{"id":34673,"date":"2026-04-21T09:30:02","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T08:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/?post_type=article&p=34673"},"modified":"2026-05-13T11:04:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T10:04:27","slug":"how-the-royal-academy-of-dance-is-meeting-the-challenge-of-teaching-the-next-generation","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/how-the-royal-academy-of-dance-is-meeting-the-challenge-of-teaching-the-next-generation\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Royal Academy of Dance Is Meeting the Challenge of Teaching the Next Generation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n 21 Apr 2026 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

How the Royal Academy of Dance Is Meeting the Challenge of Teaching the Next Generation<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Artistic Director Alexander Campbell explains his academy\u2019s approach with reference to his own experience as a professional ballet dancer.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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By John Portch<\/h6>\n
Alexander Campbell, the Artistic Director of the Royal Academy of Dance, does not expect his organisation\u2019s teachers to have all the answers.<\/h6>\n

\u201cThe reality is that not any one teacher is going to know, if you\u2019ve got ten people in front of them, what\u2019s best for each individual person in that class,\u201d he told an audience at Leaders Meet: The Talent Journey last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about having that humility or that understanding that it\u2019s OK not to know that definitively, for it to be a work in progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Campbell, who spent 19 years at the Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet companies, retired in 2024 to take up his current role, which gives him responsibility for the academy\u2019s teaching across more than 80 countries.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a position that grants him insights into the expectations, motivations and development needs of the next generation of dancers; and, as a self-proclaimed \u201csports tragic\u201d, he was delighted to address an audience of Leaders Performance Institute members at the Royal College of Music in London.<\/p>\n

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The Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall at the Royal College of Music in London where we hosted Leaders Meet: The Talent Journey in April 2025.<\/p><\/div>\n

Below, we explore, through the lens of Campbell\u2019s own ballet career, his approach to meeting that challenge head-on with the RAD.<\/p>\n

Meet students halfway<\/strong><\/p>\n

Campbell\u2019s teaching mindset has been influenced by his underwhelming student experience at the Royal Ballet School, which he attended on a scholarship between 2003 and 2005.<\/p>\n

The main problems were the teachers and the environment. \u201cI struggled so much that I wasn\u2019t sure whether I wanted to continue pursuing a career in ballet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He had arrived from his native Sydney mid-term, which didn\u2019t help him to settle, but it was also down to the type of prescriptive teaching that routinely irks younger generations today.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t really encouraged to step out of our lane. It was like, \u2018you know the steps, you focus on this, and we\u2019ll worry about everything else,\u2019\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

As Campbell explained in a 2017 interview with the Daily Telegraph<\/em>, \u201cwe weren\u2019t encouraged to ask too many questions. I think it took me too long to learn that, because I was naturally inquisitive, and wanted to know why we were doing certain things.\u201d<\/p>\n

When reflecting on that time for Leaders members, he said it was \u201csuch a missed opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

His turn-of-the-century experience as a ballet student shows that the need for teachers to meet their students halfway is not new. Two decades later, talent environments in performing arts, and in sport, must be designed to engage a cohort that wants to know \u2018why?\u2019<\/p>\n

Promote early sampling<\/strong><\/p>\n

Campbell followed in the footsteps of his maternal grandparents, Valma Briggs and Mario Desva, who had both danced with Ballet Rambert in London.<\/p>\n

By the early 1990s, Briggs was teaching at Academy Ballet in Sydney; Campbell\u2019s mother worked in the same school as a manager. He began dancing at the school at the age of five.<\/p>\n

He played grade cricket too. If his dancing talent was no surprise then nor was his cricketing ability as his father Alan was a professional player.<\/p>\n

Campbell might have gone down that path himself had circumstances been different, but there was no pressure from his parents to choose one over the other; his teachers at Academy Ballet were similarly minded.<\/p>\n

Of his cricket and school studies (he was homeschooled from the age of eight), Campbell said, \u201cmy parents were keen for me to remain interested in other things so that I was \u2018Alexander, a person with various interests\u2019 rather than just \u2018Alexander, the ballet dancer\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much like the world of sport, the performing arts has increasingly moved away from the idea of early specialisation. On Campbell\u2019s watch, the RAD promotes the type of holistic development he enjoyed; and he is not alone. \u201cThinking about and knowing certain conservatoires, thinking about their talent pathways and their talent identification, how they train people is being reconsidered.\u201d<\/p>\n

The shift towards co-creation<\/strong><\/p>\n

As Campbell explained, RAD teachers must be able to adapt to a generation of students that desire agency in their own development.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs educators and teachers, it\u2019s really easy to go, \u2018OK, I have to have this knowledge and I have to demonstrate to them that I know how best to get from A to B\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

That isn\u2019t true, of course, but it requires humility on the part of the educators; and much of Campbell\u2019s focus is on equipping dance RAD teachers with the \u201cunderstanding that it\u2019s OK not to know things definitively, for it to be a work in progress, and that it is going to be different, not just for each individual, but for each year [grade] at the school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Campbell\u2019s decision to persist with ballet beyond his experience at the Royal Ballet School was influenced by his \u201copportunities to work with other coaches and have different experiences\u201d at the Birmingham Royal Ballet. When he joined the company in 2005, it enabled him to see \u201ca different environment and different way of operating that felt much more aligned to the sort of experience that I\u2019d hoped for and wanted to have.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Campbell demonstrates a pli\u00e9 for an audience of Leaders Performance Institute members, who imitate his movements with varying success despite his words of encouragement.<\/p><\/div>\n

Care is a baseline expectation<\/strong><\/p>\n

We know that wellbeing is a performance enabler; younger generations sense it too.<\/p>\n

Campbell wants RAD staff to be role models of wellbeing. He said: \u201cEducating our teachers on that and the importance of looking after themselves could have the most impact in a fairly short period of time.\u201d It must start with him as Artistic Director; a fact of which he is \u201cacutely aware\u201d.<\/p>\n

The RAD has also made efforts to improve safeguarding in its schools and increase the accessibility of its courses, particularly for students and participants with additional support needs. \u201cWe\u2019ve got teachers who have parents saying \u2018my child has additional needs but they love dance, they really want to be part of it; is that something you can do?\u2019 And a lot of our teachers will find a way or have found a way, but a number of them feel nervous about the responsibility that entails. They don\u2019t want to get it wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Campbell and the RAD are working to provide those teachers with the right tools. \u201cWe give them the support so they can say \u2018this is how you go about it or if you want to find out more this is where you would go\u2019. I think this is giving us the best opportunity to broaden our participation in ballet and dance.\u201d<\/p>\n

A broader definition of success<\/strong><\/p>\n

Campbell admitted that all his \u201cPlan As\u201d came off in his professional life. He is a prime example of talent meeting opportunity.<\/p>\n

However, as he said, \u201cmy self-worth and my personality were not determined by whether I was successful in that pursuit.\u201d<\/p>\n

He makes sure this is reflected across the RAD\u2019s curricula. \u201cI don\u2019t want to just provide for those people who want to get to the top level and be the very best.\u201d Rather, he also wants to support the career aspirations of students who say, \u201cI enjoy this, I\u2019m quite good at it, but actually I don\u2019t have that real drive to pursue this one very narrow thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their love of the art form might lead to a career in dance teaching or one of the industry\u2019s that surround the performing arts such as lighting, set design or even physiotherapy with a specialism in dance. The RAD will support those aspirations. \u201cIt\u2019s understanding that there are more opportunities than just being the dancer on the stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

What to read next<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u2018Ultimately, Skill Is Technique Performed Under Pressure\u2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n