Sarah Toner began her career with the National Ballet of Portugal. She came to London and was invited to teach at The Arts Educational Schools where she developed a unique jazz/ballet class for students.

She returned to the stage, joining London City Ballet and danced with them for two years performing soloist and principal roles before becoming a freelance dancer. During this period Sarah danced with the Pet Shop Boys on their ‘Performance’ world tour and had the joy of performing at the Almeida Theatre in Islington which is her home territory.

She spent many years travelling back and forth to New York, her favourite place on earth! Whilst in New York she performed at ‘La Mama’ Theatre and also at Radio City Music Hall and the Joyce Theatre. She studied ballet with some of New York’s top ballet teachers who are the inspiration for her ballet teaching today. She also discovered Gyrotonic through her dance colleagues in New York.

Sarah has also been used as a model. As well as editorial shoots she was involved in both London and Paris fashion weeks as a model and choreographer and was even used as a prototype for shop mannequins!

During a freelance performance in London, Sarah was discovered by Sir Kenneth MacMillan and through him she met Sir Peter Wright; the then director of The Birmingham Royal Ballet. She spent two years with the company before departing for New York again after which time Sarah retired from the stage.

Three children later Sarah retrained through the Dancers Career Development Trust in the Gyrotonic training system which she now teaches in London. She is one of only a few teachers in this country qualified to teach on all the equipment used for Gyrotonic. As well as teaching adults the joy of ballet, she also runs children’s dance clubs and teaches ballet at a school in the city.

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