xanthe

I had a lovely message from my father's cousin this morning - she was a JA back in the 1960's and then went to White Lodge. She wasn't accepted into the Upper School as her neck was deemed too short. She said she loved her time at RBS but her biggest regret was that she was left with the belief that if you weren't good enough to be there then you were no good as a dancer, and that this is both untrue and a very damaging way too think. The numbers accepted are so tiny and based on such a small snapshot of an hour's audition that none of us should take it as any kind of write off. The girl I mentioned who auditioned with DD and has SWL, I was convinced she would be a shoo in. She had the that perfect ballet body and feet, was like a rubber band in terms of flexibility plus mother was a dancer and now teacher and her DD was doing classes 6 days a week. DD also said she was amazing in the audition. There are just so many girls who have potential and so few places available.

I know of one Y4 who has SWL for London who was at the audition with DD. Anyone know if it's true that there were 1800 applications this year? We have a couple of big MT auditions in the pipeline for the Autumn so DD is working towards those which helps.

Is there anyone else on here still to hear? Fingers crossed if so!

Tiredtoes - we were Y4 London girls. Huge well done on SWL to your DDs sunrise and meglorien.

A 'no' here for DD. Think she'll be pretty philosophical - and I shall continue to enjoy not getting up early on Saturdays! Good luck to all

What is the latest anyone has heard in previous years?

Looking on facebook, I'm wildly guessing that they have batched by year group - seen some Y6 girls but nothing for Y4 or 5. DD at ballet class - me accepting that I AM just going to sit and obsess while muttering 'patience is a virtue' and trying to read the entrails as to whether later is better... Just hope we're not still doing this in 24hrs time...

Oh Dancer123, I am so sorry. :-( I hope your DD is okay, it's so hard having to give disappointing news.

Congratulations to your DS pinkbex81! Fantastic news and for Y4 as well!!! Huge congratulations to your DD as well sissonne - fingers crossed a place comes up! No news here... yet...

All the one's I've seen today have been for boy places... so hope they put us out of our misery too. I was feeling very calm in the knowledge that it will almost certainly be a no, and now I'm watching email like a hawk! Ugh! In a meeting from 2 for at least an hour but will update as soon as I hear. Masses of luck to everyone!

Nothing through yet. Do they send normally send London out as a block or is it staggered? DD was the very last group to audition.

If they are using a mass email system, the time you get the email is more likely to be down to the initial your surname begins with - A's will get the email before Z's - whether you are a yes or a no.

All done and dusted... DD's group was the 'rising 8's' and the last audition group for this year - staff still somehow looked upbeat and enthusiastic! DD went in really happy having made a couple of friends in the half-hour before... which also meant that she was so busy chatting she didn't spot the kids doing splits and mega stretches on the other side of the room. Came out utterly ecstatic and said if she doesn't get in then she wants to audition every year as it was so fun. From what I can gather they did tendus, plies, gallops, some stretches where you had to touch your toes while sitting, one where you had to get your legs from parallel as far to the sides as possible while sitting, froggies while lying on your back, that cobra type thing while lying on your tummy. They had to take socks and shoes off and then sit try and get their toes to touch the floor while legs straight and parallel, and there was some other thing where they were checking turnout. The free section involved making up a story based on pictures of a tree in the wind, a squirrel and a hawk. DD came up with some hugely complicated story line so good luck to the panel with that one! She must have really enjoyed herself given she remembered so much - generally I get 'don't know' or 'can't remember'... Acquired some nice RBS tat too - well done to the lovely people on the stall who must be exhausted! If anyone's interested, they apparently had 4 groups of girls on Tues, Thurs and today and saw boys on Wednesday. I'm guessing there were around 30 in DD's group. Such a relief that she came out so enthused and happy, but have also been told that she will be devastated if she doesn't get a place. Have spelt out the odds so hopefully it won't be too grim!

All the ISTD Cecchetti schools I looked at across London seem to do the Standard classes as a matter of course and then the Grade classes are on top for those taking it more seriously - I don't know what happens with Imperial. Both the schools she has been at/is at seem to do pretty well in terms of getting children into Associate schemes and winning prizes in Cecchetti competitions etc and have good teaching. I liked the first school hugely and we only moved due to timetable clashes - the new one offers more classes so we're not moving back plus DD loves her standard class teacher. They are supposed to do their standard and Grade alongside each other - just seems to be this crossover at the moment, plus the vast majority of the kids in her standard class are only doing ballet as something to do after school and don't have any real interest. The class above there are a fair number who are a lot more serious and who are trying for Associates this year, DD is the only one from hers. I'm a little concerned as to whether they will have enough students to run a G2/G3 combined given that this class is invitation only and I have no idea how many G2s there will be in September. I ended up with a spreadsheet of pretty much every school we could get to in London and their class times etc trying to find something that would work and still took 3 months to sort out... think I will cry if I end up having to go through that again! Yesterday's class went really well thank goodness - DD said she was really pleased because she learnt a new exercise at the YDA audition and then they learnt it in class yesterday for the first time and she was able to demonstrate it for them, so I think that has done her confidence a bit of good.

Standards have exams where the teacher is present and slightly smaller syllabus, Grades have no teacher present and extended syllabus. Generally schools only seem to do the Standards as a matter of course, the Grades are a way of offering an extra class at the same kind of level for children who want to do things more seriously. ETA: Cross-posted with Moomin who has given a much better explanation than me! DD has also just told me that she's the only one from her normal class in the current Grade class, so everyone else will be starting G4 while she has only just moved to G3... I thought there were a few of them.