Elmhurst student reaches BBC ‘The Greatest Dancer' semi-final

Friday February 28^th 2020

Nat Sweeney, one of our Year 12 students who has been at Elmhurst since 2014 continues to go from strength to strength on BBC One’s popular TV show The Greatest Dancer as part of choreographer Dane Bates’ contemporary dance company Brothers of Dance. Dancing in the live shows, the company is down to the semi-finals and the last six acts and is mentored by dance captain Cheryl, of Girls Aloud fame.  

Our mission is to prepare talented young dancers aged between 11 and 19 to become the thinking dance professionals of the future, we nurture individuality through a holistic approach to dance training, academics and health and wellbeing. This approach helps students to become independent, collaborative and versatile artists, ready to take their places on the world stage, or on prime time TV!

The Schools contemporary dance offer, through relationships with international companies such as Studio Wayne McGregor and Rambert, ensures the ballet training is complemented with other key dance styles so students graduate industry-ready for the profession ahead of them.

From Moseley in Birmingham, Nat’s own journey into dance began with gymnastics and he started to take dance more seriously at the age of 11. After his first year at Elmhurst, he successfully auditioned to play the title role in the West End production of Billy Elliot. Out of all the professional productions of the hit stage show worldwide, Nat was the 100th young performer to play the lead role! This year, Nat is also a Face of MOVE IT 2020, the ‘world’s biggest dance event’ at Excel in London, 13 – 15 March.

Jessica Wheeler, Principal of Elmhurst Ballet School, said: “Everyone at the school is extremely proud of Nat. We have almost 200 students and all of them along with the staff are tuning in every week and we continue to wish Nat and his fellow Brothers of Dance members the greatest success with the show. With his Billy Elliott experience behind him, and now The Greatest Dancer, we can’t wait to see what’s next for Nat and his dance career. On behalf of everyone at Elmhurst, we wish him the very best of luck with the semi-final and beyond!”    

The winner of The Greatest Dancer will receive £50,000 and will perform on Strictly Come Dancing. The semi-final of The Greatest Dancer and Nat’s next performance with Brothers of Dance can be seen on BBC One this Saturday!