Ballet workshops

July 26, 2026

A list of ballet workshop providers in London.

This is a list my wife Sam @sam.reilly and I have accumulated over the last decade of dancing.

Instagram tags because that’s where everyone is. I mostly do pas-de-deux workshops these days as I feel I’ve done enough fairies and princesses thank you very much and don’t really want to spend my money or time on them. I’d do corps work but most workshops do variations as rep. All the professionals that have taught us have taken the adult learners perfectly seriously, except maybe for one guy very early on. I’m not terribly personally interested in the wellness focused workshops so I don’t do them.

@everybodyballet — Ben Gartside from Royal Ballet. Classes have a good vibe. One day and two day workshops, and some masterclasses with people he knows. Good character stuff too — he’s a Principal Character Artist and will sometimes teach things like the opening of the Nutcracker or Carabosse. Level is normally good with an emphasis on learning the stuff.

@vanessafentonmasterclasses — ex Royal Ballet dancer, teaches in Royal Ballet school and stuff. Good access to famous dancers. I’m not interested in learning yet another bloody fairy dance, so her PDD classes are my main thing unless the guest dancer is particularly interesting. Some of the masterclasses can be exciting: I wrote this list originally for a girl from @dublincityballet’s classes while I was bored on a train and her first ever PDD experience was when Vadim Muntagirov and Fumi Kanecko deciding that they were going to cover the whole black swan PDD in two hours come hell or high water, which was intense! Classes are normally a mix of pre-pro and adults.

@balletbykariss — nice teacher, ex RB, does some good workshops, normally does one weekend here in September and I think she did a second one here this year. Again, I mostly leave it to Sam since it’s all female rep — I’ll often turn up for the Sunday morning class.

@tarabhavs — ex-royal ballet, still involved in teaching there and stuff. Mostly one day workshops. Sam likes her.

@dance.connections — Gioh is a good teacher, does some good workshops, with an emphasis on actually teaching which the star workshops sometimes miss. Good PDD workshops which again have an emphasis on teaching. She does masterclasses too: I’m off in August to do two days with Marinela Nunez and Patrico Reve! Classes are normally a mix of pre-pro and adults but the level is normally sensible.

@raymondochai runs a couple of intensives a year, some one day, some two days. Class, boys class, pointe class, PDD and PDD rep on the two day ones. Lovely group, great teacher, emphasis on learning the steps and the rep is set to a sensible level. Mostly adult dancers but some are at a pretty high level.

Can’t think of anyone else we’ve travelled for. Everybody ballet weekend workshops are excellent — you have enough time to learn the rep, there’s often a character bit and they really want you to leave having learned stuff. Gioh is great too.

Friends of mine swear by @theballetretreat and @the.ballet.project but we don’t have experience of them.

For classes @hannahfrostballet is very much worth dropping into for a class. Both the “Reillys!” like her classes: excellent corrections. Pineapple and Central.

@danceworkslondon runs classes and some masterclasses but most of those seem to be aimed at pre-pro.

Sam likes Christina-Maria Mittelmaier as a teacher and @everybodyballet runs classes during the week.

Bonus not-London bit: @kildareacademyofdancenaas run a Adult Ballet Retreat in Wicklow other people seem to like.