Lincolnshire Youth Ballet

Maggie is a former pupil of Welland School of Dancing. Under the tutelage of Miss Desbruslais, Maggie gained a place at the Royal Ballet School as a junior associate, and then at Central School of Ballet in 1996. In her final year, Maggie toured the UK with Ballet Central, selected as soloist for the reworking of Christopher Gable’s beloved ballet “Celebration”. Maggie’s first professional contract was with Vienna Festival Ballet touring the UK, Austria and Germany with Swan Lake, Coppelia, and The Nutcracker. Maggie’s Musical Theatre debut came in 2000, when she joined the UK tour of Phantom of the Opera as one of the Corps de Ballet. Her other performance credits include the 2001 World Tour of Rhythm of the Dance, with the National Dance Co. of Ireland, and the World Tour of Phantom of the Opera from 2005-07, touring Seoul, Taipei, Hong Kong and Singapore, where she met Mr Skinner.

In 2004 Maggie graduated from the Royal Academy of Dance, Teaching Certificate Programme, with Distinction. Since then she has taught extensively throughout the UK and Australia, as a guest teacher for New York State University, Head of Dance at St. Georges School Windsor Castle, and Ballet teacher for Bodyworks, Cambridge.

In 2006 Maggie started up her own children’s dance company in Windsor called Twinkle Tots Dance, specializing in Under 5 movement, dance and creativity. In 2010, Maggie took over the running of Welland school of Dancing from Miss Desbruslais and was Principal for 14 years, stepping down in 2024 to concentrate on LYB.

Maggie is looking forward to being able to bring the local ballet talent in our region together in Lincolnshire Youth Ballet's next production of Coppélia.

Henri started dancing at the age of 3 and has gained her RAD Advanced Ballet, ISTD Tap and Modern exams. At age 16 she went on to study her performance training at The Theatre School, Edinburgh for a year before finally attending the prestigious West Street School of Dance in Covent Garden, London under the direction of Natasha Lisakova. After 3 years training she gained a first class Diploma in Dance. On leaving college, Henri enjoyed a career as a professional dancer for over 14 years.

Her dancing career took her all over the world. While Henri was studying in Edinburgh she performed with The Scottish Ballet in Romeo and Juliet. Her first professional contract was with DisneyLand Paris where she performed at The Lucky Nugget Saloon for three years. She spent two years with The Lido de Paris on their World Tour where she performed in Texas, Florida, Naples in the US, Moscow, Milan, Paris, Vienna, Taipei, Belgium, Munich Germany and Beirut. She joined The Broadway Musical Company as a dancer/singer which toured all over Japan and where she performing extracts from A Chorus Line, Les Miserables, My Fair Lady, Gypsy, Cabaret, A Fiddler on The Roof, 42nd Street and The Sound of Music. Henri enjoyed many wonderful years dancing on board cruise liners with Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, where she was the adage couple with her husband; and Jean Ann Ryan Production Cruises where she played the part of Jan in Grease.

Early on in her career she danced at the Eden Court Theatre in Inverness on their Christmas productions of Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs and Cinderella. Other productions include The Gaiety Gala where she was a Tiller Girl at the Gaiety Theatre, Ayr and The New Tonnochy Show in Hong Kong.

After leaving the world of performing to start a family she then joined the Welland School of Dancing teaching staff in 2011. Henri formalized her teacher training at the Royal Academy of Dance in London studying the BA (Hons) Dance Education programme, she graduated in July 2013 with a Certificate of Higher Education: Dance Education.

Alongside teaching ballet Henri teaches a busy Barre fitness class at the Welland School of Dancing which she set up in 2012. Henri is also co-founder of Lincolnshire Youth Ballet (LYB) A youth ballet company created by Maggie Skinner in 2021 and which is going from strength to strength. LYB has so far successfully produced productions of Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Alice in Wonderland.

Jorja is a former pupil of Welland School of Dancing where she started dancing at the age of 3. Under the training of Miss Purr, Jorja completed her RAD Grades through to Advanced 1. At 16, Jorja left Welland School of Dancing to continue into full-time vocational training at The School of Ballet Theatre UK, where she is currently in her graduating year on the BA (Hons) Ballet Performance course in partnership with The University of West London.

During her younger years, Jorja took part in many youth ballet companies around the country, including English Youth Ballet and Cambridgeshire Youth Ballet, performing in Swan Lake, Giselle, Alice in Wonderland and Coppelia. Some of her most recent performances with Ballet Theatre UK Company and School include Sleeping Beauty and Coppelia as Corps de Ballet and George Balanchine’s Who Cares? as a soloist.

Jorja began teaching Ballet to all ages in 2021 around the East Midlands sharing her own experiences and knowledge she has gained so far. Jorja also uses her fitness and anatomy training to teach a range of fitness classes such as Pilates, HITT, Barbell and Yoga. Jorja has been part of LYB since it’s first inception, as a rehearsal assistant, guest artist and latterly as an assistant choreographer. 

Lucy is a professional ballet dancer. Lucy trained at the School of BTUK, graduating in 2022 with a BA Hons in Ballet Performance. She went on to perform with the company in productions of Coppelia, Romeo and Juliet, Beauty and the Beast, The Snow Queen and Swan Lake. Lucy made her debut with LYB in 2023 dancing the lead role of Titania in A Midsummer Nights Dream. Of herself Lucy says “I am a highly motivated and ambitious individual who has developed a mature and responsible approach to tasks or situations that are introduced to me. As a graduate with 3 years of full-time training experience, I am familiarized with long schedules and hard-working hours while still maintaining a healthy personal life.

Lucy returned to LYB in 2024 to play the lead role of Alice in LYB’s production of Alice in Wonderland, and in 2025 to play the lead role of Swanhilda in Coppelia. The students love Lucy’s approachable nature, her generosity of time when giving advice and tips to students about the life of a professional ballerina.

Born in Brittany, France, Paul trained at the Paris Opera Ballet School for 6 years, where he performed several productions and international tours with the company. He then joined the Junior Ballet of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Danse in Lyon, France where he performed various works by José Martinez, Bruno Bouché and Ohad Naharin.

Moving to England in 2021, Paul joined Ballet Theatre UK where he performed corps de ballet and soloist roles in Christopher Moore’s The Snow Queen, Beauty and the Beast, The Wizard of Oz, as well as Romeo and Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet.

He also performed in Christopher Wheeldon’s Cinderella and Derek Dean’s Swan Lake with English National Ballet at the Royal Albert Hall.

In 2024, Paul joined The Croatian National Ballet in Split where he performed Laurencia and The Nutcracker before joining New English Ballet Theatre for the Spring season 2025, dancing in Valentino Zuchetti’s Apollo e Dafne and The choice of Hecules for the London Haendel Festival.

For Lincolnshire Youth Ballet, Paul has choreographed and performed in Alice in Wonderland in 2024 and and as Frantz in Coppélia in 2025.

Sophia trained at the Welland School of Dancing from age 3 to 18, completing the RAD syllabus up to Advanced 2 and training in modern and tap. She also attended the Central School of Ballet Associate Programme and Tring Park Classical Ballet Academy. As a younger dancer, Sophia was a member of the London Children’s Ballet Touring Company, performing in Ballet Shoes, and English Youth Ballet, appearing in Coppélia. She joined Lincolnshire Youth Ballet in its first year, performing in Cinderella as the Spring Fairy and in Sleeping Beauty as the Lilac Fairy.

Sophia studies at Durham University, where she is an active member and Secretary of the Ballet Company, performing in Don Quixote in 2025 and preparing for Swan Lake in 2026. Sophia teaches a weekly open ballet class for Durham’s “Instep” dance members, and competes in several dance styles as a member of the competition team (jazz, lyrical, ballet and tap). Sophia is thrilled to have the opportunity to choreograph the advanced ballet team entry in the academic year 25/26. Sophia’s interest in choreography was sparked at a young age through choreography competitions at Welland School of Dancing, leading to opportunities to perform her own work at the Stamford Corn Exchange and with Chantry Dance at the Stamford Arts Centre.

In summer 2025, she joined Lincolnshire Youth Ballet as a rehearsal assistant and choreographer, where she worked on Coppélia and particularly enjoyed guiding the senior dancers through their solos. She is thrilled to be returning for The Nutcracker in January 2026. 

Parent Review – Sleeping Beauty 2022

"LYB is the highlight of my daughter's summer!  We are so grateful she had something productive to do in the holidays - great exercise and a fantastic opportunity to rehearse, train and perform with professional dancers. Plus all the excitement of performing on stage in beautiful costumes.  She's made lots of new friends and can't wait till next year!"

Parent Review – A Midsummer Night’s Dream 2023

Wow, wow wow!!!What can I say, what a show in fact we felt it was the best one yet!

It was so polished, professional and the choreography was just outstanding. I simply don’t know how you and miss Henri do it in such a short space of time. The principals were magnificent this year and so super kind. Marco and Lucy were just so lovely to them, and that was just so appreciated.

I feel very privileged to have watched the very talented dancers and it really is the highlight of my year, it is a huge commitment each year and I wouldn’t change it for the world. To see my daughter on the stage radiating her ‘ show face’ is a dream come true. I was waiting for the Miss Purr difficult pointe dance and she was bursting with pride as was I!

To watch my daughter on pointe was breathtaking, the control and poise and confidence she has developed at 12 years old I can’t thank you and Miss Henri enough for!

I hope you all have a super rest of the summer holidays.

Please pass on our thanks to your tremendous team.