business,? she said.

?Every method has something to offer and that is what I wanted to see.

?There are differences, yet there aren?t. If we take something like the English language between England, Canada, the States and Australia there are subtle differences, but we are all speaking the same language.

?The same goes for the ballet. There are subtle differences between methods, but we are all working on the same page.?

In her role as an examiner she said she has found some of the most talented dancers in obscure locations.

?I do examining as well and take exams in ballet and I go around the world and do that,? she said.

?It takes me to major cities as well as it takes me to ballet schools in small towns too.

?It is amazing what talents you find in the middle of nowhere and what good teachers you find.

?People think just because you are in a small secluded place and not in New York or London that you are not very good, but I find the contrary, there are some good teachers and it is very interesting.

?Just because they are not standing up shouting how good they are doesn?t mean to say they are not good.?

She said her life might sound glamorous, but she always has to remember that there is a husband at home too.

?Sometimes I am on the road, especially when I am examining, for seven to eight weeks and every two nights there is a different hotel room, then on a small plane to somewhere else,? she said.

?It?s not always as glamorous as it sounds and you can?t ever appear to be tired because for that child in front of you, they have been working a year for that one special 20 minutes and they are giving you their all, so you have to give your all back to them. That is something that they are going to remember for the rest of their lives.?

Of the Bermudian students she has taught she said they are very well trained.

?I think there has been some very careful teaching on the Island. The teachers have been working each student so they can reach their own potential, there has been some very nice work involved,? she said.

?Because it is an art form where the body is involved and if you are not careful you can injure yourself.

?It takes teachers who know what they are doing to do a good job and that is what I am seeing.?

The students range in age from 14 to 23. Some are still training here while others have been away at university and are now back.

?It is a very, very nice mix of students,? she said, ?The nice thing is that they all want to be here and they?re just open to everything you have to say to them. It?s wonderful.

?Sometimes people force children to learn a skill. I know with my youngest child I had her do piano lessons and she stuck it out for a year, but she couldn?t sit still for that long.?

Mrs. Randall said a lot of people who take dance do not necessarily become dancers, like every child that takes piano lessons does not go on to become a concert pianist.

?But the dance has taught them about life and themselves along the way and if they can take those skills with them into whatever chosen profession they want to do then all is well,? she said.

?Particularly learning to work with other people, as a team, setting goals that are attainable, steps along the way, I can do that if I work towards it. It does teach you a lot.?

Mrs. Randall?s arrival on our shores was part of the ballet grapevine.

A former teacher of Coral Wendell, executive director of the Civic Ballet, was supposed to come, but she was unable to.

Thus word went out and Mrs. Randall agreed to come to the Island for three weeks.

?That is the nice thing about the ballet world because we are such a small group, it is like a kind of a network, and everyone knows someone else around the world,? said Mrs. Randall.

?It is that kind of community and you can network quite easily.?

Mrs. Randall?s students are currently rehearsing for a show, ?Joie A New? which will be performed later this month. several local student are choreographing their own pieces for the show.

Mrs. Wendell said it will consist of a mixture of ballet, modern and hip hop dance.

There are also two students coming over from Canada?s National Ballet School who will perform excerpts from ?Swan Lake? and ?Giselle?.

Mrs. Randall said: ?It is a good opportunity for them as well, you know we tend to get a little insular inside our school and this is an opportunity for them to go out and see other places.?

She said the Royal Ballet in London?s Covent Gardens, had recently finished the new Royal Ballet Opera School.

?It is nice to see that some countries are putting back into the arts because it is the arts that feed the souls,? she said, ?

?We work, we eat and then what is left? You have to have some stimulation to help you to grow.?