1st Position takes centre stage at Covent Garden with each and everyone of the 225 Royal Ballet School students performing at their annual school performance receiving a well done and thank you goodie bag.   

IDS pictured the two lead dancers in The Lilac Garden, Angela Wood and William Bracewell who will join ENB and BRB respectively.  Wayne Sleep who was IDS’s guest at the performance was thrilled with the show spotting his favourites to look out for in next year’s performance.

Yesterday was the annual school performance at Covent Garden London. A packed house enjoyed some wonderful dancing. It is hard to remember these are just students when you are watching their high standards.

IDS was thrilled to have part sponsored the recreation of the ballet “Lilac Garden”. Originally premiered in 1936 this beautiful ballet was choreographed by Antony Tudor and staged for the students by Kirk Peterson.

We are also delighted to have signed an agreement with the Royal Ballet School to provide girls and boys leotards for their Associate programme.

Here I am with Jim Fletcher (RBS) having just signed the contracts.

I am having a wonderful time this weekend as guest of one of my former pupils. Melanie Beeston teaches near Milton Keynes and she invited me to a presentation of her students work. Here are the Primary group with Melanie and myself.

Elaine, Allison and Andrew flew to Monaco for work on the 2010/11 Diamond Book at IDS’s Colour Reproduction House. After nearly 10 months of work, this is one of the last cogs in the wheel before you receive your copy in the post in September. You might be thinking what is a colour reproduction house? We make every effort to make sure the products you see on the page reflect the actual product as best we can. This is meticulous work requiring hours being spent checking each product individually making sure that every sequin or star is shining brightly so you can see for yourself why our buyer, Elaine, has chosen each and everyone of the 3,000 products for you to see … hopefully inspiring you for your next dance show.

It is very hot in Monaco — mid 30C — but we had to stay cool, calm and collected and especially focused in order not to let a single product slip on each and every page whether it was the TRADE, TRADE PRICELESS, or RETAIL Diamond Books … at 248 pages each that’s nearly 750 pages of checking prices, product codes and descriptions and of course the products themselves. You would have thought that after not seeing daylight for 9+ hours a day one would want to get out to enjoy Monaco and the sunny weather but even with the world cup on the TV the lure of a good nights sleep was far too appealing so light’s out early ready for the next day!

Allison, Andrew and Diego (REPRO Director checking the next set of pages. Photo taken by Elaine – IDS Buyer.