About London Children's Ballet
London Children's Ballet is a performance company and charity that inspires the pursuit of excellence and changes lives through dance. Founded by Lucille Briance in 1994, it has become a leader in creating original narrative work and introducing new audiences to ballet. LCB creates a new West End ballet each year performed by talented dancers aged 9-16, and outreach work takes ballet into schools, care homes and special needs centres in and around London.
With Briance's retirement after 25 years at the helm, ex-Birmingham Royal Ballet dancer and choreographer Ruth Brill took over as Artistic Director in 2019 (she is currently on maternity leave with choreographer Jenna Lee overseeing 2024). Each year, a favourite children's story is developed with an original scenario full of humour, drama and excitement to engage a family audience. LCB then commissions an emerging composer to write a 'full-evening' narrative score and an up-and-coming choreographer to set the ballet, also working with up-and-coming costume and set designers. LCB then stages this stunning new ballet performed over a week-long run to sell-out audiences in the West End's Peacock Theatre.
Fifty children join the company, through annual competitive auditions of over 600 applicants, held each October/November. The following 4/5-month rehearsal and performance experience is free of charge, which not only makes LCB unique but also means there is no barrier to talent – LCB dancers come from every economic, social and ethnic background, united by their passion for ballet. LCB does not only select children who are technically gifted; audition judges look for children who have that special appeal that makes a dancer beautiful to watch regardless of whether or not they have a perfect ballet body.
The Secret Garden
London Children's Ballet will be performing a revival of The Secret Garden with 50 young dancers, aged 9-16 yrs, based on the Frances Hodgson Burnett classic.
While The Secret Garden is an exquisite children's story, its timeless themes, precisely drawn characters, and
taut narrative offer a tale of redemption, rich with symbolism and mythical associations. Mary Lennox has no
one left in the world when she arrives at Misselthwaite Manor, her mysterious uncle's enormous, draughty
mansion looming on the edge of the moors.
A cholera epidemic has ravaged the Indian village in which she was born, killing both her parents and the "Ayah," who cared for her. She is totally alone. Her socialite mother had no time between parties for Mary, and her father was both too ill and too occupied by his work to raise his daughter.
Not long after coming to live with her uncle, Mr. Craven, Mary discovers a walled garden, neglected and in ruins. Soon she meets her maid Martha's brother Dickon, a robust country boy nourished both by his mother's love and by the natural surroundings of the countryside; and her tyrannical cousin Colin, whose mother died giving birth to him. So traumatised was Mr. Craven by the sudden death of his beloved wife that he effectively abandoned the infant Colin and buried the keys to the garden that she adored. His son has grown into a self-loathing hypochondriacal child whose tantrums strike fear into the hearts of household.
The lush garden is now overgrown and all are forbidden to enter it. No one can even remember where the door is, until a robin leads Mary to its hidden key. It is in the "secret garden," and with the help of Dickon, that Mary and Colin find the path to physical and spiritual health. Along the way the three children discover that their imaginations have the power to transform lives in this 80-minute story ballet.
Performance Information
The Premiere Performance will take place at 7 pm on Thursday 4 July 2024: https://londonchildrensballet.formstack.com/forms/2024premiereperformance
Further performances run from:
Friday 5 July at 7 pm
Saturday 6 July at 1.30 pm and 5.30 pm
Sunday 7 July at 12.30 pm and 4.30 pm
Box Office: https://www.sadlerswells.com/whats-on/london-childrens-ballet-the-secret-garden/
Ticket prices from £18 - £55
Previous Shows
Snow White
Anne of Green Gables
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