For the last 100 years, Elmhurst Ballet School has been providing young performers with the chance to develop their talents. Now located in Birmingham, the school’s impressive list of alumni includes two members of the Mills acting dynasty: Hayley and Juliet. 
Hayley recently spoke to What’s On about her memories of attending the prestigious school... 

Birmingham’s Elmhurst Ballet School is planning a year of celebrations to mark its 100th anniversary. 
Founded in Camberley in Surrey by Helen Mortimer in 1923 and initially taking just a handful of students, Elmhurst moved to a purpose-built site in Edgbaston in 2004 and is today an internationally renowned centre of excellence.

The school counts among its alumni numerous stars of stage and screen, including sisters Hayley and Juliet Mills, Dame Merle Park, Jenny Agutter and Helen Baxendale. Recent alumni are now dancing with prestigious companies across the world, including Birmingham Royal Ballet, Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, Northern Ballet and the Royal Ballet.

For Hayley Mills, who attended the school from 1956 to ’62, Elmhurst provided a first-ever opportunity to perform on stage - an experience she still remembers today.
“It was a little sketch of a fairy on the top of the Christmas tree - but one of those bedraggled fairies; rather a grubby tulle skirt and a broken wand. It was a funny song and it made the children laugh. That was my first experience of being on stage and getting a reaction from the audience, which I absolutely loved. So it prepared me for being on the stage.”

Hayley, who first found fame as a child actress in films including Tiger Bay and Whistle Down The Wind, has since starred in a host of Hollywood movies, television shows and plays. She is currently on tour with the stage adaptation of Deborah Moggach’s The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which is coming to Birmingham theatre The Alexandra in February.

Now in her 70s, Hayley says the school has always prepared young people for a life on stage.
“Elmhurst students are being introduced to the arts in the most wonderful way. With wonderful music, self-expression, physical health, strength, a sense of their own bodies, being able to walk with grace and hold their heads up and look the world in the eye - all the kinds of things which come naturally from being a dancer. It is a wonderful start to life, even if you don’t become a dancer.”

To mark its centenary, Elmhurst is planning a whole series of events, including dance performances, a new commission, a gala and a fundraising campaign.

Jessica Ward, who has been principal since 2010, says the Elmhurst 100: More Futures To Shape centenary aims to celebrate the school’s dynamic history while building on its successes for the future. 
“The history of the school has really shaped who we are now,” she says. “If you look back at its foundation, Helen Mortimer was an incredible woman to have had such a forward-thinking vision of preparing young people for employment in the arts.

“We still have that fundamental ambition, which is finding and making great opportunities for students, to prepare them for leaving us. It’s our job to do everything we can in all ways. It’s about lifelong learning through their academic programme, so that when they stop their dance career on stage, they can go onto another career, maybe become a dance writer or a dance photographer or a leader and manager in an arts organisation.

“It’s about giving them all those transferable skills, but it’s also thinking about the whole person and how they are navigating the world as young people now. It’s a challenging landscape for them, so it’s thinking about their physical health, their mental health; it’s about the whole person.” 
Plans for the anniversary year include a series of special performances.

“In May, we have our Elmhurst Ballet Company 100 Years shows in London and Birmingham. We are building on our partnerships with Studio Wayne McGregor and BRB, and also looking at creating a new commission, which will be very exciting. Then we’ll be having a celebratory centenary summer performance series, which will be very much about looking to the past and into the future, and what are the synergies between our rich history and now.

“And we will be doing our big fundraising gala on 11 July. We always do a really lovely event, but we will be looking at how we can escalate it this year.”

As part of the campaign, the school is launching a capital appeal to refurbish its theatre.
“The theatre was state-of-the-art when we moved here in 2004 but now needs an upgrade. Our passion behind that is for our students to be performing in the best space, with the best lighting and the best sound quality - that will help prepare them for employment.”

Over the past century, Elmhurst has gradually reached out to an increasingly diverse student intake, an achievement which Jessica and her team are immensely proud of.
“I feel really strongly that the arts can be for anyone and everyone, and no matter where they’re from or their financial background, it can help them on a journey to transformation. Now we are so lucky to have the Department of Education Music & Dance Scheme, and the Education & Skills Agency Dance & Drama Award funding, which helps us enable places. One of our real strong drivers is that talent is classless, and if someone has the right ability to be here, we will find a way to make that happen.”

So how does Jessica hope future Elmhurst leaders and students will look back at the 100-year landmark?
“I’d like to think that they would recognise that we put students first, that we were about the individual and about the person, but equally that we were innovative and groundbreaking in our approaches. And that we were brave enough to challenge some of the cultural norms that we see in our world; that we broke moulds to change and move forwards.”

Feature by Diane Parkes

For full details of all Elmhurst 100 events, visit elmhurstballetschool.org/en/ 
Hayley Mills stars in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel at The Alexandra, Birmingham, from Tuesday 21 to Saturday 25 February