Duckers & Diving: ‘The Pountney Pout’

AFTER treating a busload of passengers to his previously undiscovered singing skills, our roving diarist this week trips the light fantastic with construction boss Neil Pountney and finds success is all in the genes.

Construction guru Neil Pountney, managing director of Solihull-based Emprima, has long been a headline-grabber.

Now it looks like 10-year-old grand-daughter Lauren is fast becoming a chip off the old block.

Lauren, an aspiring pupil at the Siobhan McCarthy-Collins Academy in Harborne, has ambitions of becoming a rising star in the world of classical ballet.

And her achievements – the latest being selected for the corps-de-ballet in the Midlands Theatre Ballet production of Sleeping Beauty at Birmingham’s Crescent Theatre next March – have been rewarded in coverage in newspapers and society magazines.

The reason for her success?

Apparently it is all in the genes – Lauren’s 90-year-old youthful looking great grandmother Jean Pountney was a ballet dancer herself, as a young girl, appearing on stage at the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham.

But construction consultant Neil thinks that the delightfully elegant Lauren (genes must have skipped a generation or two there, then, eh Neil!) owes something to his own experiences.

Old twinkle toes reminds me that only a couple of years ago he was recruited to the board of Dance XChange – the partner organisation of Birmingham Hippodrome and Birmingham Royal Ballet, which is dedicated to helping people get the most out of life through dance – to supplement its business expertise.

And all those secret salsa sessions have paid off, it seems!

Come on, Neil – give us a twirl in your tutu and tights.