YORKSHIRE YOUTHS KEEP BRITISH BALLET BOOMING

4 February 2005

Following recent stories in the press about the decline of home-grown talent in the ballet world Leeds-based Northern Ballet Theatre has spoken out to give the Northern perspective on the situation.

The company has 36 dancers, 50% of whom are from the UK and received their dance training at a school in Britain, also six of the 12 leading artists who play principal roles are British. This percentage has barely changed in ten years.

Mark Skipper, Northern Ballet Theatre Chief Executive said: “One of the reasons youngsters are forced to give up their ballet training is that there is so much competition for places at ballet schools. Often overseas students have had better training earlier in life - often due to higher levels of public funding for training - and take those places."

Northern Ballet Theatre has addressed this problem head on with its Yorkshire Young Dancers scheme, a government funded project which provides ten to 12 year olds in Yorkshire with professional ballet training, three times a week. The first term of the scheme in September proved to be so successful that all 14 ballet students are returning for a second term and auditions for new students will begin again this spring.”

Northern Ballet Theatre also believes another reason why youngsters give up their ballet training, particularly when they reach a certain age, is because they no longer feel it is relevant to their lives and the world around them.

Wieke Eringa, Northern Ballet Theatre’s Director of Learning & Access explained: “If we want children to maintain an interest in training, the ballet performance itself must reflect modern life. We are not a tights and tutu company and this is reflected in our style of performance and training.”

Northern Ballet Theatre tours to more cities in the UK than any other British ballet company, constantly attracting new audiences to dance. The company does not set out to be a ‘traditional’ ballet company and has developed a unique style of ‘ballet-theatre’ in recent years, based on strong story-telling. Over Christmas the company’s magical production of Peter Pan attracted families in their droves and was the company's best ever selling production - attracting over 24,000 people (many of whom were children) to the theatre to see ballet. First time attenders to Northern Ballet Theatre were touched by the relevance of the performance and the 'real' people with 'real' feelings performing on stage.

This ‘realness’ is also reflected in the company’s style of training and over the past year Northern Ballet Theatre has completely modernised its ballet training programmes – Northern Ballet Theatre Associates and Yorkshire Young Dancers - with the emphasis on encouraging individuality in children. The training fits with their lives and interests, not the other way around, so if they enjoy rock climbing or playing football after school they can continue to do this as well as dance. Our perspective on which children have potential to become great dancers is based on more than just a perfect body shape.

Budding ballet dancers are also encouraged to have their own creative input and ideas about music and choreography, so that they have a say in how and what they dance. And Easter and Summer courses, held at the company’s headquarters each year, combine ballet training with other dance forms such as Hip Hop and South Asian dance.

Wieke Eringa, Director of Learning & Access explained: “ Every week 130 youngsters come through our doors for ballet training in our Associates or Yorkshire Young Dancers classes. We have a 100% success rate in placing our Associates in further dance training once they leave us, in fact one of our Associates is now a dancer with Northern Ballet Theatre. Through our Yorkshire Young Dancers scheme we’ve proved that the talent is out there, it just needs to be nurtured in the right way. “

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Notes to editors:
For more information/photography or to arrange interviews contact our Media and PR department via email: media@northernballettheatre.co.uk.