Mayor welcomes celebrated dance teacher to Town Hall

Her Worship the Mayor, accompanied by the Mayoress, recently welcomed celebrated retired dance teacher Janice Cull, some of her former students and mothers of former students to the Town Hall.

Mrs Cull, who is current chairman of the Isle of Man Dance Teachers Association, first qualified in 1971 and held her first classes at St Ninian’s church then Cunningham House on Glencrutchery Road. In 1982 she moved to the 1st Douglas Scout hall in Demesne Road, where she remained for 18 years.

In 2000 she moved to a studio at the Ellan Vannin Gymnastics Centre at the NSC, remaining there until 2013 before relocating back to the Scout hall where she remained until her retirement in October of this year.

She is qualified in ballroom, latin and classical sequence.

Mrs Cull’s school has competed from Blackpool to St Petersburg and helped to raise funds for numerous local charities.

Among the guests at the Town Hall was former student Nicola Walkinshaw who said that Mrs Cull had ‘opened up a world of opportunity’ for aspiring young dancers, while Her Worship spoke with fondness of the Mrs Cull’s school’s on-island performances and encouragement she gave to her students, among them her own son, Gary Chatel.