Tamara Rojo’s Super Sunday inspires young students

Royal Ballet Principal Dancer, Tamara Rojo, was special guest teacher for the first Super Sunday of the year which yesterday attracted 25 aspiring young female dancers, including some who had travelled especially from the USA.

Ms Rojo led the students, aged between 15 – 19, in a ballet class which was followed by a coaching session focussing on Aurora’s variation from Act 3 of The Sleeping Beauty. The session concluded with students and their accompanying teachers quizzing Ms Rojo about her career and asking for tips to improve technique and performance. The session left students inspired:

‘Thank you so much for this wonderful opportunity to come to London and learn from Tamara Rojo. I found the whole programme extremely informative and I learned so much. It was amazing! I cannot wait to go back to the USA and practice everything I learned. Thank you!’
(Abby Howland, American, age 15, South Shore Ballet Theatre)

‘I don’t think there’s a word to describe the day I’ve had with Tamara Rojo. She’s not only inspired me as a dancer, but as a person. I’ll simply never forget today!’
(Genevieve Labuschagne, English, age 15, from Tring Park)

Teachers attending yesterday’s Super Sunday also took part in a special session focussed on pointe work, taken by Nicola Katrak, a teacher from The Royal Ballet Lower School, White Lodge. Ms Katrak discussed a variety of useful preparatory exercises, good care of pointe shoes among other things, using two Year 9 White Lodge students to demonstrate.

Open to all dance teachers and students aged 13 -19 years old (including vocational), the Super Sundays programme has been developed by the School’s Outreach Programme as a way of sharing the resources of The Royal Ballet School with a wider public.

Future Super Sundays are on 9 October with Jean-Yves Esquerre, 6 November with Janet Briggs and 27 November for Steven McRae. For more information or an application form contact Laurajane Lavender on 020 7845 7064 or email laurajanel@royalballetschool.co.uk

See press release dated 3 July 2011 for details:
http://www.royalballetschool.co.uk/news.php?s=2&tf=10&tt=11


Photo: Patrick Baldwin