Oonagh Phelan studied ballet from a young age at her mother’s school, the Gwenda Grayson School of Dance. Oonagh’s mother trained at Arts Educational Schools in the 1940’s and was a professional dancer for many years before running her ballet school in Enfield until she retired at 75.
Oonagh grew to love the theatre in all it’s forms. She went on to study French and Drama at university. She also trained in stage combat, performing, directing and choreographing the fights for several London fringe shows! She continued to attend regular ballet class throughout this time, until in her late twenties, she decided to qualify to teach with the ISTD, and opened the Islington branch of her mother’s school. This ran for 10 years, until the birth of her first daughter Sophie in 2007. Having moved to Cambridgeshire, Oonagh started the ballet branch at the Stephanie Prior School of Dance in Royston in 2010, which grew fast and had 60+ students aged 3-18 when she left, on the family’s move to Bourn in late 2012. A year later she opened Bourn Ballet School.
In September 2018, Oonagh opened a franchise in the Tiny Toes Ballet pre-school dance programme. She employs other teachers to deliver this lovely syllabus, which is fully integrated with the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum, to children aged from 6 months up to 6 years in central Cambridge and also near Newmarket.
Oonagh has entered students for hundreds of ISTD examinations through the years, in both ballet and modern theatre dance, with 100% success rate. She has choreographed and directed several dance school shows both in London, and at Comberton Village College ,and most recently at the Cambridge Junction. She holds enhanced CRB certificates both through the ISTD the Scouting Association, and several other settings, and she is a Cambridgeshire Council Licensed Child Chaperone.