Elmhurst in the USA

Tuesday December 7^th 2021

Elmhurst will travel to the USA in February next year to hold auditions for prospective students to study full-time at the school from September 2022.

After an initial online application process closing on Friday 21^st January 2022, successful applicants will be invited to attend one of three semi-final auditions in one of three U.S. cities: San Francisco on 14^th February; Chicago on 16^th February; and New York City on 18^th February.

Elmhurst’s stateside auditions will mark the first-ever, face-to-face try-outs in America for the school. Prospective students auditioning for a place could eventually follow in the footsteps of hundreds of Elmhurst alumni whose professional credits include working with Birmingham Royal Ballet, Northern Ballet, Scottish Ballet, Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, Rambert, and Company Wayne McGregor in the UK, Ailey II, Sarasota Ballet and Orlando Ballet in the USA, and many more dance companies across Europe and around the world.

The audition panel in the USA will include Denise Whiteman, Elmhurst’s Director of Dance Training, and Robert Parker, Elmhurst’s Artistic Director who is a former Principal dancer with Birmingham Royal Ballet (1999 – 2012), and a judging panellist for many international ballet competitions including the Youth America Grand Prix.

Final auditions will be held at the school in Birmingham in spring 2022.

Jessica Ward, Principal of Elmhurst Ballet School, said: “It is very exciting that the Elmhurst team head to three major US cities in 2022 to hold the school’s very first auditions in America. We have many friends in the USA and look forward to making more as we meet talented young dancers at auditions in Chicago, New York and San Francisco.

With America’s diverse dance community and dance history steeped in many forms of dance, we hope Elmhurst’s offer complements prospective students’ existing training and encourages them to apply for the school and, if successful, join an increasingly diverse community of students who hail from all over the UK and around the world.”