Top UK ballet school delivers Rambert Grades syllabus
Jennifer MacNamara. Credit: Alice Gibbons.
We caught up with Jennifer MacNamara, head of contemporary, jazz and other related dance styles at Elmhurst Ballet School.
Jenny delivers Grades 1-5 of the Rambert Grades contemporary dance syllabus to Lower School students.
“Both the students and the staff have really enjoyed having it as part of the curriculum.”
Rambert Grades trained
As a Rambert Grades member, Jenny completed her Syllabus Training in 2020.
Of the training process, Jenny said, “I found the training, content and delivery of the Rambert Grades excellent throughout. I felt really supported. I was very much guided.”
“I thought the timing of the training was just enough to get my teeth into the material.”
Delivering contemporary dance in a vocational ballet school
Elmhurst Ballet School, Birmingham, UK.
Credit: Martine Hamilton Knight.
Teaching across the curriculum at Elmhurst is based around a holistic ethos which the school describes as encouraging students to “LIVE, DANCE and LEARN in equal measure”. Jenny has been delivering Grades 1-5 of the Rambert Grades syllabus to lower school students. She says, “It’s been great delivering that [Rambert Grades] material to the students here at Elmhurst.”
Birmingham-based Elmhurst Ballet School is a world-renowned independent school which trains talented young dancers aged 11 to 19 to become dance professionals. The school has a close association with Birmingham Royal Ballet and an ongoing partnership with Studio Wayne McGregor. The school celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2023.
“I found the training, content and delivery excellent. I felt really supported.”
As students at Elmhurst currently prepare for Rambert Grades exams in the coming year, Jenny explains, “Many of the students are keen to take the exam. Year 7 and Year 8 are perfecting Grade 3, with Years 9 and 10 doing Grades 4 or 5.” Like all Rambert Grades exams, these will be recorded in small groups and submitted online by the teacher. This allows all students to take their exam in familiar surroundings at the school.
Each grade of the syllabus is structured around three pillars: Technical, Performance and Creative. The latter promotes the development of creativity and improvisation. Rambert Grades teachers are trained to use provided creative stimuli with their classes. Jenny speaks of her positive experience with this strand, explaining that “The Creative Strand is really excellent. It really allows the students to come out of their shell and show something of themselves in the studio.”
“The Creative Strand allows the students to come out of their shell and show something of themselves.”
Jenny adds that she feels the syllabus is successful both within her vocational students’ timetables, and outside of vocational training: “The type of material that’s being used is ready and available and usable for everyone- not just a vocational dancer. It works for everyone, whether they’re going to be professional dancers or not. It’s a really inclusive syllabus.”
“I think the students have responded really well to the syllabus. Across the board, both the students and the staff have really enjoyed having it as part of the curriculum.”