Residential Performance Company – Information Page
Welcome
WELCOME
We are excited to welcome you to the Residential Performance Company 2023!
We are so pleased to be able to offer a performance company experience this year, and we hope that by participating you will have a chance to fully nurture, explore and develop your talents as a young performer. This season is titled Evolving Visions, and is focused on process, research and development. Our creative team will be working with the themes of innovation, progress and invention.
We are really excited to offer you the opportunity to experience working with multiple choreographers this season and are happy to share with you that we will be welcoming the following brilliant creative team to the RPC this season:
Choreographers: Neus Gil Cortes, Miguel Altunaga, Richard Bermange, Daniel Davidson, Tierney Lawlor
Beyond Ballet® Choreographers: Rosie Mackley, Savannah Ffrench, Amy Groves
Re-stager, ‘Ada’ by Louise Bennett (NYB repertoire 2018): Anya Mercer
Rehearsal Directors: Ciara Clayton, Abbie Steele, Emily Yong, Rosie Mackley, Savannah Ffrench, Amy Groves
Please keep this information confidential until NYB official announcements.
During the residential week you will work with choreographers and rehearsal directors to explore different movement styles and ways of working, before preparing a presentation of work in progress which will be performed on Saturday 19 August 2023 for an invited audience of friends, families and industry professionals. These ideas will be developed for a full scale performance season in 2024.
Our team will guide you through a rehearsal process, which will challenge you to not only pick up movement material quickly and adapt to different choreographer’s needs but also, in some cases, to devise your own movement in response to creative tasks, emulating the experience of creating work in a modern, professional ballet company.
Each day will start with a warm-up class, followed by a workshop or rehearsals. We will start the week with workshops with the choreographers so that you can get a taste of their creative process and they can get to know you a little better, after which we will work in new groups ready for the sharing of work-in-progress on Saturday 19 August 2023. The Junior Company will work with choreographer Tierney Lawlor throughout the week, and will also have opportunities to take part in some workshops with the other choreographers.
There will be evening activities at the end of the day, including a chance to interact with a special guest in a live Q and A. We will also be running several Moving Minds sessions, to help support your well-being and ongoing professional development.
We strongly encourage all dancers to participate in our annual Choreographic Competition, which has been running for decades. Several of our illustrious alumni have taken part in the competition over the years, including Olivier Award winning choreographers Drew McOnie and Arielle Smith, our 2022 Beyond Ballet® Choreographer Alice O’Brien, and independent choreographer Richard Chappell. We are passionate about young people creating the ballet of the future and this is the perfect opportunity for you to develop your skills in this area!
Please come prepared ready to challenge yourself, make new friends and learn new skills!
You should find all the information you need for the course in this area of the website, please contact admin@nationalyouthballet.org should you have any concerns or questions!
We can’t wait to welcome you on Sunday 13th August 2023.
With all best wishes,
Louise Bennett (NYB Residential Performance Company Artistic Director) and the NYB Team
Emergency Contact Details
If you need to contact National Youth Ballet in an emergency during the course the number to call is 07598 827621. A member of our team will have this phone with them at all times. Please do not call prior to the start of the course. Any queries prior to this date should be sent to admin@nationalyouthballet.org.
Photo (c) Jack Thomson
Useful Information
Information for Participants and Parents (click on the headings below to be taken to the specific information):
Schedule
Elmhurst Arrival and Registration
Registration for the Residential Performance Company is on Sunday 13 August 2023 in the Main Foyer of Elmhurst Ballet School, 249 Bristol Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B5 7UH between the following times:
- Senior Company: 3.30pm – 4.15pm (NB. Participants for 2.30pm Music and Choreographic Workshop can arrive from 2pm)
- Junior Company: 4.30pm – 5pm
You must have registered by 5pm at the latest, as there will be a full Company meeting at 5.30pm.
- Merchandise will be available to collect at a scheduled time during the first day. Please bring a pen to put your name on your new merchandise.
- We understand that some young people may require medication during the residential. Please provide written consent for your child to be given the medication via the medical needs section in the RPC Participation Questionnaire. We will also ask for this to be updated closer to the time of the residential. All medication will need to be handed to our Safeguarding and Support Team Manager upon arrival so that it can be safely stored during the residential. Medication must be brought in its original container/packet, as dispensed by a pharmacist, clearly labelled with your child’s name. It must include clear instructions for administration, dosage and storage. No medication can be administered without parent/carer consent.
- Mobile phones are permitted, but all participants aged 13 and under are kindly requested to hand them in on arrival to our Safeguarding and Support Team Manager Nisha Denton as per our Phones and Electronic Devices form.
- You do not need to arrive in dancewear, as there will be no dancing until Monday morning.
Draft Dancers’ Timetable for the week
Parking
Elmhurst has a small car park with a limited number of accessible spaces at the top of the drive. If you require an accessible space please email admin@nationalyouthballet.org
There is additional nearby pay and display car parking available at the MAC Birmingham (Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham, B12 9QH).
Elmhurst Departure
On Saturday 19th August we will have two sharings of work in progress at 11.00am and 2.30pm.
We kindly ask that if you live relatively locally, that you elect to attend the morning sharing, in order to help those living very far away to be able to come and see their young people dance.
Please sign up via the following link (maximum 3 people per company member) to attend one of the sharings on 19 August:
Reserve tickets for 11am sharing here
Reserve tickets for 2.30pm sharing here
All dancers should be collected after the second sharing finishes at 4.30pm from the Main Foyer at Elmhurst Ballet School.
All dancers need to sign out with staff at Reception before they leave.
If you are not attending the second performance, please arrive promptly to pick up your child/children.
Important Information
Click the links below to view and/or download as a pdf file:
Frank Freeman Choreographic Competition
Forms to complete
Click the links below to complete each form:
Participant Questionnaire by Friday 16th June, 6pm
Merchandise order form by Friday 30th June, 6pm
Measurements form by Friday 30th June, 6pm
Phones and Electronic Devices form by Friday 30th June, 6pm
Frank Freeman Choreographic Competition entry form (optional) by Tuesday 15th August, 12.30pm
Monitoring and Evaluation form – part 1 (to be completed before the Residential Performance Company)
Payment Deadlines
Payment Deadlines (unless a payment plan is in place):
- Friday 16th June 6pm: Payment 2 of 3
- Friday 14th July, 6pm: Payment 3 of 3
Please make payment to:
The National Youth Ballet of Great Britain,
Sort Code: 40-01-13, Account Number: 61772287, Reference: RPC/Dancer’s first and last name
Further payment deadlines:
- Friday 30th June 2023, 6pm: Merchandise payment deadline
- Tuesday 15th August, 12.30pm: Choreographic competition payment deadline
Music and Choreography Workshop
Date: Sunday 13th August 2023
Time: 2.30pm-4.30pm
Location: Elmhurst Ballet School.
For: NYB Company Dancers aged 16+
National Youth Ballet is passionate about the power of live music and dance. Last year NYB company dancers collaborated with the brilliant young musicians of City of Sheffield Youth Orchestra to perform a new dance work of Kurt Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins choreographed by two Beyond Ballet® choreographers.
Building on the work of last year, the company is excited to offer a one-of-a-kind, free workshop for NYB company dancers and choreographers aged 16+ to work with composer and pianist Beatrice Nicholas and NYB Creative Director Jo Meredith to explore the unique relationship between composer and choreographer.
The workshop will delve into the language of both music and dance and explore how musicians, dancers and choreographers can express their musical and creative ideas clearly to one another. During the workshop participants will have the chance to explore and develop their own choreography with musical themes devised and developed with Beatrice.
In order to register for this workshop please send an email to our Assistant Administrator Katie Eldridge admin@nationalyouthballet.org registering your interest.
Policies and Guidelines
Missing or Uncollected Students Policy
The Residential Performance Company is a NUT FREE ZONE. Please do not bring food containing nuts to Elmhurst or the performance venues. This includes pine nuts, peanut butter, cashew nut butter, almond butter and hazelnut spread (Nutella). Please also be aware that some food items might also contain nuts like cereal bars.