Visit to Royal Ballet Upper School 2025

Photo credit: Royal Ballet Upper School’s ‘Bridge of Aspirations’ from https://www.chriskarlson.com/blog/2011/8/15/rotch-case-study-royal-opera-house.html

Visit to Royal Ballet Upper School 2025

Royal Ballet Upper School

Wednesday 30th April 2025

A large, enthusiastic group of London Ballet Circle members, joined our friends at Ballet Association for our annual day at The Royal Ballet School. The day began with ex-Royal Ballet dancer Kevin Emerton teaching class to the Pre-Professional Men. These young men are on the cusp of their professional ballet lives and, watching them, it was obvious that they are a very talented group. It will be a joy to see them take to the stage for the RBS Summer performances.

Next up was Nicola Tranah working with the Pre-Professional Ladies. Nicola led them through a comprehensive barre making sure that the feet were well warmed up before moving to centre. Here, the young dancers worked on their epaulement, jumps and making sure they were working their muscles to best advantage in order to be confident in their dancing. Following the class, the students worked on the Fairy Solos from Aurora’s wedding. These variations from Sleeping Beauty will be performed at the year end shows. So much detail, so many different characters to portray and assured, quick footwork were all stressed. The main thing that Nicola continually emphasised to the dancers was “connection”. Connecting with the audience is non-negotiable, that is who the performers must engage and draw into the ballet.

Next Sarah Kundi led the 2nd Year Ladies ballet class. Again, the emphasis was on warming up the entire body in preparation for the work the dancers had ahead of them for the rest of the day. It was a fun class to watch, with lots of laughter and an obvious great rapport between teacher and students.

A brief update on the activities of the students over the next three months from Artistic Director Iain Mackay came before a break for lunch. The afternoon session featured the First and Second Year students rehearsing the Mazurka and Polonaise from Aurora’s wedding. With such a large group of students, one would expect chaos, rather like trying to rehearse in the waiting area of Euston station at rush hour! As the students have just returned from their 3-week break, they are just beginning to learn the choreography, so details and refinements were not the priority. Instead it was the blocking and the steps which were the focus. The audience was impressed by how quickly the dancers picked up the steps and how well they did. Seeing this work at this early, rough stage was fascinating and gave us something with which to compare the performances we’ll see at Opera Holland Park, The Linbury and The Royal Opera House.

The day ended at 4:00pm with regret that it had passed so quickly but delighted with what we’d seen. It truly is a privilege to be invited to spend a day at this prestigious school and one that members of both LBC and Ballet Association appreciate and look forward to with great anticipation.

Susan Dalgetty Ezra

April 30th, 2025