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Celebrating 25 years Happy 2019 and welcome to LCB's new newsletter! Having sailed through our awkward teenage years, we have hit a huge anniversary for LCB, with our 25th anniversary being celebrated throughout 2019. And what an exciting year we have coming up. In this edition of the newsletter, we have a little peek at what is coming up this year, including a chat with Ruth Brill - our revival choreographer - and a sneak preview of our first national initiative, Ballet in a Box.   We are also going to be launching our new Circle of Supporters, with lots of exclusive opportunities for our new and renewing members. Stay tuned for more on that soon... We will be sending out a newsletter like this one every couple months. If you have a story you would like to share or if you have been part of our Company or Touring Company and would like to be featured in our Alumni Spotlight, please email Abby. We always love to hear what our former LCB dancers are up to! In the meantime, check out the information here, add all our important dates to your diary and most of all make sure you get your 'Ballet Shoes tickets ASAP! We look forward to celebrating our quarter century with lots of you soon. With love, The LCB team Ruth's Return!  We’re so excited to have Ruth Brill, First Artist with the Birmingham Royal Ballet return to us to revive Ballet Shoes in 2019. We spoke to Ruth about her favourite LCB memories and her return to the company this year. Click below for the full chat. Auditions  We had a brilliant three days of auditions in October and November. Have a look at what went on below! Our 2018 tours and introducing 'Ballet in a Box' We managed to visit a record number of venues on our tours this year and we have even bigger visions for 2019.  2019 is going to see the start of our very exciting brand new national initiative. We know how hard it can be for busy ballet teachers to find time to create choreography for shows and to develop performance opportunities for their students. With this in mind, we have created Ballet in a Box. But we have to admit to an ulterior motive which is that Ballet in a Box will also increase the reach of our touring productions to care homes and SEN schools. Every school that takes part will take a version of our tour to outreach venues in their local area.  With our nifty digital portal housing all the resources you could possibly need to start a touring production in the slickest and easiest to access format possible. We can't wait to see our touring shows spreading across the country in 2019 and reaching more people than ever before! We'll have more information on the official launch of Ballet in a Box in our next newsletter so stay tuned for more information on how our first productions across the country go!   Some of our gorgeous dancers on 'The Canterville Ghost' tour in 2018 A Marathon mission Wonderful Lyall will be running the London Marathon for us in April of this year. Lyall is engaged to Charise, one of our outreach workshop and tour leaders who is also running the marathon and he has said that they will be starting and finishing together and preferably aiming to finish it in under 5 hours. In Lyall's words 'LCB is a very special organisation and the outreach work I have seen Charise take part in is crucial to what LCB is all about. I'm excited to take on this challenge for you!' Read more about what has inspired him to take on this challenge and how to donate by clicking here.  Support Lyall now Alumni spotlight We want to hear from you! In each edition of this newsletter, we want to shine the spotlight on someone who has danced with LCB in the past, either in the Company or on one of tours. You don't have to have gone into a dance career, we just want to hear about what you are up to. If you would like to be included in the Alumni Spotlight, please email Abby. 2019 Training programmes and events We have our usual array of fabulous programmes on offer this year! See below for more details... Dates for your diary - 18th - 22nd February – Little LCB - 24th Feb, 3rd, 24th, 31st Mar, 28th Apr, 5th, 12th and 19th May - Ballet for Boys - 4th July – ‘Ballet Shoes’ Premiere - 5th – 7th July – ‘Ballet Shoes’ performances at The Peacock - 29th July – 2nd August – Junior Summer School - 5th – 9th August – Senior Summer School Contacts Zoe Vickerman - Director Alice Painting - Development Manager Abby Fox - Communications and National Programmes Officer Lara Waterfield - Programmes and Outreach Officer Amanda Christie - Events Manager Victoria Davison - Corporate Development Manager Copyright © *|CURRENT_YEAR|* *|LIST:COMPANY|*, All rights reserved. *|IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE|* *|LIST:DESCRIPTION|* Our mailing address is: *|HTML:LIST_ADDRESS_HTML|* *|END:IF|* Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list. *|IF:REWARDS|* *|HTML:REWARDS|* *|END:IF|*

Yumeya Yamamori (LCB 2005) went to White Lodge and graduated after 5 years training. ‘It was an unbelievable time and needless to say, really really cool.’ He quit ballet and chose to pursue academics at Westminster School. He has offers from Exeter, Loughborough, UCL and Oxford University to study Psychology, something that has interested him since working with a performance psychologist at White Lodge.

Sally Poundall (LCB 2004-2005) is in her final year studying Linguistics at Cambridge. When she graduates she intends to work in the tech start-up industry. She also intends to continue with Dancesport (competitive ballroom and Latin dancing) in the future.

Charlie Burt (LCB 2005) is in his final year at Newcastle University and has just finished directing and choreographing Annie Get Your Gun for the University, which had three sell out nights in a professional theatre.

Franky Ferrer (LCB 2005-2008) is in her second year at the University of Manchester studying Politics and Modern History. She is a member of the University Dance Society and on the Competitive Ballet Team, travelling across the UK to compete. “It's not like dancing used to be though, can't explain how much I miss LCB!”

Xander Bennett (LCB 2005) graduated last July from The Royal Ballet Upper School. He is currently in his first year working in Munich, Germany, at the Bayerisches Staatsballett Junior Company.

Julia Roscoe (LCB 2005-2006) went to The Royal Ballet School White Lodge where she graduated after 5 years and joined the Royal Ballet Upper School. She is currently in her second year studying there and is in The Royal Ballet’s production of The Sleeping Beauty.

Jamie-Emma McDonald (LCB 2005) is currently with New Adventures performing with Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake.

Benjamin Roomes (LCB 2004-2005) graduated from Elmhurst in 2011 and is now in his third season at Teater Vanemuine in Tartu, Estonia.