Royal Ballet School graduates news

[Jan McNulty]

9 hours ago, Emeralds said:

 I didn’t know that RBS took students in the age 16-19 year groups other than as Prix de Lausanne or YAGP scholarship holders, but I guess they can take anyone any time they want.  

 

The RBS Upper School holds auditions every year and students from the UK and all over the world apply.  Take a look at the Doing Dance Forum!

[Emeralds]

44 minutes ago, Jan McNulty said:

 

The RBS Upper School holds auditions every year and students from the UK and all over the world apply.  Take a look at the Doing Dance Forum!

Sorry, Jan, that should have said 18-19, not 16-19 (too late to edit it now!) meaning that Calum seems to have transferred after he’d graduated (seeing as he was in the school performance) or nearly graduated senior school training at ENBS. I do know of RBS senior students being asked to leave part of the way through training (whereupon many do get accepted by other British schools and go on to have illustrious careers- sometimes even more illustrious than fellow students who were kept on) but never heard of it going the other way round, ie RBS taking British students from another British senior school halfway. The only exceptions being those who win the year of training as a Prix de Lausanne or YAGP scholarship prize. This is the first example. 

Edited June 2, 2023 by Emeralds

[FionaM]

And at least one other … I noticed a female dancer in RBS third year on the day the London Ballet Circle visited the school who had graduated from Canada National Ballet School.  She was quite accomplished and caught my eye.  
 

Sierra Glasheen https://instagram.com/sierra.ballerina?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

 

[FionaM]

1 hour ago, capybara said:

I believe (hearsay) that Calum was ‘talented spotted by the RBS at the ENBS performance I mentioned. But he was not necessarily in his graduate year.

 

begs the question does the RBS actually have much homegrown talent if they are ‘poaching’ / ‘talent spotting’ (you pick the phrase you prefer) students from other schools, competitions etc.  I am told this year’s intake to upper school from lower school will have zero British students.  That can’t be right.  I hope it isn’t true.  

[Emeralds]

I think RBS is moving to become a top international school as opposed to remaining a British school training predominantly homegrown British dancers. This may also be due to the fact that in recent years (compared to say, Dowell, Sibley or Bussell’s time, yes, that far back) Elmhurst, ENBS, Arts Ed and Central are also taking a lot of British students focusing on a classical ballet career who might previously only have considered RBS and nowhere else.

 

ENBS & Central didn’t exist before 1980, and Elmhurst and Arts Ed previously focused mainly on musical theatre/tap/jazz more than classical ballet, but if you look at many successful ballet dancers’ cvs, they also include graduates from Elmhurst, Arts Ed, Central, ENBS. Royal Conservatoire of Scotland also now offers classical ballet training whereas previously it was just music and drama (although of course Lowden, as well as Reece Clarke and his brothers, chose to train professionally in London rather than in Scotland). This means that previously the British students who would have competed with each other and formed a strong and large pool of candidates to choose from are being spread out to other institutions (especially if costs are lower or financial aid is available that they won’t have at RBS) so I guess RBS has to recruit internationally, rather like the Stuttgart, Hamburg, some American schools etc etc have done for some time.

 

I can believe it’s true, FionaE. At the end of the day, if the British students are getting the training they want and need to progress on to a successful career, it doesn’t matter whether it’s at RBS or another school as long as they are thriving and receiving the training to fulfill their potential and hone their talent. I notice that worldwide, it is becoming the norm for rising and current stars not to come from the top few institutions associated with established companies. 

Edited June 2, 2023 by Emeralds

[alison]

There are numerous threads on the subject in Doing Dance, if you want to take a look.

 

In the meantime, if anyone has actually seen the production and would like to report back, that would be most welcome.

[capybara]

I don’t want to prolong a discussion which should be in ‘Doing Dance’ but, contrary to your assertions @Emeralds, the RBS seems still to be very much the first choice of British students with the other schools being their ‘fall back’ choices.

[Emeralds]

We could move this part of the thread, @alison, and I’d offer to do the work myself, but obviously only a moderator can do it so if anyone is free to do it I’d be happy for this section to be moved. I didn’t actually start the digression but was just answering 2 questions 😉. Just wanted to clarify with @capybara whom I might have inadvertently confused. I don’t mean that British students don’t apply to or consider RBS at all. Obviously RBS being a “flagship” institution and a top training academy they will apply. What I’m simply saying is that with the fees being very high, if British students get an offer from more than one institution including RBS, many pick RBS, but nowadays there are a very small number who turn down RBS and pick one of the other schools mentioned if they feel more comfortable being there. (A number also don’t get offered a place.) 

 

3 years of very high fees and a career is a lot to entrust to an expensive live-in institution if they don’t feel happy studying there. Of those who don’t get an offer from RBS but do get them from one of the other four, train there and whether they get “poached” like Lowden did or not, a number do go on to British and international companies and have sterling careers, including becoming principals. Gregory Dean and Kizzy Matiakis at Royal Danish Ballet are just two examples of British principal dancers in top companies who aren’t RBS grads.

 

Not having British students in one year at RBS doesn’t mean that no British classical ballet dancers will emerge from that age group,at all, nor that everyone born that year simply wasn’t up to scratch....they’ll simply emerge via another route. It just means that there is more than one route to success rather than RBS, and not getting in or not being allowed to graduate (not including those who get offered jobs to start before graduation) isn’t the end of the world.

 

I know someone who was assessed out, went to another school, graduated from the new school and received a contract with a major company, is still there, has been promoted and danced solo roles, and will be debuting in yet another major role soon, and there are similar stories from other graduates from other years or schools. Many in her year at RBS who were kept on weren’t as successful as she. It’s not a critique of RBS, and they don’t have a crystal ball to know the future, it’s just how things turn out.

 

Getting into White Lodge or the senior part of RBS is no guarantee of a successful career, and getting offers only from schools that aren’t RBS does not spell disaster. The same is true for French students who didn’t train at the Paris Opera school, and the American students who didn’t get a place at SAB. It’s what happens along the journey and how the student progresses that matters. 

Edited June 2, 2023 by Emeralds

[alisonruss]

Sorry to derail this thread but, as an ‘Old Elm’, I refute Emerald’s assertion that ‘Elmhurst and Arts Ed previously focused mainly on musical theatre/tap/jazz more than classical ballet’, certainly in the case of Elmhurst.

 

For most of its existence, Elmhurst has been formally known as Elmhurst Ballet School: the daily ballet class was/is at the core of its vocational curriculum. Other dance disciplines were added to the curriculum, but they were not the main focus. (And we didn’t have tap classes when I was there, in the sixties/seventies). One of my classmates was assessed out of Royal Ballet School, White Lodge. Due to her talent and determination and the vocational teaching at Elmhurst, she was successful in obtaining a place at the Royal Ballet School, Upper School. She was not the only student that year who went from Elmhurst to RBS, Upper School, and there were others who made the same transition while I was there.

 

As far as I’m aware, Arts Ed/Tring Park has for a very long time had two strands; Dance, with ballet at its core, and the Performing Arts.

 

It should also not be forgotten that, decades ago, in the absence of ‘national’ vocational schools, the Yehudi Menuhin School and the Royal Ballet School were the only vocational schools for which one could receive direct government funding, as opposed to the lottery of local government grants. Another reason why the Royal Ballet School was the only option for some families.

[Ondine]

On 02/06/2023 at 09:52, FionaE said:

And at least one other … I noticed a female dancer in RBS third year on the day the London Ballet Circle visited the school who had graduated from Canada National Ballet School.  She was quite accomplished and caught my eye.  
 

Sierra Glasheen https://instagram.com/sierra.ballerina?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

 

 

Just a small update: Sierra Glasheen has joined the RB as an Aud Jebson apprentice.

 

The following dancers will join the Company in the 2023/24 Season:

Graduates of The Royal Ballet School, Bethany Bartlett, Sierra Glasheen, Seung Hee Han, Isabella Shaker, Caspar Lench and Blake Smith join the Aud Jebsen Young Dancers Programme.

 

She'd had quite a varied career so far for one so young!  That includes a YAGP sholarship in 2018 . A Google search is interesting!

 

Early history

 

http://www.dancersofny.com/blog/2015/8/21/59th-street-lexington-ave

 

She's also teaching. https://dancestudio-pro.com/online/classes.php?account_id=1548

 

Pop Up Variations Workshop
Variations Workshop with Sierra Glasheen of The Royal Ballet. Workshop includes a full barre with some center work followed by learning two to three variations selected by Sierra. Pointe shoes recommended but not required

Education
2022-2023
The Royal Ballet School Graduate Year
Taught by Jessica Clarke, Zenaida Yanowsky, Ricardo Cervera
2018-2022
Canada’s National Ballet School
Professional Ballet Program Graduate
Taught by Vera Timashova, Deborah Hess, Raymond Smith, Peggy Baker
August 2022
Kaatsbaan Summer Intensive
Taught by Stella Abrera, Sascha Radetsky, Martine van Hamel, Gemma Bond
July 2021
The Royal Ballet School Summer Exchange
(Awarded scholarship for summer 2022)
Taught by Christopher Powney, Jessica Clarke, Nicola Tranah, Anita Younge


Recognitions
2022 Erik Bruhn Memorial Award for Exceptional Dance
Peter Dwyer Award for Excellence in Dance
Ontario Scholar
2021 California Dance Classic International Virtual Competition,
Gold award
2021/22 International Online Dance Competition,
1st runner up senior ballet category
2020 Universal Ballet Virtual Competition, Platinum level
2019-20 Ambassador BlochCanada Dancewear
2018 Youth America Grand Prix Finalist
Top 30 soloist Lincoln Center

 

 

[FionaM]

@Ondine thank you for all this super info 🙏

[capybara]

Already being advertised as “Sierra Glasheen of The Royal Ballet”. Mmmmh!

I will be looking out for her on Sunday!

[LinMM]

Sierra performed a pas de deux with Blake Smith in “Within the Golden Hour….don’t know if she will be cast in this same role on Sunday. 
On the LBC day I didn’t notice Sierra at all at the barre but when they all came into the centre this dancer ( who turned out to be Sierra) started to stand out a lot more….technically very secure ….and one of those dancers who comes into their own once on the stage. 
I actually ended up working out who Sierra was retrospectively once at the Linbury on the 20th!! 

[Ondine]

3 hours ago, Velvet said:

messages have been all about RBS students posted obviously by friends and family

 

I am neither, for the record. I took no part in the earlier discussion between forum members who I suspect are not 'friends and family' either.  I agree the earlier posts went 'off topic' (it happens, at times a detour can take you via the scenic route to unexpectedly delightful places however)  but I felt it useful to update the thread, to give fresh  information about a dancer mentioned who has only spent a year at RBS and has now been taken into the company via the Aud Jebson scheme. I'm not sure this is 'promoting', it's informing.

 

 

[Jan McNulty]

A number of these posts have been moved from the discussion thread about the Royal Swedish Ballet's production of Manon.

[Ondine]

Thanks.  I look forward to reading further reviews from forum members of the RBS upcoming performances,  for which I believe there is a separate thread.

 

Exciting times for so many talented young people, who have worked so hard to get this far.  I see in today's Links all the latest news of where graduates will be going very soon!

 

I wish them all well.

 

Feature - Meet the 24 graduating Royal Ballet School students:  Graham Spicer, Gramilano

 

[Dancing Kitty]

On 14/07/2023 at 10:43, capybara said:

Already being advertised as “Sierra Glasheen of The Royal Ballet”. Mmmmh!

I will be looking out for her on Sunday!

She is scheduled to dance the pas de deux in Golden Hour.  I missed seeing her at Holland Park but a friend said to look out for her tomorrow.

[BalletcoForum Moderators]

A number of posts on this thread have been hidden because they are confrontational and/or aggressive.

[Kerfuffle]

On 02/06/2023 at 20:16, Emeralds said:

We could move this part of the thread, @alison, and I’d offer to do the work myself, but obviously only a moderator can do it so if anyone is free to do it I’d be happy for this section to be moved. I didn’t actually start the digression but was just answering 2 questions 😉. Just wanted to clarify with @capybara whom I might have inadvertently confused. I don’t mean that British students don’t apply to or consider RBS at all. Obviously RBS being a “flagship” institution and a top training academy they will apply. What I’m simply saying is that with the fees being very high, if British students get an offer from more than one institution including RBS, many pick RBS, but nowadays there are a very small number who turn down RBS and pick one of the other schools mentioned if they feel more comfortable being there. (A number also don’t get offered a place.) 

 

3 years of very high fees and a career is a lot to entrust to an expensive live-in institution if they don’t feel happy studying there. Of those who don’t get an offer from RBS but do get them from one of the other four, train there and whether they get “poached” like Lowden did or not, a number do go on to British and international companies and have sterling careers, including becoming principals. Gregory Dean and Kizzy Matiakis at Royal Danish Ballet are just two examples of British principal dancers in top companies who aren’t RBS grads.

 

Not having British students in one year at RBS doesn’t mean that no British classical ballet dancers will emerge from that age group,at all, nor that everyone born that year simply wasn’t up to scratch....they’ll simply emerge via another route. It just means that there is more than one route to success rather than RBS, and not getting in or not being allowed to graduate (not including those who get offered jobs to start before graduation) isn’t the end of the world.

 

I know someone who was assessed out, went to another school, graduated from the new school and received a contract with a major company, is still there, has been promoted and danced solo roles, and will be debuting in yet another major role soon, and there are similar stories from other graduates from other years or schools. Many in her year at RBS who were kept on weren’t as successful as she. It’s not a critique of RBS, and they don’t have a crystal ball to know the future, it’s just how things turn out.

 

Getting into White Lodge or the senior part of RBS is no guarantee of a successful career, and getting offers only from schools that aren’t RBS does not spell disaster. The same is true for French students who didn’t train at the Paris Opera school, and the American students who didn’t get a place at SAB. It’s what happens along the journey and how the student progresses that matters. 

While  totally agree with this, in particular the final paragraph, I still feel it is a real shame that not a single British born girl got given a place this year at RBS upper school in spite of the success of principal dancers such as Yasmine Naghdi, Anna Rose O’’Sullivan and Francesca Hayward . I also have recently heard first hand just how much it costs to train in USA where so many competition winners come from. It really is almost impossible for someone from the U.K. to compete with this. ENBS is extremely popular choice  at overseas competitions as well but it still gives British dancers a chance and has an excellent company. 

[Jan McNulty]

11 minutes ago, Kerfuffle said:

 I still feel it is a real shame that not a single British born girl got given a place this year at RBS upper school in spite of the success of principal dancers such as Yasmine Naghdi, Anna Rose O’’Sullivan and Francesca Hayward .

 

Do you have evidence of this please?

[Kerfuffle]

I heard this while on the upper school final audition circuit from other vocational school parents - of course leading to a lot of understandable disappointment.  There is a girl who has an upper school RBS place from year 7 but she was born in USA, all others are from abroad. There were a couple of British girls who were not at WL at the audition but none were offered a place. British boys have done much better from what I have heard. I’m happy to be corrected but I take this as being the truth as no one has contradicted these facts on social media. A very well respected member of the RBS ballet community (ex governor) has written about this on Instagram. 

[Jan McNulty]

So hearsay not personal experience @Kerfuffle.  

[Ondine]

3 hours ago, Kerfuffle said:

Francesca Hayward

 

Though British, Francesca Hayward was born in Kenya I believe.

[Kerfuffle]

Obviously I am only a parent bystander but I have it on very good authority that this is correct. As I said I’m open to correction. 

[Kerfuffle]

1 minute ago, Ondine said:

 

Though British, Francesca Hayward was born in Kenya I believe.

Very true. 

[Pas de Quatre]

Yes, Francesca Hayward may may have been born in Kenya, but she was brought up in England by her paternal grandparents.  She and the other principals Kerfuffle mentions, Yasmine and Anna-Rose were trained when Gailene Stock headed RBS. Things have changed in the intervening years.

[Ondine]

Lauren Cuthbertson is also British.  However, among the current principals male & female the majority I believe were not UK born. Nunez and Muntigirov certainly not!

 

Wasn't First Soloist Claire Calvert the only one from WL in her year to make it to the upper school? Or was that into the company? I suppose there is no crystal ball and it will always vary.

 

I'm not sure it matters really where talented dancers were born so long as the school and then company always has room for them.

 

 

[Kerfuffle]

While it’s great for the company to have international talent - I’m a huge fan of several of them - it’s disconcerting that the path to being in the company has become so tough for British students. The Russians and the French for example are able to train and recruit from their own schools. 

[Ondine]

I suppose the company has always been more international and outward facing,  its founder was Irish! 

 

Assuming your information is correct, any idea how many boys have 'moved up' from WL? 

 

I think, doing the maths, which isn't my strong point, 😏 this cohort will have been affected by COVID shutdowns in the earlier stages of training.

[Jan McNulty]

2 hours ago, Kerfuffle said:

Obviously I am only a parent bystander but I have it on very good authority that this is correct. As I said I’m open to correction. 

 

Please read the AUP - you are quoting hearsay.

[Kerfuffle]

I am telling the truth. I’m now leaving this forum as this isn’t somewhere where we parents of dancers can speak honestly. 

[capybara]

Gailene Stock did recruit actively from abroad (and possibly pioneered that) but the RBS now has staff members whose role is to search out foreign talent for the school and/or to run sessions in different countries which appear to serve as auditions.

 

Now for an observation, not a judgement. For some time, it has been noticeable that several young women in the Upper School hail from the far east, indeed that is also the case in the RB Company. However, this year, it appears from the performances at Holland Park that an increasing number of White Lodge students also come from the far east.

[Jan McNulty]

14 minutes ago, Kerfuffle said:

I am telling the truth. I’m now leaving this forum as this isn’t somewhere where we parents of dancers can speak honestly. 

 

The AUP in respect of schools states personal experience of yourself, you on behalf of your child or your pupil (if you are a dance teacher).  You can always start your own Forum... or other fora are available.