Our annual Graduation Performances are the highlight of every year in the ballet department but this year is a little more special than usual. Our students are performing on the Athenaeum stage to an audience for the first time since 2019. This group of graduates were ‘locked down’ in the March of their 1st year….at the time, we thought we would be back on stage for the summer performances but little did we know that the next term would involve lots of dancing over Zoom, in kitchens and bedrooms across the world, in an effort to maintain their training. Their 2nd year saw a welcome return to the studios at RCS but in reduced groups, dancing in masks and a year long effort which although it culminated on stage with a full run of performances, sadly, was without an audience.
I know I speak on behalf of the whole programme team when I say that we are grateful to this special group of graduates – we learned together how to navigate a global pandemic, developing a whole host of new skills (some more welcome than others!) and growing in resilience, patience and a shared respect for what can be achieved even in the most challenging of circumstances.
For those of you who might be seeing them on stage for the first time, even though this is the end of their RCS journey, you will be proud of them – we certainly are. We are excited to see what they achieve in the future.
Thank you for supporting our students at this performance – it is a timely celebration of these talented young people, which we are all delighted to share with you.
Enjoy the show!
Kerry Livingstone
Head of Modern Ballet
Choreographer: August Bournonville
Staged by: Louisa Ross
Music: Herman Severin Løvenskiold
Dancers: Year 2 & 3
James: Finlay Watson/Robbie Fisher
Lead Sylph: Claire McCormack/Mizuki Ito
Choreographer: Constant Vigier
Music: Pablo Martinez and Joseph Mark Strike
Dancers: Year 1
Winner of the 2021 Student Choreography Competition
Choreographer: Amy Naomi Groves
Music: Wayfaring Stranger by Jos Slovick, First Watch by King Creosote & Jon Hopkins and field recordings
Dancers: Year 2
Choreographer: Diana Loosmore
Music: Max Richter (Waltz with Bashir)
Dancers: Year 3
Choreographer: Fabrice Maufrais
Music: Merry Go Round (from ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’) by Joe Hisaishi
Dancers: Year 1
Interval
Choreographer: Julian Moss
Music: Aphex Twin (untitled)
Dancers: Year 2
Choreographer: Owen Montague
Staged by: Kara McLaughlin
Music: Antonio Vivaldi I – Concerto Grosso In D Minor, Op.3: No.11: III. Allegro, II – Concerto No9 In D Major for cello & orchestra: Larghetto, III – Violin Concerto in D Minor, Op.8: No.7 “Per Pisendel”: I. Allegro
Dancers: Year 3
Choreographer: Rowan MacGregor
Music: Just Another Day in Hollywood, Chaplin: The Musical (Original Broadway Cast Recording) by Christopher Curtis
Get Happy, Judy (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) by Harold Arlen & Ted Koehler
Dancers: Year 1
Choreographer: Nick Shoesmith
Music: Metamorphoses and Chameleon by Trentemøller
Dancers: Year 3