A former Dance student from Stratford-upon-Avon College has taken to the Ton for his most recent role as he danced on hit Netflix TV show Bridgerton.
Mike Fellows, who studied Dance at the College from 2011 to 2013, has been enjoying a successful career as a performer and was excited to be a part of the hit show which has taken the world by storm.
Bridgerton is a drama romance TV series that follows the lives of the Bridgerton family. Set in an alternate regency era, the award-winning show is well-loved, and the latest season has been highly anticipated.
Mike was a dancer on the show and was part of the ball scenes. Bridgerton is known for its dance scenes; with the music being classical covers of popular contemporary songs.
Mike comments: “I really enjoyed being educated, whilst working, about the genre of ‘social dance’. It was a pleasure to work with choreographer Jack Murphy. During rehearsals he explained so much of the history, development and meaning of the style. This helped a lot when getting into depth with characters, the meaning of actions and reasons of our movements. Choreography-wise he was very specific with our technique, placement, how we transitioned into steps, and explained it all in so much detail. It was really interesting!”
Mike initially didn’t think about dancing as a career or even a hobby: “My sister always danced when we were growing up, but it had never crossed my mind to even try it. And one day I went along with my mum just to pick my sister up from class. It looked fun so I thought I’d join in at the back, and just had some fun. The teachers loved me and asked if I trained at a studio at all, which I didn’t, so they invited me to join their advanced class, and then it went on from there.”
Mike chose to study at Stratford-upon-Avon College to pursue his dancing passion: “I found that it was the most successful and highest standard of the midlands colleges, and I could focus on the training more on a day-to-day basis.”
Following college, Mike went to Urdang Academy and has been successfully working in the industry ever since with some career highlights including dancing on the Spice Girls Stadium Tour 2019, performing to an audience of 70,000-95,000 people each night, dancing for Ed Sheeran at the Brit Awards, and performing as a dancer for a season of The X Factor. He has also appeared on the big screen, with his first feature film being the Elton John biopic Rocketman, and danced next to Ariana Grande as she was belting out ’One Short Day’ whilst filming the new Wicked movie.
Mike is delighted to be successfully working as a performer in the industry: “It’s been amazing to do something I love every day and create a great life and career off of it. It’s important to love what you do. I also love that my job is creative, and active, and a personal talent in which I have worked hard on and crafted, and it’s quite special that it’s appreciated by others.”
Phil Watson-Smith, Programme Manager for the Creative Arts, and one of Mike’s former Dance lecturers, is incredibly proud of his achievements: “It is really exciting to see how successful Mike has become in the dance industry. Mike started at Stratford-upon-Avon College with a freestyle dance background and went from strength to strength before progressing onto Urdang Academy. It is amazing to see how his professional career has developed, and he is a great ambassador for our dance programme to see the success that students can make.”
