A damaging row between members of the dance community continued yesterday with board members claiming the personality clashes could hurt the future of dance on the Island.

The row erupted publicly last week when five members of the National Dance Foundation board announced their resignation over concerns about large salaries and expenses and fears that not enough money was reaching the students.

But yesterday, members of the board said the Foundation provided intensive programmes which the Island had never received before and $120,000 in scholarships had been given to students in the last year. Board member Sophia Cannonier, who is one of the only Bermudians to have danced professionally, said: “What is happening now is that personal issues and past experiences are coming out.

“But we need to get over the personal issues for the good of the children. These kids have an amazing opportunity, one that I never had when I was on the Island.”

Honorary board member Jean Hannant, who was Chairman of the National Dance Theatre for 15 years, said the NDF was not trying to take away from anything that came before it, or people’s involvement in those programmes.

Instead, it is looking to move the dance community forward and allow Bermudian students the chance to be exposed to professional dancers for long periods of time. Mrs. Hannant said: “The people who were involved in NDT put the idea together of having a dance foundation on the Island. We decided during many meetings that we needed to have something bigger than the NDT and something more professional . “Without the NDT we wouldn’t be here today.”

The NDF is a charity that aims to promote excellence in dance and partners with the American Ballet Theatre to hold intensive summer programmes and master classes throughout the year.

Mrs. Cannonier said: “The foundation is now saying ‘For those of you who want to take this to the next step come to our workshops and find out if you really want to be a dancer’. We take students from every school, we compliment what they do, but this is something bigger than anything else Bermuda has had before.

“To put those programmes together takes a lot of money and a lot of time.”

Last night the former board members Louise Jackson, Barbara Frith, Conchita Ming, Jeanne Legere and Lizz Pimentel held a meeting for parents involved in their dance schools. The meeting was not open to press.

Dance row continues