Tickets for The Royal Ballet School’s 2024 Summer Performances are selling quickly. Every year, the School closes the summer term with these showstopping productions. The shows present an array of exquisite pieces to audiences of family, friends, ballet lovers, and the School’s supporters.
Students across every year group (aged 11-19) partake in the Summer Performances. These mark one of the many opportunities students receive to dance for an audience. Live performance is essential preparation for these dancers’ careers — many will go on to dance for companies like The Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet.
Until then, audiences can enjoy the emerging dancers’ performances in the more intimate settings of Opera Holland Park and The Royal Opera House.
A Vibrant Programme for the 2024 Summer Performances
Each year, The Royal Ballet School’s Artistic Director Christopher Powney collates evocative pieces for the Summer Performances. These pieces spotlight the dancers’ technical prowess and creativity.
As usual, Powney’s programme includes a vibrant blend of timeless pieces and imaginative works that draw on a range of influences. The dancers will perform pieces choreographed by ballet greats, staff, and students.
On top of this, alumni Gemma Bond and Ashley Page have returned to the School to choreograph two pieces for students. The alumni have worked closely with the dancers who will perform these pieces at the Summer Performances. The School often commissions choreographers to create works for these shows.
Some of the 2024 pieces to look forward to include:
? The pas de deux from Rhapsody and La Valse. These performances will celebrate Frederick Ashton, the Founding Choreographer of The Royal Ballet, who created these ballets.
? Excerpts from the popular ballets Giselle and Paquita, including a mazurka from the latter. White Lodge students will perform this 16th-century Polish folk dance.
? TooT, a unique, circus-like piece that Didy Veldman created for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal in 2008. The Royal Ballet School first performed this piece in 2018 and is now reviving it at the 2024 Summer Performances.
? The “Mistake Waltz” (set to Chopin’s Waltz in E Minor) from The Concert. This satirical piece recreates the mistakes that often occur in amateur ballet productions. Six female students will perform the piece, which balances artistic expression with technique.
? Concerto Grosso, an expressive piece that five male soloists will perform. The lead dancer’s impressive role features big jumps, pirouettes, and petit batterie.
Highlights From the 2023 Summer Performances
Many 2024 ticket holders are returning to the Summer Performances after enjoying previous years’ shows. For example, the 2023 performances captivated audiences with impressive pieces like Christopher Wheeldon’s Within the Golden Hour, alumnus Ji?í Kylián’s Sechs Tänze, and Robert Battle’s Takademe.
Other inspiring works included Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s The Four Seasons, set to three Verdi operas, and a piece featuring traditional Romanian folk dance from Hora La Aninoasa.
Various staff members also created pieces for students to perform. Mikaela Polley, Choreographic Course Coordinator and Tutor, created Fast Blue for Upper School students. Mark Annear, Head of Training and Access, choreographed a piece set to music by Antonín Dvo?ák for White Lodge students. And Karen Berry, Senior Teacher Training Manager, choreographed Coimeasgadh, a Scottish country dance piece for Year 9.
On top of this, the students themselves crafted beautiful works to perform. They created pieces to Secession Studios’ “Darkness of Light,” Duomo’s “On a Mission,” Finn Ronsdorf’s “Ode to a Love Lost,” Henryk Górecki’s “Symphony No.3, Op. 36,” and DeVotchKa’s “How It Ends.”
Details Of The Royal Ballet School’s 2024 Summer Performances
The Royal Ballet School is hosting eight Summer Performances to accommodate the large number of people who hope to attend. Tickets are available at:
? The Royal Opera House’s Linbury Theatre on 19-20 June. These Summer Performances form part of the Next Generation Festival.
? Opera Holland Park every day from 26-29 June. This open-air theatre offers an intimate setting to enjoy the show in the middle of a peaceful park.
? The Royal Opera House’s main stage, where the final performance will take place on 6 July. All 220 students will gather onstage at the end of this matinée show to perform the “Grand Défilé” (or “big show”). A full orchestra will accompany this performance.
Tickets for the Opera Holland Park Summer Performances are available to book here.
The Royal Ballet School has trained some of the world’s most celebrated dancers, from Darcey Bussell and Marguerite Porter to modern-day stars like Christopher Wheeldon and Francesca Hayward. In some of the School’s latest news, Hayward is now the Lead Ambassador of the innovative Affiliate Training and Assessment Programme.
Meanwhile, the full-time training programme sits at the heart of the School’s many offerings. Young people from across the UK train with the School, which selects students based only on talent and potential in classical ballet, not academic ability or household income. As such, on average, 88% of students receive financial support to attend.
