The prestigious Elmhurst Ballet School provides an excellent academic and dance education for the 200 or so students that attend, with graduates becoming principles at the Birmingham Royal Ballet and dancing in companies all over the world. Every year, the school displays the talent of the students still learning there, and this year sees the performance of ‘Awakenings,’ a showcase featuring an eclectic but electrically performed programme showing off the immense talent of the youngsters who grace the stage. 

The showcase features a range of dance styles, reflective of the sheer variety that students at Elmhurst are encouraged to explore. Represented on this particular night were flamenco, jazz, ballet and contemporary dance, and it makes for a mix that is not only brilliantly performed from start to finish, but also impresses in the sheer skill it requires of the students, with many appearing in several pieces and styles across the evening. 

The showcase opens with ‘Réves de Jeunesse,’ a series of balletic displays of the progressing skills of the students throughout their years at Elmhurst. Each piece is choreographed to a classical song, with showings from Tchaikovsky, Vivaldi and more, and features beautiful displays of technical excellence, from stunning pirouettes to graceful arabesque and athletic leaps. The Lower School of years 7-11 are represented here, and each year gives a brilliant performance displaying the ballet skills which lie at the heart of Elmhurst’s teachings.

The showcase then moves from ballet to various other styles, with the first of these pieces being ‘Equilibrium’. The year 12 students bring powerful energy to Hannah Lockyer’s choreography, and the result is an intense contemporary piece driven as equally by the student’s skill as it is by the music of Banabila. Ex-student James Lovell returns to choreograph ‘Phosphenes,’ displaying not only the incredible talent of the year 11 performers, who captivate as they move to the soaring music of Henry Jackman and Hans Zimmer, but also the choreographic talent that Elmhurst also produces. Lovell’s use of light and darkness are in equal parts breathtaking and terrifying, brilliantly utilised by students alongside dance, and add an element to the performance which leaves me longing for more.

Other contemporary pieces are on show here too, including performances of excerpts from legendary choreographer and Elmhurst Associate Wayne McGregor’s ‘Entity,’ Stéphen Delattre’s ‘Hugging Trapped Emotions,’ and Daniela Cardim’s ‘The Message.’ To have the opportunity to perform such pieces is already a mark of the high regard in which the students of Elmhurst are held within the dance world, and indeed they perform these challenging contemporary pieces as if born to do so, fluid and powerful and full of intent in every moment. In particular, ‘The Message’ forms a powerful piece to watch, focused on the movement of a piece of paper through an ever growing group of dancers, and the students of the Elmhurst Ballet Company (here in its inaugural year) brought tangible emotion as they handed the message to one of their youngest pupils.

Present too are more classical styles, with a suite choreographed by Nicki Woollaston to the brassy tones of Cy Coleman’s ‘Sweet Charity,’ and a startling performance of Flamenco piece ‘Secuencias,’ choreographed by Ana Garcia, and accompanied by live music from Marco el Canastro. Both pieces are showstopper numbers, with the intense fiery rhythm of flamenco and the impressive lifts and sass of jazz, and are perfect complements to the equally show-stopping contemporary numbers. 

After an interval in which I hear only exclamations of amazement, the showcase continues with a performance of excepts from the now legendary 1984 production of Sir Peter Wright’s The Sleeping Beauty. Wright, rightfully acclaimed as one of the best choreographers in the world, has been bringing wonderful realisations of ballet classics to stages for decades, and it is the turn of the Upper School Students to perform this classic piece. With excerpts from across the piece, and a range of solo and company moments, they gave a breathtaking performance that proves their sheer professionalism, talent and promise. 

Francesca Hardwick amazes as Princess Aurora, with effortless poise and movements that disguise the strength and skill they require, and Ryan Felix equally dazzles as Prince Florimund. There are delightful turns too from Hwee Suan Theresa Tan and Andrea Canalicchio as Princess Florine and Bluebird, both breathtaking and playful in equal measure, and more playful still are Ruben Flynn-Kann and Amy Turner-Daly as Puss in Boots and the White Cat. It’s a token to the Elmhurst school that each and every performer across the piece dances joyfully and confidently, and each would be just at home in a professional company as they are here. Worthy of note also is the delightful inclusion of costumes lent very kindly by Elmhurst’s close partners, the Birmingham Royal Ballet, which elevate the performance still more.

The evening closes with the now customary delight that is the ‘Grand Defilé’, in which the whole school appears on stage together in one final display of their ability. It is a fittingly triumphant end note to an accomplished and exciting evening that showcases some of the best future talent about to grace world stages. For an evening of world-class dance, look no further than Elmhurst’s ‘Awakening,’ and the gifted staff and pupils who bring its magic to life.