A prestigious ballet school has signed a Junior School pupil into their Academy programme.
The Northern Ballet Academy has offered Ava, in J6, a place to join their InterFoundation Associate Programme in the Autumn term. “I’m really happy about joining the Northern Ballet programme,” said Ava, who dances in The Mount in Junior School’s many productions as well as after school clubs and with dance groups outside of School.
In a highly competitive admissions process, Ava attended initial auditions, which lasted a full day, along with hundreds of other candidates. This was later followed by a call-backs which lasted two-and-a-half hours and had far fewer dancers auditioning. The official offer of place came through last week.
Northern Ballet
The Northern Ballet Academy is the North’s centre of excellence for dance, with pupils auditioning from as far afield as Newcastle and Glasgow. The Academy’s website says, “Our students can live at home and attend their regular academic schools, whilst still training to the highest possible standards, mirroring the quality of training on offer at full-time vocational schools.
The Academy of Northern Ballet is the only Centre for Advanced Training (CAT) in classical ballet in the UK. It is also the only classical training institution in the UK to train in the same inspirational setting as professional company dancers.
Plans are currently underway at The Mount to build a new Performing Arts Hub which will facilitate the School’s promotion of dance, music, drama and gymnastics. Many pupils in The Mount Junior School currently take dance or gymnastics as an after school or lunch time club. In recent years, The Mount’s Sixth Form College recently had a leaver go on to study with the Northern Ballet Academy.