Prince George to take ballet lessons at Thomas's Battersea school this year

His grandmother Princess Diana was a keen ballet dancer 
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Megan C. Hills23 August 2019

Prince George will return to St Thomas’s Battersea school this autumn. The six year old, who is reportedly known as "P.G." to his classmates, will be going into Year 2.

Besides learning basic arithmetic and vocab, he’ll also be taking up ballet classes.

According to Thomas’s Battersea, which costs £18,000 per year, ballet is a mandatory part of the curriculum for students in Reception, as well as Years 1 and 2 - meaning Prince George should already know his first position from his fifth.

The school writes on its official website: “The aim of teaching Ballet at Thomas's is to inspire and nurture in our pupils a love of classical ballet and dance, its history and traditions and associated arts.”

The classes are accompanied by a live pianist and this year, Prince George and his classmates will have to focus on their “technical and artistic skills and broadening their knowledge”. The classes are all based around the Royal Academy of Dance’s syllabi - an official examination board for ballet dancers around the world.

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Prince George’s grandmother Princess Diana was a keen ballet dancer. The late royal, who learned ballet as a girl and continued practising it into adulthood, was a supporter of the English National Ballet and once put together a secret performance for Prince Charles.

Royal Ballet dancer Wayne Sleep OBE revealed that he and Princess Diana had put on a private show for supporters of the Royal Ballet, which included her then-husband Prince Charles.

Sleep recalled to The Guardian that she towered over him at 5ft 11in to his 5ft 2, which made it a humorous routine that they set to the tune of Billy Joel’s Uptown Girl.

He said, “At one point, I pirouetted and she pushed me down; then I carried her across the stage. I remember thinking, 'Don’t drop the future Queen of England.'”

Princess Diana at an English National Ballet performance in 1996
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Although it remains to be seen if Prince George will follow in her footsteps (or indeed, even take the class next year as this is the last year that the class is mandatory), Thomas’s Battersea explains that it teaches students ballet to “develop mental physical and mental confidence and foster each child’s creative and expressive instincts”.

Other classes that Prince George is expected to take include PSHE (Personal, Social Health, Citizenship and Economic Education) to help him and his classmates “become informed, active, responsible citizens” and computing classes. There’s also the option to join a video game design club after hours.

Princess Charlotte will also be joining Prince George, starting school at Thomas's Battersea for the first time this year.

Prince George and Princess Charlotte's most adorable outfits

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