Royal Academy of Dance announces winners of The Bedells Bursary 2025

The Royal Academy of Dance is delighted to announce the winners of The Bedells Bursary 2025 dance competition which took place at the RAD’s headquarters in Wandsworth, UK last Saturday.

Finn Anderson, a Scottish dancer age 15 currently training at Art of Motion International Dance Laboratory, Argyll Scotland won the main bursary prize. Beatrice Lewis-Verebelyi, a British dancer age 15 currently training at Tring Park School for the Performing Arts, won the musicality award. Elizabeth Gardhouse, a British dancer age 16 currently training at Elmhurst Ballet School, won the choreographic award. Her choreography was titled ‘Fluid Pulse’ to music by Photay, Outre Lux, and was choreographed by Elizabeth Gardhouse.

44 young dancers took part in this year’s competition, the largest number of Bedells candidates in the competition’s 46-year history. Past winners of the competition include Royal Ballet principal dancers Lauren Cuthbertson and Anna Rose O’Sullivan, and English National Ballet artist Jakob Wheway-Hughes (who also won The Fonteyn Genee Gold Medal in 2023).

Candidates were judged by Jeanetta Laurence OBE and Paul Liburd MBE BBO DTLLS on an onstage ballet class led by Justine Berry, a classical variation and a Dancer’s Own variation. This year’s musicians were Jacob Krokodeilos, Martin Cleave Dip. RCM and James Golborn. 

A day before the competition, candidates took part in coaching and classes. RAD’s Artistic Director Alexander Campbell coached the Dancer’s Own and classical repertoire variations, with Darren Parish leading the warm-up class.

The main bursary prize, supported by the Mary Kipps Bequest, has a value of £1,000 to be used to further the winner’s training. The Choreographic Award, which has a value of £250, recognises choreographic talent and is made possible by a generous bequest from the estate of the late Dr. Ivor Guest. The Musicality Award, which has a value of £100, is funded by the Lynn Wallis Bursary Fund.

Recognising young dancers’ excellence in artistic and technical achievement and providing opportunities for creativity, The Bedells Bursary is named in honour of Phyllis Bedells, a founder member and Vice-President of the RAD. The Bedells Bursary is a global competition, open to members of the RAD who are 17 years of age and under and have passed the RAD Advanced 1 Examination (with Distinction). 

The bursary is a pathway to the RAD’s flagship event The Margot Fonteyn International Ballet Competition. The Fonteyn competition represents the pinnacle of achievement for young people trained in the RAD syllabus, and it is dedicated to promoting and rewarding standards of excellence in young ballet dancers internationally. Next year The Fonteyn competition will be held at one of the most famous theatres in London’s West End, The London Coliseum. 

The RAD is one of the world’s most influential dance education and training organisations. Its work brings dance to diverse communities around the world, widening access to dance and sharing the benefits and wellbeing that dance brings. The RAD produces a wide range of classes and programmes designed to improve mental health, including ballet classes for cancer patients at its HQ in London.