The Royal Ballet School
Notes & Videos
Below are some videos featuring the work and history of the Royal Ballet School. Please note that more historical information about The Royal Ballet School’s foundation will be available in the rehearsal room – Devon received a packet directly from them!
The Founding
The School was founded in 1926, when Dame Ninette de Valois opened her Academy of Choreographic Art. Inspired to create a repertory ballet company and school, she collaborated with Lilian Baylis, lessee and Manager of the Old Vic Theatre.
When Lilian Baylis acquired the Sadler’s Wells Theatre, de Valois moved the School there in 1931 and it became The Vic-Wells Ballet School, feeding dancers into The Vic-Wells Ballet Company. In 1939, the school was renamed The Sadler’s Wells Ballet School and the Company became The Sadler’s Wells Ballet.
In 1946, The Sadler’s Wells ballet moved to a permanent home at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. A second company was formed, The Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet. In 1947, the School moved from Sadler’s Wells Theatre to Barons Court and general education was combined with vocational ballet training.
The first five younger years of the School moved to White Lodge, Richmond Park in 1955-1956, and became residential, combining general education and vocational ballet training. The final three years of study for older students continued to be based at Barons Court.
The Royal Ballet School
The Royal Ballet School is one of the world’s premiere schools for classical ballet training, preparing generations of dancers for careers in professional ballet companies both in the United Kingdom, including The Royal Ballet itself, and around the world.
Students are admitted as early as 11 years old, and admission is based solely on talent and potential as a ballet dancer, regardless of academic history or personal circumstances. In fact, 89% of students receive significant financial aid in order to attend the school and many are international students.
The Training
If a student remains with the school until graduation, they will complete The Royal Ballet School System of Training.
The 8-year training program has been developed over the years since the school’s founding in 1926 (then called The Academy of Choreographic Art) by Ninette de Valois. The System of Training emphasizes artistry, musicality, purity of line, coordination, and a quality of movement that is free of mannerisms with the goal of preparing students to perform any classical ballet choreography with any company.
Information below reflects the current training regime, but much of it remains the same as it would have been in the 80s.
The first 5 years at The Royal Ballet School are spent at the White Lodge campus in Richmond Park. Approximately 125 young students between the ages of 11 and 16 are enrolled in the school, and they live in boarding houses on White Lodge grounds.
As with most traditional boarding schools, students adhere to a prescribed schedule of classes, mealtimes, bedtimes, and supervised homework. Every day, they rise at 7:00am, eat breakfast together, and prepare to begin classes at 8:30am. Their school days are comprised of 4 hours of academic lessons and 2 hours of ballet class, with all classes ending by 4:00 in the afternoon. Late afternoons and early evenings may involve additional dance classes, rehearsals for performances, or free time. Following dinner with their fellow students, they have a supervised homework hour at 7:15 each evening.
Because of the school’s connections with The Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet, White Lodge students are frequently selected to perform the children’s roles in The Nutcracker. Students at White Lodge also have opportunities to perform over the summer at Opera Holland Park and the Royal Opera House.
In their final year at White Lodge, students are invited to audition for the Upper School in order to continue their training and education in classical ballet.
The Upper School is a 3-year program for students aged 16 to 19 located in Covent Garden in a building connected to the Royal Opera House, the home of The Royal Ballet. During the first two years at the Upper School, the students continue their dual study of academic and dance curriculum, while the third and final year is dedicated to full-time ballet training. Just as at White Lodge, admission is based solely on talent, regardless of a student’s academic history or personal circumstances; approximately 100 students attend each year, representing 17 different countries.
While students continue to live in school-owned and supervised boarding houses, they are afforded more personal freedoms as they age and mature. As an Upper School student, the dance curriculum focuses more intensely on learning the repertoire of the Royal companies (The Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet). Though choreographers continue to create new ballets all the time, there are heritage works that are essential for rising professional ballet dancers to know in order to succeed in a professional company. The Royal Ballet School helps students prepare by teaching them this choreography during their Upper School years.
Official Packet
As mentioned above, more information on the school’s great history will be made available in the rehearsal room – the packet will live there for actor perusal!