The Royal Ballet School Diaries

Updated on Sep 29, 2024

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Author Alexandra Moss

Books Ellie's Chance to Dance, Lara's Leap of Faith, Isabelle's perfect performance, Sophie's flight of fancy, Kate's special secret

The Royal Ballet School Diaries is a book series written for girls aged 9–12 by Alexandra Moss. It is about a young girl named Ellie Brown, who has moved to Oxford from Chicago and dances at the JAs (Junior Associates) Programs, which trains aspiring ballet dancers (girls and boys alike) to get ready for the Auditions at the Royal Ballet School's Lower School.

Ellie's Chance to Dance

10-year-old Ellie Brown, moves from Chicago to England with her widowed mother, who has taken a job as a professor at Oxford. She is thrilled that she has been accepted as a Junior Associate at the Royal Ballet School. Ellie makes fast friends with several classmates at school, yet is insulted by popular Rachel, who misunderstands her. As the time approaches to apply to the competitive ballet school as a full-time boarding student for the following year, Ellie feels apprehensive about leaving her mother, who has multiple sclerosis, and she is also troubled by her mother's blossoming relationship with the mailman. Rachel makes an unrealistic about-face from nasty to nice, after learning about Ellie's father's death and mother's illness. Dear Diary, I can't believe I'm really here in London! It was hard to say good-bye to everyone in Chicago, but I promised to write. And I think it will be kind of fun to see what it's like to live in another country. The coolest part is that I'm going to audition for The Royal Ballet School's Junior Associate Program! The Royal Ballet School is only THE BEST dancing school in England! If they accept me, my dream of becoming a famous ballerina just may come true. Wish me luck!

Lara's Leap of Faith

It's Ellie's first day at the Royal Ballet School! She begins to settle in, making friends and learning the routines in her dance classes. However, she must share a dorm with Lara, whom she accidentally bumped into during auditions. Lara, who believes that it was on purpose, acts rudely towards Ellie. Eventually Ellie finds out that Lara is struggling with a huge case of homesickness, and befriends her. Will Ellie be able to convince Lara to take a leap of faith and remain at the Royal Ballet School?

Isabelle's Perfect Performance

Ellie Brown returns to the Royal Ballet School for her second term, expecting nothing but happy relationships with her fellow students and continuing improvement in her own dancing. But a new girl, Isabelle Armand, arrives from France. Isabelle's appearance, dancing ability, and academic talents are dauntingly perfect. However, she is also rude and antisocial with both the girls and the boys at the school. But Ellie soon realizes that there is a sad reason behind Isabelle's anger: her parents, who are separating, both seem to have no time for her, and forgot her birthday. The impending ballet appraisal, which determines whether students can continue at the school the next year, increases everyone's tension. Meanwhile, Ellie tries to master the tricky pas de bourree pique, and asks Isabelle to help. Her effort to convince Isabelle that she needs friends-and to show the others that Isabelle needs their friendship- soon leads to the once-shunned girl becoming a valued member of the class and finally happy at the Royal Ballet School.

Sophie's Flight of Fancy

Ellie is so excited! She has just received word that she passed her appraisals and her place at the Royal Ballet School is safe for another year. Dancing means the world to Ellie, and she cannot wait to get back to school, ballet lessons, and, of course, her friends. When school resumes after mid-semester break, the mood in the dormitory room is sheer joy as the girls renew acquaintances-and share the relief of passing the appraisals. Then, Sophie enters the room and the mood quickly changes. Sophie did not pass, and will have to leave at the end of the school year. She is heartbroken, as are her friends. Sophie, usually the happy-go-lucky type, muddles through her days. When the teacher announces a choreography competition, however, Sophie decides to enter. She is determined to rise to the occasion, do a fantastic job, and "go out with a bang."

Kate's Special Secret

The girls' first summer term is here, and Ellie Brown and friends cannot wait to kick up their heels again. They are even more excited when they learn that two former RBS students, now world-famous dancers, will be filming a documentary at the school. Everyone is thrilled for the opportunity to meet the dancers and star on film-except Kate. Ellie does not understand why Kate seems so distressed. When the girls learn why, the truth is shocking-and teaches them that true friendship prevails even when circumstances are not as they seemed. Kate battles to keep the truth bottled up inside her, but as everyone says things are better out than in.

Grace's Show of Strength

In this series, grace Ellie's best friend heads up in to pressure.The year 7's exams are fast approaching,her mother's pushing her to be the best and the most dreadful end-of-year performances drive her crazy .She develops a disorder called OCPD (Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder)and Ellie finds out something unusual in her best friend.

New Girl

In Year 8, a new girl replaces Sophie, who left last year. Not everyone is happy with her and the new girl, whose name is Molly, struggles to fit in.

Boys or Ballet?

In the second book of the Year 8 series, Luke is now Ellie's boyfriend. But spending time with Luke distracts Ellie from her dancing and schoolwork, so Ellie must break up with him. He is angry at first but eventually comes around.

Girls - Major

Ellie Brown: Ellie is the protagonist of the series, as she is recording the story with her diary. Ellie lost her father in a car accident when she was very young. She was "bitten" by the ballet bug when she was three years old. In her case, her Gran had taken her to a performance of The Nutcracker at Christmas - and she'd immediately been hooked. After this, she bought the video and drove her mother, who has MS (Multiple Sclerosis), crazy. Ellie is usually the peacekeeper, and ends up solving everyone's troubles.

Grace Tennant: Grace is a close friend of Ellie's. She and Ellie met in the JAs, and became best friends. Grace started ballet because of her mother, who was a ballerina herself. As her mother did not have enough time to try out to have a spot at the Royal Ballet School because of her pregnancy and marriage to Grace's father, Grace's mother pushes her to the limit for her daughter to be the best always.

Bethany Wilson: Ellie's best friend in Oxford. They both attended Franklin's ballet school. Bethany auditioned for the Royal Ballet School, but to Ellie's dismay, did not get in.

Lara McCloud: Lara is an Irish girl who, at first, loathed Ellie. This was because at the Final Audition, Ellie crashed into Lara, which Lara presumed made her "look bad in front of the judges" as she quoted to the rest of the girls. Lara has a superb singing voice and a talent at playing the piano and violin. She comes from a large family, and, at first, she wanted to leave the Royal Ballet School because she was homesick. But, later, when persuaded by Ellie, she decided to stay. Lara is the best leaper in Ellie's class and no one measures to her leaps but Isabelle (when she arrives). When angry, Lara has quite a temper and it is best not to be on her bad side.

Isabelle Armand: Isabelle did not arrive at the Royal Ballet School until after the Christmas holidays. She is a pristine girl with olive skin, long glossy black hair ("Like a shampoo advertisement", Ellie thought), perfectly manicured nails and brand-new clothes and suitcases. The girls all hated Isabelle at first, as Isabelle was rather rude. But they couldn't help admire her flawless and superb skill in ballet and regular academics. In the end, they all became good friends. Isabelle is very sophisticated and loves coffee and everything French. She plays the piano, violin, and clarinet.

Sophie Crawford: Sophie is a very popular, funny and original character in the series. She has a superb singing voice, usually used to imitate pop idols. She loves to tell horoscopes ("Even though they weren't exactly accurate!" wrote Ellie). Sophie gets along well with everyone, and also has a talent for theatrical arts. However, Sophie, at the beginning of the year, received a Flexi-Band from the physio to exercise her feet because she did not have a strong instep. But, as she did not work on her feet, she fell over at the Appraisals and was therefore assessed out. After that, she left the school and attended a school in Manchester for performing arts.

Kate Walker: Kate's surname WALKER is her birth father's last name. A few years after her parents' divorce her mother remarried a famous male dancer. Kate lives in Newcastle with her grandmother

Bryony Andrews: Bryony is a very pretty girl, with long black hair and is very neat and organized. She is also a very skilled dancer and is especially close friends with Sophie. After the Half-Term Break and the news that Sophie was assessed out, Bryony's parents also got a divorce. She bottled it up all at school so it wouldn't get into the way of her schooling. She hates people being dispensed of and just replaced, like her father replacing her mother with his new girlfriend Wendy. She was especially rude to Molly Baker at first, who replaced Sophie, as she hates thinking about Sophie being thrown out and just being replaced by Molly. Bryony wakes up every morning without a single hair on her head out of place and is usually a morning person.

Phoebe Minton: Described as having the "blondest hair and biggest smile Ellie has ever seen" and "not shy at all" lives across the hall from Ellie with her father (who is also a teacher at Oxford) and her mother. She was Ellie's first friend and a great one, who went to the same school as her before Ellie joined the Royal Ballet School.

Girls - Minor (Personalities not mentioned)

Scarlett Briggs

Rebecca Todd

Megan Paltrow

Holly Powell

Emma

Julia Banks

Jessica

Hannah

Boys - Major

Matt Haslum : Matt is a close friend of Ellie's. They met during the JAs (along with Grace) and were always partners during character dancing, which was co-ed class that require boy-girl partners. Matt has feelings for Kate Walker, as during the School Dance in Year 8, they danced non-stop constantly together. Matt has a good sense of humor and loves to play soccer (or football, as it nis called in England). He loves to eat strawberry shortcake and has one brother.

Oliver Stafford : A rude boy in the same year as Ellie. He is arrogant and stuck-up and admires no one but himself. He spoke rude remarks to Sophie because of her "accessed out" reason and no one likes him much. Oliver is hard to get along with and likes girls.

Boys - Minor (Personalities not mentioned)

Danny Bourne

Justin Vafadari

Daniel

Joshua

Alex

Toby

Luke

Dormitory Orders

In the series, only the girls' dormitory orders are shown, so the boys are not mentioned.

Year 7

The huge dormitory is a crescent shape and is shared by all the year 7 girls who earn a spot at the Royal Ballet School. There are usually 10-12 girls in this large dormitory, with a beautiful common room and its housemother, Mrs. Hall.

Year 8

In Year 8, the girls are separate into two smaller dorms - the Billiard Room, which is big and holds 6-8 girls - and the cozy Room Off, which is smaller and cozier and holds 3-4 girls. The housemother is Mrs. Parrish.

References

The Royal Ballet School Diaries Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA

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