Author: Mark_DB

In the words of Chief Brody in the film Jaws we had realised some time ago that we needed a bigger shop and in January of this year the perfect property became available.

Offering us twice the space, over two floors, this light and spacious, turn of the century premises on bustling Camden Road, amongst its varied shops and cafe’s, immediately felt like it was where we should be. Having been on the market for two hours it was ours. Serendipity perhaps?

The first floor offers a larger open retail area and a small fitting space for folk who won’t want to go down to the lower ground floor. The lower ground floor has two fitting rooms for dancewear and uniforms as well as our shoes including pointes.

With parking just 5 minutes walk away at the Royal Victoria Centre we are now easier to find but minutes from where it all started for the company.

After over 50 years in the ‘small shop on the corner’ we know that some of our customers will feel sad to see us leave but we hope that 8 Camden Road will offer all of our customers the space, greater range, ease of use and most of all the same friendy and professional dancing expertise that they have loved throughout our years.

So we have the ‘bigger boat’ and we can’t wait for our customers to some and see it.

With Love, Kate & Mark

Here at Dancing Boutique we pride ourselves on sourcing wonderful dancewear for our dancers from some of the world’s leading manufacturers.

Dancers generally love what we source for them, and it helps that we have been doing this for a little while (51 years and counting!) We love hearing from dancers what they would like us to stock and with a dancing daughter ourselves we are never short of tips!

However we are also aware of the need for good value. We know that being a dancer can get a little expensive. As well as dance basics, and the uniform you need for your dance classes, you also know that you have to look after your feet with good, well fitted shoes and often there is the need for something special for an audition or just to feel fabulous !

To make it easier for us to support this challenge, we are a private, family owned company who work hard to buy well from our suppliers, offer dance essentials as well as high end and don’t have hundreds of staff to look after! (although sometimes it can get a little too busy!)

We update our ‘Sale’ page regularly to show items we have on offer, are end of line, have limited sizes, we have too many of or we secured a promotion from the supplier. Or just because we feel we can.

We also work incredibly hard to add value to every purchase our dancers make, providing them with fitting advice, sizing expertise, our 50 years of knowledge of what they need for their chosen dance discipline and a comprehensive understanding of the uniform needed at one of the many schools across the South East we work with.

Times have become a little harder but we are here to do what we can to help keep our dancers looking and feeling their best.

Born in Tunbridge Wells Sophie Medvedev began her dance training locally before becoming a Junior Associate at the Royal Ballet London. At the age of 11 she began full training at Elmhurst Ballet school which is where her relationship with Dancing Boutique really began. She trained there for 8 years and in her graduate year was able to perform with Birmingham Royal Ballet. She then went on to dance with various companies around the world including Croatian National Ballet and Royal Swedish Ballet.  

Sophie is currently a part of International Arts Collective and, when able, tours with Saint Petersburg Classic Ballet company. She founded the wells academy and SYM dance teaching both locally and further afield.  

She discovered Merlet pointe shoes a few years ago through Dancing Boutique and haven’t looked back since. She loves the comfort and as well as the support they give her and is proud to be an Etoile Merlet and work alongside Dancing Boutique. 

Manufacturer since 1974, Merlet dedicates its know-how, its energy and its passion of the dance to the design, the innovation and the manufacture of slippers and shoes of dance, in the tradition of the master shoes. 

It is with a careful attention to detail that Merlet works every shoe and combines tradition and modernity brilliantly. Each pair is carefully developed in our workshop in Verneuil-sur-Vienne, near Limoges, and is carefully controlled to ensure that dancers have a product of perfect quality and finish. . 

Dance is a demanding art. Aware of the need to always acquire new techniques and adapt to the expectations and needs of dancers of all levels, Merlet reinvents itself every day by offering new products, imagined and created from a dancers requirement. 

Dancing Boutique are delighted to offer our customers Merlet Pointe Shoes. In stock we offer their professional range with the Diva and the Diva (hard)  and the Merlet Rose which is ideal for beginners. 

Kate & Mark Curtis acquired Dancing Boutique from the original founders in June 2019, carrying on the family ‘owned and run’ history since the business started in 1971.

With backgrounds in Publishing, Finance, Advertising, Tourism, and Industry they had spent their years developing and improving businesses and felt that Dancing Boutique was a truly exciting opportunity in an industry they love.

The couple have three children, one of whom graduated in 2020 as a dancer at Laine Performing Arts. Having become ‘dance parents’ as their daughter started her ballet training from the age of eight years, they grew to understand how important a good service driven dancewear provider was for fittings, ballet shoes, pointe shoes and the expertise to understand their daughters feet.

In their first year, Kate and Mark focused on reviewing all aspects of the business, keeping what worked and improving what would make the service to their dancers and schools even better.

As Mark says ‘The fitting, sales and customer service staff had been working with dancers for many years and already provided a great service. Giving them the tools to make this quicker, more fool proof and allowing them to just focus on delighting customers seemed to make sense’

Having added modern stock control, purchasing and retail systems, a rebrand, delightful new website and a refurbishment of the shop by early 2020 the world changed.

The Dancing Boutique team have worked hard through the Pandemic to ensure first class service to their customers, an online pointe shoe booking facility that has seen over 1000 fittings taken up since its launch, exciting new product lines including a range of diversity dancewear and shoes, a new school wide uniform for one of its major schools and close relationships with its suppliers.

As Kate says ‘It has not been a period that we had planned but that is the same for everyone. However, we are in a great position to keep building now we are out the otherside and are thrilled at the support and great feedback we have had from our customers. We must be doing something right!’

Update 2022 – in August 2021 we took on new distribution and warehousing premises to help us fulfil customer’s shipped orders and help us hold ever more stock lines to feed the Tunbridge Wells shop and our growing number of schools. Onwards and upwards, we keep building!

Further Update July 2022 – we moved to fabulous new premises in Tunbridge Wells and can now be found at 8 Camden Road, Tunbridge Wells, TN1 2PT. Onwards and upwards!