Margaret Howard, an English dancer and owner of dance schools, grew up in the environment of film business and at present works in the field of theatre.

"My parents always did their best to keep me away from the starlight of film making and they managed to a certain extent," she said.

She is president of the Margaret Howard Foundation, which opened its first international branch in Sofia last summer. Being a professional dancer all her life, she ended up teaching a wide range of modern techniques in dancing, some of which had not been taught in Bulgaria.

"I have danced all my life since the age of three when I started in a small local school in England," she said. She explained that nobody then knew what modern tap dancing was. She wanted to get to know more about ballet, modern dances and jazz.

She grew up with dance as a hobby. "It was not simply a pastime but I became completely engrossed in it and I enjoyed it," she recalled. With the flow of years she stopped dancing and got involved with the more academic side of it, entering business as personal manager of an English leisure company.

For her, dancing and teaching is similar to language learning. "You just give the style of speaking and reading language and then the individual student takes it from there and develops it further on with their own accent," she explained. She puts an emphasis on teaching style and later on how the individual students can apply their own techniques and dancing styles.

Since Howard is a person who always grasps an opportunity and seizes the most appropriate time for the right event, she saw a great chance for uniting English and Bulgarian cultures through dance. She had been contacted by Radka Stamenova, director of Meridian 22, a private school in Sofia, who had seen a performance in London's West End at which Margaret's proteges had performed.

She decided to take up the challenge in Sofia and it worked well. "I consider the unity of Bulgarian folk dances and the modern innovations being taught in England as a way to share ideas and open up the borders between Bulgaria and England," she said. Since Bulgaria did not offer a possibility for teaching jazz, tap dancing and other fast moving dances, she became the pioneer in teaching Lord of the Dance and other Irish dances in Bulgaria.

"Our wish is to introduce to Bulgaria some of the modern jazz, tap and English and Irish dances with influences from all over Europe and the States," she said. According to her, the combination of the two cultures could be beneficial to both countries.

All of the subjects from the syllabus, which are being taught in the Margaret Howard Foundation's schools of dance, have been brought to the participants of the Margaret Howard's branch here in Sofia. The dance colleges all offer a scholarship for Bulgarian students eager to get in touch with the various dancing styles.

"We have a variety of international students who add to the atmosphere by demonstrating a taste of their own cultures and folklore," she explained.

She has students who have been educated in dancing in her schools and are now spreading their knowledge in Brazil, Japan, France and Italy. Students who have been a part of her programs are taking part in Disneyland shows and performances as well as on stage in West End theatres in London. Dance-lovers at her organizations might start as students at the age of three and graduate at 16.

For Margaret, necessary qualities for a good dancer are the amount of love one feels for music and dance, commitment, and feeling for performance. She passionately opposes the wrong understanding that a good dancer should be slim. "In dance you could have various shapes and sizes, but a feeling for rhythm is a must," she said. Her motto for success in life is that both discipline and hard work bring their own rewards.