Meet the tutors
Laura Connolly
“The workshops were well judged with a clear demonstration of steps, plenty of
patience, encouragement and praise. Many children soon gained the confidence to
make up their own steps and share with other pupils in the school. We unreservedly
recommend Laura to schools, local authorities or other organisations committed to
inspiring young people through music.”
Laura Connolly is a professional clog dancer with 27 years of competing, training, performing and teaching under her belt. Her passion for clog dance lead her to the BMUS Folk and Traditional Music degree course at Newcastle University. Here she pioneered the inclusion of “Foot Percussion” as a valid instrument with UCAS, paving the way for upcoming percussive folk dancers.
Laura has been a member of The Demon Barbers (Breaking Tradition) for 15 years, performing at prestigious venues and festivals such as Glastonbury Festival, Cambridge Folk Festival and the Wuhan Festival of Dance in China! She also really enjoys performing and teaching locally in schools and at community events.
In 2011, the BBC selected Laura to work alongside Charles Hazelwood to create a flash mob clog dance in Newcastle for the fabulous BBC4 documentary “Come Clog Dancing”. Laura taught 200 beginners to clog dance in ten days! See a short excerpt from the documentary here: Come Clog Dancing
Laura also runs her own Early Years Music and Movement company; “Little & Loud”, where she aims to inspire very young children and their families with music from an early age. One particular family attended Laura’s classes with their baby 17 years ago, the “baby” is now a member of the National Youth Folk Ensemble in London! The mother credits Laura for inspiring their family with music and dance early on in their son’s development. Laura would be delighted to teach children, adults or families who wish to learn together.
Laura teaches all ages and experience levels, from absolute beginners to advanced.
40 minute lessons
5 lessons £106
10 lessons £212
Grace Smith
“Really enjoying my lessons with Grace - she’s an excellent teacher, and I feel like I’m learning a lot. We’ve moved on to doing lessons over Skype during lockdown, which is working well. Thanks!”
Grace is a fiddle player and clog dancer. Grace has a passion for teaching and is in high demand as a tutor (for clog, fiddle, viola and violin); as well as being a dedicated private music tutor since summer 2015, and setting up and leading clog dancing group classes in Glossop since 2018, she has been proud to teach in several settings for a wide range of ages and abilities, including Newcastle University, Folkworks, Sage Gateshead, Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Company, North East Fiddle School, St Helens Music Service, Lancashire Music Service, Newcastle Music Service, York Young Fiddlers, and mixed instruments at Cream Tees (Music at the Heart of Teesdale). Grace graduated with First Class Honours on the BMus Folk and Traditional Music degree at Newcastle University in 2015 and a Distinction on the MMus course there in 2017.
As a performer, she creates new folk music inspired by traditional archive material, and recently formed the ‘Grace Smith Trio’ after a solo project supported by a Seed Funding Bursary awarded by EFDSS as part of the PRS for Music Foundation Talent Development Partnership. Grace has performed with ‘Monster Ceilidh Band’ across Europe at festivals including Rudolstadt Festival (Germany), Les Traversees Tatihou (France), Sidmouth Folk Week, Kendal Calling, Wilderness, and Camp Bestival.
Grace teaches all ages and experience levels, from absolute beginners to advanced.
Grace has an enhanced DBS certificate.
She also has a safeguarding policy for online lessons.
1 hour/30 minute lessons
5 lessons £206/£106
10 lessons £412/£212