90% of students rely on financial support to attend The Royal Ballet School, with 25% receiving 100% fee support. As we enter our second century, we are committed to remaining a needs-blind centre of excellence in ballet education and training, meaning that talent and potential, not financial circumstances, determine who has the opportunity to train here. Help secure the next 100 years of the School by supporting our commitment to artistic excellence, access and opportunity for talented young dancers.
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At the core of the School’s work is the belief that artistic excellence is inseparable from human excellence. The Royal Ballet School provides an education of world-renowned quality and ambition, combining ballet training in technique, repertoire, movement vocabulary and choreography with a broad academic and cultural education, specialist physical and mental healthcare and expert pastoral care. Every element exists because it is essential to developing exceptional artists, champions of classical ballet’s heritage, bold artistic innovators, and future leaders. This is The Royal Ballet School’s distinctive model for excellence, shaped and refined by a century of artists and educators working hand in hand with generations of young people. This model is not by chance, nor is it a luxury. But it is under immediate threat. For many years, core funding has not met the cost of delivering this training and education. There is a £22k shortfall per pupil, per year between the School’s core funding and what is needed to nurture young talent and sustain excellence at this level. At the same time, the School’s commitment to recruiting on talent and potential alone means that more than 90% of students require financial support. This shortfall and the continued pressure on funding put at risk both The Royal Ballet School’s ability to continue recruiting on talent alone and its ability to continue delivering the distinctive approach that has such a profound impact on our art form and beyond. Sustaining both the excellence of a Royal Ballet School education and equitable access to it depends entirely on bridging that gap.
Simply put, your support is not an enhancement to The Royal Ballet School: it is the only way to protect the philosophy that defines the School and the model that brings that philosophy to life. It helps ensure that talent, not financial means, determines opportunity. Your support enables us to: Seek and nurture young dancers with outstanding potential from the UK and around the world, regardless of background or circumstance Transform potential through world-leading education, training and whole-person care to develop exceptional individuals Empower exceptional individuals to shape the future of ballet and the arts through artistry and creative innovation. That is why your support matters.