< Previous20This page: Harriet Marden in Geisha. Photo Riku Ito. 2122Training the next generation The Academy of Northern Ballet goes from strength to strength and in 2019/20 1,762 people from tiny tots to adult dancers enjoyed classes by the Academy. We delivered 58 Spotted! workshops across 24 schools engaging more students than ever in ballet, many for the first time. Our mission continues to be to inspire a passion for dance in everyone and nurture the dancers of the future. Kittens make progress Introduced two years ago, the Kitten programme continues to be a huge success with seven Kittens joining the CAT programme in 2021. The programme is designed for students showing potential who are too young to join the CAT programme and gives them their first taste of life at Northern Ballet. ‘Being selected to join a specialist group has really boosted his self-esteem and he is extremely excited at the prospect of moving into CATs. As a family, we have found Northern Ballet and all its staff, to be extremely inclusive, encouraging and welcoming’ Kitten Parent Student Success Each year we’re so proud of all our students and thrilled to hear about those who gain places or contracts, following their dreams of becoming professional dancers. • Our CAT students gained places at top vocational schools including English National Ballet School, Hamburg Ballet School and Central School of Ballet. • A number of our graduating Associate programme students also secured vocational school places for 20-21. • Two of our Professional Graduate Programme students were offered contracts to join Northern Ballet in summer 2020. Academy of Northern Ballet Left page: Academy of Northern Ballet students. Photos Emily Nuttall. 23Ballet for all In 2019/20 the Learning team worked with 18,016 people, launched a new education project Rise and continued to build on new projects Burberry Inspire and Dance for Parkinson’s alongside our established work. Highlights include 394 people watching Expressions, our annual celebration of inclusive dance, delivering 12 audio described live performances and offering more In Motion sessions than ever before. Rise In September 2019 we launched Rise, a dance and wellbeing project for pupils in Key Stage 2. For the pilot we partnered with five schools in West Yorkshire to create and deliver a programme to benefit the pupils’ resilience, body confidence, communication and self-expression skills. We delivered 59 workshops and almost 250 pupils saw our production of Cinderella at Leeds Grand Theatre. Working closely with the University of Leeds we will measure the impact of the project on pupils and schools. ‘The sessions… created opportunities for children to explore how to be creative and use their self-expression’ Teacher Professional Development We aim to support the dance and education sector by sharing the skills and techniques we use in our sessions with others. Throughout the year we delivered professional development sessions to 197 participants in areas such as inclusive dance, theatre lighting and interactive storytelling. We have also developed supporting resources including a Safe Practice Guide, an Interactive Storytelling Kit and Schemes of Work tailored to schools. We hosted Springboard, a professional development course for emerging dance artists, developing skills often forgotten in professional training such as financial management, first aid and marketing. Supported by Leeds Dance Partnership we were able to offer free bursary places to four participants who wouldn’t have had the opportunity otherwise. ‘As someone who has never taught dance before…[the support] has made it enjoyable and easy for me. It has also allowed us to add breadth to our PE curriculum.’ PE Teacher at Leeds East Academy 24Photos Gavin Joynt and Emily Nuttall. 25Supporting our future In 2019/20, thanks to the contributions of our generous individual, trust, foundation and corporate supporters, we raised over £1.1M towards the development of Northern Ballet’s work. We secured our first major grant from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, who have supported our new two-year pilot school’s project Rise with a grant of £48,000. We also received £10,000 from The Steel Charitable Trust and support from the Liz and Terry Bramall Foundation for this exciting new project. We were this year’s one successful applicant to the Business Archives Council, receiving our first grant towards our archive work of £4,000. Benefactors and Patrons continue to play a vital role in supporting our Company of dancers and our artistic team, nurturing the next generation of talent through our Academy and inspiring people from all walks of life to take part in our outreach work. Our new Benefactor programme, launched in October 2018, continues to grow, as does our Patron programme. It has been a pleasure to have welcomed so many supporters to our exciting series of insight events, rehearsals, opening nights and performances. We received new grants from trusts and foundations supporting our work on stage, on screen and in the community. We also continued to receive multi-year grant support from the Liz and Terry Bramall Foundation, Emerald Foundation who increased their giving this year, Garfield Weston Foundation, Foyle Foundation, Burberry Foundation, Leverhulme Trust and Linbury Trust. Highlights • Nine new Benefactors joined the scheme, three uplifted their support and an additional seven dancers were sponsored, totalling 18 dancers for the year. • We received five major additional gifts from Benefactors for projects ranging from creation of scores to delivery of new digital short films. • We welcomed 27 new Patrons and received a significant legacy from a former Patron which has been invested in our endowment fund. • We delivered our 50 th anniversary preview event and launched our Donate to Create Anniversary Appeal, raising nearly £18,000 this year which was generously match funded by one of our Board members. • We introduced Contactless Giving in our building and at some theatre events and performances across the tour. • We introduced Facebook Donate, Instagram donation stickers and many of you now support us through Amazon Smile as your chosen charity. • We are incredibly grateful for renewals from corporate sponsors Progeny, Visit Leeds and Kleinwort Hambros. We welcomed new sponsors Studio Indigo and D&D London. It has been a challenging year for corporate sponsorship due to the changing economic climate and after nine successful years, our headline partnership with firstdirect came to an end. Javier Torres and Dominique Larose at 50 th Anniversary launch. Photo Justin Slee. We are incredibly grateful for the ongoing support of Arts Council England and Leeds City Council. 2627Top right: James Cousins Company. Photo Camilla Greenwell. Bottom right: Rosie Kay Dance Company. Photo Brian Slater. 28In 2019/20 we held 83 performances in the Stanley & Audrey Burton Theatre. These included Ballet Black, Rosie Kay, Leeds Lieder and the world première of our new children’s ballet Little Red Riding Hood. We held 202 meetings and conferences at our Leeds city centre building, welcoming 5,612 attendees. Highlights · Partnerships with the Learning College (NHS) for series of mental health training sessions. · NHS Human Resources Conference. · National Trust Roadshow. · PA Hub event and building showcase (pictured). · Screen Yorkshire Beyond Brontës ‘get to know you’ day. · Arts Council England Conference. · HeART Research Anonymous Art Project Exhibition & VIP Event (pictured). · Yorkshire Building Society Conference. · Women in Film & TV ‘Gentleman Jack Evening’. · Institute of Leadership & Management conference. · Department of Work and Pensions conference. · Can You Dance Live conference. We are now proactive members of the Unique Venues of Leeds group and are using this as an additional venue referral and promotion channel. We were delighted to hold some special events of our own including an exclusive livestreamed preview event Geisha Untold, the launch and livestream of our 50 th anniversary programme of events and our Patron annual open rehearsal. At home 83 Performances 202 Meetings & Conferences 16.4K Live audience 29Next >