New Royal Ballet School associate centre in Newcastle

Posted on March 25, 2011

The Royal Ballet School has announced plans to establish a new Associate Centre in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne from September 2011.

The new associate centre will be based at the Sage Academy of the Performing Arts, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year. A junior associate programme will be available, offering talented young dancers a year-long programme of ballet training. This will be the eighth national centre where selected young people can follow The Royal Ballet School’s system of training, led by the School’s teaching staff. The other associate centres are based in Birmingham, Bristol, Eastleigh, Leeds, London, Manchester and Totnes.

Auditions for the Newcastle-Upon-Tyne centre are scheduled for June 8 at the Sage Academy of the Performing Arts. The deadline for audition applications is May 9. For more information, contact Liz Thorrington, auditions coordinator, on 020 7836 8899 or email lizt@royalballetschool.co.uk.

Zoe Anderson

Zoë was born in Edinburgh, and saw her first dance performances at the Festival there. She is the dance critic of The Independent, and has also written for The Independent on Sunday, The Scotsman and Dancing Times. In 2002, she received her doctorate from the University of York for a thesis on “Nationhood and epic romance: Ariosto, Sidney, Spenser”. She is the author of The Royal Ballet: 75 Years and The Ballet Lover’s Companion.