3rd Year students in Kenneth MacMillan’s Elite Syncopations
32 Summer Performances from The Royal Ballet School
We were delighted to see our students return to the stage yesterday for our annual Summer Performances after a year absent from the stage. This year, our Summer Performances are taking place at White Lodge, Upper School and the Royal Opera House.
Instead of our usual six performances, this year, we are staging 32. Due to COVID-19, students have had to remain in year group bubbles so in order for everyone to experience performing, all year groups have several individual performances.
Last night our 1st Year students performed in the Linbury Theatre at the Royal Opera House as part of their Next Generation Festival. They showcased Mikaela Polley’s new choreography, Mozart Suite as well as sections of Coppélia and The Sleeping Beauty.
This afternoon, 2nd Year students performed Royal Ballet First Soloist, Valentino Zucchetti’s new work, Playfully So and Didy Velman’s Is to Be.
Tonight our 3rd and graduating year group will perform extracts from Ben Stevenson’s award-winning Three Preludes and Carlos Acosta’s Don Quixote. They will also perform Mephisto Waltz, created on the students by Ashley Page, giving them an opportunity to perform classical pas de deux with a contemporary twist.
Our Upper School and Year 11, White Lodge students will come together on the Royal Opera House’s main stage on 10 July with some special additions including a film by the BalletBoyz, created with White Lodge students. A live band will accompany 3rd Year students in their performance of Kenneth MacMillan’s Elite Syncopations.
This year’s Summer Performances at White Lodge will feature two new pieces, Swingle Stepping by chorographer Morgann Runacre-Temple and Dvorak ’21 by our Head of Training & Access, Mark Annear.
Our Artistic Director, Christopher Powney, said:
This has been an extraordinary and unforgettable year of challenge and adaptation for The Royal Ballet School. This year’s performances are a tribute to the resilience and creativity shown by our students and staff throughout that time.
I am delighted that following the sadness of cancelled performances in 2020, we finally have the chance to come together to celebrate their work. I wanted our students to enjoy dancing in front of an audience again, and the best way to do this was to give them as many chances to perform on stage as possible.
The School’s teams have, with spectacular effort, put together nine different programmes over 32 performances. Seeing the student’s determination to succeed, separated from each other for so much of the year and unable to train or teach in the studios they love, has been a powerful inspiration.
See photographs from the rehearsals of our 2021 Summer Performances
