Six solos from Frederick Ashton’s repertoire have been brought together in a new digital resource designed to help young dancers and teachers explore his distinctive style, musicality and artistry.
The Frederick Ashton Foundation has launched Ashton in Competition: A Resource for Young Dancers, a new digital initiative created to support the performance of Ashton’s choreography in international ballet competitions.
Developed as part of the Foundation’s wider mission to preserve and advance Ashton’s legacy, the resource is designed for young dancers and their teachers, offering practical guidance in the choreographer’s distinctive movement language and encouraging a deeper understanding of his style.
Ashton in Competition features six solos drawn from The Sleeping Beauty, Sylvia, Birthday Offering and La Fille mal gardée, providing a range of technical and artistic challenges for dancers at different stages of development.
Filmed coaching sessions feature The Royal Ballet’s Aud Jebsen Young Dancers working with distinguished former Royal Ballet dancers and teachers Leanne Benjamin, Ricardo Cervera and Helen Crawford. The resource is supplemented by contextual notes, piano recordings and Benesh Movement Notation scores to support rehearsal and performance.
While conceived as a practical tool for competition candidates, the initiative also aims to encourage dancers to engage more deeply with movement quality, musical phrasing, stylistic nuance and personal interpretation.
Jeanetta Laurence, Chair of The Frederick Ashton Foundation, said giving young dancers direct access to Ashton’s choreography was vital to its future.
“For Ashton’s choreography to thrive in the future, young dancers must have the opportunity to experience it for themselves today,” she said.
“This initiative places his work in the practice studios and ambitions of young dancers around the world, allowing them to engage with this heritage not just as history, but as part of their own artistic journey.”
The first major collaboration involving the new resource will see the Royal Academy of Dance incorporate Ashton in Competition into the 2026 Margot Fonteyn International Ballet Competition.
All candidates will study one of the six featured variations, with finalists performing their chosen solo at the London Coliseum in November. The final will also be livestreamed.
The Foundation is also in discussion with other leading international competitions, with the aim of introducing Ashton’s choreography to a broader new generation of dancers.