The Yorkshire Ballet Summer School provides a unique opportunity for children from all backgrounds – and all countries – to be encouraged and inspired and to receive instruction given by the world’s best teachers and dancers. The School’s Director, Marguerite Porter grew up on a council estate in Yorkshire and through good fortune, and particularly through access to outstanding teachers, she was able to fulfil her passion – her love of dance. She become a principal ballerina with the Royal Ballet and her mission now is to enable young people with a love of dance to do the same through the provision of master classes from the finest teachers and dancers.
In an important event aimed at attracting corporate sponsors for the Yorkshire Ballet Summer School, Marguerite organised a fund-raising evening in November at the British Museum, where the white marble floor in front of the Reading Room in the Great Court was transformed into a sprung dance floor by the temporary installation of a Harlequin Liberty sprung floor. Dance performances were given by former students of the Yorkshire Ballet Summer School, together with an impressive tap routine by none other than Wayne Sleep. Laueretta Summerscales appeared by kind permission of Jane Hackett of English National Ballet School. Brandon Lawrence, Sean Bates and Dominic Whitbrook appeared by kind permission of Gailene Stock of The Royal Ballet School.
