Elmhurst School for Dance Information & Elmhurst School for Dance Links at HealthHaven.com

**Elmhurst School for Dance**
	Elmhurst School for Dance
Type	Independent
President	Professor David Eastwood
Principal	Elaine Brook
Artistic Director	Desmond Kelly
Patron	HRH The Duchess of Cornwall
Founder	Helen Mortimer
Specialism	Classical Ballet
Location	249 Bristol Road; Edgbaston; Birmingham; B5 7UH; United Kingdom
LEA	Birmingham
Ofsted number	50032
Gender	Coeducational
Ages	11 to 19
Website	Official Website

Elmhurst School for Dance is one of the foremost classical ballet schools in the United Kingdom and is the official associate school of the Birmingham Royal Ballet. First established in Camberley, Surrey, the school is the oldest established vocational dance school in the United Kingdom and relocated to purpose built premises in Edgbaston, Birmingham in 2004. The school offers specialist vocational training in Classical Ballet for students aged 11-19 years, with the ultimate aim of achieving employment in professional classical ballet.

The new £14 million building houses seven dedicated dance studios plus a dedicated theatre workspace in the school, plus on-site accommodation for 121 resident students, all of which are looked after by house staff. The new site was built on a 5-acre (20,000 m²) green field site, adjacent to the Priory Hospital. It was designed by SMC Hickton Madeley Architects.

Elmhurst School for Dance also has a studio theatre with a seating capacity of 244 along with a full set of roof and boom lighting rigs, controlled by a Strand 520i. The studio and theatre space is comfort cooled. As the school has students living on site, it is covered by external CCTV and also internal cameras. In addition to this, access to the building is controlled by a touch card system, there is always someone on site providing great levels of security.

It has been announced that Desmond Kellywill take over as Artistic Director of Elmhurst from September 2008. School website announcement here