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Misty Copeland recently made history in becoming the first African-American female principal at New York’s American Ballet Theatre, having been promoted from the rank of soloist. This promotion significantly expands racial diversity within the elite ranks of ballet, an issue – one would argue – which should not exist at all.

Copeland’s promotion ends months of speculation, with a positive and celebratory outcome. At 32, she recently danced the dual role of Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, making her New York debut, as well as a career debut in Romeo and Juliet. Copeland’s presence on stage is like no other; she shines in both classical and contemporary ballets. With extraordinary facility and the ability to make any role her own with drama and sensitivity, it is no wonder Copeland has achieved such success.

Her rags to riches story has captivated audiences far wider than those in the arts. Copeland found her way to ballet through a Boys & Girls Club in the United States, as one of a large family. At 13, a late starting age for dancers, she began studying at the San Pedro City Ballet in California, later attending American Ballet Theatre’s summer classes. She then joined American Ballet Theatre’s junior company in 2000, and then the main company’s corps de ballet in 2001. In 2007, she was promoted to soloist and her promotion to principal has been anticipated ever since.

Rising from poverty to ballet’s highest rank has consequently captivated a wide audience in demonstrating ballet’s previous resistance to change and modernisation. Copeland now has a large, supportive audience, encountering her on stage and also on social media, a 2014 advertisement for the Under Armour sportswear brand and also via her best-selling memoir. It is clear there is a direct link between breaking social barriers onstage and drawing a broad audience from all walks of life.

The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art is due to expand its musical theatre offering with the launch of a new course under its dramatic umbrella, intended to nurture and develop “the complete musical theatre performer”, it has been announced. Whilst the institution’s dramatic courses are already held in high regard, it is assumed that the musical theatre courses to be offered will also be of prestigious nature.

The five week musical theatre course will begin in September this year, and will be aimed at performers who already have some training in acting, singing or dance, but who want to build on their skills. The course will be taught by experienced industry professionals including choreographers, directors and musical directors, much like other musical theatre courses in the capital and around the country. Currently, singing is at the core of RADA training, and is regarded as integral to actors’ training; the short course will cover all musical theatre skills with an emphasis on acting.

The course has been developed to offer performers the opportunity to “complete” their training, building on RADA’s current week long summer course in musical theatre, which will continue alongside the new offering. The first part of the course will be spent developing musical theatre skills but will also include training in stage combat and clowning, as well as offering guidance on audition technique. In the final two weeks, students will work towards the performance of an abridged musical, performed for an invited audience.

RADA makes a meaningful point in maintaining that it would be difficult to secure the best teachers throughout the whole year for the course, however it’s musical theatre faculty will take a five week block off working in the West End or on productions in order to teach for RADA. This then implicitly implies its teachers are top of their league, still working and keeping up with the industry, perhaps unlike full time staff of other institutions.

October half term will see Estela Merlos and Mbulelo Ndabeni deliver two unique masterclasses, one for young people aged 14-18 and one for adults aged 19-24. The sessions are suitable for all levels of experience and will focus on technique and choreography,as well as a Q&A session with the artists. DanceWest is a brand new dance development organisation for West London, based at the Lyric Hammersmith.

The exclusive opportunity to train with these dancers – both including Rambert dance company on their CVs – will take place on Monday 26 and Tuesday 27 October respectively. The experienced choreographers will solely lead the fun and practical sessions in order for participants to develop their technique and create choreography.

Melos will lead the younger age group: she is an independent dance artist based in London. Born in Barcelona she trained at Escola de Dansa Madó and at Central School of Ballet, obtaining the Solo Seal Award and touring with Ballet Central. Estela toured both nationally and internationally with Rambert from 2008 to 2014 and has worked with companies including New Movement Collective, AVA Dance Company and Goddard Nixon. Her own work has been presented in Spain and the UK.

Ndabeni is originally from South Africa and is now a London-based choreographer and teacher. After training in dance at All School in Cape Town, Khayelitsha, Mbulelo worked for Cape Town City Ballet. Ndabeni performed in Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake for two years. In 2007 he joined Rambert, where he performed in works by many national and international choreographers like Merce Cunningham, Christopher Bruce, Javier du Frutos, Henri Oguike, Siobhan Davies, Henrietta Horn, Tim Rushton and Ashley Page. Mbulelo has been awarded a place in Phoenix Dance Theatre’s Choreographers and Composer’s Lab July 2015.

For further information and to book please email: [email protected]

An evening with Leanne Benjamin – in conversation with Ross Alley – took place on 2 July at English National Ballet. The former Royal Ballet Principal only recently retired after a 21 year career, and had much to tell about her career, life and experiences. Leanne discussed her illustrious career in conversation with Ross Alley incorporating selected film footage of highlights of her dancing and the important roles which she interpreted.

http://youtu.be/uea3gS2gyHw

In addition, a Leanne Benjamin scholarship scheme for young Australian dancers was also launched, in collaboration with the Tait Memorial Trust. The awards were created to recognise Leanne Benjamin as arguably the most successful ballerina ever to have come from Australia. Leanne danced with four of the world’s leading companies (Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet, London Festival Ballet, Deutsche Oper Ballet and The Royal Ballet) and worked directly with many of the legends of 20th and 21st century ballet, in a career that spanned 30 years.

The Tait Memorial Trust new ballet awards will use Leanne’s name for The Leanne Benjamin Awards. The Awards have proved to be a turning point for the Tait Memorial Trust and are a testament to its intention to increase funding for young Australian dancers who wish to study in the UK, an art form where so many have gone on to an international career. The first recipient, Josephine Frick, a graduate of the Royal Ballet School, is now under contract with English National Ballet.

As a testament to the talent and career of Leanne, the evening was a unique opportunity, not only to hear a first-hand account of a first class ballet career, but also to help promising Australian ballet students who come to London to study at the world’s best ballet schools.

Downton Abbey is seemingly set to become a musical after series 6 (the last) ends, full of tap dancing in the pantry and jazz hands in the drawing room! As a stiff British television drama, a Downton Abbey stage show would be met with delight by its fans. The blueprint for a global theatrical tour starring the cast – and which is predicted to rake in millions at the box office – has since been unveiled by the series’ composer John Lunn.

Lunn and creator Julian Fellowes have been working on a ‘live event’ which is hoped to feature the Oscar-winning writer as host and include compositions from the period drama. The iconic soundtrack and set are instantly recognisable; including the cast in the future blueprint is ambitious yet a hopeful move. The project would take place after the much-loved ITV drama finishes following its sixth series this autumn, and the final episode will be 2015 Christmas Special.

Talks currently involve plans of a live tour, with lots of music from the show. It is likely the actions will retire against a screen and the soundtrack may even be live in places. The show has already spawned a series of successful business opportunities including a crockery line, clothes, linens and books. There is also talk that a spin-off movie may be in the works with Lord Grantham actor Huge Bonneville already having said he would want to be involved if the opportunity arose.

The programme is shown in more than 100 countries worldwide, and is an especially big hit in America. It is the highest-rating British period drama of the past decade, with an average of 11 million viewers over the course of its five series and Christmas specials.

Actor and filmmaker Ralph Fiennes will step behind the camera once again to direct a film about Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev, according to Screen Daily. Whilst it is yet unknown who will play Nureyev in Fiennes’ film, this looks set to tell an engaging story of the iconic dancer for fans and dance audiences alike.

The film will be Fiennes’ third feature as a director, after directing 2011’s Coriolanus and 2013’s The Invisible Woman, in which he played Charles Dickens. Despite this, the biographical drama which will unfold for Nureyev will not see Fiennes play the lead. Gabrielle Tana will produce the film (who also produced the hit film Philomena staring Dame Judi Dench), which is set to shoot in late 2016, with script by Sir David Hare.

The film will be based on Julie Kavanagh’s celebrated biography of the Soviet-born dancer, who defected to the west in 1961 – a bold move at the time. He went on to dance with the Royal Ballet, and famously partnered the iconic Dame Margot Fonteyn; their partnership was undoubtably celebrated as one of the greatest dance partnerships in history. Nureyev also acted in films – among them a biopic of silent star Rudolph Valentino – before dying in 1993 at the age of 54.

Fiennes recently appeared in Man and Superman at the National Theatre and will be seen later this year as M in the next James Bond film Spectre. He is perhaps best known for his Oscar-nominated roles in Schindler’s List and The English Patient, and for playing Voldemort in the Harry Potter series of films. Fiennes has also written a new version of Ibsen’s play The Master Builder, in which Fiennes will star at the Old Vic in London next year.

It has recently been revealed that musical theatre stars Zizi Strallen and Matt Lee are set to lead the way in the Mary Poppins UK tour. Playing Mary Poppins and Bert respectively, the announcement was made by The Daily Mail’s Baz Bamigboye, often relied on for theatrical scoops.

The new Mary Poppins UK tour will open at the Leicester Curve on 13 October 2015, directed by Anthony Lyn and with choreography by Geoffrey Garratt. The show has a score by Richard M Sherman and Robert B Sherman, with additional music and lyrics by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe; musical supervision is by Stephen Brooker.

The classic musical Mary Poppins originally opened in the West End in 2004 where it ran for three years at the Prince Edward theatre, whilst the Broadway production ran for over six years. The show has subsequently toured the world, visiting Australia, New Zealand, the US, the UK and has been seen by over 11 million people. The iconic tale is a favourite for many, so a UK tour will be extremely welcome for both old and new audiences.

Zizi Strallen follows in the footsteps of her elder sister Scarlett who famously starred as Mary in the West End, on Broadway and in Australia, keeping the role firmly in the family. Zizi is currently starring as Lana in Matthew Bourne’s production of The Car Man: coincidentally choreographer Matthew Bourne has also danced in the musical of Mary Poppins.

Zizi’s extensive theatre credits include: Demeter in Cats (Palladium/UK tour), Penny Pingleton in Hairspray (Leicester Curve), Kathy Cratchitt in Scrooge (Palladium), Zaneeta in The Music Man (Chichester), understudy Lisa in Dirty Dancing (Aldwych), understudy Regina in Rock of Ages (Shaftesbury/Garrick), Meg in Merrily We Roll Along (Menier/Harold Pinter) and Mona Lipschitz in Chicago (Leicester Curve).

2015’s Kids Week has seen a record-breaking start to its annual summer scheme, with an incredible 116,000 theatre tickets snapped up in the first 24 hours of this year’s launch. More than 40 West End shows are taking part in this year’s festival of family theatre fun, which runs throughout the whole month of August. Kids Week offers children and their families the chance to engage with theatre that they may not usually be able to, due to monetary or timely circumstances. With numerous ticket deals and further activities to take part in, Kids Week is not a scheme to be missed!

Now in its 18th year, Kids Week has a huge following and every year introduces thousands of young people to the magic of theatre. Workshops, question and answer sessions and backstage tours are just some of the other theatrical activities on offer in addition to the ticket offers available to children and their families. There are still more than 140,000 tickets available for anyone wanting to take advantage of the kids go free ticket campaign, offering a child aged 16 or younger the chance to see a top London show for free with every adult ticket purchased, plus up to a further two children’s tickets available at half price.

The Society of London Theatre, the organisation behind Official London Theatre and Kids Week, has been overwhelmed by the first days sales, however this success of Kids Week is testament to the organisation’s work, and dedication to the theatre and young people. It is clear the London theatre industry embraces Kids Week in its offer of unrivalled opportunities for children to engage in theatre, often giving them their first experience of the magic of live theatre.

Purchase Kids Week tickets at www.kidsweek.co.uk or by calling 0844 248 5151.

Tewkesbury’s Roses Theatre in the south west of England is set to stage a programme of outdoor work while the venue closes its doors over the summer in order to undertake an £800,000 renovation. Likening it to the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in the heart of the capital, weather permitting the work could see new audiences and new views on the Gloucestershire theatre.

The venue will continue to run two-thirds of its programme, including live music and film screenings, at the council-run Watson Hall while the theatre is shut for refurbishment from 2 July to 23 September, retaining its audiences for its shows and providing a solution to its renovation work which will take over the whole theatre. Although the venue did not programme any theatre over the summer in anticipation of the closure, it will stage three outdoor shows for the first time, in the nearby Victoria Pleasure Gardens.

Sustaining existing audiences and gaining new audiences is important to the theatre, part of the reason behind its revamp. As part of the renovation, the building will be extended to include a new double-storey foyer, in addition to roof repairs, improved disabled access and a refurbished coffee bar that will be able to serve food. The building’s exterior will also be given a facelift, to make the theatre a more welcoming space.

Once the funds for the project have been raised and the work has been completed, the theatre is sure to have a renewed sense of life and future inquisitive audiences, trying theatre for the first time at the venue. Ahead of this time, the theatre looks set to have a fulfilling summer ahead in staging some of its work outside – here’s hoping for an Indian summer in the UK!