Northern Ballet's blog

We're happy to say that Academy classes are back to normal running times.

Please watch this site, Facebook & Twitter for updates on classes through the week.

[UPDATED 9 November 2012] As reviews for Beauty & the Beast come in we'll add snippets here as well as show what people are saying on public forums like Twitter and Facebook.

The first review of Beauty & the Beast came from Laura Thompson of the Telegraph. She says, "It is really rather wonderful." And has given it four stars.

Friday 9 November, 9.30am - 6pm

At Northern Ballet & Yorkshire Dance

Dance UK's Launch in Leeds 2012 is a professional development and networking day for dance students and recent graduates and aims to help you find out how to make a living and have a long career in dance.

Last week it was announced that our very own Graham Kotowich has been awarded the Indspire Métis Youth Award for his work in dance & career achievement and as an outstanding indigenous Canadian role model.

The Indspire Awards, formerly know as the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards, are to celebrate the significant contributions of Indigenous people in Canada. 

From today the Northern Ballet Café Bar will be under the new management of Egg Catering.

One of our Academy pianists, Lee Shiel, will be taking part in the Helloween on the Humber reloaded challenge on Saturday 27th October in support of Northern Ballet’s Sponsor a Dancer campaign.

On Sunday 21st October Angela Rippon will be chairing a Gala Event, "Celebration - In a Class of their Own" in the Linbury Theatre of the Royal Opera House.

The celebration is in aid of the Dance Teachers' Benevolent Fund with a donation also being made to the Wayne Sleep Foundation for Young Performers.

The £200 tickets include a champagne reception with canapés before the performance and during the interval.

This summer we welcomed 10 new dancers to the Company and saw a host of promotions.

Below are the headshots of all our dancers this season (all taken by Simon Lawson except Hironao Takahashi's taken by Justin Slee) with links to their biographies.

Joseph Poulton and Dale Rhodes were 2 of the original students we took onto our Professional training programme (CAT) in its pilot year in 2004. They both graduated from the Academy 2008.

This week they have been back in to visit us all and I managed to have a quick chat with them about their training and their time at Northern Ballet Academy.

We would like to congratulate our fellow Yorkshire men and women on their fantastic success so far at the Olympics! Yorkshire really is the place to be for sport and culture!

We were thrilled to see Team GB Hammer Thrower Sophie Hitchon, who’s reached the Olympic final, trained as a ballet dancer and credits dancing as her secret weapon!