An excellent ballet school in Bath??

[Ausca17]

Hi. We are relocating to the UK from Vancouver where my 8yr old DD is taking 8.5hrs of ballet a week (and would do more if allowed) at a school where the teachers are all ex-professional ballet dancers, where she had to audition to attend, and there is a vocational stream for older dancers. I am looking for an equivalent level of training in the Bath area and I am struggling to find anything. I'd really appreciate some direction. As a retired professional dancer myself I value excellence along with a whole child perspective. She is about to take her grade 3 exam in RAD but I am not concerned about sticking with an RAD training methodology, the quality of teaching is the priority.

[Pas de Quatre]

Bristol Russian Ballet School is an excellent school. It would be worth looking at if you don't mind the journey, just under an hour.

[Jan McNulty]

Hello @Ausca17 and welcome to the Forum!

 

I've moved your post to the Doing Dance forum where all things related to schools etc are discussed.

 

Bath is such a lovely place to relocate to ... good luck with your relocation.

[Swanwings]

I have heard the Dorothy Coleborn school is very good, no personal experience but a friend of mine would highly recommend it.

[Raquelle]

The royal ballet have a junior associate training centre in Bath on weekends. The teacher there is lovely and very nurturing. Not sure when the audition process starts though for next September x 

[Peanut68]

4 hours ago, Pas de Quatre said:

Bristol Russian Ballet School is an excellent school. It would be worth looking at if you don't mind the journey, just under an hour.

I’d say it’s much less than an hour from Bath to Bristol as it’s only about 7-10 miles between the two cities isn’t it?

[Peanut68]

There is also a Royal Ballet Junior Associates at Bath too isn’t there that your youngster could apply to audition for (applications might currently be open….check on the website)

Good luck with move - Bath & surrounding region is a lovely place to live! 

[Pas de Quatre]

I think it depends from whereabouts and the time of day, in both places traffic can be bad. 50+ minutes was what Google maps said. (I have family near Bath so know it well.)

Yes it is good to have RB JAs in Bath, but that is just the cherry on the cake. You need a good school for regular training.

[Ausca17]

Thank you everyone for the information. The Bristol school looks good but I am also concerned over travel time. Does anyone on here have experience with the above mentioned Dorothy Coleborn school? We’ll be trying for the RBS JA program, but I don’t know how they’ll view us as not even being residents but internationals till the move in summer. 

[batmanballetshoes]

Bristol school great faculty and training really take it seriously but traffic in that part of the world is ghastly. Good luck and welcome at least Bath is a great place to live!

[dancefanatic]

8 hours ago, Ausca17 said:

Thank you everyone for the information. The Bristol school looks good but I am also concerned over travel time. Does anyone on here have experience with the above mentioned Dorothy Coleborn school? We’ll be trying for the RBS JA program, but I don’t know how they’ll view us as not even being residents but internationals till the move in summer. 

all I can tell you about Dorothy Coleborn is that my eldest DD's former JA/MA teacher also teaches here so I assume the school must be quite good to have her on their staffing roster.  She was the most amazing teacher for my DD and we will forever be grateful to her for both her teaching and support when looking at vocational schools etc.

Edited December 12, 2024 by dancefanatic

[Kerfuffle]

Bristol Russian might be a good option once your daughter is more independent and can go by train herself. The training brings talented students up to a very high standard as the teachers are ex principals from Russia and they have a youth company at weekends. Also worth applying for their intensives in Spring/Summer from 11 - extremely popular with vocational students. 

[Baker45]

Agree with the comments above. Know of some students who have done both options and have gone on to RBS / Vaganova