Alumni Week Success

Monday February 13^th 2023

The week of 13^th – 17^th February proved to be an extraordinary time for the school as Camberley and Birmingham alumni (affectionately known as ‘Old Elms’) headed to our Edgbaston HQ to deliver workshops and Q&A sessions with current students and reunite with former classmates to share many of their school memories. Students’ parents were also involved in our first-ever Family Day! Our Centenary Alumni Week in February kicked off with workshops and Q&A sessions, all designed to bring alumni back together and inspire current students.

Alumna Serena McCall trained at Elmhurst Ballet School between 2017 and 2020. The
Bloch and Acropad ambassador delivered workshops to our students during our first-ever Alumni Week that we hope to reprise in the academic years to come.

Alumni Grace Hume and Serina Faull are both cast members of the West End production of The Phantom of the Opera and both enthused students with informative question and answer sessions and dance workshops.

Also making the Alumni week a huge success was Old Elm Alex Harrison who recently performed in 42^nd Street at Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Matthew Cruddace who is now working in Stage Management and has West End and International tours to his credit, and Lucinda Strachan, an artist with English National Ballet.

Alumni Day, part of Alumni Week, welcomed almost 70 former Camberley and Birmingham students to Edgbaston for tours of the school, a student performance, lunch and lots of reminiscing. We witnessed many special moments as former classmates reconnected after many years and it was lovely to show the Camberley students the new Birmingham site and Elmhurst home.

We rounded off our Alumni Week with a Friends and Family Day. We invited family and loved ones of students to spend the day with us in Birmingham. The event was an opportunity for relatives of each year group to watch their loved ones in ballet class, tour the school buildings, have lunch, listen to a talk by Principal Jessica Ward and enjoy a drinks reception at Birmingham Hippodrome ahead of Birmingham Royal Ballet’s performance of Swan Lake.

At the reception, in front of students and parents, alumni Amelia Thompson, Hannah Martin and Emma Price, all now full-time dancers with Birmingham Royal Ballet, spoke from the heart about their time at Elmhurst and what it has meant to them in their professional careers. It was another example of Old Elms inspiring the next generation of Elmhurst students and graduates.

Thank you to everyone who made the Alumni Week a huge success!