The National Training School for Dancing 1876 – 1908

As part of plans to build a London Opera House on the new Embankment at Charing Cross in 1875 Katti Lanner was invited by impresario Charles Mapleson to establish the National Training School for Dancing. The opera house failed to be built but the school under Lanner flourished and contributed to the development of ballet in the late nineteenth century. The prospectus for the school noted that ‘England is the only country which does not possess such a school [one affiliated to a major opera house] although it is the country which supplies the theatres of Europe and America with the largest number of coryphées (corps de ballet leaders)’. Initially auditions were held nationwide to select students for the school and from the school came troupes that danced at Crystal Palace, in many pantomimes and in 1889 formed the house ballet at the Empire, Leicester Square. The illustrated presentation will look at the development of the school which operated on an apprenticeship scheme and its pupils. 

Jane Pritchard MBE (Curator of Dance at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London) co-curated the exhibition Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes, 1909–1929 and edited the accompanying book. She has also mounted other dance and photography exhibitions and displays, curated seasons of dance films, presented on radio and contributed to numerous publications. She previously worked as a dance company archivist. She lectures widely and has undertaken extensive research on dance in Britain in the late long 19th century, currently focusing on costumes, and studied many aspects of 20th century dance.