MAXINE GORDON catches up with the York dance students who are London-bound for a performance at the Royal Ballet School.

IT’S a sight to behold: eight people pirouetting on the spot, with all the grace of a ballerina in a child’s jewellery box. But there are no tutus, leotards of ballet pumps in sight. This is a dance class, but one very much of the 21st century.

The attire is street chic: cut-off sweats; black shorts over opaque tights; baseball vests and checked shirts. All are barefoot. The dancers are of different shapes, sizes and abilities. The guys do the same routines as the girls.

Two hundred miles away, at the Royal Ballet School in London’s Covent Garden, the scene couldn’t be more different. Here, students are more uniform in appearance, and the discipline of the old school paramount.

But these two worlds are about to come together in an ambitious project that sees the Royal Ballet School working with dance students in the provinces.

York College is one of only five dance institutions that have been picked to take part for 2014. Students in the second and final year of its BTEC extended diploma in dance will be performing their version of The Dream (an interpretation of Midsummer Night’s Dream) on stage at the Royal Ballet School in March.

This week, rehearsals began, with Royal Ballet tutor Michael Berkin hosting his first class at York College. Michael will be taking a weekly session at the college, guiding students towards their big show.

To gain inspiration, the York students visited the Royal Ballet School a couple of months ago.

“That was scary,” says Joy Trinity Smith, 17, from Stamford Bridge, who has been dancing since the age of three.

“We did a class there and got the chance to speak to the students – they are all so small and perfect; I feel we will be so different to them. But it will be good for them to see us; because we are so different. It’s an experience for them as much as it is for us.”

The project has fired up the York dancers for the challenge of a lifetime. “I am buzzing and so excited,” says 17-year-old Charlotte McEwan-Crundwell. “It’s an amazing opportunity that not many people get.”

For the final-year students, many of whom are auditioning for places at dance and performing art schools, it is a golden chance to get spotted.

Charlie Hagston, 17, of Market Weighton, said: “To get the chance to perform in London is incredible. It gives us a chance to get noticed, get our names out there. There will be people from dance colleges in the audience.”

Ebony Graham, 17, from Goole, adds: “It will be good for us to say we have done it.”

Each of the five colleges chosen for the project (the other four are in Merseyside, Derby, Kent and Somerset) will stage their own interpretation of a scene from The Dream as part of the showcase performance at the Royal Ballet School on Sunday, March 23.

It is all part of the RBS’s aDvANCE programme, which is funded by the Department for Education and led by the RBS’s dance partnership and access programme, which is now in its tenth year.

The RBS is one of the world’s leading centres of classical ballet training and has produced leading dancers and choreographers including Margot Fonteyn and Darcey Bussell.

York College dance tutor Emma Fawcett said is was an honour to be selected for such a prestigious project. She said it was an enviable opportunity for the York College students.

“Hopefully, it will give them confidence and a chance to make contacts for their future careers. It is something they won’t forget and something they can talk about at interviews when trying to get a place at university and college.

“It’s a massive opportunity for them, but also a great chance to promote York and our performing arts. We get a high number of our students into leading conservatoires and universities. Last year, eight of our students got into Italia Conti.”

Jill Sissons, of York College, added: “Dance students from York College aspire to work in dance, possibly as professional dancers. After college they often progress to study at prestigious dance institutions such as the Northern School of Contemporary Dance and LABAN.

“For our students, the Royal Ballet partnership is a dream come true and having the opportunity to perform in Covent Garden, alongside the four schools and colleges in the partnership, will be amazing.”