you for anything. now speaking out about what, for years, has been left unsaid... it is a culture of silence, a culture of not breaking ranks. there is something cultish about it, i cannot avoid that word. ..a world where eating disorders are common... i hadn'tjoined the school looking like that. it had been a change that had happened quite quickly. ijust kind of stood there whilst my peers gave me a round of applause for losing weight. ..producing wonderful dancers but also leaving a legacy of emotional problems. the school were not equipped to deal with mental health problems at the extent mine was at. nobody should be spoken to in a way that makes them walk away feeling worthless.

every week, tens of thousands of children go to ballet classes at their local clubs. the most talented compete for a place at one of the top ballet boarding schools. there, they train like elite athletes, with one aim — tojoin a professional ballet company. it really was that, like, billy elliot moment, where you get the letter and i ran up to my room. india thompson was 11 and living with herfamily in yorkshire when she was offered a place at the royal ballet school in 2007. i was just like..."wow!" this is it now, like, this is my life. the junior section of the royal ballet school is for children aged 11 to 16, and it nestles in the heart of london's richmond park. king charles is its president. it's the top ballet school in britain, and widely regarded

as one of the best in the world. it is an extraordinary place. it produces fabulous dancers. some of the best dancers of our time. for india, it was a dream come true. i couldn't wait to pack my parents off. i was like, "bye!" and they were probably like, "oh, god!" they probably felt awful, but i was like, "see ya!" india says, when she reached puberty, in her second year at the school, she had her first encounter with the unwritten ballet code. i, you know, started to get, like, boobs and a bum and things like that, and i wasjust like, "well, what is this?" "you need to lengthen out"...comments... ..which doesn't mean anything to anybody, really, really, unless you know what it eans,

really, unless you know what it means, which means you need to lose weight. i'd get pulled out of classes to go and sit in the principal�*s office so that she could talk to me about "lengthening out" and "what am i doing to make it happen?" "it's not happening, "so you can't be trying hard enough." there's only so much you can fight as a kid sat there. "i'm trying my best, i promise. "i promise i'm trying my best." it didn't matter how good my technique was. it didn't matter how...how good a performer i was. it was all about that. "lengthen out" is a term used in ballet, to describe improving the balletic line and posture of the dancer's body. many dancers we've spoken to, including india, say it's also used as code for losing weight. i just sort of went inside myself. i don't even really think i knew who i was any more, cos i always thought i was this, like, ballsy northern kid. she says, at age 14,

she was sent to a school nutritionist. the nutritionist did say that i had a good diet, but that the school wanted me to lengthen out, so we were going to have to find a way to do that, which would be to not eat carbs. the royal ballet school says it's inconceivable a student was told to stop eating carbohydrates and that its nutritionists provide healthy eating advice to maximise performance. india's story isn't a one—off. we've spoken to more than 50 former students from the uk's top schools. for the two and a half years that i was at the ballet school, i was... ..intimidated, humiliated, and left feeling very scared, and quite frankly, broken. jacob was 11 when he joined the royal ballet school in 2014. he says some of his teachers were physically intimidating,

unpredictable and cruel. i felt that, when i was upset, which was a lot of the time — and i would cry a lot of the time outside of the class — that i couldn't ever express that in the ballet class, because it would just bring about more cruel behaviour. we were so worried about ourselves, focusing on ourselves — were we pleasing her, were we behaving in a way that wasn't provoking this wrath? — that we couldn't really stop and reflect on whether she was actually providing the training that we wanted. now, the school and this teacher would perhaps say, "well, what we were doing was preparing them for "what is ultimately a very tough industry." i would say it wasn't preparing us, because it obstructed our learning, it obstructed our growth as a human and as a ballet dancer. so it was completely counterproductive. you don't prepare anyone for anything by cruelty. i'm not saying that the teachers are bad people.

they think they're doing the right thing. they're doing exactly what was done to them. the royal ballet school says there's a positive and respectful culture when it comes to teachers�* interaction with students, and any complaints are fully and swiftly investigated. elmhurst in birmingham is also regarded as one of the world's top ballet schools. its patron is queen camilla. last year, between them, elmhurst and royal ballet school received more than £7 million in public funding. both offer means—tested support to help families pay fees. harriet royle was 13 when she was accepted to elmhurst. i remember they gave us a tour round, and we got to see some of the girls doing ballet. you got to look at them through the window and i just thought, "i want

to be with them." harriet had some body—image issues when she arrived at the school, and had episodes of bulimia shortly afterwards, which the school knew about. at the time this playful video was taken in november 2014, she says she felt fit and healthy. a month earlier, she'd had an appraisal. the feedback i was given was that i needed to work on my fitness, my aerobic fitness. and were you not fit enough? i felt like i was fit enough. i thought, "well, if i'm able to keep up with the boys, "why is my aerobic fitness not good enough to do "what the girls are doing?" just didn't make sense. so what did you think? i'm just being told to exercise more so i'd lose weight. i was kind of, like, "well... "..let�*s do it, then."

at first, harriet�*s mum was supportive of her doing extra fitness work and sensible weight loss. four months later, having lost a significant amount, harriet had her next assessment. theyjust said that they were . pleased that she'd worked hard and worked on everything that they'd advised her to do. - and one of the female . ballet teachers had said, "carry on doing what you're doing, cos it's working." i so, harriet's interpretation - of that was, because she'd lost some weight, then they want her to lose some more weight. - harriet says she started to get more attention from the teachers. and did that feel good? i guess it did, yeah. it was kind ofjust validating that what you're doing is...

..is the right thing. and so you carried on? yeah. to the point where it feels like you... you know, you can't really stop. at the royal ballet school, india says she was going to extreme lengths to try to please her teachers. i mean, it's silly when you think about it now, but i'd wrap my legs up in clingfilm to, like, try and sweat it out and, like, try and sleep with it round my legs. um... yeah. india dropped carbs from her diet, and says she saw results. i lost weight, and everybody was really nice to me. 0nce somebody�*s made you feel the way that i was made

to feel, as soon as somebody says, "well done," that is just like, "oh, my god, i've been waiting for this forever!" india's weight loss had another consequence — one we've heard about from many female dancers. my periods stopped completely for quite a while. and i remember having a conversation with another girl who was having struggles with. .. ..with...an eating disorder and i said to her, "my periods have stopped," and said, "what. . .what�*s that all about?" and she said, "oh, don't worry, it's normal." the impact disrupted periods has on dancers�* health has been studied by dr nicky keay. it was concerning. those female dancers whose periods were very late starting or didn't start, it really impaired their bone health.

that's why you're at risk of stress fractures. so, yes, there are potential long—term consequences. india and harriet were trying to fit a vision of a classical ballet body. super—slim ballerinas are an aesthetic familiar to all of us, even if you're not a ballet fan. in the 1970s, legendary ballet choreographer george balanchine famously told his dancers he wanted to see their bones. this so—called ideal ballet body became the norm, and schools tried to produce the type of dancers the big companies wanted. it used to be, "you're too fat." but it is coded now. "you're not right. you're not fit enough. "you're not committed enough." now, you can't say certain things, but there are other ways of saying them. ballet schools say they're working hard to change the culture, that they now encourage healthy eating and weight is monitored only to review the students�* physical development.

how does that work in practice in an art form where athleticism is essential, and the ballerinas need to be light enough to be lifted? unfortunately, sometimes it can be misinterpreted as "in order to achieve these amazing performances, "you need to be thinner", but actually that's not correct — there comes a tipping point where actually too thin means too weak. throughout early 2015, harriet had been on a mission to drop weight. in march, her mum, michaela, told elmhurst she was worried about her daughter�*s mental health. the school assured her they were monitoring the situation. at this point i�*d also slipped into a bit of denial, that there was, you know, a very big problem. she continued to drop weight, including while at home for easter break.

a week after she was back at school, her parents came to watch an audition. she got changed into leotardl and tights, and i had to leave the building cos i was- shocked by her appearance. it should never have ever got to the stage where i should l have had to say to the school, "i need to bring her home." i the images you�*ll see next are distressing, and we�*re showing them at the request of harriet and her family. in the weeks and months after leaving school, harriet�*s condition worsened. just over a year after starting at elmhurst, she was diagnosed with anorexia. about 15 months, and £20,000 later, she's in hospital... - ..looking like a skeleton. was there a period where you thought you might not come out of it? yeah. there�*s lots of times where i didn�*t. 0r didn�*t care if i did. piano music plays padua eaton

was offered a place at elmhurst aged 11, in 2008. i remember having a calendar on my wall, and counting down the days. yeah. there�*s lots of times where i didn�*t. 0r didn�*t care if i did. piano music plays padua eaton was offered a place at elmhurst aged 11, in 2008. i remember having a calendar on my wall, and counting down the days. yeah. to dance and attend a famous ballet school was all she�*d ever wanted. it felt like you were stepping into another character and could escape reality. but she says her dream soon started to crumble.

around 14, 15, i started getting depressed. and is that a problem? it's a problem to them... ..but in the real world, it's normal. padua started to struggle with her mental health. she had been a star pupil, and school management put in measures to support her, including extra breaks to help manage her panic attacks. so, even though i was allowed these breaks, it was difficult to actually get them. "do you really need to go now?" "should you go? " "can you just stay? just stay. " my mental health problems were annoying for them. that's how i felt... ..like i was a burden. it was all tied to the culture — being submissive and quiet and not causing trouble. how low did you get? i wanted to kill myself. and i tried killing myself.

padua says she was put on antidepressants by the school doctor, and a side effect was weight gain. she had been due to play the lead role in a school ballet. when i put on the weight, i asked the teacher about it. i said, "well, am i still going to do this role?" and he said, "well, no, because you're not going to be able "to fit in the costume, "so you're not going to be the principal any more. " so i didn't get that part. that one small comment really affected me, a lot. padua says she then started to lose weight. it became really addictive, seeing the weight go down. in all that time, none of the teachers said to you, "you�*re losing too much weight, too quickly."

not a single comment. there was only comments about looking good. ballet dancers are nearly three times more likely to develop eating disorders than the general population. dr nicky keay says this can be down to personality traits typical of dancers. some of those attributes are really positive, important ones, like perfectionism, you know, self—motivation, determination. but those traits can also potentially mean the individual is vulnerable to developing other types of behaviours which are not so helpful in terms of controlling what they�*re eating and disordered eating. gayle sturrock is a psychotherapist who�*s counselled hundreds of dancers. what kind of conditions in dancers would you generally see? they would have anxiety, panic attacks, self—harm, suicide attempts, depression. it�*s an educational setting, you�*re a developing young

person — if you�*re told you�*re not good enough, you�*re useless, constantly, that gets hard—wired in. you know, you believe that after a while, don�*t you? it can be one comment that causes an eating disorder. retired ballerina ellen elphick says it was a single comment from a teacher during parents�* evening at elmhurst that set her on a path to an eating disorder that lasted 15 years. she sat with my parents and basically said to their faces, whilst i was sat there, that i was soft and i needed to tone up. how did it make you feel? i felt really ashamed that my body wasn't right, and that it was so bad that she had to talk to my parents about it. i was 13. and i started making myself sick, so...yeah. that was the snowball effect, really. did you start to lose weight, then? mm—hm. ijust look like a grey ghost. and that's when i won all the prizes. it's that positive reinforcement that i think is more damaging

in a lot of ways. because it said to me, "well, obviously this is working, "you've got picked for everything." at 16, she got into the royal ballet school. two weeks in, she says she had a one—on—one with a teacher, who described the perfect line a ballerina�*s figure was supposed to take. she got me side—on, on the barre, and just kind of got me in first position, standing sideways, and just basically said to me, "if i had a knife, this is what i would cut off." and she literally cut my entire bum off, kind of all of half my thigh, basically, and then a third of my calf. i was just filled with, one, hate for my body, because that's my muscle — i can't get rid of my muscle. and just that shame again.

jack milburn was dancing before he�*d even started primary school. whenjack came to me and said, "all i�*m interested in is ballet," yeah, it�*s a bit of a, "right, ok," you know? but i soon came round, and it was great to go and watch him do it. jack got into elmhurst in 2009, when he was 11. the following year, his body began to change. he started putting on a little bit of weight, as... he started to go through puberty. ..as everybody�*s body does change at that age. yeah. jack told his parents his ballet teacher would target his physique in class. "you need to lose some weight. "that�*s why you can�*t get off the floor," you know, "that�*s why you can�*tjump as high, because you�*re too fat." and this is in front of a class. we would ask him, every single time we spoke to him, "have you had any more incidences with the teacher?" and it was more or less after every class. obviously, as soon as he told me what was going on... ..rightly or wrongly as a parent, as a father,

i wanted to go... sorry. soon afterwards, aged 13, jack was "assessed out" of the school. his parents say they were told by a teacher he wasn�*t committed enough. didn't mention anything about his body, but he's not committed. he was stood up over the table and... it�*s very intimidating. "you've got no fire in your belly, jack!" "have you, jack?!" you know, what do you want a boy to say to an adult that�*s stood over the table like this? jack carried on dancing through his teens, trying out for ballet companies, but never made it through the final round of auditions. in 2019, days before his 21st birthday, he took his own life. voice quavers: it's| sad that he didn't say he was feeling really pressured, because i'm sure that was it. mm. 0r his...

..the whole process of him getting... sorry, i... the whole process of him getting, from when he auditioned at 11 to 20 years of age, he'd battled all that way, and then... the inquest into jack�*s death found that he had struggled with depression at times, and had sought medical help two years before he died. to be clear, elmhurst aren't responsible for what happened to jack at the end of... yeah. but i can only say there was a possibility that it did leave a lasting impact, some of the way he was treated. they're working towards being professionals, but at the end of the day, they're still 11 years old or 12 years old. they're still kids, and they have to be treated as kids. ballet teaching has evolved over the past decade, and schools have strict guidelines for staff behaviour and safeguarding for children. and many emerge from ballet

schools with positive experiences and jobs at the end of it. i would like to think, _ in generalterms, we're moving to a better place. you don't have to be cruel, i you just have to be realistic. we are now talking - about healthy, strong, resilient dancers — _ that's what we're focusing on. in 2020, elmhurst invited bbc cameras in to demonstrate how they were helping young dancers deal with body—image issues to avoid eating disorders. female voiceover: here, there is a dedicated team, | helping to support the young dancers with their mental and physical wellbeing. my name's grace 0wen. i went to elmhurst in 2017. there till 2021. grace says there were measures in place to support dancers, but claims she and her classmates were regularly body—shamed by some teachers.

just a few weeks after bbc cameras came into the school, her class was having a graduation party. 0ur ballet teacherjust changed the atmosphere and essentially said, "all you girls, bar one or two people, "need to lose weight, "otherwise you're not going to get a job," essentially. it just makes you feel really unworthy. like, everything i've done — work really hard in class, perform as best as you can — but all you actually care about is how slim you are. this is what grace looked like when she says she was told by her teacher she was too heavy to get a job in a ballet company. like, is it possible to lose more weight? you're just very self—critical. and yet, i don't think you realise until you step out of it, and you're like, "i was actually fine."

but you're so caught up in it... ..it'sjust toxic. grace says that one day in 2020 another teacher humiliated her and some of her classmates. the students had been told doughnuts would be available as a treat after their lesson. one of the ballet teachers said, "none of you can have them, except for one person." so, implying that she could eat them because she was of the right weight, and no—one else, everyone else, basically, you're too fat for them. how did that make you all feel? well, i think we alljust looked around and thought, "how are you supposed to react to that?" it just makes you feel really worthless, and... ..just rubbish about yourself. neither school wanted to be interviewed for this programme. in a statement, elmhurst says it promotes "good physical and mental health", and acts whenever "issues are identified". it has pioneered a "ground—breaking health trust scheme", providing "bespoke health and wellbeing support". it has a "modern teaching approach", placing "highly

disciplined training" within the framework of "strong safeguarding principles". 0n the points we put to elmhurst, it says it recognises certain elements, but "clear duties of confidentiality" prevent it from commenting. however, it says school records "vary in some significant respects" from accounts given to the programme. ellen elphick danced professionally after leaving the royal ballet school. she�*s now begun legal action against the school for the treatment she says she suffered there. ellen elphick: ithink it broke me a bit. - i think royal broke me, and i don't think i ever really got put back together. am i one of the lucky ones cos i still had that career? maybe. but that doesn't mean i've not been left with lifelong issues that i'm just going to have to find some way to deal with. the royal ballet school says "nothing is more important" than the "happiness and continued wellbeing"

of its students, and it�*s "continuously improving and innovating" to protect their health and welfare. when issues arise it has "well—established processes" to ensure they are "addressed swiftly". the school "strives to work towards excellence", and does so with "integrity and passion". while the ballet schools insist they�*re doing everything they can to improve the culture, these dancers believe there�*s still much to do to ensure the safety and wellbeing of their successors. i think the industry wants to change. mm... ..i think they want to say that they want to change. but deep down, they still want the stick—thin ballet dancer. that situation and environment... ..possibly contributed to me almost not being alive, so i feel like it�*s important

that there�*s changes made.

live from london, this is bbc news. british actor and comedian russell brand is accused of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse. he denies the claims. anger grows among survivors in libya�*s flood—ravaged city of derna — as authorities in the east of the country blame nature for the disaster wales becomes the first uk nation to drop the speed

limit — from 30mph to 20mph. hello. the comedian russell brand has been accused of rape, sexual assaults and emotional abuse over a seven year period at the height of his fame.the details are contained in a joint report by the sunday times, the times and the channel a programme dispatches. mr brand denies all of the allegations. 0ur correspondent lizo mzimba has the details — and his report contains details some viewers may find upsetting. over the course of the evening, some of my accoutrements could make their way onto your body. laughter in the late 2000s and early 2010s, russell brand was one of britain�*s best—known faces... announcer: russell brand! famous as a comedian and presenter on both sides of

the atlantic... i am famous in the united kingdom!