‘I want the academy to be an inclusive space where there is a class for everyone and anyone’

A TALENTED 21-year-old woman has just opened her own dance studio in Enfield. Emma Browne, who lives in Kilcock with her mother Kirsty, her father Ger and her three older brothers, has been teaching dance in Enfield for the last two years while renting a smaller shared space in a gym, but this year she has decided to take the leap and open her own studio.

With a whole new timetable, a new range of classes and a brand new space, Emma is beginning a new era for her, her students and anyone who wants to join in.

She is classically trained in ballet which she teaches, but the studio will also include hip-hop classes, acro-dance, adult ballet classes, contemporary, jazz, lyrical, parent and child classes, senior classes and booty-barre fitness classes.

Emma wants her studio to be inclusive space and she truly does have something for everyone.

Emma took up ballet later than most dancers, a week before her thirteenth birthday, and instantly fell in love. She was told that she wouldn’t get far in ballet due to starting later in childhood.

A determined Emma attended every class she could and began attending a ballet school in Dublin, where she was chosen along with three other students to go to Russia to train in an academy in St Petersburg.

Emma said: “It was the most beautiful city and we were living in the suburbs. We had a forty minute trip to the studio every day and I was living with other girls my age at 15. We had to cook for ourselves, clean for ourselves and make our way to the studio and back alone. It was the best experience of my life despite being very full on.”

The move was quite the culture shock for young Emma, with everything from the food to the culture being completely different.

Despite following her dreams, Emma found the environment for young ballet dancers to be extremely tiresome on her mental health, although having teachers that she described as “incredible”.

“I learned so much and came back a completely different person.”

The course was supposed to be two years but Emma returned home just before the pandemic hit in 2020. Emma was also supposed to start an apprenticeship with St Petersburg Ballet Company, but the pandemic put a stop to that.

The classes were continued online via Zoom, while Emma trained in her living room back in Ireland. About a year and a half later, there was no signs of Russia opening their borders, so Emma auditioned for some other schools in Europe and was accepted into a dance school in Belgium.

Emma packed her bags and made the move from Kilcock to Belgium. Emma’s time in Belgium was cut short due to the difficult environment that she found herself in, leading her to importantly prioritising her mental health over training and at eighteen, Emma returned to Ireland.

“I was completely broken. I wanted nothing more to do with ballet or dance ever again. I couldn’t see a future for myself in dance and I thought at the time that I was just going to get a job in something else. When it came to getting another job, I couldn’t even do that. I knew deep down that dance was calling me.”

Emma importantly highlights the toxicity that can linger in the dance community surrounding body image and mental health, which is why she so adamantly promotes a positive environment in her classes.

“I think mental health in the dance world is something that is very much swept under the carpet and not spoken about. It’s the one thing in my school that I want to highlight. Everything will be taught with awareness from my point of view. There will never be weight or body sizes mentioned.”

Emma’s old ballet teacher reached out to her asking her to cover a few classes when she returned to Ireland after Belgium, and while initially she was reluctant to venture back into the world of dance, she decided to say yes. Taking on teaching some children's classes gave her a new lease of life and re-sparked her love of dance. When my old teacher reached out to me, it was like something clicked again.”

After a year of teaching children's classes, Emma was working at four different schools when she decided she wanted to begin her own classes.

“I received a call from a lady who asked me if I’d consider holding classes of my own in Enfield. The more I thought about it the more it appealed to me, and Enfield was the first place I held my own classes.”

“I began renting a space in a gym in Enfield but I wanted to teach much more classes than I was. I really wanted to teach classes for children with special needs as I have many students with special needs.”

“I decided to look for a space in Enfield that I could make my own. I searched and searched and nowhere suitable turned up. One day, I came across a very small premises in the middle of Enfield Village that closed down last year.”

“The building has completely been renovated and I feel so lucky that I got the space.”

“Teaching the classes for my old teacher was something that got me out of bed in the morning in a difficult time. It reignited by love for dance. I was trying to fill my week while getting experience. I enrolled in a teaching course and I received my teaching qualification with The Association of Russian Ballet and Theatre Arts.”

“I never dreamed that I would have my own place. It was never my intention but it just snowballed. Now I’ve created Embrace Dance Academy, where I have other talented teachers who will be joining me.”