Elmhurst Ballet School, Birmingham, Presents 'Summer Creations - An Evening Of New Work'

Today, Elmhurst Ballet School, the associate school of Birmingham Royal Ballet, announces details of its popular annual summer shows. Between 6th and 13th July 2018, 'Summer Creations - An Evening of New Work' will showcase an ambitious programme of new commissions and world premieres by highly sought after choreographers, the school's artistic staff and prize winning students.

Elmhurst Ballet School is a world-renowned centre of excellence and prepares talented young dancers aged between 11 and 19 to become the thinking dance professionals of the future. The diverse programme of Lower, Upper and Whole School Summer Creations performances, presented in Elmhurst's Studio Theatre in Edgbaston, Birmingham, is the perfect opportunity to watch the dance stars of the future performing classical ballet to cutting edge contemporary work by an exciting array of dance makers.

The Upper School shows will include a new contemporary dance piece by critically acclaimed choreographer Alexander Whitley. Having created work for several of the UK's leading companies including Birmingham Royal Ballet, The Royal Ballet, Rambert, Balletboyz and Candoco, it's a coup for the school to have this Sadler's Wells' New Wave Associate Artist and Rambert Associate creating work for students. Danced by the graduates, it will mark the final year students' last performance at Elmhurst before they take up positions in dance companies across the world.

Also choreographing for Summer Creations Upper School shows is French-born, Germany-based modern dance choreographer Stéphen Delattre. He makes a welcome return to Elmhurst after creating work for last year's summer shows. Zak Nemorin is a performer with many West End shows to his name. Also a teacher & filmmaker, it is with his choreographer's hat on that he creates a jazz piece for the 2018 graduates. Brogan McKelvey, an Elmhurst graduate of 2017, Artist of Birmingham Royal Ballet (2017 - 18) and independent choreographer, will highlight the talent and versatility of Elmhurst-trained dancers, past and present, by creating a classical ballet inspired piece for the current Upper School students.

Flamenco Edition producer and teacher Ana Garcia, and Gloria Grigolato, Michael Ho, Silvia Jimenez, Hannah Lockyer, Tania Matos, Errol Pickford and Lei Zhao, and student Lorena Hardwick (Upper School Choreographic Awards winner), complete the Upper School show's choreographic line-up.

For the Lower School students and shows, Birmingham based Laura Vanhulle, artistic director of Vanhulle Dance Theatre, creates a contemporary dance synonymous with her unique and dynamic choreographic style - a fusion of salsa, Kathak (Indian classical dance), African dance, gymnastics and yoga. Vanhulle was one of three recipients to be awarded Dance Hub Birmingham's first artistic commissions and bursaries in 2017. The support enabled Vanhulle to attend the Women in Dance Leadership Conference in the USA earlier this year.

Ballet, Jazz, Character, Contemporary and Flamenco give additional dance flavours to the Lower School performances as Elmhurst's artistic staff Ana Garcia, Laura Green, Gloria Grigolato, Jim Grundy, Silvia Jimenez, Nicky Linzie, Jenny MacNamara, Sarah Moore, Lee Robinson, Andrea Tredinnick and Denise Whiteman, and student Olivia Chang-Clarke (Lower School Choreographic Awards winner) create a range of new dance works for the younger students aged between 11 and 16.

Some of the Elmhurst Young Dancers from the school's weekend classes will perform during the Lower School shows on Sunday 8th July at 2pm.

The Whole School come together for three performances during the run of shows, giving audiences an opportunity to see work by the majority of choreographers including Alexander Whitley, Stéphen Delattre, Laura Vanhulle and Zak Nemorin.

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