Our values
At The Royal Ballet School, we are deeply passionate about what we do. Our work spans our world-class full-time ballet School, our recreational dance programmes and our ongoing work in professional development, both in the UK and internationally. Our team comprises professionals across specialist areas from dance to academics, pastoral and healthcare to operations, development to outreach, marketing to digital expertise. However, we are united in our mission to train and educate outstanding classical ballet dancers and, in doing so, set the standards and raise the bar for dance training on a global scale.
Our work has evolved and expanded rapidly over recent years, and so in the autumn of 2022, we revisited our organisational values. We wanted to make sure our values truly reflected the School and the scale of its work today and into the future so that they could continue to unite and engage us in a shared purpose. It was crucial to us that everyone in our organisation could relate to the values and see how they are reflected in their roles and their day-to-day work.
Developing our values was a true team effort; every team member was included and had a voice. We held a whole school workshop, dividing the School into 14 cross-department working groups to review our existing values and share our thoughts on how they should evolve. Then a core working group went through a process of reviewing each group’s feedback, identifying common themes, consolidating ideas and refining into five values we felt represented the very heart of what the School stands for.
Striving for excellence
The Royal Ballet School is always working towards excellence in everything we do. We bring the utmost integrity, passion and dedication to our work, always. Through our constant drive to achieve the highest standards, we set the standard for others, enriching and inspiring our sector and defining its future.
Nurturing individuals
We believe in the unique potential of each individual. We nurture each human holistically, equipping them with the tools they need to shape their futures as healthy, resilient human beings. We are committed to equity and ensuring all individuals have what they need to reach their potential. We cultivate supportive, nourishing environments built on trust, respect, open communication and kindness.
Actively widening access
Ballet and creative dance education should be accessible to all. We work proactively to create opportunities for people to engage with ballet wherever we can and to expand our reach across the UK and globally, including through digital access. It is particularly important to us to work to improve access routes to ballet in areas with little access to arts education.
Our heritage nourishes our future
We have a rich and unique heritage and we champion ballet excellence throughout the ages, respecting, preserving and honouring what has gone before, while also valuing our history as instructive, enabling us to acknowledge, learn and develop. Our heritage is the foundation from which we sustain and evolve the School and reach outwards, impacting our sector and society as a whole.
Always innovating
We are a bold, forward-thinking organisation, dedicated to continuous evolution. We take an innovative, pioneering outlook, committed to creative thinking to ensure we remain at the forefront of all we do. We act as thought leaders and contribute to setting the agenda for classical ballet globally. We actively seek to work with other individuals and organisations, sharing knowledge and building on our research collaboratively.
