Dates:
U.Dance regional platform for East & West Midlands at Birmingham Hippodrome 22nd March 2025, senior contemporary selected to take part!
Yoga class for Senior students Monday 24th March with Sarah
Easter holiday: from Sunday 6th April, restarting Tuesday 22nd April.
Classes cancelled Thursday 1st May due to hall being used for Polling.
Bank holiday: Monday May 5th, classes taking place as usual!
May half term: from Sunday 25th May, restarting Monday 2nd June.
RAD summer exam sessions: provisional dates - June 22nd, June 29th, July 12th or 13th (with a possible mock exam on 15th June)
Summer Sharing - date to be confirmed, but provisionally Sunday July 6th.
End of term: Sunday 20th July, restarting Tuesday 2nd September.
November Show at Squire Theatre confirmed as 15th & 16th November with dress rehearsal Sunday 2nd November (we haven’t heard from the playhouse re a possible show date, and have now booked the Squire).
RECENT NEWS!
Congratulations Tilly! Has successfully auditioned for the Young Dancer Scheme with Elmhurst Associate School of Birmingham Royal Ballet!
Congratulations Sofia! Offered places on the following summer courses, Dutch National Ballet Academy, Finnish National Ballet, Royal Conservatoire Scotland and Yorkshire Ballet Seminars. Sofia has also successfully passed her Senior Associate assessment and has therefore been offered a place to continue into the final year of the Royal Ballet School Senior Associate programme, a fantastic achievement and well deserved success!
Earlier this term Amy submitted a film of a piece called ‘Where’s me Jumper’, choreographed in class by Amy and the Snr 2 Contemporary students, as part of our application to perform in U.Dance 2025 ‘Applause Youth Dance’. We have received notification that they were successful and have been selected to perform at Birmingham Hippodrome on Saturday 22nd March! Congratulations Amy and Snr Contemporary students! Previous years this was held annually in Nottingham and was called Episodes, this year it is a combined East and West Midlands performance in Birmingham. The students will take part in workshops during the day and perform alongside other youth dance groups from the Midlands region at 6pm.
Please see dates above and make a note of next term’s possible RAD Exam dates, Summer Sharing, plus winter Squire Theatre show dates.
The RAD has launched new regulation uniform for examinations - please see the uniform page (but no hurry to change present uniform).
RAD Winter Session Exam Results have arrived, well done everyone! Both students that took the RAD vocational level exam Intermediate, Eve and Mia, passed with a Distinction!
Northern Ballet invited 20 young students from Gedling Ballet School to take part in their performances of A Christmas Carol at the Theatre Royal Nottingham in November 2024. An amazing experience for our students and a wonderful company!
Over the Christmas/New Year holiday, GBS teachers Susie and Amy both had a wonderful time performing in the Maldives!
Last term we had three wonderful guest teachers: Lesya Tyminska covered Susie’s Monday classes (former GBS student, Royal Ballet Associate through to senior level, 3 year full-time training at Rambert and on graduation joined Danish Dance Theatre). Hannah Alvey covered Amy’s contemporary class (former GBS Student trained full-time at Trinity Laban Conservatoire London, now a freelance teacher). Immarni Slaney covered Intermediate on a Saturday (trained full-time at Elmhurst Ballet School has performed with Ballet de Barcelona and Northern Ballet).
Royal Ballet success for Sofia, offered a place as a Royal Ballet Senior Associate, and over the summer holiday attended the YBS Summer Intensive plus Prague Junior Masterclasses run by Daria Klimentova.
Congratulations to Amy! (Former GBS student, trained full-time at Rambert and teaches here at GBS ) - The Royal Ballet School’s Diploma of Dance Teaching trains professional dancers and dance teachers to teach classical ballet to a world-class standard. It is a two year part-time course, Amy was offered a place and started in September 2024! As part of her application Amy filmed herself teaching here at Gedling Ballet School, thank you to the students involved. Amy will also be taking over the role of London Children’s Ballet rehearsal director from Jan 2025, so from January, Amy will not be teaching here on a Saturday (timetable has been adjusted, see timetable page). Amy will continue to teach here as normal on a Tuesday.
Rowan travelled to New York earlier this year with Eliot Smith Dance (ESD) to learn and rehearse “Duet” with the Paul Taylor Dance Company. With permission to perform this here in the UK, Rowan has since toured with ESD to Newcastle, London and Durham.
Gedling Memorial Hall was 100 on July 26th 2024. We were invited by the hall committee to take part in a weekend of celebrations, 25 students performed at the Hall on the Saturday - Gedling Ballet School has been based at the hall for 38 years!
Well done to the six young GBS children that performed with the Northern Ballet Company at the Nottingham Theatre Royal in Romeo & Juliet, April 30th to May 4th 2024. Well done to the two GBS contemporary groups that were selected to perform in Episodes 2024 as part of U.Dance at Lakeside Arts Theatre, March 2024.
Gedling Ballet School had its school show at the Nottingham Playhouse in 2023, shows are held on alternate years, the next school show will be in 2025. We have booked the Squire Theatre for 3 performances over the weekend of 15th and 16th November 2025 and plan to also have a summer Sunday Mini Concert.
So proud of former student Bethany - now living in Leipzig, a former professional dancer with Leipzig Ballet Company, now qualified as a Nutrition & Health Coach specialising in women’s health Wholesome-you
Also recently heard from former student Chloe - following her performing career Chloe trained as a physiotherapist and has combined her passion for dance with physiotherapy, working with professional dancers in the West End and various companies and schools, lovely news! Dancephysiouk.com
Photographer: Kate Frost
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RAD Registered Teachers are
• registered with a recognised professional body,
• required to follow a strict code of professional conduct and keep skills and knowledge up to date through a programme of Continuing Professional Development,
• trained to follow a carefully structured syllabus which is fun and safe, enabling students to progress in stages, and
• eligible to enter students for exams.
The Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) was founded in 1920 with a single purpose: to raise the standards of dance teaching in the UK.
100 years later, excellence in dance teaching is still at the heart of everything they do.
Today, the RAD is a world-leading dance, education and training organisation, with dance teachers and students in 85 countries, enriching the world’s arts and cultural communities.
From three year olds to 93-year olds the RAD believes in the transformative power of dance to enhance our health and happiness.
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Rambert Grades: Training that empowers
Rambert Grades is a new holistic training, promoting transferable skills, and developing the whole individual. It's inclusive and accessible to all, regardless of ability and prior experience. It inspires creativity and encourages dancers to make choices and develop their own interpretation of movement
The Rambert Grades syllabus has three pillars:
- Performance, including original solo material from leading choreographers - Creativity, to encourage self-development and a sense of self enterprise
- Technique, to support students’ dancing
Developed by a leading team of experts from Rambert and Rambert School with some of the most dynamic and relevant voices of contemporary dance in the UK – including material devised for the syllabus by Hofesh Shechter, Alesandra Seutin and Benoit Swan Pouffer. Rambert Grades is a new benchmark in contemporary dance training and education where examination is just part of a journey that enables and develops talent.
Gedling Ballet in RAD’s Phyllis Bedells Bursary
PHOTO GALLERY 2023/24
Sofia Prague summer school (ASH photography)
Immarni guest teacher
Lesya guest teacher (former GBS student)
Contemporary Class in rehearsal
Northern Ballet A Christmas Carol at Nottingham Theatre Royal, children from Gedling Ballet School
Contemporary Class with Heather (former GBS student)
Rowan Parker (GBS teacher - see bio) with Eliot Smith Dance