Clare Wall

Born in 1989, Clare started her early training at the age of five, at the Royal Academy of Dance Headquarters in Battersea, and was involved with the London Junior Ballet training scheme.

Now living in Wales, she works with Richard in the Advanced Cecchetti Method. She has performed in a number of Richard’s New Ballet Creations productions. In 2005 she portrayed various specially created roles in The Snow Queen, and in 2006 was invited to play the role of Effy in La Sylphide and one of the step-sisters in Cinderella. She has been performing with The Ballet Pod since 2007, touring Wales in the spring of 2009.

Her present repertoire includes: Swanhilda from Coppelia, the peasant girl from Flower Festival at Genzano , and Eliza Owen from The Ballad of Edward Owen.

Clare also works as a professional freelance actor, taking educational presentations to various schools and libraries, with the aim of inspiring literacy in children. She has been closely involved with museum work, and in her spare time is conducting an extensive research on women’s history, to restore an understanding of this important social heritage through an exciting new performance medium.

Michael Wall

Born in 1992, Michael started dancing at the age of four and spent his early years training at the Royal Academy of Dance Headquarters. Currently in Wales with his family, he is studying the Advanced Cecchetti Method with Richard.

Michael has been involved in a number of Richard’s New Ballet Creations productions, including Snow Queen and Cinderella, in which he played the Dancing Master. He also took the role of James in La Sylphide. Michael was an associate student of the Royal Ballet School for four years.

He is the Musical Director of the Ballet Pod. He composed the soundscape for Richard’s new ballet The Ballad of Edward Owen, arranging and adapting traditional melodies and playing the instruments himself. As well as playing the piano, organ and percussion,  Michael’s other interests include Reggae and Afro-Cuban music, the study of languages and art, and the principles of Buddhism.

Ann Wall

Born in 1995, Ann has been dancing since the age of two and a half, training in her early years at the Royal Academy of Dance. She now works with Richard on the Advanced Cecchetti Method.

Ann has been working with Richard since 2004, taking part in various New Ballet Creations performances, including Coppelia, Giselle, La Sylphide, and The Snow Queen. The role of the Papillon in Cinderella was created especially for her by Richard. Ann is a senior associate student of the Royal Ballet School.
Her other interests include the study of Benesh Movement Notation, art history and costume design. She also enjoys craft, playing the piano and cooking.

Richard Slaughter

Richard trained at the lower and upper Royal Ballet Schools before graduating to the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden in 1977. He twice won the Ursula Moreton Choreographic award and danced principal roles on tour with Ballet for All. He danced in most ballets in repertoire at Covent Garden before leaving to pursue a freelance career. He was a member of Werkcentrum Dans in Rotterdam and spent a year filming the Dark Crystal with The Muppets. He joined London City Ballet as a principal dancer to partner Ursula Hageli in Swan Lake on a tour of Norway, at the time when Princess Diana became patron of the company.
 
Ursula and Richard’s subsequent partnership lasted for twenty-one years when they were a couple much in demand on the international circuit dancing the major classical ballets and an enormous variety of roles, repertoire and new works. They were principal dancers of the Royal Ballet Education Unit and started Ballet Creations of London in 1989 with their first production: A Portrait of Anna Pavlova.

Richard subsequently choreographed The Little Mermaid 1991, Cleopatra 1993 and the Gala Performance of Ballet. They maintained their educational work staging numerous workshop days and ballet productions for children. Richard choreographed for the National Youth Ballet, English Youth Ballet and the Bournemouth Ballet Club. Ballet Creations performances were given all over the UK and abroad, with appearances at the Barbican, Festival Hall and the Royal Albert Hall. He has produced and directed productions of Coppelia, The Nutcracker and The Sleeping Beauty and created new ballets Cinderella and The Snow Queen.

Richard is an associate teacher of the Imperial Society of Dancing, Cecchetti Method, and has an MA in dance studies from the Laban Centre and an MA in Spirituality from the University of Wales. He is currently a lecturer at Chichester University and has been thoroughly enjoying his new challenge as artistic director of The Ballet Pod.