I am the founder of Seasons School of Performing Arts and I have been living in Otley since 2005 having moved to Leeds from my childhood home of Newcastle just after the Millennium in 2000. I first encountered the arts at the age of 3 when my parents enrolled me in local ballet classes with Mrs Hughall in a local school hall. From there I started tap, jazz and contemporary dance at Dance City in Newcastle. At school, I developed a passion for music and learned to play the clarinet and saxophone having already studied piano and violin as a child. I played regularly in the Newcastle City Youth Orchestra and travelled around various gigs with the local peripatetic teachers in the Newcastle City Jazz band. I also spent several years singing with local youth choir, Swingbridge Singers which took me on tours around Europe as well as throughout the UK. I remember watching my school music teacher play Miss Hannigan in Annie at a local theatre and decided I simply needed to get to know more about Musical Theatre and so began a passion I have never lost!

I also knew from the age of 3 that I would be a teacher when I received a toy blackboard and spent hours with my friend (who also grew up to be a teacher!) lining our dolls and teddies up and taking registers and ‘teaching’ them. A visiting lecturer on my Creative Arts degree course mentioned that she also taught on the PGCE teacher training course and so my 2 passions united and I haven’t looked back. I simply love teaching Performing Arts and watching shy, meek, but interested 11 years olds develop their confidence and come out of their shell in front of 100s on stage in school productions is something I will never grow tired of. Having taught in high schools since 1998 and built up the Performing Arts faculties from scratch in 2 schools into flourishing places where students can shine, I feel I am well qualified to be running Seasons. It is such an honour to see ex students touring professionally in productions such as Dirty Dancing, Book of Mormon, Les Misérables, Strictly Ballroom, Circe and many, many more.

Locally, I have performed in several productions with Otley Players and most recently directed their sold out production of Hi-de-Hi which received fantastic reviews.

I am so excited to see the potential Seasons has to offer a new generation of young people who we look forward to taking in as small spring saplings and watch them develop and blossom throughout the year with confidence – making memories and forging friendships!

Beckie Voller