Year 11 students at their celebration at white lodge

End-of-year celebrations and prize-giving ceremonies

As another academic year comes to a close, we’ve been celebrating our White Lodge and Upper School students’ extraordinary achievements over the past year at The Royal Ballet School.

Year 11 Celebration

Friday 21 June marked one of the highlights of the School calendar for our White Lodge Year 11 students: their graduation from the Development Programme.

The event featured a captivating performance in the Margot Fonteyn Theatre and addresses from special guests Dame Monica Mason, Artistic Director Christopher Powney, Head Girl Stella Chambaud and Head Boy Adam Pearce.

As per tradition, students were presented with their certificates on the symbolic White Lodge steps, dressed in beautiful gowns and suits, before celebrating with family, friends, and supporters on the White Lodge lawn.

Congratulations to our Year 11 students, and we wish them every success in the future, wherever their paths may lead. A special thank you to parents and guardians for the encouragement, support and guidance you have provided these students over the years.

Year 11 celebration

Celebrating artistic, academic and community excellence: our 2024 prize winners

Earlier this week, White Lodge and Upper School students held their final assemblies of the 2023-24 academic year ahead of our final Summer Performance at the Royal Opera House this weekend.

The assemblies, held in the Linden and Margot Fonteyn Studio Theatres, were an opportunity for the School to come together and acknowledge the artistic, academic and community achievements of the students this year.

Read more about our 2024 award recipients below.

White Lodge prize winners

Special Award in recognition of promoting mental health and wellness: Harry Withers, Year 11

The April Olrich Award for Outstanding Performance: Bella Barter, Year 11

This award is given to a dancer who possesses an extra ‘special something; that inner magic, that spark that fires the audience – the dancer who uses the eyes to communicate with the audience – the dancer who comes alive on stage.’

The Frank Freeman Summer School Scholarship: Clovis Couillard, Year 11

The Valerie Adams Award for Exceptional Musicality: Sasha Dobrynin-Lait, Year 11

Our alumna Valerie Adams generously left a gift in her will, which provides this award in perpetuity to recognise a White Lodge student’s exceptional musicality and artistry.

Artistic Prizes for Student Progress and Endeavour:

Year 7: Alba Murray and Joseph Phillips
Year 8: Robyn Haigh and Ianis Graur
Year 9: Summer Cambden and Ozora Sumenda
Year 10: Tatiana Muravitskaya and Oliver Fitton
Year 11: Krysante Bianinova and Matthis Laevens

Left to right: Clovis Couillard, Bella Barter and Sasha Dobrynin-Lait

Upper School prize winners

The Ballet Association Award: Yasemin Kayabay, Heewon Moon and Tristan Ian Massa

The Ballet Association kindly offers three bursaries to support international students towards training costs during the Summer Intensive programme. These bursaries are given in recognition of Sylvia Tyler’s and Joan Seaman’s contributions to dance through their founding and development of the Association.

The Gailene Stock Award: Aurora Chinchilla

This award is given in memory of Gailene Stock, former Director of The Royal Ballet School and Principal dancer with The Australian Ballet. It is generously supported by Mr David Norman, a former Chairman of the School. The award is given in recognition of the exceptional progress made during training throughout this last year.

Prizes for Student Progress and Endeavour:

1st Year: Addison Partlow and Archie Mathias
2nd Year: Yuki Nagayasu and Amos Child
Pre-professional Year: Andrea Riolo and Sigurd Blystad

Left: Heewon Moon, Yasemin Kayabay and Tristan Ian Massa
Right: Aurora Chinchilla