Autumn Winter Term Recap

19 December 2025

12 weeks ago we welcomed our students, including a new Year 1 cohort, into the Countess of Wessex studios. Now as the Autumn Winter term draws to an end, we are reflecting not only on this term, but the whole of 2025 too.

From Royal visits to features in The Times, Central School of Ballet has reached more people than ever! Whilst it may be unusual to combine dance and statistics, given we are in the 12 Days of Christmas, it is a good time to share some of the numbers below…

  • 2 new Governors joined Central’s Board
  • 3 choreographers joined us for the MA degree in Choreography
  • 9 reviews were published for Central performances
  • 36 new students were welcomed into Year 1 of training at Central
  • 38 students graduated from our BA(Hons) Top-Up degree in Professional Dance and Performance
  • 92 Junior Associates and 111 Associates joined us this term
  • 185 dancers come to our weekly Junior School classes
  • 278 places were filled on our short courses
  • Over 2,000 accounts followed us on Instagram
  • 3,181 seats were booked for Ballet Central
  • We continued to welcome more than 20,000 adult drop-ins to our classes
  • Over 50,000 people used our website

This term has also seen some fantastic achievements from the school and its students. A number of our students are doing placements with professional companies. Ella Brownlow-Ziirsen has been cast as a Guest Artist as part of her work placement with Northern Ballet for the 2025 run of The Nutcracker at Leeds Grand Theatre. Michael Hawkins returns to Brecon Festival Ballet to perform in their production of The Nutcracker.

Eight of our Year 3 students – Jacob Browne, Frederick Button, Nathan Byrne, Madeleine Everard, Jacob Hendricks, Skye Kemsley, Lily Matthews, Iris McBride – have been performing with British Festival Ballet in Finland and Belgium, and will be returning to the UK for performances around the New Year in Cambridge. Shin Kurokawa and Kirit Devani performed with Cork City Ballet in October, in their production of Swan Lake.

Kirit spoke of his experience: “Working with Cork City Ballet was a really fun and rewarding experience. I got to meet so many amazing people and have a small taste of company life. Performing the Pas de Trois in Swan Lake was a wonderful opportunity and this experience will continue to help me later when performing with Ballet Central.”

Roman Bafi, Year 2, has been selected for the Prix De Lausanne’s Partner School project, and will be travelling to Switzerland in February 2026 to participate in a newly commissioned work, to be performed as part of the competition.

There have also been many staff achievements at Central this year. Our Artistic Director, Kate Coyne, attended the aDvANCE Conference in Zurich, where Central was represented as one of 35 international schools. Contemporary tutor, Emily Powell, had a paper published in the Research in Dance Education Journal: Feminist pedagogy in the contemporary dance technique class: a personal case study. Choreography tutor, Bim Malcomson, was one of 4 choreographers commissioned to create a new work for The Royal Ballet, which premiered on 12 November, or otherwise known as World Ballet Day. The 4 choreographers worked with Devon Healey, a blind artist, to create a “groundbreaking work that explores how blindness can redefine our responses to sensation, sound and storytelling” (link).

To mark the end of this term we held our annual Winter Showcases in the Gable theatre. Family and friends of Central joined us for a mixed programme of classical ballet, contemporary, jazz and Spanish performances. The four sold-out shows were arranged by our artistic faculty, and the programme included an excerpt from one of the works to be featured in the Ballet Central 2026 tour (although we can’t yet say which one!)

This term is also an important time for Central as it looks to recruit a new cohort of students for entry in September 2026. Applications are steadily coming in, with auditions having already taken place in Japan and Singapore. The first London pre-liminary was on 12 December, with more to follow in early January. Central welcomed many young dancers into its studios throughout the term for in-person open days. Those who attended were given the opportunity to watch a selection of classes, giving them an honest and inspiring insight into training at Central.

A massive thank you goes to everyone who supported our Big Give Christmas Challenge campaign by making a donation. We managed to exceed our goal of £20,000 once again, which is an enormous achievement thanks to everyone who supports and believes in Central. This year’s campaign focused on our Health and Wellbeing team, who deliver a range of supplementary training and programmes that support our dancers throughout their degree. This work is crucial to ensure that our dancers are able to train to their full capacity, graduating with the resilience and skills necessary to excel in a performing career.

As the festive period draws in, we are also looking ahead to the Spring term and the exciting events and announcements that will take place. The Ballet Central 2026 tour is well underway, with information on the company and repertoire set to be released early next year. Our Spring and Summer course applications are currently open, due to close on Monday 2 February. A New MA Choreography cohort is due to begin their course in 2026 and we look forward to welcoming them soon.

For now, we wish everyone a joyous festive period, and we shall see you in 2026!