Scottish Ballet’s Friends have exclusive access behind-the-scenes: experiencing costumes up close, watching rehearsals, and meeting our dancers and staff.

Here are some of our previous Friends events:

The Nutcracker Wardrobe event and rehearsal

In November 2017, Friends of Scottish Ballet were invited inside the Company's headquarters at Tramway for a glimpse inside the Wardrobe Department to hear all about the magical costumes from our founder Peter Darrell’s The Nutcracker. Guests were treated to costumes secrets from design to fitting from our experts, Head of Wardrobe Mary Mullen and First Artist Madeline Squire. We learnt that the mice heads are secured on bike helmets! After our time in the costume cupboard, guests were invited inside the Peter Darrell Studio for an exclusive look at The Nutcracker rehearsals.

Turning Pointe

Pointe shoes are a source of fascination. Our dancers go through around 1,400 pairs of pointe shoes every year. These beautiful handcrafted works of art can make all the difference to a dancer’s performance so it is vital their shoes can withstand several hundred hours of rehearsal and touring each season.

In April, we were lucky enough to be joined by Sophie from Freed of London (who handcraft our dancers’ shoes) as well as two of our dancers to meet our Friends in both Glasgow and Edinburgh. We heard all about the process of finding the perfect shoe and how our dancers customise their shoes to get them performance- ready.

FUN FACT: Did you know the satin Freed use to cover Pointe shoes is from Scotland?

Sweet Treats

Ahead of our tour to Korea, Hong Kong and Macao, Scottish Ballet opened the doors of our home at Tramway in March, offering a unique opportunity for our Young Friends to get a glimpse behind the scenes.

Guests joined us for a tour of the building, visiting the Wardrobe department, and watched the dancers in rehearsal as they perfected the choreography for the Hansel & Gretel. Our Young Friends got a chance to ask the dancers questions, got a pair of pointe shoes signed by the dancers to take home as a memento of the day and enjoyed a ‘sweet treat’ or two!