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Ballet Hoo! Phase 3

20 November 2006

At the end of September, 70 young people took to the Birmingham Hippodrome stage to perform Kenneth MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet. The performance was an enormous success, as was the Channel 4 documentary series which accompanied the journey to that point, but it was not the end for those involved.

While the performance was an obvious emotional highlight for everyone who took part, and unarguably a tremendous achievement, further work was needed to ensure that the accomplishment could translate into a recognised qualification that would be used by the young people to gain employment and re-entry to education. Though many had learnt discipline and commitment, and wanted to return to the formal education which they had once rejected, they still needed something on paper to earn their places at schools or colleges.

Michelle Bould, who acted as a Youth Co-ordinator and Life Coach, and was featured in the series, worked closely with the young people in regular evening classes and one-to-one sessions, in building upon the time and effort which they had already put in, to complete a BTEC. This is a formal qualification, recognising a workload equivalent at either certificate or diploma level, to 2 or 4 GCSEs respectively, with the syllabus being created exclusively for those involved in the project.

Michelle explained: 'The national exam body for the BTECs, EDEXCEL, came to BRB with some sample folders for existing courses. We talked through the process of Ballet Hoo!, and they held it up as an example of excellent practice, saying that normally people applying for the BTEC take the syllabus and then tailor whatever project they are doing to it, whereas we were layering the BTEC over an existing project. This way the focus remained on what the young people were accomplishing, and already learning from Ballet Hoo!, rather than just fulfilling a BTEC, and by the way, here's what we've produced out of it'.

In actual fact, many of the young people who took to the stage for the performance of Romeo and Juliet had already fulfilled the criteria for individual modules of the BTEC many, many times over. Especially with regard to their own personal development, a major factor in the project and one which featured highly in the documentary.

'All of them did an enrolment interview at the beginning, where they set themselves three life goals', continues Michelle. 'and then interviewed about in front of each other, acting as each others' witnesses. We are going to go through the same process again, in an exit interview where they set three life goals for the next 12 months, and they are witnessed, and then they identify what support that they might need, or require, or think they would like to have over that period.'

As well as this, it is recognised that each of the participants comes from a unique background, with their places in employment or education, home and available family support all being taken into account to draw up individual action plans. The contact from the Life Coaches and co-ordinators continues until Christmas.

Michelle explains, 'After Christmas, we loosen the reins on the ones that clearly need to carry on on their own, and we have in place action plans for those that are what we call NEET (Not in Employment, Education or Training), which we’re developing. Each participant also already has a Connexions Personal Advisor assigned to them, who will enable the young people to access careers information or further education. If they need support, for example with self-harming or eating disorders, or anything like that, then they can access services dedicated to those particular things. So it’s there, it’s in place and hopefully we won’t lose the impetus that’s been generated.'

So far, reports regarding the participants activities since the performance have been encouraging. Christina, who played Juliet's Nurse, and originally dropped out of full-time schooling at the age of 11, has been offered, and has accepted, a one-year bursary to a boarding school to fill in the gaps in her education. Alex and the rest of the break-dancing mandolin dancers from the show were booked to perform at the fashion show launch of Style Birmingham at the end of last month. David, who played Juliet's father, Lord Capulet, has been giving motivational talks in secondary schools, encouraging young people to stay in education. And a number have continued dancing, with Anton and Ian having enrolled in classes at the DanceXchange, one of BRB's partners in Birmingham.

But what of those who did not make it to phase 2, and perform on the Hippodrome stage? As early as the first week after the performance, Michelle had good news; 'One person has already passed the entire BTEC at certificate level, which has got them into South Birmingham College, and that's Eshe'. For those who missed episode three of the documentary series, Eshe dramatically walked off the project after a string of arguments with the co-ordinators, but returned to watch the performance of the ballet before some emotional reunions with the friends she had made, some of whom she may well now be seeing around the college campus. While ballet may not have changed her life directly, the opportunities that the project has now opened up for her certainly have.

ENDS

You can read Michelle Bould's own explanation of the work required from the young people for their BTECs, and how their time on the project counted towards fulfilling much of this, by clicking here.

Update: A number of people have contacted Birmingham Royal Ballet enquiring if they can purchase a DVD of the television series. The answer regrettably is that the documentary was produced, and copyright is owned, by Diverse TV and Channel 4, and at present they have no plans to produce a DVD of the series.

This article was originally featured in the BRB e-bulletin for November. To sign up for the monthly e-bulletins and receive links to articles before they go live on the website, click here.

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Ballet Hoo! Phase 3