A Chester dance studio owner has made her professional dancing debut in the new Netflix series House of Guinness.

The opening of Poise Dance Studio in Boughton marked the beginning of an incredible year for owner Alicia Jelley, with her being invited to teach at the Happy Place Festival and then getting her first professional dance job. House of Guinness tells the story of the Guinness family in 19th century Ireland and New York and Alicia, a keen dancer since the age of 11, performs in a lavish wedding scene.

Alicia was contacted via her Instagram with producers searching for dancers in a specific age bracket that could dance the waltz “I have never been a professional dancer and I was never a ballroom dancer but I dance to a fairly high level so after speaking with some friends for some words of encouragement I decided to just go for it!” she says. A successful audition led to 2 full days rehearsal in London and a 4 day shoot in Manchester.

“The set was incredible, you could totally forget that you were in an industrial warehouse. As soon as you entered the set you were transported into a stately home in 1800s Dublin. James Norton was on set on a couple of days we were filming. “

For the scene Alicia had to learn 4 different dances.

“It was a dream job. I had never done an audition before because of my own self limiting beliefs. I was 40 and I thought that time of life was over and it was not going to happen to me. It’s amazing what happens when you out yourself in the zone of growth and out of your comfort zone!”

“They were long days filming on set. The director is the same director that did Peaky Blinders and it was really interesting to get behind the scenes and see how productions work.. The attention to detail is amazing, there are people that take photos of the set to show what they look like so that when you come in the next day, everything is set up exactly the same way for continuity. There is one dance that we did ten times , back to back, just to get the right shots. Whilst we are dancing there is dialogue gong on between the main characters . I had the best time it was the dream job for me and I’m a big fan of period dramas. The choreographer Jack Murphy is famously the choreographer for Bridgerton and he has also worked on Doctor Who. His knowledge of period and regency style dancing was incredible ”
The series also features scenes filmed at the National Waterways Museum in Ellesmere Port which doubles for the Dublin docks.