Some changes for the 24/25 School year
Next week, we will welcome our students back to the School, many of them new students. Our staff have enjoyed coming together this Inset week to prepare for the new term.
We announce some changes to our Executive Leadership and Artistic teams for the 24/25 academic year.
Executive Leadership Team changes
Chief Operating Officer Pippa Adamson will leave the School in September to take up the role of Chief Financial Officer at Garsington Opera, Oxfordshire. Pippa was initially Head of Finance at the School from June 2008 to January 2015 and returned to the School as Chief Operating Officer in January 2017.
Pippa’s considerable achievements at The Royal Ballet School include steering the School financially and operationally through the COVID pandemic, ensuring complete confidentiality for students and families about their financial backgrounds, working with the Development Team to expand the equity fund to ensure equality of experience for students, and restructuring the RBS Endowment Fund.
Chief Commercial Officer Carol Dray will also leave the School at the end of September to fulfil her ambition of increasing her Non-Executive Director, advisory portfolio and interim project work. Her significant achievements at the School include building the Commercial and Development teams to support the evolution of new strategies, through increasing charitable donations; being the guardian of the wonderful Royal Ballet School brand, executing a plan to fulfil the brand’s potential as we head to our Centenary; revolutionising the overall communications, marketing and digital approach, harnessing new revenue streams; and the development and launch of new Training & Access programmes plus the growth and financial stability of the existing.
Artistic Team change
Stuart Cassidy, Pre-professional Year Ballet Teacher, will also leave the School in December to take up the role of Répétiteur to the Principal Artists at The Royal Ballet. Stuart trained with our Junior Associate Programme and at White Lodge and Upper School before graduating into The Royal Ballet and being promoted to Principal within four years. The School has been privileged to benefit from his wealth of experience and knowledge since his return in 2023.
Stuart has been instrumental in nurturing, coaching and supporting our Pre-professional Year students as they prepare to take their first steps in their professional careers. He has done this with great skill, insight and warmth, and students and colleagues will greatly miss him.
We thank Pippa, Carol, and Stuart for their dedication to the School and their much-valued contributions, and we wish them the best in their next chapters.
Some new faces
We’re delighted to welcome Sarah Wildor to the School as Associate Programme and Primary Steps Artistic Manager. An alumna of the School, Sarah went on to become a Principal dancer with The Royal Ballet. After departing from The Royal Ballet in 2001, she pursued a successful career in musical theatre before transitioning into teaching ballet and Pilates. Sarah completed her Diploma of Dance Teaching at the School, as well as Trinity Laban’s Diploma in Dance Teaching and Learning, and she holds a First Class honours degree in psychology, having studied at the University of Buckingham. Sarah will oversee all artistic content in our Associate and Primary Steps programmes.
We are equally pleased to welcome Layla Harrison as a permanent member of our Artistic staff at White Lodge. Layla, also an alumna of the School, has had an illustrious career as a former Artist with the English National Ballet, and Scottish Ballet. Her teaching and adjudicating experience spans across the UK, Australia, Germany, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and South Africa. Layla initially joined us last year as a Ballet Teacher for Year 7 and an Artistic Coach for Years 8 and 9.
We are excited to welcome both Sarah Wildor and Layla Harrison back to the School and look forward to the wealth of knowledge and expertise they will bring to our students.
