Bedells Bursary Faculty

Masterclass and Onstage class tutor

Alexander Campbell

Alexander is the Artistic Director of the Royal Academy of Dance.

Born in Sydney, Alexander trained at Academy Ballet, Sydney, before joining The Royal Ballet School in London. On graduation he joined Birmingham Royal Ballet and later joined The Royal Ballet as a Soloist, promoted to First Soloist in 2012 and Principal in 2016, a position he held until April 2024 when he joined the RAD.

In 2003 Alexander won a silver medal at the Genée International Ballet Competition (now known as The Fonteyn) and was a Prix de Lausanne finalist. Role creations for BRB included Young Man (Michael Corder’s Le Baiser de la fée) and Celeritas2 (Bintley’s E=mc2). He continues to make regular guest appearances with Australian Ballet and BRB.

Judges

Ashley Page OBE

Photo by David Eustace

Ashley trained at the Royal Ballet School, entering The Royal Ballet company at Covent Garden in 1975 and subsequently becoming a Principal dancer. He worked closely with the leading choreographers of that era including Kenneth MacMillan, Frederick Ashton, Glen Tetley, Richard Alston and David Bintley, creating many roles for them.

He choreographed his first work in 1984 (A Broken Set of Rules for The Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House) and subsequently created many works for The Royal Ballet and other companies in the UK and internationally, developing a reputation for often daring collaborations with designers, fine artists and composers. His ballet, Fearful Symmetries, won both a Time Out Dance Award and an Olivier Award in 1994/95, and his dance/theatre piece Room of Cooks was nominated for an Olivier Award in 1999. Both works were commissioned by The Royal Ballet.

After 27 years with The Royal Ballet he became Artistic Director of Scottish Ballet in 2002, re-energising and redeveloping them into an internationally renowned modern ballet company over a 10 year period, winning numerous awards and attracting critical acclaim and new audiences.

Since 2012 he has been freelancing as a choreographer, opera director and artistic advisor, working with many ballet, contemporary dance and opera companies in the UK and internationally. He created the choreography for the ballet film sequences in the Vienna New Year’s Day Concert 2023, which was televised to over 90 countries.

Dame Monica Mason

Photo courtesy of The Royal Ballet.

Born in Johannesburg, Monica came to England at the age 14 and trained with Nesta Brooking and at The Royal Ballet School. She joined The Royal Ballet in 1958 and was promoted to Principal in 1968. She created The Chosen Maiden in Kenneth MacMillan’s The Rite of Spring in 1962 and went on to dance a wide repertory including the 19th-century classics. She was appointed Principal Répétiteur in 1984, Assistant to the Director, Anthony Dowell, in 1988, and became Assistant Director in 1991.

Monica became the Director of The Royal Ballet in 2002 and was awarded an OBE the same year. In 2002 she received the Achievement in Dance Award from the Dance Teachers’ Benevolent Fund. In 2008 she was made a Dame Commander for her services to dance and was awarded the Gold Medal by the Governors of The Royal Ballet on her retirement in 2012, after 54 years at The Royal Opera House. She received the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award from the RAD in 2011, and the Olivier Special Award in 2012. She is an Honorary Fellow of St Hilda’s College, Oxford, and Kings’ College, London, and from 2013-2021 was Chairman of The Royal Ballet Benevolent Fund/Dance Professionals Fund.