After an extremely successful first year of taking ballet classes out across the country, Birmingham Royal Ballet’s associated school, Elmhurst School for Dance is once again going to be offering weekend classes for eight to 11 year olds in four towns and cities across the country.

Ballet Boyz II: The Next Generation in Laws of Motion

Gene Kelly danced in the rain, and anyone proposing to dance in the open air in the UK should be prepared to do the same. However, a gentle downpour and a wet concrete surface following some hours of rain, prevented Ballet Boyz II from giving the early afternoon world premiere performance of their 15-minute piece Laws of Motion in Platt Fields Park, Manchester, as part of the “Feast – Picnic By The Lake” programme. The quartet of dancers also failed to appear in person to meet and greet the quintet of an audience waiting good-humouredly in the drizzle for something to happen.

Macbeth

Shakespeare’s words are a wonder of the world, but his dramatic world was also a world of physical theatre, and closer to song and dance than we sometimes remember today. We should remind ourselves that his most famous clown, William Kempe, who was surely a great mover on stage for the Bard, was as well known for his dancing as for his clowning. Indeed, he became known as “the nine days’ wonder” when he danced his marathon jig from London to Norwich.