This month, the French guest student Ariane Servagente is dancing with Ballet du Capitole in Toulouse as a trainee in Giselle, in a production by artistic director Kader Belarbi. The British student Hannah Williams, who trained at the National Ballet Academy last year, has been given a temporary contract with the Junior Company, after appearing with Dutch National Ballet in Giselle.

Ariane Servagente (18) trained as a dancer at L’École de Danse de l’Opéra National de Paris, and graduated last year. ‘But I wanted to continue training, as in the final year of my course I was also working hard on my ordinary school subjects. Now, as a guest student at the National Ballet Academy, I can focus fully on dancing’.
Last October, through the intercession of artistic director Jean-Yves Esquerre, Ariane was able to take classes with the Ballet du Capitole in Toulouse, and learn several roles as an extra in Kader Belarbi’s version of Giselle. ‘That was tough’, she said. ‘The group had already started rehearsals in September, so I had to catch up really quickly. And besides learning several roles in Act 1, I also had to stand in as a Wili in Act 2 for various people. Fortunately, everyone was very kind and helpful, and I’m really happy to have had the experience’.
In the meantime, Ariane is back in Toulouse again, where the company is performing Giselle from 20 to 31 December, and she will stand in if anyone gets injured. The French dancer doesn’t know yet if her future lies in Toulouse. ‘If they offered me a contract, of course I would take it. But I’d also like to explore other countries and languages as a dancer’.

Last season, the 19-year-old Hannah Williams was a guest student on the National Ballet Academy’s pre-professional programme. Last October, she went on stage with Dutch National Ballet as a Wili in Act 2 of Giselle, in the production by Rachel Beaujean and Ricardo Bustamante. She has now been given a temporary contract with the Dutch National Ballet’s Junior Company for the rest of the 2015/2016 season.