St Michael's annual street party is on Elmwood Road from 1pm on Sunday, free, and West London Dance Academy marks 20 years with a 2.30pm performance.
St Michael’s annual street party takes over Elmwood Road in Grove Park this Sunday, 13 September, and the dance school that has taught Chiswick children for two decades is using it to mark its 20th birthday in front of the neighbourhood.
The party itself is free and runs from 1pm to 6pm. St Michael’s, whose church stands at 60 Elmwood Road, W4 3DZ, lists a free barbecue, live music, pony rides, puppet shows, a bouncy castle, a tug-o’-war and a cakes stall, and thanks Budgens as its sponsor. No ticket, no booking.
West London Dance Academy dances at 2.30pm, for half an hour. The academy, which was founded in 2006 and works out of the WLDA Dance Annex studio on the Chiswick Methodist Church grounds in Sutton Court Road, has choreographed a piece for the occasion called “From Little Steps to Big Dreams”.
What the principal says
Natalie Parnell, who runs the academy, wrote to us about the anniversary and we are letting her make the case in her own words.
“I am absolutely delighted to be celebrating 20 years of West London Dance Academy and two decades of nurturing creativity, confidence and community spirit in west London,” she said.
“The academy has always been much more than a dance school: it has become a family. I am incredibly proud to have been part of the Chiswick community for the past two decades and to have watched hundreds of dancers from their very first steps as baby ballerinas, to the talented, confident and kind young adults they become.”
On what she counts as the achievement: “Knowing that I have played a small part in nurturing their confidence, supporting their wellbeing, and giving them a place where they can belong, express themselves and make lifelong friendships, is the greatest achievement of all.”
And on Sunday: “Celebrating our 20th anniversary with our specially choreographed performance ‘From Little Steps to Big Dreams’ is a wonderful reminder of just how special the West London Dance Academy family has become. I look forward to inspiring the next generation of dancers here for many years to come.”
Twenty years, three addresses and a lockdown
The academy opened in Chiswick, Wimbledon and Ealing before settling at the Sutton Court Road studio. It is accredited by the International Dance Teachers’ Association and takes children from two and a half years old through to adults, in ballet, tap and contemporary modern jazz.
The detail from its own account of the 20 years that is worth pulling out is what it did in 2020. Every class moved online, and the academy says it kept an online option open for dancers from clinically vulnerable families until the last of them could come back into the room. That is a long time to run two versions of a timetable for a small independent school.
On the record it claims for itself: the academy says it has a 100 per cent pass rate in International Dance Teachers’ Association exams with every student taking a merit or a distinction, that at least 27 of its students have been nominated for international awards, and that more than 10 have qualified as dance teachers or assistants through its own Train to Teach Dance scheme, some of them now running studios of their own. Those are the academy’s figures and we have not been able to check them against an independent register.
It also says its dancers have performed at venues across London, have been invited to the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing in each of the past three years, and have taken part in charity projects including a pop recording of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” with Jo O’Meara. Former pupils have gone on to train at the Royal Ballet School, Tring Park School for the Performing Arts, ArtsEd, English National Ballet and the Central School of Ballet.
What it means for you
If you have a Sunday afternoon free, this is the cheapest thing on in Chiswick this weekend: free entry, free food, and a half-hour show at 2.30pm from a school whose pupils are local children. Elmwood Road is a residential street in Grove Park, a few minutes’ walk from Chiswick station, and a street party means it will not be a place to park a car, so read our guide to parking in Chiswick before you drive over, or leave it at home.
Class details and term dates are on the academy’s own site, westlondondanceacademy.com. The contact for anything else, including class enquiries, is Natalie Parnell at natalieparnell.wlda@gmail.com.
More ideas for the weekend are in our running list of things to do in Chiswick.
Sources
- St Michael’s Elmwood Road: Street Party, 13 September, the church’s own announcement of the times, the attractions and the sponsor.
- West London Dance Academy’s press release and event details, sent to Chiswick Today on 11 September 2026, and the academy’s studio page.
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