Nutcracker Experience

Tuesday November 29^th 2022

Birmingham Royal Ballet’s production of Sir Peter Wright’s The Nutcracker made a welcome return to the Birmingham Hippodrome stage this November-into-December and once again included a number of students from our Lower School and Elmhurst Young Dancers’ weekend programme.

To perform in the best The Nutcracker in the world (many of the UK national dance reviewers have said it since the Sir Peter Wright production premiered in Birmingham in 1990) must be a wonderful experience for professional dancers, let alone for the youngest of Elmhurst students.  This year, 15 students were given the opportunity to dance alongside the accomplished BRB artists, to the playing of the musicians of Royal Ballet Sinfonia, and surrounded by the brilliance of John F. Macfarlane’s designs, in Sir Peter Wright’s much-loved production of the Christmas ballet.

Students from Elmhurst’s Lower School and our weekend pre-vocational Elmhurst Young Dancers’ Programme graced the Birmingham Hippodrome stage, also joining a number of school alumni who are now dancing full-time with the company under the direction of Carlos Acosta CBE.

Students involved in this year’s production of BRB’s The Nutcracker, from the Lower School:

Matthew Tittley as Fritz; Rohan Celino as Party Child as Indiana Banfield as Party Child; Tilly Harper as Party Child; Maye Richardson as Party Child and from the Elmhurst Young Dancers’ Programme: Joshua McKenzie as Fritz; Freddie Davenport as Party Child; Uzziah Gray as Party Child; Ava Hanh Nguyen as Party Child; Abigail Akeju as Party Child; Spencer Martin as Party Child; Johan Beech as Party Child; Lars Hetherington-Howell as Party Child; Xavier McIntosh as Party Child; Remy Forest-Ewers as Party Child.

We are also grateful for the support of one of our amazing donors who paid for all of our students to have a programme during their visit to watch The Nutcracker this year. It’s thanks to supporters such as this that enable us to make students’ time at Elmhurst extra special.