Samantha Raine is an English dance teacher and a retired

ballerina A ballet dancer is a person who practices the art of classical ballet. Both females and males can practice ballet. They rely on years of extensive training and proper technique to become a part of a professional ballet company. Ballet dancer ...

. She is the

ballet mistress A ballet master (also balletmaster, ballet mistress, ''premier maître de ballet'' or ''premier maître de ballet en chef'') is an employee of a ballet company who is responsible for the level of competence of the dancers in their company. In mo ...

of the

Royal Ballet The Royal Ballet is a British internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England. The largest of the five major ballet companies in Great Britain, the Royal Ballet was founded ...

, at the

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is a theatre in Covent Garden, central London. The building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. The ROH is the main home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orch ...

, in London's

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist sit ...

, having previously been a soloist with the Company.

Early life and education

Samantha Raine was born in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

and began dancing at the age of two. She learned to dance, along with her sister, at the Kirkham Henry (KH) Performing Arts Centre, in Malton. Raine's sister, Pippa Raine, also dances professionally, usually in West End musicals. Raine trained at the

Royal Ballet School The Royal Ballet School is a British school of classical ballet training founded in 1926 by the Anglo-Irish ballerina and choreographer Ninette de Valois. The school's aim is to train and educate outstanding classical ballet dancers, especially ...

from the age of eleven, beginning in the Lower School, at the

White Lodge White Lodge is a Grade I listed Georgian house situated in Richmond Park, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Formerly a royal residence, it now houses the Royal Ballet Lower School, instructing students aged 11–16. Early histor ...

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

. Whilst a student, she won the

Kenneth MacMillan Sir Kenneth MacMillan (11 December 192929 October 1992) was a British ballet dancer and choreographer who was artistic director of the Royal Ballet in London between 1970 and 1977, and its principal choreographer from 1977 until his death. Ea ...

Choreographic Award, in 1995, and the inaugural

Dame Ninette de Valois Dame Ninette de Valois (born Edris Stannus; 6 June 1898 – 8 March 2001) was an Irish-born British dancer, teacher, choreographer, and director of classical ballet. Most notably, she danced professionally with Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, ...

Award, in 1998.

Career

Ballerina

Raine graduated into the

in 1997. The Company is based at the

, in

, London. She was promoted to First Artist in 2001 and to Soloist in 2006. Raine also has

IMDb IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

credits as an actress, due to the filming of the ballets ′′Acis and Galatea′′, in 2009, and ′′Alice's Adventures in Wonderland′′, in 2011, in which she performed leading roles. She retired as a dancer in 2012, after a fifteen-year career, and having already been appointed as the Ballet Mistress.

Ballet mistress

Raine is the

of the Royal Ballet, having been appointed in 2012, at the young age of 32. With the assistant ballet mistress, Sian Murphy, she is responsible for ensuring the Company's

corps de ballet In ballet, the ''corps de ballet'' (; French language, French for "body of the little dance") is the group of ballet dancer, dancers who are not principal dancers or Soloist (ballet), soloists. They are a permanent part of the ballet company and ...

knows the

repertoire Repertory or repertoire () is the list or set of works a person or company is accustomed to performing. Whether the English or French spelling is used has no bearing, but it was the French word, with an accent on the first e, , that first took ho ...

to perfection. Benesh notation is used to help teach the

choreography Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A chor ...

. In an interview, Raine gave an insight into the work required for one of the most challenging sequences: the ′Kingdom of the Shades′, in Act III of ′′ La Bayardère′′.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Raine, Samantha Living people Ballet mistresses Dancers of The Royal Ballet English ballerinas Entertainers from Yorkshire People educated at the Royal Ballet School People from North Yorkshire Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century British ballet dancers 21st-century British ballet dancers