London Vocational Ballet School

‘Before the Silence’, choreographed by Miguel Altunaga Verdecia for our Year 8 and 9 students for our summer performances 2026. Thank you Miguel for an amazing experience and empowering the students to discover new ways of moving!

Photographs by Photography by ASH 📸

Choreography: Miguel Altunaga
Music: Tom Addison
Costumes: Lindsay Gabrysch
Lighting: Ros Chase

We’re thrilled to announce that Damani Campbell Williams (Damani Williams) will be teaching on our Summer Masterclasses! Damani will be teaching:

Junior Repertoire: Tuesday 25 August
Junior Ballet class: Wednesday 26 August
Junior and Senior Pas de Deux: Wednesday 26 August

We’re so excited to welcome this extraordinary artist back to our studios. Sign up at the link in our bio to work with Damani!

Damani Campbell Williams is a recently retired British dancer, teacher and rehearsal director. During his 11 year career, he held the ranks of Principal, Soloist and Senior Artist with four national ballet companies across Europe and Oceania, last of which being the Royal New Zealand Ballet.

He performed predominantly principal and soloist roles across a wide-ranging classical, neo classical and contemporary repertoire including ballets by Christopher Wheeldon, Sir Wayne Mcgregor, Liam Scarlett, Twyla Tharp, Michael Corder and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa among others.

Throughout his career, Damani had the privilege of working under several esteemed directors, including ballet legends Irek Mukhamedov, David Mccalister AM, and Patricia Barker.

Career highlights include originating the title roles in full length productions of Othello and Spartacus, being privately coached by David McCallister on his interpretation of Albrecht in Giselle, and dancing the ‘Eric Underwood’ role in Sir Wayne McGregor’s Infra, among many more.

Damani is now a regular teacher for English National Ballet, Rambert Dance Company, London City Ballet and New English Ballet Theatre as well as schools including Rambert School, Images Ballet Company, West London School of Dance, Nicola Tarry and several more. Damani is also a proud Governor on Elmhurst Ballet School’s Board of Governors.

Our 2026 summer performances included a revival of ‘Flora’, created by our Artistic Director Louise Bennett, and restaged by kind permission of National Youth Ballet ! The piece invites us into a magical flower garden, where the flowers dance with each other and allow us into their world.

The whole school danced in ‘Flora’, across two casts, and we are so proud of the students for the way they worked as a team and delivered such beautiful performances!

Choreography: Louise Bennett
Music: Maurice Ravel
Costumes: Tessa Balls (National Youth Ballet) and Lindsay Gabrysch
Lighting: Ros Chase

Photographs by Photography by ASH

Guest faculty announcement! The wonderful Isabelle Brouwers () will be teaching on our Summer Masterclasses!

Isabelle will be joining us on Wednesday 26 August to teach ballet class and solos for our Senior Group, and repertoire/solos for our Junior Group!

Book via the link in our bio to work with Isabelle, don’t miss out! ✨

Isabelle Brouwers is an international dancer, educator and cultural leader, and the Artistic Director of Yorkshire Ballet Seminars. After training at The Royal Ballet School and English National Ballet School, and winning the Silver Medal at the Genee International Ballet Competition, she joined English National Ballet, where she performed for a decade at venues including the Paris Opera, Bolshoi Theatre, Sadler’s Wells and Royal Albert Hall. Alongside her performing career, Isabelle has led international education projects, written for Dance Europe and Tanz magazines, completed the Royal Academy of Dance Professional Dancers’ Teaching Diploma with Distinction, and undertaken leadership training through Cranfield, LSE and Aspen UK. Isabelle is a Trustee of London Vocational Ballet School.

How we’re feeling at the end of term! We love this photo of Year 6 and 7 in ’s ‘In the Box - Out of the Box’, performed as part of ‘Forces of Nature’!

After the excitement of the summer performances and a three day camping trip, we are gearing up for yet another fun-filled day tomorrow, with our School Prizegiving and Year 11 Graduation 🌟

Photograph by

We are delighted to share the first of our esteemed guest teachers for our Summer Masterclasses, Paxton Ricketts!

Paxton will be teaching both groups Improvisation on 27 August and Contemporary Technique on 28 August, and brings with him a wealth of knowledge and experience from the dance industry. We are so excited to welcome Paxton to LVBS this summer - sign up via the link in our bio to work with this exceptional artist!

Paxton Ricketts () was born in Denmark and grew up in Canada. He trained at Arts Umbrella Dance from the age of 9 until 19.

In 2014, Paxton joined Nederlands Dans Theater 2 and moved to Nederlands Dans Theater 1 in 2017. During his time with the company, he toured worldwide, performing work by world-renowned choreographers, before leaving the company in 2024. He has also performed with Ballet BC, Wen Wei Dance, Adam Linder Studio, Fran Diaz and Korzo Theater, among others. As a choreographer, Paxton has created dozens of works for stage, film, and site-specific venues. In 2022, he studied choreography under Crystal Pite during her creation at The Royal Ballet. In 2023, he participated in the Pioneer Project hosted by Korzo Theater. Recently, Paxton has choreographed new works for GöteborgsOperans Danskompani (Sweden), The Place (UK), Kammerballetten (Denmark), NDT Summer Intensive (Netherlands), Fabula Collective (UK), Korzo Theater (Netherlands), Sonder Ensemble (Germany), Arts Umbrella Dance (Canada), HD Theatre (USA) Club Guy & Roni Spring Seminar (Netherlands), and Thorvaldsens Museum (Denmark). His work was a semi-finalist in the 2022 Rotterdam International Duet Choreography Competition. He was selected as an Aerowaves Twenty25 Artist for his work “Live! Not to be missed. Touring Regionally.”

Photo 1 by Michelle Rose ()
Photos 2-4 by Sjoerd Derine

A glimpse behind the scenes during our rehearsals and performances of ‘Forces of Nature’ last week! We are so proud of our students for conducting themselves so maturely and professionally on a very exciting and nerve-wracking day! 🌟

Photos by

Here’s a first look at some of the stunning images captured by of Forces of Nature!

1. ‘Doe - a Deer’ by
2. ‘A Chance Encounter’ by
3. ‘Before the Silence’ by
4. ‘Ombrelles’ by Megan Webster-Shaw
5. ‘Harmonia’ by Trixie Eliot
6. ‘Forces of Nature’ by .bennett
7. ‘On the Floor’ by .mcdermott
8. ‘In the Box - Out of the Box’ by
9. ‘Circle of Life’ by .mcdermott
10. ‘You can stand under my Funbrella!’ by .mcdermott

Thank you to everyone who came to watch our performances and congratulations to our brilliant students and team!

Our final guest choreographer for Forces of Nature is the brilliant ! Daniel created ‘Doe - a Deer’ for our Year 10 and 11 students, and we can’t wait to share it with you tomorrow!

Daniel danced with Scottish Ballet from 2005-2014 and with Rambert from 2014-2022.
He now works as a freelance artist and choreographer, creating pieces for Ballet Jersey, Scottish Ballet’s Youth Exchange and ‘Safe to be Me’ programmes, Rambert School, Elmhurst Ballet Company, The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Ballet Central, Images Ballet Company, The Juilliard School, National Youth Ballet, The Dance School of Scotland, The National Theatre’s River Stage, Covent Garden Dance Company and Ballet Nights.

In 2023 he joined the creative team of Jean Paul Gaultier’s Fashion Freak Show and in 2025 was promoted to Associate Director. In 2024, he completed an MA in Choreography through Central School of Ballet and University of Kent.

We can’t wait to present Daniel’s work tomorrow at The Lilian Baylis Studio Theatre at - the last few tickets remain at the link in our bio!

HAPPY PRIDE MONTH! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Today at LVBS we are holding our very own Pride Day, celebrating the LGBTQ+ community and our diverse and inclusive school.

We are so proud to nurture a safe community and environment, where everybody is supported and celebrated for who they are.

Happy Pride from all the students and staff at LVBS!