Talent Surfing

Ismene Brown goes looking at the UK’s leading ballet school performances to see what talent is on the way up. “I saw no stars this summer, nor did I emerge from the four shows with huge optimism about the next British generation, because there are so pitifully few native dancers-in-waiting in the first place. The heavy dominance of our dance schools by foreign youngsters is not just because they are willing to pay the fees but because they are better trained earlier on and often hungrier.”