Goldenlily17

In 2015 there were 28 graduating students at the Royal. Only one of them, a girl from Japan, Chisato Katsura won a contract with the company. There were only 3 female students from Britain who graduated. 2 of them got apprenticeships at the Royal, but that isn't a job. Neither of the contracts given to female dancers by ENB were won by British girls and the only other Brit to get through the Royal's third year, Grace Horne, got a job at Scottish Ballet. The situation at ENBS wasn't much better, two girls from the UK got contracts with ENB. At Elmhurst the situation was worse. One graduating British girl out of a year group of 17 got a job with BRB. It really isn't encouraging, especially if you look at the composition of the national ballet schools in for example Denmark or Germany, where the bulk of students will are from the host countries. Only two British girls made it through from White Lodge to the Upper School for entry in September 2015. The other two British girls who got in came from Elmhurst and from Tring. I don't know how many parents who are trying to support their daughters through training really know how bleak the prospects of success are. It is gutting to see how 11 year olds who get into White Lodge think they will be the next Darcey when so few will get into Upper School and even then the chances of getting into the company virtually nil. These days the only more certain route to success is winning or at least getting noticed at an international competition

Speaking of the tastes of individual ballet directors, 6 out of 9 of English National Ballet's lead and lead principals are either South American or Spanish. Lauretta Summersales is the only British female lead. There are no British female dancers among their 1st soloists, soloists or junior soloists. Tamarin Scott is the only female first artist. It does make a travesty out of the idea of English National Ballet.

Just looking at the graduate destinations for Royal Ballet and Elmhurst students alone for 2014 and 2015, there have been more than 16 European companies which have provided jobs for young dancers. More jobs have been provided on the continent than in the UK, especially for girls. More than a third of these jobs have been in Eastern Europe, in Estonia, Romania, Czech Republic, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia. If Eastern Europeans who wish to travel further west to work are no longer entitled to do so, why should these companies employ British ballet dancers? I think anyone in the dance world planning to vote Out needs to think very, very carefully about the consequences. I can't see our national companies changing their bias for dancers from the Americas and Asia in particular, and if they do it will take a great deal of lobbying to achieve this. In the meantime our young dancers and no doubt musicians who want to build careers in European orchestras, could be the casualties caught in the cross-fire.

Ok. Thanks. I think this is such an important issue. It really concerns me that given the shortage of jobs anyway. As it is already impossible to get into Paris Opera Ballet, for example, it seems that it would be inevitable that other European companies would put up barriers, or just find the bureaucracy of visas too much of a hassle.

Hi, I have just been collating info about where the graduates from British ballet schools find work and I see that it is overwhelmingly in European compnanies. We all know how hard it is to get posts in British ballet companies, especially for girls, and that visa restrictions in the USA are draconian, so it more or less rules out the USA. If we leave the EU and visa restrictions are introduced it will only make the job market even harder. Where on earth are out talented young dancers going to work? It seems to me that Europe is a vital market for them.