10 Sparkling Years of babyballet dance classes in Swindon!

It’s time to celebrate a very special milestone as Miss Victoria, our babyballet franchisee in Swindon, reaches her tenth franchise birthday… and what a sparkling ten years it has been!

Miss Victoria found babyballet in 2012 through a Google search and has been bringing dancing fun to thousands of children in Swindon ever since, inspiring a new generation of ballet stars locally, who continue to benefit so much from her care, love, professionalism and expertise. I feel so lucky that she searched for us that day.

It’s fair to say that Miss Victoria doesn’t realise her own brilliance.

Modest and unassuming, you simply could not wish to meet a more kind-hearted lady who has quietly and steadily turned her dream into a reality. That dream was to share her own love of dance and passion for having her own business teaching children to dance, whilst raising her much-adored son.

Miss Victoria has been dancing herself since the age of three and firmly believes that dance is a perfect way of teaching children confidence, co-ordination and social skills. Her thoughts back when she joined us were, ‘in a world where we are encouraging children to grow up to be fit and healthy, babyballet is the perfect place to start. I love the syllabus because it teaches all those things whilst firmly focussing on fun, so this was a big appeal for joining as a franchisee.’

As well as sharing and loving our brand values, work/life balance was also one of the main reasons Miss Victoria wanted to join babyballet as a franchisee because although she dreamt of building her own dance business, it was of huge importance for her that she could do so at her own pace around her son, Logan, growing up and she has absolutely made that happen.

He was only 1 when she took the leap of faith to join us and ever since she has built a babyballet community and business to be incredibly proud of whilst raising a fantastic young man too. It’s not always easy running your own business, especially whilst raising a family, but Miss Victoria has done so with apparent ease and her dream of being a wonderful mum AND a business owner has come true so absolute credit to you, Miss V!

“in a world where we are encouraging children to grow up to be fit and healthy, babyballet is the perfect place to start”

Miss Kayla joined Miss Victoria’s team in 2014 because after only two years, the school had grown to such a size that Miss Victoria needed to take on another teacher. Miss Victoria delights when she talks about Miss Kayla as she feels so fortunate that she is equally reliable, committed and shares the same mission as she does of providing fun and exciting classes for their little stars.

Not only has Miss Victoria been an inspiration as a teacher and leader, but she has also been inspirational as a fundraiser too having taken part in our national campaigns for charities including Children in Need, Children’s Activities Week and Tommy’s Baby Charity, which have collectively raised over £1million.

Looking back at the decade, Miss Victoria told me that there have been highlights every single week teaching her beloved babyballet stars, but the absolute highlight was performing with them in a local charity performance, ‘To Live is to Dance’, at the Wyvern Theatre.

Miss Victoria still describes her job as ‘extremely rewarding and fantastic fun!’ and is looking forward with excitement to welcoming lots more new stars to babyballet Swindon as she dances in to her second decade with us. Ten years on and she still beams about how much she loves it. ‘Seeing those little faces light up on their way to class still fills me with complete pride and happiness’, she says.

And that appreciation is reciprocated by all the families that she has taught. The dedication and care that Miss Victoria has shown over the past ten years is reflected in all the gorgeous cards and messages that have been sent and I would like to share a few of those with you now…

“Thank you so much for being such an amazing dance teacher. I have watched my daughter’s confidence grow as the weeks have gone by.”

“Thank you so much for brightening up our week”

“Thank you for all the wonderful ballet lessons over the last few years. It has been the highlight of our week”.

“Thank you for all that you have taught me, I have learnt so much and I’m always practicing at home!’

“Thank you so much for being such a fantastic teacher and total inspiration for my daughter.”

This kind of feedback shows just how much the effort that Mis Victoria has been put in has been appreciated and how much she is adored by the families who have attended classes.

I have always loved seeing Miss Victoria in person because she has a smile that lights up the room, is great fun and has a heart made of gold. She seriously doesn’t realise the impact of her own sparkle!

If ever I’ve met someone who is the first to tell everyone else how amazing they are but struggles to believe it in themselves and massively undersells herself, then Miss Victoria is that person and I hope this post helps her to reflect and see what an amazing lady she is, what an incredible journey she has been on and how much magic she has brought to all her stars along the way, whilst being a fantastic mummy to Logan.

I’d also like to say a huge thank you to Miss Victoria for being so kind, supportive and genuine to me personally since she started. Every call, message or meeting we have ever had has been so sincere and I am grateful for her support along the way, especially during the pandemic when things were rather unpredictable and scary. She propped me up and made me laugh when I needed it so thanks for the funny videos and supportive texts. They really did mean more than you know!

I imagine she is reading this with her face behind her hands because she really don’t like the fuss, but she absolutely deserves it and I want her to know what a complete star she is!

A truly wonderful lady who has brought so much babyballet magic, how lucky we all were that she found us that day!

I am so proud of you, Miss Victoria. You dreamt, you believed, and you achieved, and I can’t wait to see your next decade unfold as you bring more sparkle to the stars in Swindon. I know you are excited to spread more babyballet magic by adding more classes to your timetable when Logan starts Secondary school in September, so I wish you continued success both in business and as a mum!

Keep sparkling, you are quietly phenomenal, modestly marvellous and absolutely AMAZING!

Love, Miss Claire x


babyballet Swindon class places must be booked in advance. To register your interest email Swindon@babyballet.co.uk or call Miss Victoria on 07788 502460. Visit www.babyballet.co.uk for more information.