"Beginning at age 4, as a shy and uncoordinated little girl, I look back at the 15 years I spent in the warm yellow walled studio of the Limerick School of Classical Ballet as some of the most intense, educational, and freeing days of my young life. Not only was Alice's ballet studio a physical escape, under her precise and disciplined instruction it also provided much needed structure in my life. Arriving sometimes straight from long days at school I would relish the hours I spent practising the beautiful adages and exercises Alice created. Those hours not only offered me time to free my body to move and grow with grace but also developed my mind. Memorizing intricate sequences and routines I see now this time gave me many skills I still possess including a fine-tuned attention to detail. I genuinely believe the ability to focus and express myself I developed through ballet not only helped in my dance career but also in my academics.

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I credit my posture and my ability to carry myself in any situation in life with quiet calm to my ballet training under the statuesque and ever serine Alice. Not only did she instill in me a love for movement and a passion for ballet which flows out of her every pore but she also gave me the ability to hold my head high, command any room with confidence and know my own mind secure that my body will follow. Never will you meet a stronger woman than Alice; knowledgeable and sure in her instruction of classical ballet and in equal measure kind and nurturing. For all of us who spent time in her care she was a fierce ballet mistress and a dear friend.

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I have never once in my life regretted the day my mother sent me dressed in more pale pink then you could ever dream to waddle nervously into Alice's studio. I look back at my years there as being some of the most formative of my life. Not only did she encourage me to dance but she also motivated me to become the best version of myself and I am grateful to her for that and to the Limerick School of Classical ballet for providing an artistic oasis to so many children over the years, many of whom like myself danced there and elsewhere across the world. Even now as I sit here in my home in Dubai and appreciate the life I have I know for certain I would not be where I am or the woman I am without the years I spent dancing happily at the Limerick School of Classical Ballet.