Reflecting on close to a decade of teaching – in conversation with departing ballet teacher Kenta Kura

As the School year ends, we bid farewell to Kenta Kura, a long-serving staff member who has taught with The Royal Ballet School for nearly a decade. Kenta will return to Japan as the newly appointed Director at K-BALLET ACADEMY and K-BALLET SCHOOL.

Before his farewell, we spoke with Kenta about his time at The Royal Ballet School as a dedicated Foundation and Development Programme ballet teacher.

Kenta graduated from The Royal Ballet School in 1997 and later joined The Royal Ballet, where he was promoted to Soloist in 2007. He retired from the company in 2014 to take up his position as Ballet Teacher at White Lodge. Since 2014, he has taught numerous young dancers and admits he has had a number of memorable moments, but one of them that stands out is witnessing his students evolve from young dancers to professionals:

One of the highlights is that I’ve been teaching for nine years, from Year 7 to graduation year. I’ve been seeing the Year 6 audition from White Lodge to graduation and dancing at The Royal Ballet, Birmingham [Royal Ballet], and so many company dancers. 

The dancers he has taught have benefited from his passion for the art form and drive for his students to succeed. Kenta spoke of the joy he finds in watching students learn and grow:

Because I teach very young boys to start with, and basically, they have to learn from scratch, I do enjoy the moment when they get it straight away.

Kenta has nurtured and supported his students, consistently serving as a steadfast source of encouragement and guidance. He shared some valuable advice for students:

I always say to the students maybe we need to avoid making the same mistake, but make a different mistake every day.

Hear more from Kenta about his journey with The Royal Ballet School:

We wish Kenta all the best for his next chapter in Japan and thank him for his immense contributions to the School.