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Royal Ballet School

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Royal Ballet School
Sign board at White Lodge showing school crest
Location
Map
Floral Street,Covent Garden
White Lodge, Richmond Park

London

England
Information
TypePrivate school
Motto"Strength and Grace"
Established1926;98 years ago(1926)
FounderDame Ninette de Valois
Department for EducationURN102947Tables
Artistic DirectorChristopher Powney
GenderMixed
Age11 to 19
Enrolment221 as of April 2022
PublicationEncore
AffiliationsThe Royal BalletandBirmingham Royal Ballet
Advisory CouncilCarlos Acosta CBE
David Bintley, CBE
Dame Darcey Bussell, DBE
Sir Anthony Dowell, CBE
Kevin O'Hare CBE
Dame Antoinette Sibley, DBE
Sir Peter Wright, CBE
Websitewww.royalballetschool.org.uk

TheRoyal Ballet Schoolis a British school ofclassical ballettraining[1][2]founded in 1926 by the Anglo-Irish ballerina and choreographerNinette de Valois.The school's aim is to train and educate outstanding classical ballet dancers, especially forthe Royal Ballet(based at theRoyal Opera HouseinLondon) and theBirmingham Royal Ballet.

Admission to the school is based purely on dancing talent and potential, regardless of academic ability or personal circumstances, and 90% of current students rely on financial support to attend the school.[3]The school is based at two sites,White Lodge, Richmond Park(for students aged 11–16) andCovent Garden(for students from 16 to 19 years old) based in purpose-built studios onFloral Street,adjacent to theRoyal Opera House.

The Royal Ballet School has produced dancers and choreographers of international renown, includingDame Margot Fonteyn,Dame Beryl Grey,Sir Kenneth MacMillan,Dame Darcey Bussell,Alessandra Ferri,Viviana Durante,andSergei Polunin,as well as the current director ofThe Royal Ballet,Kevin O'Hare.Graduates of the school have also achieved employment inmusical theatre,contemporaryandjazz dance,television and film.

History

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In 1926, theIrish-born dancerNinette de Valoisfounded theAcademy of Choreographic Art,[4]a dance school for girls and the predecessor of today's Royal Ballet School. Her intention was to form a repertory ballet company and school, leading her to collaborate withtheatrical producerand theatre ownerLilian Baylis.

Baylis ownedthe Old Victheatre and acquiredSadler's Wells theatrein 1925. In 1928, she engaged de Valois to stage dance performances at both theatres and she re-opened Sadler's Wells theatre in 1931, with de Valois' school moving into studios on the site as the Sadler's Wells Ballet School, teaching both boys and girls. At the same time, the Vic-Wells Ballet Company was formed using students of the school and other notable dancers of the era. Both the school and the ballet company developed quickly and after ballet performances ceased at the Old Vic, the ballet company was renamed the Sadler's Wells Ballet.

In 1946, the company moved to become the resident ballet company at the newly re-openedRoyal Opera HouseinCovent Gardenand as a result, in 1947 the school moved from Sadler's Wells to premises in Barons Court, with academic education being introduced for younger students.

Following rapid expansion, in 1955 the school secured the premises at White Lodge in Richmond Park, London. This was established at the time as the Royal Ballet 'Lower School', a residentialboarding schoolfor children aged 11–16, combining general education and vocational ballet training. The Royal Ballet School 'Upper School' was established at the school's existing premises in Barons Court with students studying ballet on a full-time basis between the ages of 16–19.

In October 1956, a Royal Charter was granted officially linking the ballet company and school and they became The Royal Ballet School and Royal Ballet Company. A second smaller company still performed at Sadler's Wells and toured around the UK and this became the Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet. de Valois retired as Director in 1970.

In 1990, the Sadler's Wells company moved to become the resident ballet company at theBirmingham Hippodrome,inBirmingham,where it was renamedBirmingham Royal Ballet.

In January 2003, The Royal Ballet School's older students (aged 16–19) moved to a newly constructed studio complex in Floral Street, adjacent to the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, where The Royal Ballet remains the resident ballet company. A bridge was constructed between the school and the Opera House, linking the school with the theatre and The Royal Ballet Company's own studios. The designer of the bridge received an architectural award[5]and it is known as theBridge of Aspiration.

White Lodge

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The Royal Ballet School's younger students moved toWhite Lodge, Richmond ParkinRichmond, Londonin 1955 when the school was split for the first time. TheGeorgianbuilding is a former royal residence and hunting lodge built during the reign ofKing George II.It is the school's permanent premises and there has been extensive redevelopment of the site to provide dance and academic facilities and accommodation for students.

Children attend the school between the ages of 11-16 and entry to the school is by audition only. The school receives over twenty thousand applications every year and holds auditions in major UK cities. Having an international reputation, the school also receives applications from other countries. As aboarding school,the majority of students live on site, although there are a small number of day-students.

In dance, students study classical ballet, character dance, contemporary, gymnastics, Irish, Morris and Scottish dancing. Later in their training, students study ballet repertoire, solos and pas de deux and boys undertake upper body conditioning. The school offers academic study at the level of a typical secondary school, both at Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4, with all students sittingGCSEexaminations.

Covent Garden

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Bridge of Aspirationlinking the Royal Ballet Upper School on the left with theRoyal Opera House,designed byFlint & NeillandBuro HappoldwithWilkinsonEyre

The Royal Ballet School's Covent Garden base was established in 1955, when the younger students were moved to White Lodge. The school remained at existing studios in Barons Court, London, with academic studies introduced for the first time. Later in 2003, the school relocated to new premises, and the former Barons Court site now houses theLondon Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

The school relocated to new, purpose-built premises inCovent Gardenin January 2003. The complex is a four-storey building with six dance studios, including a studio theatre with retractable raked seating for an audience of 200. The building also houses changing rooms and showers for male and female students, a gym and fitness room, a pilates studio, physiotherapy suite and students common room. Facilities for academic education include four classrooms, a library with computer equipment, an art studio and audiovisual suite. All the dance studios are linked to the audiovisual suite so that classes and rehearsals can be filmed as a training tool, enabling the dancers to analyse themselves.

Alongside a timetable of intensive ballet training, students also study pas de deux, solos, repertoire, character, contemporary dance, stagecraft, make-up, and body conditioning. 3rd year students get many opportunities throughout the year to train with The Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet.

Royal Ballet School, curtain call, Royal Ballet, 2007

Performances

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Each year The Royal Ballet School presents its Summer Performances, featuring students from all age groups in a wide variety of classical and contemporary works. The highlight of the school's dance year is the annual matinée at the Royal Opera House, which showcases graduate students before they embark on their professional careers as well as featuring students from all years of the school. The programme includes new works and heritage pieces from the Royal Ballet repertory and culminates in a grand défilé, in which every student of the school appears on stage in a choreographed curtain call.

Prima ballerina assoluta

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The Royal Ballet School is unique in having trained four of only a small number of dancers in history to have been recognised asprima ballerina assoluta,the ultimate honorary title for a ballerina. Exclusively trained at The Royal Ballet School and dancing her entire professional career with The Royal Ballet,Margot Fonteynwas appointedprima ballerina assolutaof the company byQueen Elizabeth IIin 1979. Having trained at The Royal Ballet School from 1959 to 1966,Eva Evdokimovawould go on to become an international guest ballerina, being recognised as aprima ballerina assolutafollowing her performances with the Kirov Ballet in the late 1970s. The title was later recognised officially by the German Senate.Phyllis Spirabegan training at the Royal Ballet School in 1959, joining the Royal Ballet touring company in 1960. Choosing to shun an international ballet career, she returned to her native South Africa, where she danced the majority of her career with CAPAB ballet, today'sCape Town City Ballet.She was appointedprima ballerina assolutaby theState President of South Africain 1984. Most recently, Royal Ballet School graduateAlessandra Ferriwas appointedprima ballerina assolutaofLa Scala Theatre Balletin 1992.[6]Another British ballerina,Alicia Markova,was also tutored by Royal Ballet School founder Ninette de Valois, and would go on to be a leading ballerina with theBallets Russes,the first Prima Ballerina of TheRoyal Ballet,a founder ballerina withAmerican Ballet Theatre,and co-founder ofEnglish National Balletwho now recognise her as the company'sprima ballerina assoluta.Although not trained at The Royal Ballet School, this direct connection with school founder Ninette de Valois brings the total up to five.

Notable students

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Main category:People educated at the Royal Ballet School

References

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  1. ^Taggart, Maggie (6 February 2007)."Ballet star dances his way back home".BBC News.Retrieved6 May2018.
  2. ^Thomas, Liz (15 August 2006)."Royal Ballet to welcome in BBC cameras".The Stage.Archived fromthe originalon 12 June 2011.Retrieved4 March2009.
  3. ^"Fees".11 August 2016.Retrieved6 May2018.
  4. ^"The Royal Ballet School - History".Archived fromthe originalon 6 December 2008.Retrieved28 January2009.
  5. ^"The world-famous architect, the cancer victim and the dream that turned into a glittering prize".The Independent.10 June 2004.Retrieved6 May2018.
  6. ^"Ballet Company - Teatro alla Scala".Archived fromthe originalon 10 July 2010.Retrieved10 July2010.Citing Alessandra Ferri asprima ballerina assolutaof La Scala
  7. ^”Imogen Claire” in Harris M. Lentz,Obituaries in the performing arts, 2005(London: McFarland & Company, 2006), p. 68
  8. ^Samara DownsRetrieved 6 May 2018.
  9. ^Dean Speer & Francis Timlin,A Very Merry Couple Ronald Hynd and Annette Page talk about dancing, PNB and Merry WidowfromBallet-Dance magazinedated April 2005 online at ballet-dance, accessed 28 April 2012.
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