A ballet teacher and the co-owner of Chichester City Arts Centre | Vicky Meets

Originally a church, Chichester City Arts Centre is now home to The Rosemary Bell Academy of Dance. How did it come about? All the time I have been teaching I have dreamt of having my own studio. We lost out on one building, but later Mum was watching a Homes Under the Hammer episode when a renovation of a church was featured.

She googled ‘churches for sale’ and St Bartholomew’s came up locally. We fell in love on the first viewing, but nobody was lending money during lockdown, so we followed every avenue. Finally, after two years of paperwork, planning permissions, consultations and negotiations, we own the building.

Tell us about the original building? Built in 1832, it is a late Georgian church which then became the Chapel of the Theological College. Briefly leased to Chichester College, it had been standing empty for a while and was in need of some serious TLC.

We have completely renovated it and have been passionate about keeping the original features. We were so happy to find the original organ (which still works), bishops chairs, pews and two painted ceilings. We found a fireplace behind a cupboard and even kept the font, repainted the original sign, refurbished the leather doors, and have an illustrated list of vicars since the 14th century.

You are also inviting the community to hire the space, aren’t you? Classes, receptions, choirs, children’s birthday parties, exhibitions – everyone can benefit from this beautiful building with its stunning natural light when the ballet school isn’t operating.

We have had overwhelming support, especially from our neighbours. They were so patient during the renovations, and we are delighted to be hosting The Westgate Residents Association Christmas Carol service this year.Where did you train? I trained at The Royal Academy of Dance, which recently moved into brand-new purpose-built premises in London.

They kindly donated some of the furniture from the old building. The ballet barres here were in the RAD when I was training – it’s history on history!

I always wanted to teach ballet. Ballet is an unbelievable source of joy. It gets children moving and away from their electronic devices and opens their minds to different kinds of music, as we work predominately with classical music.

Has opening the building been tough? I taught throughout the renovation works and my mum, stepdad and I have been here every single day. We did everything we could ourselves.

What we couldn’t do ourselves, we employed local businesses to complete the rest. It’s not a project without risk – we definitely had a few dark nights of the soul – but we’d absolutely do it all again. We are now proud custodians of this amazing building. The ballet school is thriving here and we want other people to enjoy the building through our venue hire service.How do we get in touch? Please email [email protected] for venue hire and [email protected] for the ballet school.

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