Friday 15 December 2017

Teenage entrepreneur Sophia Elias officially opens her Nexgen Dance Academy with some unexpected help from the East Grinstead Town Mayor


East Grinstead's Town Mayor, Cllr Julie Mockford, with Nexgen's dance students 

East Grinstead - Last week, 18-year-old Sophia Elias from East Grinstead officially opened her dance academy called Nexgen with a little unexpected help from East Grinstead's Town Mayor. 

Nexgen Dance Academy operates out of Solan Fitness, the award-winning gym within the Atrium in King Street, East Grinstead.

In this video just released by Sophia to mark the launch of Nexgen, Cllr Julie Mockford is seen cutting the ribbon to what appears to be another business within the Atrium when she suddenly hears music coming from inside Solan Fitness, so she goes to investigate.

Click here to watch the video: https://t.co/TZQc07FxOu

She is drawn towards where the music is coming from and when she pushes open the doors to Nexgen's dance studio to satisfy her curiosity, Sophia takes the Mayor by the hand and starts teaching her the dance moves of the dance class she is in the middle of. The Mayor irresistibly joins in with great gusto and has a great time with Sophia and the kids.

Sophia Elias with Cllr Julie Mockford, East Grinstead Town Mayor

Sophia started Nexgen in May 2017 when she was only 17 years old. She has been dancing since the age of 2, starting with ballet, contemporary dance and tap. She later attended local dance schools, notably Hayley Bullock's Street Dance classes and then trained at Sarah Benton's Step Up and Sing Academy where Sophia learned musical theatre and singing. She started Nexgen to inspire others with the same passion for dance as her to get dancing.

Sophia has danced and acted in local theatre groups, appeared on Hellenic TV, and been on stage at the Hawth Theatre in Crawley and at Chequer Mead as well as performed in front of some 8,000 people at Saint Hill Manor, East Grinstead. She has a very positive go-getter attitude to life and her passion to help youngsters through dance and her love of children led her to create Nexgen.

"One of the reasons I wanted to start Nexgen is that I see too many kids with their heads buried in social media 24/7 or watching TV, and no longer interacting with others. Some kids mix with the wrong crowd and sadly get into drugs and alcohol. Nexgen gives them something really positive to do in the real world and teaches them a useful skill too. But most of all, it's great fun! So I say 'Nexgen not Netflix' and 'Dancing not Gaming'!" 

"I would like to thank the Mayor so much for her support and for helping us officially open Nexgen. We had such a good time dancing with her when we were filming the video!" said Sophia.

Nexgen started with 3 students in May but now has around 30, which isn't bad, especially when you take into account the fact that dance classes only take place 2 days a week at the moment. The company is growing fast and is proving to be very popular with local young people due to the fact that Sophia has a fantastic relationship with her students, and their parents are extremely happy with the results too. 

Sophia will soon have to start looking for bigger premises to operate from! Here's one of Nexgen's many Facebook reviews: 

Facebook review of Nexgen

"My daughter had tried other classes but didn't like them. First class with Sophia at Nexgen, she was hooked! She always has lots of fun and [the dancing] has built her confidence enormously! Sophia is fantastic with the children and a great teacher. I would recommend to anyone."

Nexgen is so called because Sophia is teaching the Next Generation how to dance. 

Recently, the very talented dancer and Brit School graduate, Adison Austin, who used to be part of the well-known dance troop, Khronos Agoria, joined Nexgen to teach the upper academy (16+ age group). He is a great asset to the academy. 

Adison Austin with Sophia Elias

Sophia's plan for the business is to, soon, introduce performing arts and singing to the academy and so create the next generation of artists and enable them to gain enough confidence in life so they can adopt a positive attitude in order to reach their goals in the arts.

Sophia's mother, Minie Elias, helps Sophia run the business and has played a big part in its success to date. Minie is an entrepreneur too who owns Aspiring Angels Professional Ironing Service and has run other self-built businesses in the past. 

Minie also introduced Sophia to the work of American sales trainer and best-selling author Grant Cardone. Sophia loves the advice Grant Cardone gives and, in fact, attributes much of Nexgen's success to following the advice that Grant gives in his books such as "The 10X Rule", and on his TV show called "Whatever It Takes".

Sophia's plans for the future include taking Nexgen to London and all over the UK as a franchise, modelled on her first academy in East Grinstead.

Fees are paid termly and are very reasonable, starting at only £100 for a 3-month term, with some classes lasting 1.5 hours each, rather than the usual 1 hour.

Sophia Elias

For further information, please contact:

Sophia Elias
Solan Fitness
1st Floor, The Atrium
King Street
East Grinstead
West Sussex
RH19 3DJ

07538 971862

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Monday 10 April 2017

New Owners Save The Ravenswood, 500-Year-Old East Grinstead Wedding Venue, From Developers


l to r: Tash Cronin, General Manager, Samantha Wordie, Weddings & Events Co-ordinator, Steve McArthur, outgoing owner, and directors Stuart Guy and Harrison Wood.

The Ravenswood had started to close down and plans were going ahead to convert the building into residential units, but East Grinstead-based Samantha Wordie of Samantha Wordie Photography and businessman Stuart Guy have now purchased the business and have saved the day.

East Grinstead, 10th April 2017 - The new owners of The Ravenswood Country House Inn, the beautiful wedding and event venue in Sharpthorne, near East Grinstead, have stopped the developers from moving in.

Steve McArthur who had successfully run and owned The Ravenswood and hosted hundreds of weddings since 1980, reluctantly decided it was time for him to retire. He passionately wanted his hotel to remain a wedding venue, but was forced to submit plans to convert the 500-year-old hotel into residential units in case he didn't find a buyer who was willing to keep The Ravenswood going as it was. Steve had, in fact, started to close the business down when, a few weeks ago, Samantha Wordie of Samantha Wordie Photography (someone very familiar with the world of weddings), noticed that The Ravenswood website was down while trying to find a wedding venue for a couple, and she called to find out why. She was told it was being sold, at which point she got in touch with her businessman friend, Stuart Guy, who got together with her and other friends to save The Ravenswood.

"Stuart and I had been looking for a venue to buy for a few years. When we found out The Ravenswood was being sold and possibly converted into apartments, we decided the place was too beautiful to be lost to developers and we got together to save it! It all happened by chance! I have many years of experience in the wedding business, and I have always wanted to run my own dream wedding venue. With all its character, charm and history, that's exactly what The Ravenswood is - not only for weddings but also for parties, conferences, concerts and all manner of other events. This is a dream come true for Stuart and me. We want people to know we're fully open for business and ready to take bookings right now!" says Samantha Wordie.

It's also business as usual for the Sunday Lunch & Live Jazz, which will still be held at The Ravenswood every Sunday from 12 Noon until 3pm as it always has been, and on Sunday 21st May 2017, 11am-3pm, The Ravenswood will be hosting a Wedding Fayre together with Empirical Events, the wedding show company.

The Ravenswood is indeed a unique property, set in 20 acres of beautiful lawns, gardens and lakes, with its 4 function rooms and 34 bedrooms, 6 of which have four-poster beds. The original part of the house was built in 1426 and over the years, it has had many interesting owners and occupiers, most notably Princess Beatrice, youngest daughter of Queen Victoria, as well as Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands.

For more information, please contact:

Samantha Wordie, Weddings & Events Co-ordinator
The Ravenswood Country House Inn 
Horsted Lane
Sharpthorne
West Sussex
RH19 4HY


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