I’ve been in and out of the house (https://www.agentlemansresidence.com) while it was being worked on for the past few years—sometimes with a camera, sometimes just standing around with a cup of tea while things got discussed, moved, uncovered. Other times rolling up my sleeves and finding distractions to life —scraping back layers of old paint (the slightly concerning arsenic kind), or taking a turn with a jackhammer to get stubborn plaster off the entrance corridor walls. It’s hard to stay on the sidelines in a place like that. You end up part of it.
Watching what Andy and Mandy have taken on at A Gentleman’s Residence has been awesome. Not just the scale of it, but the way they’ve approached it—learning skills as they go, figuring things out properly, and restoring it in a way that actually matches the original building rather than glossing over it with modern decor and building ways. It doesn’t feel forced or overdone. It feels like the house has been listened to.
There’s a kind of quiet discipline in that. A respect for structure, but also this underlying tension of how do we approach this, and taking the hard, back breaking way even when there was a quicker, modern way that could have been used—a strength held just beneath the surface, both of the building and the people in it. Ballet felt like the right language for a place that had been broken down and carefully, patiently rebuilt, using that strength and the slight mix-match of pointe shoes on a floor that still creaks a bit, of movement that’s been trained and repeated thousands of times, happening in a place that’s still figuring itself out.
We didn’t go in with much of a plan—just a few loosely saved Pinterest ideas and a sense that we’d figure it out as we went. It ended up being more about wandering than directing. The weather was perfect, dappled sunlight shining through trees so we began in the gardens and there we stayed. Moving around, noticing where the light was falling, stopping when something felt right.
The gardens became the main backdrop this time. The house always there, just behind— part of the story without needing to dominate it.
Practical realities hit a little as Pointe shoes and grass don’t exactly get along, so there were moments of improvisation—piggybacking the dancers on her mum’s back to get between spots, which felt slightly ridiculous and completely necessary in equal measure. Giggles and relaxed movement, nothing about it felt overly staged.
We spent a few hours on the steps, moving to a swing under the house chestnut tree, heading for the Victorian fern gardens but getting way laid on an ancient tree with the most amazing light falling between the leaves and a trunk, just about perfect for holding the shape of a ballerina – if only when Andy appeared with a mini chain saw to remove an offending branch – making adjustments, pausing, moving changes slightly when you’re not on a perfect surface.
Because that’s the thing—this renovation project isn’t about perfection. It’s about care, patience, and a willingness to sit in the process, to explore and investigate, to bring back parts of history with a modern twist. Ballet, when you strip it back, isn’t effortless either – but the final poses and dances look effortless and hide the blooming’ hard work that has gone into the process to get here super well.
This felt like letting both of those things sit side by side.
We barely touched the inside this time, which almost feels like unfinished business. There’s so much more there to respond to—the light through those windows, the textures, the rooms that have been brought back to life. And the studio in the stables is its own thing entirely.
So we’ll come back. Do it differently. Let the inside lead next time.
But for this first go, wandering through the gardens, working with what we had, figuring it out as we went—it felt right. Not overthought. Just… in step with the place, as it is now.
A huge thank you to Andy and Mandy at @agentlemensresidence for giving us free range of the place and to Izzy and Libby for being so patient and creative.
I’d love to do something similar again and return to the gardens or the house itself and studio with some dancers – if you’d like to get in touch and have a chat about being part of the project, then drop me a message and let me know! And if you are part of a dance school and can share to teachers/instructors, then please do so – the possibility of setting up some mini-sessions for a group of dancers is also an option that’s worth exploring.
