Royal Opera House Visit

On Friday 5th November, we took 40 excited members of the school choir to the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London to watch the Schools Matinee production of Royal Ballet's Giselle. A story of love, betrayal, ghostly spirits and haunted forests.

This was a real treat for some of our children who even enjoyed some of the London sights from the coach windows especially with Mrs Monk on the microphone as our very own city your guide.

We were also extremely lucky as, thanks to Mrs Monk, the children were able to meet one of the Royal Ballet dancers before the performance - Miss Sophie Allnatt.

Sophie happily chatted to all our children and answered some of their many questions such as; How old were you when you started ballet and how do you stop getting dizzy when you spin around? She also taught the children some of the mimes and actions from the ballet itself and talked about how you can communicate without speaking. The children were interested to hear that all of the gestures have a different meaning and they all left knowing the sign for ‘I love to dance’ – see if they can remember if you ask them at home!

All the children enjoyed spotting Sophie in her beautiful costume on stage on the second Act.

The performance was magical and the children sat mesmerised throughout. It was lovely to see them giving such a rapturous applause when the dancers came out for their encore at the end. When asked the children told us it was 'fantastic', 'amazing', 'beautiful', 'stunning' and 'When can we come again?!

As always with our Friars children, their behaviour was impeccable throughout, even with a 3 hour journey through Friday evening rush hour! We can’t wait for the next visit.

A big thank you to Mrs Monk for arranging the trip and all of the staff involved in making the day such a success.