Darcey Bussell visits The Royal Ballet School during preparations for The Nutcracker

[@Kugelsuse]

Darcey is so nice with the children! What a great dancer!

[@GoldenSnowFairy]

Those kids are SO adorable and that lady seems so lovely and nice

[@Sochilinda]

+Anna-Carolina "the lady", Darcey Bussell is a very famous ballerina ;)

[@avesraggiana]

+Anna-Carolina A VERY famous ballerina indeed!

[@GoldenSnowFairy]

Oh I had no idea!

[@elliegreen7647]

'that lady' possibly the worlds most well known and talented ballerinas

[@avesraggiana]

+Anna-Carolina That’s alright. She retired almost a decade ago, probably before you were born or when you were very little. If you were to pick any picture book about ballet, I’m pretty sure you’ll find pictures of her. She was a beautiful dancer when she danced with the Royal Ballet.

[@noemiecansier8466]

Look how excited they are! Darcey must seem like nothing short of their ballet fairy God mother

[@clemmiemayhew456]

if I was at white lodge and darcy arrived I think I would die of happiness (I'm a dancer too)

[@agbritainofficial]

Oh do I wish and wish I was one of them! I wish I'd been more conscious of what you needed to become a professional when I was their age so that I could have done something about it. Good luck to you all! I'm sure you'll be amazing!

[@helenroscoe3344]

White lodge is such a magical place ♥

[@susanbaskerville5239]

Darcy Bussell generous as always and the children the stars of tomorrow BRAVA !!!!!!

[@SeifukuLove]

They are so adorable omggg

[@avawilliams3091]

Rhyan I agree but I will be one of those very soon very soon 😁

[@Hans6789-j9t]

How adorable 💚💞💖darci is something special... so warm 🌺🌺🌺🇺🇸

[@BMInes]

I would love to listen to the nutcracker's ballet music transcripted for piano because it's richer than the nutcracker piano suite that pianists usually do, the ballet musics are always fairy-like and gorgeous!

[@artmadedorky]

Our school dance team recently collaborated with them for a performance..Such lovely students😊

[@codywild9433]

My older sister was going here for a few months but had to leave because she was homesick, if anyone who goes here remembers someone called Cookie Wild, that is her. She doesn’t even do ballet anymore.

[@annachristie1159]

ah elijah, jayden and jill they look so adorable

[@megancasas199]

The boy in the glasses is cute 💗🐼

[@hannahsandford5364]

Megan Casas thats a girl not a boy

[@fifismith2377]

Charming lady

[@pageturner242]

they're so cute oh my god

[@mademsoisellerhapsody]

Adorables

[@kaykomckayface1097]

Just asking out of curiosity...my friend’s daughter is going to some well know ballet school here in Japan. She really wanted to star in Nutcracker at the end of the year, and got the smallest role. But according to her, every single kid who got chosen would have to pay about 2-3k dollars to get the role. Including “participation” fee, training/rehearsal fee, costume fee, “thank-you-teacher” fee(?) and tons of other fees. I asked some of my other dancer friends, they shrugged and said yeh it’s about right. But it’s just so over priced imo...just wondering if it’s the same every where else. Or it’s just weird here.

[@Galastel]

Sounds like a weird Japanese thing. If anything, the children are performing, a.k.a working. My understanding is that they should be paid?

[@kaykomckayface1097]

Galastel thanks! I think so too. it’s just super dodgy and unfair to the kids. But ppl here keep saying it’s the norm which annoys me a lot. Hope this kinda ridiculous japanese thing ends soon.

[@mirabellamcgarry8269]

Omg nice one

[@harrietrobinson25]

I use to go to school with the girl at 1:55

[@Olivia-tm3ii]

Cool was she nice?

[@Galastel]

Aren't there issues about dancing with glasses? Both with it being more difficult because of limited peripheral vision, and with the danger of the glasses flying off? And I don't imagine they'd have glasses on stage - that doesn't really fit the characters. Older dancers would have contacts, but what do the children do?

[@clemmiemayhew456]

contacts are your best friend even when your young if you are a dancer

[@ruby.xoxo04]

IM THE 1,100th LIKE IM HONOURED

[@fairlyvague82]

Hmmm.....I don't hear any kids from our local council estates. Funny that.

[@chrisbekker8834]

Have you not seen “Billy Elliot”?

[@AllieB-11.11]

What a stupid thing to say. You can attempt to get into The Royal Ballet school if you come from a council estate if you like as everyone gets the same opportunity at the audition - plus most students there get help from the government to pay the fees. Now the fact that council estate parents tend to not start their kids off in ballet from the age of 5 or whatever (so they wouldn't end up going to auditions at The Royal Ballet school) is another issue and hardly the fault of The Royal Ballet school!

[@daniellecluett5560]

Only kids of rich parents get to go here, £30,000 per year in fees.

[@TheSorub]

about 90 percent get help with the fees around 20 percent pay none at all, but its still a big commitment

[@AllieB-11.11]

You get help with fees from the government which is more than you get with normal private schools. But tbh there's no getting away from the fact that ballet has always been a middle class pursuit - much like tennis. If working class/council estate parents see it as 'boring' or for snobs or whatever thus don't take their kids to see ballets in London/Birmingham etc so the interest is never ignited in the kid, then how is that anyone else's fault? Maybe they should shift their perspective and be more open-minded. When I was a child I used to go to council run ballet classes. Guess what? No kids from council estates there even though it was free - the parents from social housing just aren't interested for the most part.

[@TGStamfordPark]

I attended White lodge starting in 2002 ... and was like MOST kids - on a DADA scholarship from UK Arts council. Then all UK domiciled kids attended the Upper School also on full DADA scholarships. I don’t think this has changed since then and we had diverse classes relative to private school’s back then ... :) it was an amazing place, but white lodge is spooky at night !

[@TGStamfordPark]

ie. you are incorrect