Gillian Barton - Principal

A member of the Royal Academy of Dance, Gillian has danced with companies in the UK, Europe, the Far East and the USA.

Born in Glasgow, she has spent many years teaching and dancing in the United States and was the director of the Mira Mesa Ballet Company. In 1991, she returned to Scotland and founded the Ballet West School and company. She choreographed the early productions of the company between 1991-3. Gillian also has extensive experience working in film and television, on the Michael Caton-Jones film, "Rob Roy" and on "Mrs Brown" a film starring Dame Judi Dench and Ballet West patron, Billy Connolly.

Gillian is the founder of Ballet West and has steered the company through its development from early beginnings to the present day.

Kenn Burke - Artistic Advisor

Fife born Kenn trained in his home-town of North Queensferry before joining Scottish Ballet’s scholarship scheme. After completing his training at the Royal Ballet School in 1975, he returned to Scotland to dance with Scottish Ballet and was soon promoted to soloist. During his time with the company, Kenn quickly became one of Scottish Ballet’s most popular dancers with leading roles in “Othello”, “Romeo and Juliet”, “Le Spectre de la Rose” and many other works. In 1988, he was invited to join the Hong Kong Ballet as principal dancer.

He was appointed Artistic Director of Scottish Ballet 2 in 1990, which performed small scale touring works to isolated communities throughout Scotland. He was Assistant Artistic Director of Scottish Ballet under Galina Samsova and subsequently became the Acting Artistic Director, during which time he staged the ambitious and highly successful “La Fille Mal Gardée”.

Since leaving Scottish Ballet he has worked as guest teacher for a number of high profile companies throughout the world. He teaches regularly at Ballet West and works very closely with the company in rehearsal and on tour. In 2004 he created “Los Juegos de los Chicos” for the production of “Upstage”.

Frank Freeman FRAD, ARAD (adv) PDTC (dip) Guest Teacher

Frank Freeman is a freelance teacher, choreographer and senior examiner for the Royal Academy of Dance. Entirely trained at the Royal Ballet School, he graduated into the main company at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, later joining English National Ballet. After finishing his career as a dancer, he taught for three years in Yorkshire after which he completed the Royal Academy of Dance’s Professional Dancers’ Teaching Course, graduating with distinction. He was subsequently invited to become an examiner for the Academy.

During the past twenty years he has taught in most of England’s leading vocational schools, including the Royal Ballet School. He has choreographed ballets for schools at home and abroad and for the National Youth Ballet of Great Britain, of which he is a patron.

Frank writes and reviews books for the leading dance magazines and in 1994 he was invited by the Royal Academy of Dancing’s Artistic Director, Lynn Wallis, to be a member of the panel to create “The Foundations of Classical Ballet Technique”, which was published in 1997.

In 2000, Frank was made a fellow of the Royal Academy of Dance. He is a guest teacher at Ballet West and in 2004 he created “I palpiti” for the company which was performed in the production “Upstage”.

Noriko Ohara OBE Guest Teacher

Noriko is a former Principal Ballerina with Scottish Ballet. She was born and trained in Japan and came to London in 1974 to dance with the New London Ballet and subsequently the London Festival Ballet as Principal Dancer. She joined Scottish Ballet in 1976 and since then has danced all of the major roles in the company's repertoire. Noriko has received critical acclaim throughout the world, not only for performances in the great 19th century classics such as "Swan Lake" but also as an accomplished actress in the more modern, dramatic ballets, notably as Juliet in John Cranko's masterpiece "Romeo and Juliet". Noriko danced Hippolyta in Robert Coham's "A Midsummer Night's Dream", the title role in "Anna Karenina" and Carabosse in "The Sleeping Beauty".

Noriko is regularly invited to join the jury of the prestigious Prix de Lausanne competition in Switzerland. She was awarded and honorary OBE in the 1997 New Years honours list for her services to dance.

Jordi Guitart - Head of Jazz

Jordi Guitart was born in Venezuela but lived most of his life in Spain before moving to England. Together with his wife, Nicola, he runs the Guitart School of Performing Arts in Cambridge.

His past work involves television variety shows in Spain and the UK and he has performed lead roles in "West Side Story" and "Jesus Christ Superstar" as well as dancing, teaching and choreographic work throughout Europe.

Recently, he has performed in “Fame” in Oslo, “Saturday Night Fever” at the London Palladium and "La Cava" at the Victoria Palace Theatre.

He has been head of jazz since 1995 and choreographed the Ballet West productions of “Fame” & “Soundtrack”, the jazz part of “Upstage”.

Nick Fogarty – Vocal Coach

Nick is a vocal coach, author and composer. As a song writer he has amassed over sixty releases in his career, and as an artist had two major record deals, one with RCA and the second Warner Bros, some of his biggest successes were in Germany where he also performed with the Berlin Philharmonic.

As a vocal coach he prefers to work with inexperienced and college level students, because this is where great singers are nurtured or (if they fall into the wrong hands) destroyed.

Some of Nick's pupils are now making a splash in the west end... Leanne Jones, William Peaco, Adam Hills and Colin Charles to name a few, but even though he does work occasionally with professionals, he finds it much more rewarding to help created a star than reshape one.

As an author Nick has just work-shopped his first musical CHARIOT at Danceworks in London. Where it has caught the eye and imagination of some very influential people in the industry. He is now is the process of getting it produced... this will be a milestone in his career as he single-handedly has written all the music, lyrics and book.
Nick is Musical Director at Ballet West and has written script for shows such as Upstage. His has also written this years musical theatre offering Love Central which he is co directing with his friend and colleague Jordi Guitart.

Sara-Maria Barton - Senior Principal Dancer

In her first year of full-time training at Ballet West, Sara-Maria Barton was awarded honours for the advanced (now advanced 2) Royal Academy of Dance exam, an achievement that made her eligible for the Adeline Genée award. Sara-Maria attended the competition along with only 44 other dancers in the world and was awarded the bronze medal. This achievement made her the first Scottish female medallist in the history of the competition and the first female UK medallist for six years.

This success led to a short contract with English National Ballet in their production of “Swan Lake”, which in turn led to working with Scottish Ballet on “La Fille Mal Gardée” and a return to English National Ballet for “Romeo and Juliet”. She was awarded the Solo Seal of the RAD, the highest accolade that the academy can bestow on student dancers.

Sara-Maria appeared on Blue Peter, dancing the Genée Variation and modelling one of Margot Fonteyn’s tutus. She also starred in a Scottish Television Christmas ident that appeared between programmes throughout the festive season. Sara-Maria went on to join Birmingham Royal Ballet and was subsequently offered a contract at the Royal Ballet Company. She has partnered her brother, Jonathan, as guest artists in numerous productions at home and abroad. She has also worked with English National Ballet as ballet mistress for the children in the UK tour of Swan Lake. She is a senior principal artist and ballet mistress for Ballet West and been critically acclaimed for her roles in the company’s classical repertoire, as Juliet (Romeo & Juliet), Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), Odile & Odette (Swan Lake) and her “effortlessly elegant” Sugar Plum Fairy (The Nutcracker)

Jonathan Barton - Senior Principal Dancer

Following his Highly Commended result in the RAD advanced examination; Jonathan was awarded the academy’s Solo Seal. He has partnered his sister, Sara-Maria, in numerous Ballet West productions and as guest artists in productions in Malta, Cornwall and Liverpool.

Jonathan entered the Adeline Genée competition and followed in his sister’s footsteps by winning a bronze medal. Jonathan has danced with English National Ballet at the Royal Albert Hall and in their Australian tour of “Romeo and Juliet”. He returned to Ballet West as a senior principal artist and has performed the roles of The Prince in “Sleeping Beauty”, The Cavalier Prince in “The Nutcracker” and Siegfried in “Swan Lake” with the company.

He teaches and coaches exam work at the school and is responsible for the Campbeltown outreach programme.

Kelly McCole - Principal Dancer
Originally from Perth, Kelly McCole trained at Ballet West. She was awarded honours in her advanced RAD examination and competed in the prestigious Adeline Genée Award. She was the only British girl to reach the finals of the competition and was one of four students from Ballet West who took part in the competition that year. Kelly has also been awarded the Royal Academy of Dance Solo Seal. Kelly joined English National Ballet for their Far East, Australian and UK tour of “Swan Lake”. Kelly has performed with the Ballet West Company in “Swan Lake”, “Celebration” and in the tours of “Romeo and Juliet”, “Sleeping Beauty”, as the Lilac Fairy, “Swan Lake” and “The Nutcracker”. Kelly is also a teacher for the Ballet West outreach programme.