Mother recalls the horrifying moment she saw her 13-year-old daughter’s ‘skeletal’ figure after the teen developed anorexia when she felt pressure to lose weight at a £21,000-per-year ballet school

• WARNING: Contains distressing images and descriptions of eating disorders 
• READ MORE: I battled eating disorders in secret for nine years – I was too scared to get help from the NHS because the wait times are so long

The mother of a former student at a prestigious ballet school has described the horror she felt when she saw her daughter, who dropped a dramatic amount of weight since starting her training, looking ‘like a skeleton’.

Harriet Royle, 22, was 13 when she started at Birmingham’s prestigious Elmhurst Ballet School – of which Queen Camilla has been patron for six years – but after just over a year, she ended up in hospital and was diagnosed with anorexia. 

‘I had to leave the building because I was shocked by her appearance,’ Michaela admitted.

‘It should never have got to the stage where I should have had to say to the school ‘I need to bring her home’.’

Harriet told the programme that she’d had some body image issues when she arrived at the school – and had episodes of bulimia shortly afterwards, which they were aware of – but felt ‘fit and healthy’ in November 2014.

However, an appraisal that told her she needed to work on her ‘aerobic fitness’ knocked her confidence.  

‘I felt like I was fit enough,’ she said. ‘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.’

Harriet Royle, 22, was 13 when she started at the prestigious dance institution – but after just over a year, she ended up in hospital and diagnosed with anorexia

The teen had to be hospitalised and was given an anorexia diagnosis that same year. Pictured following her dramatic weight-loss

The teenager had felt she was ‘just being told to exercise more so she’d lose weight’.

‘I was kind of like, well, lets do it then,’ she added. 

Four months later, she claims her teachers were ‘pleased’ to see that she was quickly and surely getting thinner – and the teenager felt like she was getting more attention from teachers. 

‘One of the female ballet teachers had said ‘carry on doing what you’re doing cause its working’,’ Michaela said.

Seeing the young teenager change into a leotard and tights, she saw just how thin Harriet had gotten

‘So Harriet’s interpretation of that was, because she’d lost some weight, then they want her to lose some more weight.’

Harriet revealed it was ‘validating’ to see that ‘what you’re doing is the right thing… to the point that it feels like you can’t really stop’.

Her weight loss continued at school and during holidays and was soon out of control.

Harriet’s mother says her daughter’s extreme weight loss should never have reached the stage where she had to intervene and tell the school that she needed to take her home.

Harriet’s struggle with anorexia continued after she had left the school. She ended up spending at least six months in an eating disorder unit and had to be tube fed. She never returned to Elmhurst.

The teen had to be hospitalised and was given an anorexia diagnosis that same year.

According to the programme, Michaela had voiced her concerns for Harriet to the school in March of 2015, and was reassured they were ‘monitoring the situation’.

Panorama also heard heartbreaking accounts from other former dancers, on their experiences at the UK’s top ballet schools – The Royal Ballet School in London and Elmhurst Ballet School in Birmingham.

According to the programme, Michaela (pictured) had voiced her concerns for Harriet to the school in March of 2015, and was reassured they were ‘monitoring the situation’

Last year, between them, both institutions received more than £7 million in public funding.

But despite their renown, accounts from former pupils tell of a toxic body shaming culture as one dancer said a teacher had placed her in front of a mirror, pointed to her body and told her: ‘If I had a knife, this is what I would cut off.’

Ellen Elphick, 30, who had started at Royal Ballet School in London in 2009, told Panorama: ‘She literally cut my entire bum off, kind of all of half my thigh, basically, and then a third of my calf.’

The former pupil describes feeling ashamed and being filled with hate for her body – and says her eating disorder spiralled after this encounter.

Ellen had previously developed an eating disorder at Elmhurst but says her experience at the Royal ‘broke’ her.

‘I don’t think I ever really got put back together,’ she says.

Ellen, who went on to dance professionlly for four years, says she still suffers as a result of feeling her body was the wrong shape. She has now decided to take legal action against the Royal Ballet School.

She added: ‘Am I one of the lucky ones because I still had that career? Maybe? But that doesn’t mean I’ve not been left with life-long issues that I’m just going to have to find some way to deal with.’

Lawyer Dino Nocivelli, who is representing Ellen and a number of other ballet dancers from another school, said his clients have come forward for different reasons and that some want ‘an admission’ about their treatment and ‘to hold these schools accountable’.

Elsewhere Padua Eaton, who was offered a place at Elmhurst aged 11 in 2008, said her mental health suffered over the years she spent in ballet training – leading to an attempt to end her life.

‘Around 14, 15, I started to get depressed,’ she said. ‘My body started changing, I started getting a shape like a woman.’

While the school stepped in to offer support – and allowed her extra breaks to manage panic attacks – the former pupil said she wasn’t actually given a chance to use them.

‘So, even though I was allowed these breaks it was difficult to actually get them… ‘Do you really need to go know’?’

Padua said she felt her mental health problems were ‘annoying’ for the school to deal with and that she was made to feel like a ‘burden’.

Grace Owen, 22, says on one occasion at Elmhurst a teacher taunted the class over doughnuts, which the students had been told were available after class.

The teacher picked out the thinnest pupil and said only they were allowed to eat one, she says.

‘[This was] implying that she could eat them because she was of the right weight, and no-one else,’ says Grace, who was 19 at the time.

‘Everyone else – basically you’re too fat for them.’

During her graduation party at Elmhurst in 2020, Grace says she and several of her classmates were humiliated by another ballet teacher.

She claims the teacher said: ‘All you girls, bar one or two people, need to lose weight, otherwise you’re not going to get a job.’

Grace says it made her feel ‘really unworthy’, adding that all the school actually cared about was ‘how slim you are’. She described the environment at Elmhurst as ‘toxic’.

Grace added: ‘The ballet world is a brutal place but telling people that you’re too fat… I don’t think that’s preparing you for anything.’

BBC Panorama said that while neither school wanted to be interviewed for this programme, Elmhurst in a statement said it ‘promotes good physical and mental health and ‘acts whenever issues are identified’.

Panorama also heard heartbreaking accounts from other former dancers, on their experiences at the UK’s top ballet schools. Queen Camilla pictured at Elmhurst Ballet School earlier this year

Last year, between them, both institutions received more than £7 million in public funding. King Charles pictured at the Royal Ballet School in 2019

‘It was 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’…

‘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.’

Meanwhile, the Royal Ballet School told Panorama that ‘nothing is more important than the happiness and continued well-being 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’.’

The programme, which is on at 8pm today on BBC One, is also available on BBC iPlayer.

If you’re worried about your own or someone else’s health, you can contact Beat, the UK’s eating disorder charity, on 0808 801 0677 or beateatingdisorders.org.uk 

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