RECENT NEWS!

• Just received RAD exam results for exams taken on 22nd June! (not usually this quick, this was a pre-booked special session out side of the area dates). All awarded high merit, distinction or high distinction! Well done everyone! The grade 8s were all awarded a distinction and Sofia a high distinction 91%! Jack was our first male grade 8 exam student, so pleased he achieved this with a distinction. Jack will be leaving for Uni this September and will be missed, he has been a student here from a young age, a former Royal Ballet Associate and has progressed all the way through to RAD Advanced.

• Recent lovely news: Tilly having successfully auditioned for the Elmhurst Young Dancers Programme is now also on the waiting list for Royal Ballet School Junior Associates! Finley, in his second year of vocational training in the upper school at Tring Park, has just heard he has be invited to perform with the English National Ballet Company on tour with Sleeping Beauty this autumn, amazing news!

• Show November 2025 registration now open! Invite email has been sent to all from primary upwards. Closing date is June 28th so please look out for this email! We also have a password protected show page (info in show email).

• As part of Nottdance ’25, award winning dance company Fevered Sleep are bringing their new touring work The Time Keeps the Drummer, which will include a local community cast of young people aged 8-11. The young cast will work with the directors to explore the idea of time and what it means from a child’s perspective. Rehearsals for the work will be for two weeks over the October half term holiday and the performance will be on Sat 1 November. To take part, Fevered Sleep will be holding audition workshops on the 19 & 20 July to select the young people who then become part of the cast. You can find out more about the project and sign up here.

• Seirian is performing in Quadrophenia, a Mod Ballet, blending modern dance with ballet to a new orchestral version of the Who’s album Quadrophenia - for a video clip and tour details go to our Gedling Ballet School Facebook group.

• RAD Exam Results! Well done everyone, wonderful results. Congratulations to Domenica, having already achieved a distinction for RAD grades 6 and 7, Domenica has passed Grade 8, her final RAD exam, with a distinction.

• Congratulations Tilly! Has successfully auditioned for the Young Dancer Scheme with Elmhurst Associate School of Birmingham Royal Ballet! And congratulations to Kitty, following her audition for National Youth Ballet has been offered a place on their Summer Intensive at Elmhurst! Kitty has also been successful in her application for a residential Summer School place at Elmhurst!

• 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! Sofia has chosen to attend Dutch National Ballet Summer School and Yorkshire Ballet Seminars.

• 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. Well done everyone, a fantastic performance!

• 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 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