Our student-written article this week is from Ava in Room 22.

After attending a Ballet intensive (2 days of ballet workshops) in Christchurch, I received a direct entry from Paul Kay, the artistic manager of the Royal Ballet School in London, to attend a Summer School. I was one of only 2 direct entries, everyone else had to apply and complete an audition process. So I felt extremely honoured!

I flew to London to attend the Royal Ballet School with just my Mum, which took 3 different flights taking around 36 hours in total. Once I arrived in England I had 2 days to settle down and go shopping before the Summer School began.

I boarded at the Royal Ballet School over the course of the 5 day Summer School. There were people from all over the world including France, Italy, England and 3 others from New Zealand. My classes had around 25 students.

On the 1st day I attended a Ballet, a Character, a Repertoire and a Creative class. We then did a Q&A with a professional in the Ballet industry. All the students then did an evening activity together, where we completed a scavenger hunt around the Royal Ballet School and I made a bunch of new friends.

Day 2 was similar to day 1, except we did a Jazz class instead of Character. We then had a quiz night!

On the 3rd day we did another Ballet class and Contemporary. We learnt a Ballet variation (a dance). We had a dance off in groups, where we had to choreograph a dance in a certain dance genre that we picked out of the hat. We were given only 20 minutes and then had to perform to the other groups.

The 4th day of the programme involved a range of classes and our evening activity was a movie night, where we watched The Parent Trap.

On the final day our families came in for a show and tell class. They got to watch us do our Ballet class and then we showed our Repertoire Variation. We then said our goodbyes to our new friends and left the school.

I then had 2 final days in London with my Mum to do some sightseeing and got to see the Royal Ballet's Opera Theatre and the Big Ben. My Mum and I then went on the Eurostar (a train that goes under the sea) to Paris. In Paris I got to see the Eiffel Tower!