Nicolson Square Edinburgh (NSE), part of Central Hall Venues group, will help young drama students between six and 18 achieve their dream by hosting the city’s first combined performing arts school. The new Momentum Performing Arts Academy at NSE provides a combination of three disciplines – musical theatre; acting and performance; and film and TV.
After a previous performing arts school closed, NSE supported Momentum’s founder, Alana Grant, by providing the venue for the new venture. Now over 75 pupils from all over Scotland, assisted by 9 team members, will transform NSE into a performing arts school every Saturday morning.
Momentum Performing Arts is a start-up for Edinburgh whose motto is for children to ‘challenge themselves fearlessly’. It provides a safe, fun and positive atmosphere to learn, explore and create through the three mediums of musical theatre, acting and performance; and film and TV. It aims to encourage students to be their best, whether training for the professional performing arts industry or just for the love of performing.
Momentum Performing Arts students can hone their performance skills in NSE’s imposing and architecturally stunning Great Hall, giving them a unique opportunity to practise and ultimately participate in shows in front of a large audience at the end of term. They can also use another of NSE’s popular spaces, Leith, for musical theatre performances which provide excellent acoustics and a wooden floor perfect for dancing. Meanwhile, the venue’s smaller spaces, such as Abbeyhill, are used for immersive theatre.
Using NSE as a venue for Momentum Performing Arts also provides pupils with a rare opportunity to prepare for the Edinburgh Festival as NSE is itself popular for the Fringe. This year it was used for over 70 Festival shows by Greenside Venues, and Momentum is hoping to prepare pupils for a performance there in 2023.
Alana Grant, Founder and Principal of Momentum Performing Arts, comments: “We are so excited to introduce Edinburgh’s first combined performing arts school and NSE is the perfect venue for us with its location in the heart of Edinburgh and versatile range of spaces. We are extremely grateful to the team at NSE for their moral and practical support to help us launch Momentum at a time when it seemed a daunting task. We can’t thank them enough for helping to provide the right solutions for the Academy when we were trying to get it up and running.”
Deborah Gallagher, NSE’s Head of Venue, adds: “It is wonderful that NSE will become a hive of activity on a Saturday morning for Momentum Performing Arts and provides a backdrop for young people to learn and develop. We are delighted to be able to help young people achieve their dreams and one day find themselves performing here as part of the Edinburgh Fringe too.”
More details about Momentum Performing Arts at NSE can be found here.
