Kate_N

Absolutely! Top post of the thread!

Up to a point …. Opportunities can often be about being in the right place at the right time etc etc as you say @Kerfuffle But if the person (in whatever kind of job in any area) doesn’t have the skill, the talent, and the work ethic, that lucky break might be their last. It’s alchemy, isn’t it? But it’s also about good training and hard work.

Wonderful @EverHopeful Many congratulations!

Or we are seeing the consequences of the 2016 referendum ... But I don't quite understand your argument @Sadielou I have read many posts on this messageboard wondering why the ENB and the RBS - as the UK's national companies - employ so many "not British" dancers (a polite way of saying foreigners? not "us"?) So are you saying it's OK for UK companies to give preference to UK dancers, but that other nations are xenophobic for wanting to do the same? Isn't this a bit of a double standard?

Michelle, if it's any reassurance, my father had something like this done for colon cancer, and after recovery from the operation, continued to build a house - at age 70 or so. He's still going strong at 90 - no stoma bag, and just a course of 'preventative' chemotherapy by tablets rather than infusion after the operation. Good luck!

And also But the demand is driving it? That is, parents & children who want the training and are prepared to pay for it? No-one is press-ganged into ballet school! I read plenty of posts on these kinds of messageboards where parents/dancers-in-training are agonising over not being selected for Associate programmes or vocational schools. So who's driving the "big business" model?

But maybe they live in London? Ballet has ALWAYS been international. The introduction of concert dance onto the British stage was by French, Italian & German dancers! The US site which was Ballet Talk for Dancers & is now Ballet Pursuit, has regular postings complaining that US companies are full of non-US dancers. It can get perilously close to a kind of xenophobia or crude nationalism which is unproductive. But thinking about the numbers of young talented people in training - maybe this is a good thing? It signifies that there is enough wealth (even modest incomes) to support such training, and the belief that it is worthwhile? In past times, a lot of talented young people would never have started dance, so we can see this as an index of generally increased affluence, and commitment to the arts? (trying to be Pollyanna here & seeing the positives!)

Very true. And there are more schools producing more artists (of all media & genres). Many populations don't like paying taxes to subsidise the arts, and ballet companies are expensive to run. But it's always been like this. There never was a time when all graduates from ballet schools went straight into companies. Never. I could point you to historical documents going back almost 200 years of aspiring actors complaining about the profession being closed to them. I don't know why people are surprised about this!

Ummm, I thought this was an April Fool! The dancer featured is based in Queensland, I think, so almost 12 hours ahead of us here in the UK. But he dances the step sooooo beautifully!

And given that there are fewer roles for women overall in the theatrical repertoire (it's not so bad in ballet) this whole "sex-swapping to be new" leaves a bit of a sour taste ... In The Dream, it might work better if one of the male lovers were replaced by a woman, but somehow (maybe residual lesbophobia), one doesn't see that sort of substitution quite so often. I also think the decline of the practice of the pantomime "Principal Boy" played by a young woman is an unfortunate practice. And again. it takes a whole lot of really fun roles for wonderful female performers out of their repertoire, thus diminishing their opportunities for good roles (and employment!).

Any 'system' is useful principally if it offers a structured and progressive learning journey. RAD does this, as do other curricula (eg Cecchetti, Vaganova). All these syllabi offer the foundations and the building blocks in an age appropriate way. However, the focus on what grade a dance pupil is at, or what the exam results were etc etc can become a sort of tail wagging the dog situation. A lot of serious ballet schools elsewhere in the world (outside of the Anglo-Australasian ballet teaching world) really don't use set syllabi and external exams. RAD is not the only way to learn, nor do exam results mean as much in the industry as people might think. And I notice in adult classes where young adult dancers largely taught in suburban ballet schools (the church hall type) where the teachers don't have professional experience, tend to have a lack of flexibility in doing things differently in an open class, because they've learnt on syllabus as the "correct" way. I think it's important that dancers are exposed to different teaching methods and different types of classes in an age appropriate way.

Thank you so much for all you do, and for taking the actual and potential heat. It is a huge thing (I have a bit of experience in modding a different ballet board) and I know how difficult it can be. I hope we will all behave ourselves. Your advice to posters to take specific grievances and experiences to the people currently investigating is excellent - it's action which has far more chance of making change than posting on a messageboard!

I'm just looking now, and - as usual - CrossCountry have very few discounts. Why are they such an expensive operating company (and why do their trains always seem overcrowded, dirty & contain more than the usual quota of rude passengers?) I really dislike the monopoly they have - bring back British Rail, I say (well, at least from the West Country to the Midlands ...)

A good (I mean, really excellent) Pilates tutor who knows something about dance might help. If it's an excessive anterior tilt ie a deep curve in the lower back, it may be that her core muscles are not strong enough, and her glutes are not 'switched on' enough for what she's now asking her body to do. It can be a relatively easy 'fix' but takes focus and concentration to replace old body habits and relearn productive ones. And when I say weak core, I don't mean that se needs to do hundreds of sit ups! It might be just learning how to 'turn on' the needed muscle groups, and also to visualise the skeleton. Edited to add: but I would have thought that this is something her ballet and PBT teachers can help her with? Sometimes it's a matter of finding the right imagery to help you (I find Eric Franklin's work a-may-zing for this).

These two comments, from different posters, show a tiny snippet of how difficult the job is: and then Nowadays, the role of AD of these kinds of companies is hugely complex, and underpaid for the skills and experience and talents required.