Dazzling Showcases: The Royal Ballet School’s 2023 Summer Performances

Dazzling Showcases: The Royal Ballet School’s 2023 Summer Performances

There are few summer events in London as delightful and inspiring as The Royal Ballet School’s Summer Performances. Each year, students perform thrilling repertoire on some of the biggest stages, including Opera Holland Park, an open-air theatre in one of London’s finest green spaces.

The 2023 Summer Performance season took place from July 5-8, with an additional performance on July 16 on the main stage of the Royal Opera House. On each occasion, White Lodge and Upper School students dazzled audiences with their exceptional talent and passion for the art form.

With pieces ranging from classical ballet to contemporary and traditional folk dance, the Summer Performances had something for everyone to enjoy. The exciting season also showcased original pieces from gifted student choreographers.

From Vivaldi to Killing Eve: This Year’s Varied Summer Performances

The Summer Performances are a chance for students to learn how to prepare physically and mentally for the stage. The occasion also allows them to practise transforming the ballet vocabulary they’ve mastered over the past academic year into a magical experience for audiences.

Each year, the Summer Performances explore an array of repertoire. This range enables students to display their grounding in heritage and classical works and their versatility in other styles. It’s also a unique opportunity for students to inhabit the roles they may go on to dance in the future as professionals.

The 2023 Summer Performances Repertoire

The 2023 Summer Performances boasted a diverse repertoire, including:

• The Vision Scene from Carlos Acosta’s Don Quixote for The Royal Ballet.
• Konservatoriet, August Bournonville’s historic vaudeville piece for the Royal Danish Ballet, set in a dance studio.
• Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s The Four Seasons, set to three Verdi operas. This piece debuted at The Royal Ballet in 1975.
• A wistful pas de deux from Sir Frederick Ashton’s charming ballet The Two Pigeons (1961).
• Excerpts from acclaimed Royal Ballet School alumnus and Artistic Associate of The Royal Ballet Christopher Wheeldon’s Within the Golden Hour. This glowing contemporary masterpiece incorporates music from Ezio Bosso and Antonio Vivaldi.
• Goyo Montero’s contemporary work Bold, which he created with students from 24 ballet schools worldwide at the 2023 Prix de Lausanne to celebrate 50 years of the iconic competition.
• Hora La Aninoasa, a piece featuring traditional Romanian folk dance.
• Royal Ballet School alumnus Jiří Kylián’s witty Sechs Tänze.
• Robert Battle’s striking work Takademe.

New Pieces Created for This Year’s Summer Performance Season

The season also included new works created especially for the Summer Performances by:

• Royal Ballet School alumna and Choreographic Course Coordinator and Tutor Mikaela Polley. Polley created Fast Blue, a captivating piece for Upper School students.
• The School’s Head of Training and Access Mark Annear, who created a piece for White Lodge students set to music by Antonín Dvořák.
• The School’s Senior Teacher Training Manager Karen Berry. Berry created a dynamic Scottish country dance piece for Year 9 entitled Coimeasgadh.
• Donna Makins, who created A Short Reel, performed by Year 8 students.
• Morgann Runacre-Temple, whose thought-provoking work Billow displayed Year 11 students’ contemporary dance forte.

Impressive Student Choreography

Originally called The Academy of Choreographic Art, The Royal Ballet School has a long tradition of encouraging students to engage in choreographic work.

Each year, the Summer Performances showcase wonderful pieces from student choreographers, who also get involved in the costume design for their performances. Peers from each young choreographer’s year group perform the piece.

This year, student works included:

• Tales of the Unexpected: White Lodge Year 9 student Rose choreographed the piece and set it to Unloved’s “Tales of the Unexpected” from the TV show Killing Eve.
• Paradoja: White Lodge Year 10 student Cesar choreographed the piece and set it to “Darkness of Light” by Secession Studios.
• Manipulation: White Lodge Year 11 student Lauren choreographed the piece and set it to “On a Mission” by Duomo.
• An Ode to a Love Lost: Upper School Second Year student Maia Rose choreographed the piece and set it to Finn Ronsdorf’s song “Ode to a Love Lost.”
• Forgetting: Upper School Second Year student Tom choreographed the piece and set it to Henryk Górecki’s “Symphony No.3, Op. 36.”
• How It Ends: Upper School Second Year student Rebecca choreographed the piece and set it to “How It Ends,” a song by DeVotchKa.

Behind The Scenes of the 2023 Summer Performances

The Four Seasons

Talented First and Second Year Upper School students performed Kenneth MacMillan’s original work The Four Seasons during the 2023 Summer Performances.

Students learnt from expert choreologist and ballet dancer Giacomo Bevilacqua, who trained in the Russian classical method at the Accademia di Ballo del Teatro alla Scala. Nicola Tranah and Zhan Atymtayev also helped students rehearse the piece.

Bevilacqua has studied the Benesh Movement Notation methodology to analyse, preserve, and restage dance choreographies. He ensured the preservation of MacMillan’s ideas and choreography in the Upper School students’ performances.

During the rehearsals, Bevilacqua described MacMillan’s piece as “choreographically intense” and a “great challenge for the students to master.” However, the choreologist called the School’s young dancers “incredibly skilled, well-trained, and professional.” He found the students motivated to learn and keen to take on the challenge.

Fast Blue

“Playful, energetic, and fast,” Fast Blue is Mikaela Polley’s new piece for the 2023 Summer Performance season. Polley trained at The Royal Ballet School before she joined Birmingham Royal Ballet in 1990. She has worked on several previous Royal Ballet School performances and has a reputation for showcasing dancers’ strengths.

Set against an energetic, vibrant string quartet soundtrack, Fast Blue features a cast of 19 male Upper School dancers. Polley often collaborates with Upper School students when choreographing. With Fast Blue, she sought to create a piece that would allow the students to execute their classical ballet technique with “a bit of a twist.”

“My goal is to push the boundaries of the context of the classical vocabulary to provide the students with something fun and vibrant.”

Polley added that audiences often see female dancers in a “corps de ballet setting,” which is when members of a ballet company dance together as a group. In Fast Blue, the large group of young male dancers work similarly, in a “collaborative corps de ballet.”

Hora La Aninoasa

An artwork of Romanian people dancing in a circle inspired Tom Bosma’s Hora La Aninoasa. For this piece, White Lodge students wear traditional Romanian costumes and dance to lively Romanian folk music.

Bosma, a world-renowned expert in ballet and traditional character dance, crafted the choreography from the dance styles of different Romanian regions. During Hora La Aninoasa, each White Lodge year group dances choreography from a distinct area. Then, all dancers come together for the finale.

Besides classical ballet and other styles, Royal Ballet School students experience character and folk dance as part of the School’s curriculum. Bosma describes how, with this style of dance, “children learn rhythms and different ways of listening to music.”

He adds: “It is a different way of moving and all countries have their own style which is extremely important for them to learn.”

Sechs Tänze

The Royal Ballet School’s Pre-professional Year students worked with Jiří Kylián ballet master Shirley Esseboom on their performance of Sechs Tänze. Esseboom visited Upper School for three weeks to rehearse the piece and pass on her knowledge and experience of the Czech choreographer’s work.

Inspired by the life of Mozart, Sechs Tänze is a comedic piece that combines athletic movement with physical humour. The work features “a lot of tricky classical style” which the students had to get comfortable with performing in “a totally silly way.”

Esseboom praised the students for their technique and willingness to “try something different and really go for it.”

“They are all brilliant, and it’s been amazing to be studying this piece with them,” she said.

The Vision Scene From Don Quixote

Teachers Zenaida Yanowsky, Nicola Tranah, and Daria Klimentová helped Upper School students rehearse their performance of the vision scene from Don Quixote. Retired dancer and the ballet’s choreographer Carlos Acosta also came to rehearse with students.

Created in 1869 by Marius Pepita, the Don Quixote ballet tells the story of the knight and his quest to find true love. Acosta reimagined Don Quixote for The Royal Ballet in 2013, introducing new choreography.

In the Vision Scene, the titular character encounters an ensemble of fairies in a magical world. The scene is “technically demanding” and contains “challenging movements which add a sense of magic and wonder.”

Klimentová explained that the students embraced the challenge and worked hard to master the choreography for the Summer Performances.

Royal Ballet School Students’ Infectious Enthusiasm for Dance

For some White Lodge students (Years 7 to 11), this was their first performance season. Many Upper School students — whether in their First, Second, or Pre-professional Year — are seasoned dancers with cherished memories of Opera Holland Park.

It’s a pleasure to watch students of all ages sharing the stage. From Year 7 students to Pre-professionals, the performers demonstrate the incredible skill of those who train full-time at the School. The older students also enjoy performing with their younger peers, which allows reflection on how far they have come in their ballet journeys.

For both students and audiences, the beautiful costumes are another highlight of the Summer Performances. The School’s wardrobe team works tirelessly to create and source the costumes, which enhance the students’ movements and the atmosphere of each piece.

Perhaps the biggest appeal of the season is the chance to witness the joy and pride students derive from performing. These qualities are evident in their impressive efforts, technical ability, and expressive performances.

When the audience erupts into applause and cheers at the end of each piece, the students bow like true professionals. But they also smile like proud, happy schoolchildren. As an audience member, it’s hard not to beam back.

Discover the 2023 Summer Performances in The Royal Ballet School students’ own words.

About The Royal Ballet School

The Royal Ballet School helps students grow into outstanding young dancers who pursue careers with The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, and other leading dance companies. Students perform on international stages and learn from exceptional instructors.

On average, 88% of the School’s students rely on financial support to attend. The vital support of donors ensures students can meet the rising costs of becoming some of the world’s best dancers. The Royal Ballet School Equal Opportunities Fund helps with expenses for essentials like uniforms, ballet shoes, and travel.

Beyond full-time training in London, there are many ways for young dancers to get involved in the School’s work, such as Intensive Courses on Demand or the Associate Programme.