The Raw Talent Summit

Last Updated on October 21, 2026

Tracing a Pathway to a Successful Ballet Career

The pathway to success as a ballet dancer is not as simple as it might appear.  It’s not just a matter of working hard in a good vocational school and acing the audition for your preferred company.  It’s all that, of course, but along the way one mould doesn’t necessarily fit all. Picking the right school for each child is key, but regardless of how all-encompassing a school’s provision is, individual coaching, mentoring tailor-made to a child’s specific needs, and a supportive family can make the difference between success and… well, let’s put it this way, not quite success.

In a nutshell, that’s the theme for the Raw Talent Summit, which will bring together key figures in the ballet world at the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) for a pioneering one day of talks, masterclasses and workshops aimed at ballet parents and children.  The Summit is the brainchild of the Raw Talent Private Ballet Coaching House, Raw Talent for short, and is being hosted by its founders, husband-and-wife former dancers José Martín Trujillo and Kerry Birkett.

Both were very successful in their chosen careers: José Martín as a soloist in a number of international companies, including The Royal Ballet, and subsequently as a ballet master and artistic director; Kerry Birkett as a dancer, ballet educator, choreographer and Pilates specialist.  Yet, when I met them to learn more about Raw Talent and the forthcoming summit, I was surprised when Kerry Birkett told me what had sown the seed for Raw Talent, which they started in 2013, after they both left English National Ballet:

“We both could have made some better decisions along the way and didn’t have the correct guidance from the right people.”

José Martín concurs, and adds:

“We were probably one of the first to start to educate the individual, not only the individual, but the families as well.   It’s not just coaching, it’s mentorship for the whole family.”

What normally happens is that a child goes to a local school, where a teacher spots talent and suggests they should go to a vocational school.  And that’s the point at which key questions arise, says José Martín:

“Where do I go?  What does my child need?  Is this school better than that school?  So, the students and the parents need education as to what is best for all of them, because it’s not just sending a child to a school – it has to work for the whole family.  There are money issues, there are scheduling issues, and everybody is different.”

Success, Kerry Birkett adds, “is always finding the right place for you, whether that’s later on, when you’re getting into a company, or when choosing the right school.”

I wondered, though, once the right vocational school is chosen, doesn’t it provide all the teaching and support, both physical and emotional, that children need?  Up to a point, says José Martín:

“Every big school has a lot of students.  They have to tick lots of boxes, educational boxes, performance opportunity boxes, which is good for the students.  You get tutoring, not because your school is not good enough, but because for you, for your way of learning, you may need a little bit more work on something, or your physicality needs more of a specific type of work.”

Kerry Birkett is keen to stress Raw Talent’s work is not designed to take away from schools:

“Absolutely not.  We’re not a school.  We’re trying to complement. When you have students in a class, you cannot take time for each person because they need one thing.  If you are a piano student or violinist, very early on you will have private coaching, not because they want to take you from the school, but because you need to find your way.

“Also, we were talking about quality,  individuality, which is essential in today’s professional world.

“The students understand what they have to work on and what their strengths are, and they can take all of that into their school, into their everyday training, and understand better the corrections they get.”

José and Kerry started Raw Talent with one student – today, they tutor many more and have the satisfaction of seeing students they’ve mentored dance in Covent Garden, or with English National Ballet.  

The next step in their programme, then, is the Raw Talent Summit, which features key figures in the ballet world: Alexander Campbell, former Royal Ballet principal,  now RAD Artistic Director; Lynne Charles, most recently artistic director of ENB School and the creator of 4Point, a teaching system specifically for pointe work, dance psychologist Dr Imogen Aujla; and Mikko Nissinen, artistic director of Boston Ballet and Boston Ballet School.  Participating parents and children will get the chance to ask the guest speakers questions, as well as join workshops specifically targeted at their concerns as parents and dance students, whether actual or prospective..

Should it work – and they were pleasantly surprised at how well-received the idea has been – José Martín and Kerry Birkett hope to make the Raw Talent Summit a regular event both in the UK and eventually abroad, too.

Raw Talent Summit is at the Royal Academy of Dance, 24 Oct, 9.45 am to 6 pm
Tickets: All day admission £59; Morning entry: £36; Afternoon entry: £36

Royal Academy of Dance
188 York Road
London SW11 3JZ

For further dance suggestions, check out our London Dance Previews – July to December 2026