Exam excellence awards
We were delighted to present awards for excellence in dance exams taken during last year, 2022.
We received our final winter session results in January 2023 and picked out the top marks from the 505 candidates who had all made the incredible achievement of passing exams in 2022.
Junior and Senior Excellence Shields
We present the 'Vicki Paterson Awards for Excellence' annual awards to students who have gained the highest marks in their ballet exams over the year. The award is named after former CSBS student Vicki Paterson who gained a perfect 100% for her RAD Grade 4 ballet exam as well as consistently scoring over 90% in all her dance examinations. Vicki went on to become a professional ballet dancer after graduating from full-time training and now runs a highly successful dance studio in Norfolk..
Sister’s success…
The Junior Shield was presented to Heidi Russell (12) who gained 86% for her Grade 3 ballet exam with the Royal Academy of Dance in the Spring session. Heidi studies ballet, tap, acro and jazz and is also in our Majors programme. She is an accomplished performer and also trains in musical theatre; she has starred as 'Little Cosette' in the UK tour of Les Miserables in Edinburgh, and in a wide variety of productions across Scotland.
The Senior Award for Excellence was presented to Jill Russell (14). Jill gained an impressive 92% for her Grade 5 ballet exam in the winter session. Jill is a member of our Majors programme, a Scottish Ballet Senior Associate, and also trains in tap, jazz, ballet and musical theatre.
Katie Deacon Performance Award
The Katie Deacon Performance Award is an annual trophy presented to the student who gains the highest mark for their RAD Solo Performance Award. It is named after former student Katie who was a professional ballerina following her graduation, and is now a musical theatre performer working across the world and in the West End.
This year, the award was presented to Charlie Fleming (11) for his outstanding score of 90% for the Grade 2 Solo Performance Award in the winter session. Charlie studies ballet, jazz, tap, acrobatics and musical theatre, and is in both our Majors programme and Starshine Junior Elite team.
Tap annual awards
Due to having more students sitting tap exams, we have introduced new Junior and Senior shields for the highest marks in our IDTA or ISTD tap examinations. We hope this will encourage students to aim high in their tap training as well as ballet.
The Junior shield was also presented to Charlie Fleming (11) for another excellent score of 90% in his Grade 2 tap exam in the Spring session. What a great achievement!
The Senior shield was presented to April Beattie (17) for an excellent score of 90% for her IDTA Silver tap award in the spring session.
As well as studying ballet, tap, jazz, acrobatics and cheer, April is an experienced class assistant and a member of both our Majors programme and Starshine Elite Dance Team. She also studies musical theatre and has performed on stage and screen across Scotland, including in the Edinburgh Festival. April was also the inaugural winner of the trophy for 2021!
Many congratulations to the students for their effort and determination and to all of our 505 dance exam candidates who worked extremely hard to pass their dance exams in 2022. Please have a look at our exam news and results:
Our 2023 Spring session of exams is only a few weeks away so our students and teachers are still working incredibly hard... especially as we will have over 500 candidates in ballet, tap, jazz and acro across this one session!