Rebecca Hastings

My name is Rebecca Hastings and I competed in the dance section of Hastings Musical Festival between 2008 and 2015. Over the years I competed in ballet, modern, tap and groups sections. I always loved my time at the festival and looking back now know how lucky I was to have that experience every year. There was always the friendliest of atmospheres and I always felt so supported by staff, adjudicators and fellow competitors alike. I am very grateful to the festival for not only providing an environment that allowed me to grow as a person and performer over the years but for also supporting my transition to professional training with the grant I was lucky enough to receive.

I grew up and trained in East Sussex at Zoe Pennington Dance Studios and The Theatre Workshop before aged 16 going on to train professionally on a full DaDA scholarship at Bird College, London. As a child, I performed professionally in shows such as Joseph & The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat UK Tour, Peter Pan, Dick Whittington, Aladdin, The Jungle Book, Aida, Madame Butterfly, La Traviata and Pasha Kovalev’s Life Through Dance, several of which were at The White Rock. Whilst training at Bird I performed in many in-house shows including musicals Top Hat and Anything Goes as well as appearing in shows outside of college including as a tap dancer in A West End Christmas. Shortly before graduating I joined the cast of Somnium: A Dancer’s Dream alongside Neil & Katya Jones at Sadler’s Wells Theatre London. I then graduated in July 2019 with a distinction in my level 6 diploma in professional musical theatre. Since graduating I have appeared in an episode of Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two as part of Theatre Tap London and I also cover teach for TTL at Pineapple Dance Studios in London. I have also appeared as a tap dancer in music video Backstage Romance and most recently taught at Tap Dance Festival UK as part of their Open Space Faculty.