Building a Dance Legacy: Jonny Hibbs Introduces Pugmill Youth Dance Company

As part of our ‘In Conversation’ series and the Let’s Dance Plymouth campaign, we’re shining a spotlight on the people shaping Plymouth’s dance scene. In this article, we’re speaking with Jonny Hibbs, co-founder of Pugmill Youth Dance Company—a brand-new initiative for young dancers aged 13-18 looking to take their training to the next level. With diverse backgrounds in ballet and contemporary dance, Jonny and co-founder Max are bringing a fresh, challenging, and supportive approach to dance education in the city. In this interview, Jonny shares his journey into dance, his vision for Pugmill, and why he believes Plymouth is on the cusp of an exciting new era for dance.

Hey! We’re Pugmill Youth Dance Company, a new young company for dancers aged 13-18 in Plymouth who are interested in training in dance full-time or wanting to work at a fast-paced, more advanced level. Max and I have very different dancing backgrounds. 

Max trained as a dancer from a very young age and joined the lower school of the Royal Ballet School when he was just eleven. The Royal Ballet School is designed to shape a ballet dancer’s technique and artistry and is the feeder school to The Royal Ballet, one of the world’s most impressive dance companies. Max studied at the RBS until the end of his school years and so saw the training right the way through before graduating. He graduated with a job as a dancer for the Hungarian National Ballet Company and worked abroad, dancing and training with the company. 

Photography by Ash

After a similar training but in music at a classical music school, I started dancing much later, not with ballet but with contemporary dance. After a year with the CAT Scheme, a nation-wide training ground for young contemporary dancers, I was given a scholarship to London Studio Centre which is a dance school that has quite a broad focus, in which you eventually specialise. Since graduating, I’ve worked in film and television, danced freelance and I’m represented by Adam Cooper (Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake, Royal Ballet) as both a dancer and actor so I do lots of different projects which is fun. A large interest of mine is making my own choreography and I’m currently making work with my new company. The work involves music, dancing and new writing.

What do you do in Plymouth, and how does your work intersect with dance? 

I grew up on Dartmoor National Park just outside of the city and Max has moved here to Plymouth recently, after realising he wanted to live by the sea! We both believe positive and confidence-building methods of dance teaching doesn’t have to diminish the quality of what or how something is taught, so we’ve set up our young company in Plymouth to provide a space where young dancers can really challenge themselves, but in a safe and supportive environment.

The young company, launching on the 29th March, will meet every other week and is designed to co-exist with the young dancer’s classes that they are already receiving in the city. It’s exciting because Max and I have something different to offer, different from each other but also, perhaps, something different to what is currently available in the city. A lot of Devon’s talented young dancers have to travel so far to attend their various associate programmes. We hope our young company can be something of a similar quality but a lot closer to home, and a lot cheaper to!

What inspired you to get involved in dance?

I would drag my parents, who knew nothing about dance, to Theatre Royal Plymouth when I was growing up after seeing what was on in the leaflets in local supermarkets. And I fell in love with what was happening on stage from a very early age. Musicals, ballets. A turning point for me was catching a performance of contemporary dance at Exeter Northcott’s theatre by Richard Alston, it was his last tour with his company, and suddenly a new kind of dancing, which felt electric and very relatable, was made aware to me. I think I wanted to run onto the stage and join them.

Max was already taking part in professional productions by the time I was watching them. He has performed with the Royal Ballet on the Royal Opera House Stage in ‘Cinderella’ and been in works by some of the world’s leading choreographers during his time at the school. I know a turning point for Max was when he started researching into dance psychology. He’s really passionate about how ballet can do much better to foster confidence in young adults whilst in training (and beyond). 

Why do you think dance is important to individuals and the community as a whole?

Well, humans have always danced. There are cave paintings of people dancing. Some people choose to dance professionally and really work at improving their technique, or being innovative creatively, but there is just as much worth in the dancing that happens in people’s kitchens, on wedding dance floors, in bars and clubs. Dancing can change people’s moods and so I think it has to be considered important. 

How have you seen dance positively impact people in Plymouth?

There are many courageous programmes in Plymouth that are working to improve Plymouth’s way of life. Programmes in dance for those with cancer, for differently abled bodies. And, Max and I have experienced and seen what it’s like to have that feeling when performing on a stage. It’s actually an incredibly mindful thing to do. You can’t think about anything else, just the task in hand, and when you’re able to just find the freedom in performing, that’s a feeling that everyone should feel at least once. That’s why Plymouth’s amateur performance companies as well as professional opportunities feel really important. 

What kinds of opportunities are available in Plymouth for people who want to get involved in dance, whether as beginners or professionals?

Our young company, Pugmill Youth Dance Company, is aimed at young dancers aged 13-18 who are already attending ballet or contemporary classes and are looking for something new to challenge them away from the traditional studio environment. You might be wanting to audition for dance schools or work professionally as a dancer or a choreographer. We’re setting up this young company to try and help nurture that journey from young dancer to professional. The young company will also perform, you’ll learn new choreography and work in a company setting that is reflective of the industry and (the good bits) of our experience working professionally.

How do you think we can make dance more accessible in the city?

The more different people dance, the more different ways of dancing emerge. As an industry, we often rely on our ‘heritage’ and ‘tradition’. Sometimes it’s useful. Especially because dance isn’t written down, sharing information from one generation to another is really important. But, I think there’s also probably room for us to leave what is unhelpful with our previous generations and look at forging new ways forward. Plymouth, in what feels like an exciting new moment for dance in the city thanks to the Let’s Dance Campaign, can really use this opportunity to think about what dance looks like for us. Max and I are doing this young company, but there’s so much room out there for others to be doing their version of dance in the city.

What advice would you give to dancers looking to further their careers in Plymouth?

The best advice I’ve been given is always go back to why you want to dance. Is it the feeling you get whilst you’re doing it? Is it because you feel like you can express yourself through your movement? I would say find your thing, put your blinkers on and do the stuff that makes you happy. From that point, you can challenge yourself, try things and fail at them, expand your skills, but I think it has to come from a place of really knowing what you can bring to dance. Failing is so important. Maybe, social media has made us think dance has to always be perfect for it to be of worth. But I would say I’ve only ever learnt how to do something by first experiencing how to not do it.

How do you think Plymouth can better support professional and mid-career dancers? 

We’re hoping to set up some pro classes soon. Watch this space!

How does dance fit into Plymouth’s wider cultural scene?

Devon should be the dance capital of the U.K. A bold statement, maybe. But there is so much dance history down here. Not only have Olivier award winning productions from Matthew Bourne and Andrew Lloyd Webber started their journey in Plymouth, the Royal Ballet’s production of Manon was the first major visiting company to appear at Theatre Royal Plymouth in 1982, and more widely Merce Cunningham, one of the world’s most famous contemporary choreographers and teachers, bought his company to Dartington just down the road before their performances at Sadlers Wells in 1964. Choreographer Kurt Jooss, a founder of dance-theatre, was in residence at Dartington a long time before that. I’m a dance nerd, and not many people care about these things, but, it shows that dance has already been around in Devon for a long, long time. And, not just dance, but brilliant dance by some of the industry’s biggest, most transformative names. There’s a lot of responsibility, then, on the shoulders of dancers and choreographers and creatives in Plymouth to carry that kind of legacy on.

What makes Plymouth unique as a place for artists and dancers to thrive?

There are different performance spaces in Plymouth that are great for dance. There’s many different ballet schools for young dancers to start their journey with. Plymouth is a vibrant and a very normal city. It doesn’t try to be anything other than what it is. I love that. And I think good dancers do the same, they don’t try to be anything other than what their body can do, they focus on using their body to the best of its ability.

Do you think Plymouth is doing enough to celebrate and promote dance? What would you like to see more of?

We can always do more. We’re lucky to have good professionals in positions that can make a change about Plymouth’s dancing culture. But, the fewer there are of these people, the more they are tasked with and so, understandably, things can move at a slower pace or get watered down. That’s another reason as to why we want to set up our young company. The more people there are down here that are passionate about dance, the more we can all share the load of how to promote dance within the South West.

What excites you most about the Let’s Dance Plymouth campaign?

Any mission to get more people dancing, on their feet and enjoying ways of moving their body is exciting to me. I also like how it’s bringing people together across the U.K.

I hope Plymouth keeps dancing. Maybe not on the streets like that scene in ‘Fame’, but then again, why not? I hope people sitting at their desks get the urge to jump up and move about and find that after work dance club where they can meet new people, keep healthy and enjoy themselves.

If you could leave one message for the people of Plymouth about dance, what would it be?

I used to be so rubbish at dancing. Really awful. Two left feet. Somewhere, buried very deep down, I just had this overwhelming passion for it. So, I just gave it a go, and had to deal with being rubbish for a very long time. But it’s the best thing I’ve ever done, stepping into a dance studio, and I’m lucky to now make a career from it. So, I encourage Plymouth to do the same because you never know where it will take you or who you will meet. And, if you’re a young dancer aged 13-18, come and join us on the 29th of March. You can email me to register your interest: jonnyhibbschoreographer@gmail.com.

Cover Image by Nicole Guarino