How we spend the money we raise

Our major award of £10,000, the LBC Gainsbury Award (formerly the LBC Choreographic Award), is held biennially to support emerging choreographic talent within a school or company in England and Wales. Initiated by Linda Gainsbury, our former Vice-Chair who died in 2024, it was established in 2021 to mark the 75th Anniversary of the LBC. The Award may be given to one school or company or divided between several. A panel of dance experts, led by our President, Dame Monica Mason, meets to consider the submissions and make recommendations to the Board of Trustees as to how the Award is distributed. It is expected that the winner(s) would invite LBC members to observe the choreographic process or a rehearsal.

The LBC also sponsors the following dance awards:

• The Dame Ninette de Valois awards are given to the leading male and female graduates at the Royal Ballet School
• The Sir Peter Wright prize is awarded to the leading graduate student at Elmhurst Ballet School
• For the Outstanding Male Classical Performance at the National Dance Awards
• For the winner of the GradPRO graduate dance contest

We offer support through bursaries to students attending the Yorkshire Ballet Seminars and other ballet intensive courses. The Stanley Hawkins bursary (named after the founder of the LBC) is awarded to support a student at Ballet Cymru's Summer School.

In addition, we made donations to the host organisations following visits to watch classes or rehearsals.

As we are a small charity, we are unfortunately unable to accept individual applications for grants.