Musicals hen party dance class Leicester [ west end transfer · leicester matinee ]
You name the shows; the teacher turns them into something a roomful of non-dancers can actually perform by the end of the afternoon. The whole company is covered by one flat figure, set out in writing next to the hired room's venue cost — £185 across ninety minutes, the length we recommend, or £160 plus venue across sixty.
House lights down,
thirteen leads
The last formation, held for as long as the phones need it. Every show number ends up here eventually.
Put the date in before the run sells out
A rough date and a rough headcount gets the conversation going. Somebody rings inside the day with the slots that are really free and a written total that includes the room without you having to ask. Nothing else is asked for at this stage — no final list of names, no decision on which show, no commitment beyond the date itself, and a hen party dance class is the one plan on the weekend that survives contact with everybody's diary.
The theme stays open long after the slot is held. A hen do dance class can change its mind about the material weeks later, and the shows attached to a dance hen party are swapped all the time with no fuss and no charge. Nobody needs to have danced before — which quietly settles the argument that stalls most hen party ideas — and of all the hen party activities being weighed up, show choreography is the one built from the ground up to be read from the back row by people with no training at all.
Your bill, cast on the spot
The great advantage of show material is that it was written to be legible from a long way away. Big arms, clean lines, faces up, everything aimed outward at an imaginary circle — which is exactly what a party of thirteen people with no training needs, and exactly what makes the footage look better than anybody expects. There is no generic musicals routine waiting in a folder. The teacher writes the routine in real time in front of you, after taking a proper look at who is nervous, who is already front and centre, and who did a lot of amateur dramatics and has gone suspiciously quiet.
Mixed enthusiasm is the normal state of a hen party and this theme handles it better than most. The people who know every lyric get something with a bit of shape to it; the people who came for the company get a part they can hold without panicking. Ninety opens the bill: room for a second show, a curtain-call ending, and no need to hurry anybody through the last run — it is where a double bill becomes genuinely comfortable rather than a scramble. The hour version runs a warm-up, one show number taught to the end, and a closing shape that reads on camera.
Show choreography is storytelling as much as steps — a look across the stage, an arm that lands exactly on the lyric, the whole company turning towards the bride on the big note. Storytelling is the first casualty of a rushed class, and the longer booking gives the non-theatrical half of the room time to stop counting and start performing.
We film nothing ourselves; every clip that exists afterwards was shot by somebody in the company. Tell us which show matters and it gets weighed up before anything is settled.
Five shows audition; your company decides the bill
Chicagochairs, hats, attitude — slow enough to learn, sharp enough to look expert
likely leadHairspraythe most forgiving thing on the sheet; nobody has ever sulked through it
near-certainSIXshort, punchy phrases and a front line that wants six different faces
strong contenderA Chorus Linethe kickline, attempted by a party that has never kicked anything in unison
if the nerve holdsMoulin Rougeclosing-shot material — one big shape, whole company, curtain
the creditsTreat the five above as contenders only. Cats, Les Misérables and half the rest of the West End sit behind them, and the bill is settled on the day with the company already present.
[ a show the group would riot for? ]Put it on the form and it auditions.
Matinee desk ↑
Where the matinee sits in a Leicester day
Central on purpose, which matters more than it sounds. Food first somewhere near Granby Street; the class lands in the early afternoon while everybody still has legs, and afterwards there is a wander down New Walk or into Highcross for the part of the day that involves sitting down. Parties travel in from Loughborough, Wigston and Market Harborough on ordinary trains and buses, and nobody has to organise lifts.
Costume is entirely the company's own business. Nothing gets handed over at the door — no hats, no canes, no feathers, no jackets — and the parties who go furthest with it always come out of the footage best. Arrive in leggings and not one count of the class changes; the difference shows up only on camera.
Confirmation comes with the address written down, so the company can plan around a real place rather than a promise.
Two stubs from the matinee bill
"Three of us are obsessive about shows and the rest could not have named one. The teacher found a number that gave the obsessives something to chew on without leaving anybody else behind, which I did not think was possible in one afternoon."
"I expected a photocopied routine and instead watched the whole thing get made up in front of us to suit the nine people who actually turned up. The written price with the room in it arrived the same afternoon we asked."
Six questions, straight answers
The seventh is nearly always whether the bride gets a solo bar — ring 07535 351968 and ask a human. If she wants one she gets one, and if she does not she is safely hidden in row two.
How is the musicals booking priced overall? +
The whole company is covered by one number rather than anything worked out head by head. The figure is £185 for ninety minutes or £160 for sixty, and the hired room's venue cost is quoted alongside it in writing. Venue rates are not identical across dates or rooms and extras such as parking may apply, so work from the written quote rather than an estimate.
Do we have to travel out of town for it? +
No. It is a central Leicester room we hire, held for your company alone; we put the name and address in writing as soon as the date is fixed, and it is a few minutes off Granby Street for anybody arriving by train.
Which shows can the party actually choose from? +
Name the ones you love on the form. Chicago, Hairspray, Cats, Les Misérables, SIX, A Chorus Line and Moulin Rouge come up most, and off-the-beaten-track requests are welcome. The casting happens once the room is standing there.
Is singing going to be expected of us? +
Never. It is a dance class with show tunes attached, not an audition. What tends to happen is that the room starts singing anyway around the third run-through, unprompted and often quite badly.
Should the company arrive in costume or not? +
Anything you can move in. Nothing is handed out at the door — no costumes, no hats, no canes — so a theatrical wardrobe is the company's own project. Leggings and trainers earn precisely the same class.
None of us are theatrical types. Does that matter? +
Not at all. Show choreography was built to read from the back of a theatre, which makes it unusually kind to beginners; no dance experience is needed anywhere in the party and stepping out for a section is fine.