Central School of Ballet announces significant increase in funding from the Leverhulme Trust

The Trust funding allows Central to offer bursaries for the first time to students participating in its newer Junior Associate programme (established 2023).  Being able to offer this financial support to students who come from low-income households, and other groups underrepresented in ballet, will help remove barriers to gifted young people realising their dance potential in a profession where early engagement is key to long-term career progression.

The Leverhulme Trust awards funding across academic disciplines, supporting talented individuals in the arts, humanities, sciences and social sciences to realise their personal vision in research and professional training.

Commenting on the award, Central’s Executive Director, Mark Osterfield, said: “This new level of funding from the Leverhulme Trust, a supporter of Central over many years, is a welcome endorsement of the quality of our vocational training and the calibre of the students attracted to Central.  The award is a driver of our widening access and participation programme that aims to make professionally delivered ballet training accessible to gifted dancers regardless of their background, or financial situation.

Centralschoolofballet.co.uk

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For further information and images contact

Lauren Hewett E: lauren.hewett@csbschool.co.uk T: 0207 837 6332 Ext: 207

Notes to Editors

Central School of Ballet

• Central School of Ballet is led by Mark Osterfield, Executive Director and Kate Coyne, Artistic Director and Professional Training Lead
• Central moved to its Southwark home in 2020, allowing its renowned professional degree courses to run alongside its comprehensive range of adult and junior classes
• Founded in 1982 by Ann Stannard and the late Christopher Gable CBE, Central was created to provide a different approach to professional dance training, offering the rigours of classical ballet at its core but also providing tuition in contemporary dance, jazz, choreography and narrative pieces
• Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Edinburgh has been Central’s Royal Patron since 2003
• Students train for three years towards a BA (Hons) in Professional Dance and Performance (validated by the University of Kent)
• Central also offers an MA course in Choreography focusing on ballet
• Central’s ethos is the belief that talented, dedicated young people should have access to the highest quality of training, whatever their economic, social or cultural background
• Central School of Ballet has particularly high rates of employment for graduating students. Recent graduate destinations include Scottish Ballet, Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, Ballet Black, Northern Ballet, Rambert Dance Company, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Phantom of the Opera, Semperoper Dresden, Singapore Ballet

The Leverhulme Trust

The Leverhulme Trust is an independent charity that seeks to fund blue skies research and scholarship, which has the potential to generate new ideas and research breakthroughs that benefit society.  The Trust also aims to support a diverse range of scholars in their educational endeavours.  It focuses its efforts mainly in the UK, which has a world-class higher education research sector.  Since its foundation in 1925, the Trust has provided grants and scholarships for research and education, funding research projects, fellowships, studentships, bursaries and prizes; it operates across all academic disciplines to support talented individuals as they realise their vision in research and professional training.  Today, it is one of the largest all-subject providers of research funding in the UK, distributing approximately £120 million a year.  www.leverhulme.ac.uk