INTERVIEW
can’t engineer. Her friend knew
Robbie Williams’ best mate’s
dad, and so Joanna played at his
gigs until he moved to America.
She’s a life-long fan, and a Take
That song is going to be the first
song at her wedding reception
in a few weeks time.
But a cloud hangs over
Joanne’s memory of this time:
Shalisa committed suicide. “She
was a lovely, lovely girl,” she
says sadly. Joanne doesn’t know
the reason, but the pressure to
succeed as a performer is likely
to have taken its toll. Which is
another reason why Joanna’s
sheer groundedness takes you by
surprise.
While at university, she and her
brother Chris went on a UK tour,
supporting mind-over-matter
merchant Uri Geller. Press
notices described them as
“reminiscent of The Carpenters
with a rocky edge.” Later,
Joanne was offered a part in
Spirit of the Dance (sequel to
Riverdance) as their violinist and
a dancer. After training in Las
Vegas the show would go to
North Carolina, and then the
world. “But I was five months
off completing my degree, I
couldn’t defer it because the
course was to change the
following academic year, and
with the cost of the loan it
would be stupid to pack it in. So
I didn’t go: I made a decision. It
was really hard.”
Decisiveness is clearly part
of Joanna’s makeup. At just
23, straight after university,
she started a dance school in
Beckton in London’s East End,
which is still going strong. It
seems remarkably young to take
such a step, but she had no
doubts about it. “I think you can
do anything if you’ve got the
training. I can’t do brain surgery
because I haven’t been trained
for it but with my dancing I
always wanted to open dance
school.”
Joanna travels up every
Saturday to teach, and is
delighted with her pupils’
life
progress. “We’ve got a link with
a casting agency – so a lot of my
kids get work for MTV, which
is cool. It’s a very multicultural
school so we’ve got blond haired
blue eyes, Afro Caribbean, mixed
race, we can provide whatever
look is required. And they’re
lovely.”
A year ago she opened Fusion
Arts here on the Island, a
dance school for ages two to
adult. It is based in Ryde, but
with satellite classes in Cowes,
East Cowes and Newport. “I
never tire of teaching dance.
We teach ballet, tap, jazz, hip
hop, and musical theatre. I
use the Australian Teachers of
Dancing for our exams, except
for musical theatre, for whi 6