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Success for final-year dance student

Fri 6 April 2018

Third year undergraduate Blaine Richardson has joined prestigious British dance company BalletBoyz as an apprentice dancer.

Currently studying for a BA (Hons) in contemporary dance at Trinity Laban, County Durham-born Blaine discovered a passion for contemporary dance and ballet aged fifteen, after originally specialising in Ballroom and Latin.

Blaine has now signed his first professional dance contract and this March joined the award-winning dance company BalletBoyz for three months as an apprentice. Poetically, the company is the first professional company Blaine went to see perform live, so getting to dance with them is a fulfilment of a life-long dream.

On his appointment Blaine comments –

“I’m really enjoying the process so far and love being in such a supportive environment. To land my first professional engagement with a company that I have so admired is fantastic.”

BalletBoyz was co-founded in 2000 by ex-Royal Ballet dancers Michael Nunn and William Trevitt. In 2005 they became Associate Artists at Sadler’s Wells and have since expanded from a duo to a company of first-class contemporary performers who regularly tour nationally and internationally, winning the National Dance Award for Best Independent Company in 2013.

Selected from 45 dancers, final-year student Blaine will perform Fourteen Days with the company. Consisting of five pieces by five different choreographers and composers, the show offers the young artist a broad range of choreographic styles to learn and is a brilliant introduction to life as a professional dancer.

Blaine has already been working hard with the company for the last two weeks ahead of upcoming performances at Sadler’s Wells on the 26th, 27th and 28th of April, and will be with the company as they tour to Italy and around the UK.

The young dancer joins Trinity Laban graduate Matthew Sandiford, who has been with BalletBoyz since 2012. Also working with the company is fellow Trinity Laban dance alumnus Charlotte Pook, in her role as Rehearsal Director.

For more information on performances, visit the BalletBoyz website.

To find out more about studying at Trinity Laban, visit our dance pages.