The Secret Garden
Every little girl wants to be a ballerina but for fifty-five young dancers their dreams are finally coming true. From the 25th to the 28th April the Sadlers Wells Peacock Theatre will be hosting London Children’s Ballet company in their performance of The Secret Garden.
London Children’s Ballet is a charity run organisation, which was set up in 1994 in order to give children from ages nine to sixteen the opportunity to perform on stage in professional productions. Along with the National Youth Ballet of Great Britain and the English Youth Ballet it provides a wide range of workshops and classes for children of all abilities, as well as summer schools and professional performances. In fact applications are still open for the summer programme taking place from the 29th July to the 2nd August for girls aged between 9 and 12.
From The Happy Prince to The Scarlet Pimpernel, from the classic Snow White to Jayne Eyre London Children’s Ballet has produced excellent performances every year. This season, the production is based on Frances Hodgson Burnett’s book. It tells the story of Mary Lennox a spoilt girl forced to live with her uncle at Mistlethwaite Manor after the death of her parents. Whilst exploring the gardens she discovers the secret garden locked away after the death of her aunt. With Dicken and her sickly cousin Colin’s help Mary revives the garden and Colin’s health, bringing life back to Mistlethwaite. Choreographed by The Royal Ballet’s first artist Erico Montes and directed by Lucille Briance this promises to live up to expectation. Last year’s performance of A Little Princess is available online and after watching this you can’t fail to agree with Lauren Cuthbertson (Principal dancer for The Royal Ballet) that ‘the professionalism of these children never ceases to astound me’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qmZaP9hg5M
London Children’s Ballet are not the only young dancers pulling on their ballet shoes this year. From the 11th to the 14th July the National Youth Ballet will be performing at the Coronation Festival at Buckingham Palace. Their performance will include extracts from Alice in Wonderland, The Wind in the Willows, The Doll’s House Fantasia and Swan Lake. For those who can’t make it to London, the English Youth Ballet will be in York with a production of Coppelia in June, Cardiff with Giselle in July, and Canterbury with Swan Lake in August. Auditions for their September production of Swan Lake will be held in Oxford on May 16th. In fact you are spoilt for choice, but I think you will agree with us here at Dancewear Central that it is brilliant to see such an abundance of young people dedicate to dancing.