Performer Helen Sheals, currently rehearsing Damn Cheek’s latest community show Whose Green and Pleasant Land?, writes about growing up working class, failing her first dance audition and why the arts should be open to everybody.
I’ve never written a blog before, but I’ve been asked – ordered?! – by Mr Darren Cheek, Co-Artistic Director of Damn Cheek with Karen Spicer, to write this little piece. We are currently in rehearsal for Whose Green and Pleasant Land?, a multimedia community pageant created by Damn Cheek and Rosie May Jones and commissioned by the National Trust, with music, song, poetry, visual art and a large cast of professional and amateur actors. Three days in, I can confidently say that things are shaping up nicely.
I’ve been a professional actor for over 40 years and a director for about 10. This is my first community theatre show, and something I’ve been keen to explore, not least because it can provide a route into the arts for people from working-class and low-income families. Darren, Karen and I all come from working-class backgrounds – in Essex, Nottingham and Bradford respectively – where going into the arts was thought of by some as something ‘we’ just did not do.
As a child, I rather annoyingly sang and danced around the house playing ‘pretend’ with my brother, and we were often told to “stop being silly”. To be fair, it can’t have been easy for my mum and dad, wrangling 3 teenagers and 2 small children in our tiny house while holding down jobs – or, even worse, being unemployed. So, no hard feelings! But as a young adult, when feeling bitter, I often wondered whether a middle-class family might have said: “Helen seems to like singing and dancing – maybe we should send her to stage school.”
As it was, my route into acting was very peripatetic. At 13 I got into one of the best gymnastics clubs in the country, and what started as a hobby became a 6-year international sporting career. I loved the creativity of choreographing my own routines, was a good natural dancer and decided this was what I wanted to do. But… my parents couldn’t afford dance classes, whereas gym club was subsidised and only 10p a session – which I paid for myself out of my paper round money!
In the 6th form, London Contemporary Dance Theatre visited our school on an outreach tour, and as a very keen member of the school dance club I signed up for their workshop – which also got me out of triple economics! Bonus! I was then invited to audition for London Contemporary Dance School. I was nervous but weirdly confident because, well, I’d been British Champion 3 years running, hadn’t I? Then the audition started: “And… feet in first position, please. And… plié.” What the hell is first position, and what the hell is a plié?! Having never had a dance class in my life, I didn’t get in. I was clearly no Billy Elliot. My confidence was severely knocked and I couldn’t pay for classes, so I decided to train as a make-up artist instead – like you do.
Let’s just say my eventual route into ‘The Biz’ was slow. I got into 3 drama schools but couldn’t get a grant, because I’d already had one for the make-up course – so no student showcase to help me get an agent. I just floundered around, buying The Stage every week and applying for every single job going.
I was on my own, as many working-class people who want to break into the arts are, and I believe it is getting worse. Touring companies like the one that visited my comprehensive have been scaled back, and many schools can no longer afford theatre trips or extra-curricular activities – some are phasing out music and drama altogether. Apparently, only 10% of people working in the creative industries come from working-class backgrounds.
Around 2010, funding for youth and schools’ theatre changed considerably. Subsidised youth theatres were often put out to tender and taken over by franchise companies, public arts provision became unstable, entries for arts GCSEs fell and performing arts courses were dropped. Without those entry points, working-class kids are left with no way into our industry.
This is why I have become passionate about the kind of work Damn Cheek does – providing safe, nurturing, inclusive spaces that allow people to experiment with their own creativity without worrying about the fiscal damage.
This wonderful, beloved industry – and I use the word industry with clear intent – should be open to everyone.
Whose Green and Pleasant Land?, a contemporary, community-centred pageant-performance exploring land, power and belonging, performs at Leith Hill Place, Surrey Hills on Sunday 4 October 2026. Book your free ticket at TicketSource.