Past Pointe: The Royal Ballet School

History

Situated in London, The Royal Ballet school was founded by Dame Ninette de Valois in 1926. Under the original name of the Academy of Choreographic Art, she collaborated with Lilian Baylis to form a repertory ballet company and school. When Lilian Baylis inherited the Sadler's Wells Theatre the school was moved there and started feeding students into the Vic-Wells Ballet Company. In 1931 they were renamed to be the Sadler's Wells Ballet School and Company.

It was not until 1946 that the company moved to were they are now in the Royal Opera House, Convent Gardens and the school moved shortly afterwards to Baron Courts in 1947. The five younger years of the school moved to White Lodge in 1956 and became a boarding school, mixing vocational training with general education while the senior years remained in Baron Courts.

The school and company were granted a Royal Charter in 1956 and changed their names to the Royal Ballet School, The Royal Ballet and Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet as they are known now. In 2003 the senior school joined the juniors and company and Conen Gardens finalising Dame Ninette de Valois' dream of having school and company working side by side in Central London.

Now

The Royal Ballet School has trained some of the most prestigious dancers in the last half century such as Darcy Bussel, Anthony Dowell and Margot Fonteyn along with famous choreographers such as Christopher Wheeldon.

Admission to the school is decided in auditions either in the school itself or by video submission and places are decided purely by talent. However the school is not free of charge and 89% of students still rely on financial support in order to attend. To combat this they offer scholarships and bursaries to those in need so as to keep with their policy of never turning down a talented talent.