Gold, silver and bronze at Toulon
Toulon and Sanremo, with the whole class.
At the 27th International Competition of Toulon, our students won gold, silver and bronze in the solo categories, and second place in the group category. Shortly afterwards, at Sanremo, another student took second place.
What matters in these results is not the ranking. It is how they were reached: the entire class entered, on about three hours of training a week, against schools whose students train up to sixteen hours a week.
That does not mean three hours are worth sixteen. It means that what is done with those three hours counts for more than people think.
The whole class, with no rehearsal on the stage
At Toulon, in the spring, the whole class entered. And with no rehearsal on the stage beforehand, discovered on the day itself: that is the part of a competition nobody sees from the auditorium, and the part that asks for the most composure.
The school entered both categories, solo and group.
What we go there for
A competition is not a hunt for medals. It is a step in a training: a chance to measure the work, to meet a real stage, to gain some perspective, and to discover an international setting where you meet schools that do not work the way ours does.
Something else happens on those stages too. A child learns to hold their own in front of a room that does not know them, and comes back a little surer of what they can do. That is what we go there for. The ranking comes after.
What comes next
International competitions are part of the pathway the school offers. Our students have already entered at Grasse, at Toulon and at Sanremo, and have come back with several placements and distinctions.
We will carry that preparation on, student by student, according to age, level, potential and readiness. It is never imposed: nobody needs a competition in order to progress, and a year without one is a year of work like any other.
For students and dancers preparing a competition or an audition, the school offers coaching and repertoire work throughout the year, one to one or in a small group. How that works is set out on the intensives page.