Audition Results!!!
2022-2023 Auditions!
We are so delighted to share that our students have received an amazing 54 Vocational Ballet School offers this year!
This includes offers at:
- The Royal Ballet School
- English National Ballet School
- European Ballet School
- John Cranko Schule
- Elmhurst Ballet School
- Central School of Ballet
- BTUK
- Tring Park School for the Performing Arts
- Royal Ballet School of Antwerp
- Norwegian Ballet School
- Brussels International Ballet School
- Canada's National Ballet School
Well done to all students and of course our whole teaching team for your support to achieve these amazing results!
Sacha Barber joins the Estonian National Ballet!!!
A big congratulations to our full time student Sacha Barber who after a successfull audition has joined the Estonian National Ballet as a corps de ballet dancer.
Sacha will be missed at Blommaert Ballet School but we wish him all the best as he starts his professional dancing career and we could not be prouder!
Eloise is awarded a Gold Medal at the Performance Platform UK Grand Finals!
Congratulations to our full-time student Eloise who, after first winning a Gold Medal at the Performance Platform UK London semi-finals, was then awarded a Gold Medal at the Grand Final, competing in the Vocational 1category.
Well done Eloise!
We are incredibly proud of your hard work, your dedication and your much-deserved achievement!
Our full-time student Sacha Barber performs the Nutcracker with Ballet Academy Cymru
Congratulations to our full-time student, Sacha Barber, who gave two outstanding performances of the Nutcracker with Ballet Academy Cymru on Saturday 17th December. The production took place within the beautiful theatre of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff and was choreographed and directed by none other than our very own BBS Team Member Laëtitia Lo Sardo. Well done to both Laëtitia and Sacha; what a fantastic achievement all round.
A gold Medal for our full-time student Eloise!!!
Huge congratulations to our full-time student, Eloise, who was awarded a Gold medal at the London preliminary heat of The Performance Platform; an exciting new vocational ballet competition for UK-based dancers aged 10-19 years.
Eloise has been invited to the Grands Final, held at the Britten Theatre in London.
Well done Eloise, we’re all really proud of your achievement.
So proud of the achievements of the BBS Team competing at YAGP 2023!!
Well done to Eloise, Esme and Sacha; the first team ever to represent Blommaert Ballet School at the YAGP European Semi-Finals in Paris! We couldn’t be prouder of their hard-work, dedication, commitment and achievements.
Sacha became one of the top 13 from the Senior Men category that made it through to the final round. He was offered a 1-week private audition with Semperoper Ballett, Dresden, having been personally chosen and invited by the Artistic Director Aaron S. Watkin. He also received a job offer from the Ukranian Classical Ballet Company. Eloise received a Scholarship for the International Ballet Summer School, Italy.
Amazing! Well done Team BBS – students and teaching faculty alike!
One Dance UK Awards 2022
Congratulations go to our Founder and Director Sander Blommaert on winning the One Dance UK People’s Choice Award, 2022! This was the third year running that Sander was shortlisted for this award, making his win all the more deserving. I’m sure you will want to join me in congratulating Sander on receiving such admirable recognition for his services to teaching, and his dedication to his students and to the artform.
Sacha Barber is invited to perform the role of the Nutcracker
with Ballet Academy Cymru
Sacha Barber, our full-time student currently completing his final year of training, has accepted an invitation to perform the role of the Nutcracker Prince in Ballet Academy Cymru’s production, entitled Clara and her Nutcracker. Performances take place at 1pm and 5pm on Saturday 17th December at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff. The Choreographer and Director of this production is our very own Laëtitia Lo Sardo.
2022 Ballet Competition SPERA Results
Congratulations to our full-time student Sacha Barber on receiving the Silver Medal in the Classical Senior Category of the 2022 International Ballet SPERA Competition!
We are all so proud of your hard work, passion and determination and this Silver Medal is very well deserved!
Young Dancers Competition May 2022
We had a great weekend in "Dworp, Belgium" attending the 2022 International Young Dancers Competition!
We had a total of 4 entries, 3 classical entries and 1 contemporary entry.
We are pleased to announce the following results after a beautiful performance from every dancer:
1) Daisy Leigh Reynolds:
Gold Medal with Congratulations from the Jury in the "Junior Classical Category"
She also won a free entry to "Le Prix Des Hivernales 2nd edition, Liège, Belgium and she also won the Special Katrin Schrader Prize!
Daisy won a second Gold Medal in the "Junior Contemporary Category"
2) Sacha Barber:
Silver Medal in the "Pre-Professional Classical Category"
3) Sofiya Perrigo:
Bronze Medal in the "Teen Classical Category"
We are so proud of all of them!
2022 Final Audition Results
We are so excited to share that we have:
- 6 students through to the White Lodge final and 2 for the Upper School at Royal Ballet School
- 14 students through to the Elmhurst Final - 11 for Lower School and 3 for Upper School
- 1 student through to Young Dancers Academy, London final
- 2 students through to Central School of Ballet Upper School final
- 2 student through to English National Ballet Upper School final
- 1 student through to the National Ballet School of Canada, Lower School final.
- 7 of our students have been offered a place at Tring Park, all of whom have been invited to audition for a funded place.
- 5 of our students have been offered a place at Moorland Ballet Academy.
We wish all of our students lots of luck for their final auditions!
First Full Time Student
We are pleased to announce an exciting development to Blommaert Ballet School which is the start of our first full time student.
Sacha will be receiving a bespoke full-time privately coached training schedule with our whole BBS team and will be the first student to study and hopefully obtain the "Blommaert Ballet School Advanced Diploma Course" upon finishing his training with us.
News 27-12-21
I am beyond excited to announce and introduce you to Silvia Jimenez who joins our Ballet Teaching Team!
Spanish born Silvia trained with Victor Ullate in Madrid, the Ecole de Danse Classique Princese Grace in Monte-Carlo and at the John Cranko School in Stuttgart. She competed in Prix de Laussanne in 1990 and got offered a scholarship to Maurice Bejart Mudra School.
After graduating from John Cranko School she was offered to join Stuttgart Ballet under the direction of Marcia Haydee where she stayed for 5 years. Silvia danced in many ballets by internationally acclaimed choreographers like John Cranko, Hans van Manen, William Forsythe, Uwe Scholtz, Nacho Duato, Renato Zanella, Stephan Toss, Roberto de Oliveira amongst others. She performed principal roles in Marcia Haydee’s Sleeping Beauty and “Isabella” in Sir David Bintley’s creation of Edward II for the company.
In 1996 Silvia was offered a Soloist contract with Birmingham Royal Ballet under David Bintley’s leadership, soon after promoted to Senior Soloist and danced many of the company’s extensive repertoire including the leading roles in many Balanchine ballets like Prodigal Son, Apollo, Four Temperaments and Agon to name a few. She also performed main roles in Sir Kenneth MacMillan (Elite Syncopations) and ‘Lady Elgar’ in Enigma Variations by Sir Frederick Ashton as well as the “Black Queen” in Dame Ninette de Valois Checkmate. Silvia also danced solo and principal roles in most of Sir Peter Wright’s productions including Odette/Odile in Swan Lake and the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker. She has also worked with choreographers like Stanton Welch or Twyla Tharp. Under Bintley’s directorship Silvia danced and created many roles of his choreographic repertoire like Carmina Burana, Edward II, Arthur, The Seasons, Hobson’s Choice, Shakespeare Suite, Nutcracker Sweeties, Beauty and the Beast amongst others.
To read about Silvia’s teaching qualifications and experience, read our "who we are" section.
News 21-12-21
I am thrilled to announce and introduce you to Laëtitia Lo Sardo, who joins our Ballet Teaching Team!
Trained in Marseille, France, Laëtitia won the Prix de Lausanne in 1996 and received a scholarship for the Royal Ballet School.
She joined Birmingham Royal Ballet in 1997 where she spent her whole dancing career, going through the ranks to First Soloist.
She danced many soloist and principal roles including ‘The Sugar Plum Fairy’ and ‘Clara’ in the “Nutcracker”, ‘Swanhilda’ in “Coppélia”, ‘Aurora’ and ‘Bluebird’ in the ‘Sleeping Beauty’, the ‘Young Girl’ in “Two Pigeons”, ‘Waltz ’ in “Serenade”, and ‘Calliope’ in Balanchine’s ‘Apollo”.
Laëtitia has been teaching ballet for over 20 years. Whilst dancing, she completed an M.A. in Applied Studies in Dance with Birmingham University and taught ballet for Elmhurst Ballet School, Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Department of Learning and the Centre for Advanced Training.
In 2013, she assisted Ballet Mistress Marion Tait to rehearse Birmingham Royal Ballet’s production of “Giselle”.
Laëtitia became a freelance ballet teacher in August 2014 and taught for BRB’s Department of Learning, the Centre for Advanced Training, DanceXchange, and private ballet schools.
In 2019, she graduated from the RAD’s Professional Dancers’ Post Graduate Certificate with Distinction.
In 2020, she also became a certified teacher for Progression Ballet Technique.
From September 2018, she taught ballet at Elmhurst Ballet School for 3 years, teaching both Upper and Lower School and on their associate program.
Laetitia is now freelance again. She has a program of online classes and teaches regularly for Birmingham Royal Ballet, Denada Dance Company, Kings International Ballet Academy and British Ballet Organisation (BBO) and now becomes part of the ballet teaching faculty at Blommaert Ballet School!
To book lessons with Mrs Laëtitia. email us at blommaertballetschool@gmail.com
News 14-12-21
Blommaert Ballet School wants to congratulate team member Denise Horsley officially graduating from MSc Dance Science at Trinity Laban Conservatoire in addition to her MA Creative Practice! Denise now has a total of 8 qualifications in different areas of dance practice!
News 11-12-21
So happy to welcome Luke Abnett to our team at Blommaert Ballet School!
Luke worked at the Royal Ballet School in Covent Garden, London for six years. It was during this time that Luke developed his passion for helping ballet dancers achieve their true physical potential.
In addition to managing student injuries, Luke also drove the development of elite-level healthcare at the Royal Ballet School through:
Injury prevention prehabilitation classes
Co-founding the Royal Ballet Science & Medicine Advisory Group
Overseeing healthcare provision at the upper school
An integrated Physical Conditioning curriculum
Launched the upper school's first start-of-year physical profiling programme
Regular accredited academic classes in injury prevention and anatomy for dancers
Now working exclusively in private practice, Luke truly enjoys the challenge of bringing world-class healthcare to young dancers outside of major institutions. As well as treating injuries, he also enjoys identifying issues that are limiting a dancer’s potential. In fact, Luke often receives reports from teachers praising how quickly their dancers turnout, posture, extensions and allegro have improved after attending a Ballet Physio programme.
Luke’s areas of expertise include ballet injuries, ballet facility enhancement and accelerating physical progress, hypermobility, scoliosis, bone stress rehabilitation, joint impingements.
To book a session with Luke, visit our website www.blommaertballetschool.com
News 01-11-21
Blommaert Ballet School extends huge congratulations to Maximus Anderson who has just joined Elmhurst Ballet School in Year 10. We've helped to prepare Max for vocational training since May 2020 online through the Zoom platform, connecting all the way from Birmingham to San Francisco (USA). We look forward to continue to support and follow Max in his journey, onwards and upwards! We are proud of Max; his hard work and dedication has paid off!
News 30-10-21
We are so excited and humbled to be nominated and shortlisted for the 2021 Dance School of the Year Awards.
Thank you all for your continued support!
News 01-09-21
We are very proud to announce that our founder, Sander Blommaert, has been shortlisted for the One Dance UK "People's Choice Award 2021" for the second year running making it to the final three.
