Olivia celebrates a trio of dance achievements

Olivia Richardson, in Year 10, is celebrating a trio of dance achievements – a distinction in her advanced foundation ballet exam, gaining a place with the English National Ballet School in London and also preparing for the production of Sleeping Beauty with the English National Youth Ballet later in the year.

Fifteen-year-old Olivia, is a student at Janet Seymour’s Swaledale School of Dance, Dance City Newcastle’s CAT scheme and is studying GCSE dance.

Janet Seymour said: “Olivia’s dedication to the art of ballet is remarkable. She has achieved exceptional results through her hard work and determination and has the potential to go far in her chosen career.”

Olivia has been successful in gaining a place on the spring intensive course with The English National Ballet School in London in February where she will learn repertoire and variations in ballet, contemporary dance, and choreography. Janet added: “This is a great opportunity to find out what life will be like studying ballet at this prestigious dance school.”

Olivia said: “When I found out I had been accepted on the English National Ballet course I was so excited, I’m really looking forward to seeing the school and learning from the school’s teachers. “My goal is to audition for a vocational dance school once I have completed my GCSEs next year and participating in an intensive workshop will give me invaluable experience in preparing for this.”

In April, Olivia will be taking part in the daily intensive sessions for a week at Dance City in Newcastle, CAT (Centre for Advanced Training) where she trains four times a week during term time after school and at the weekends. In May, she will begin learning the repertoire for The Sleeping Beauty with The English Youth Ballet at Darlington Hippodrome performances in June. These will be long days of dance training taking place over four weekends and half term. She is really looking forward to this as she was due to perform in their production of Cinderella which had to be cancelled last year due to the pandemic.

Olivia’s mum, Lucy says, “We are very happy for Olivia to experience a taste of a professional dance school, we want to support and enable her to achieve her goal to study dance when she leaves school. She works very hard and has dedicated most of her spare time to dance training so this will be a fantastic opportunity for her.”

Danni Fox, Lead Teacher for Dance, concluded: “Olivia deserves every success that comes her way in her dance career. She is one of the most hard-working and committed dancers we have ever seen at Richmond School and Sixth Form College and I have no doubt that she will succeed in pursuing a career in the dance industry.”