I am planning a group trip to London to see some ballet. Here's the draft program:
Wednesday 20 Feb. – Thursday 28 Feb. 2013
London 5 performances
Royal Ballet: Apollo (Balanchine), new Wheeldon, new Ratmansky
Voices of Spring, Thais Pas de Deux, Monotones 1 and 2, La Valse, Marguerite and Armand (all Ashton)
Birmingham Royal Ballet: Aladdin (Bintley)
English National Ballet: The Sleeping Beauty (MacMillan)
Ballet Black: Mixed program TBA, includes one new piece by Canadian choreographer Rob Binet

In addition, this trip would probably include:
* visit to Elmhurst School of Dance, the feeder school of Birmingham Royal Ballet
* visit to the Jane Austen house museum in Hampshire
* Guided tour of beautiful Winchester Cathedral
* Guided tour of Royal Opera House
* optional second performance of Royal Ballet Apollo program

By staying an extra day (returning the 29th), we could also see Matthew Bourne's new Sleeping Beauty.

If you're interested, please get in touch!

Mmm. I wish it was a "feeder" school, but very, very few Elmhurst students have found posts with Birmingham Royal Ballet. That's not too surprisng as the standard at performances is definitely not as high as at The Royal Ballet School, or even the English National Ballet School. Quite why that should still be the case several years after the school became associated with the company and moved to Birmingham is a good question. And one to which I don't have an answer!

Offically, Elmhurst is described as the company's "associate school."

The facilities are rather impressive, though.