Foreverdrivingtodance Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 yes when we got SWL in Year 5 no place came up at London. But if its your destiny then it will happen!! Does anyone have any inspiring stories to lift my disappointment after a NO?? Do you still just keep plodding along & trying. Just can't even work out now if its worth applying for vocational schools. DD is totally fine, not sure whats wrong with me but not sure how much rejection I can take!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xanthe Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 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. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluebird22 Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 Several students at our school, repeatedly auditioned for RBS and with the exception of one boy who received SWL twice, they all got flat No letters. All 6 of them are heading to various vocational schools in September, some still following the ballet route others contemporary, musical theatre or commercial. RBS is exceptional and a wonderful experience for all those selected, but it is not the be all and end all 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foreverdrivingtodance Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 Thanks lovely forum peeps, beginning to feel a lot better.thought doing the 11+ was bad but waiting for ballet results seems even worse!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiredtoes Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 Cant imagine what it is they are looking for and how they decide in such a short time! Does anyone know how many girls applied for London spaces this year? Is it true they take more yr 6 than yrs 4&5? Trying to decide whether to try again next year or not. DD takes 4 ballet classes a week and has also had high distinction on exams and is super flexible with great musicality and performance skills but has a more muscular body, albeit one with long legs. Wondering if it all comes down to body shape and if I'm just setting her up for rejection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amos73 Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 (edited) 1 hour ago, Dancer123 said: yes when we got SWL in Year 5 no place came up at London. But if its your destiny then it will happen!! Does anyone have any inspiring stories to lift my disappointment after a NO?? Do you still just keep plodding along & trying. Just can't even work out now if its worth applying for vocational schools. DD is totally fine, not sure whats wrong with me but not sure how much rejection I can take!!!! I think only you and your DD can decide if it is worth carrying on. I do know of people who have had nos that in future were yeses. I also know of people who have had yeses at one point (JAs) that turned to nos at MAs. One year you might get a no, the next a yes. It does happen. But also it happens the other way round. Personally I think it is worth auditioning again if you are serious about wanting to dance vocationally and professionally, regardless of the result, as the auditions in themselves are always good experience. My DD is at full time vocational school. She didn't get further than swl for royal. It doesn't mean she can't continue with her aim to dance professionally eventually. N.B. Nothing is guaranteed in the world of ballet. Even if a student gets a place at white lodge they know that their yes that year might turn into a future 'no', as staying there is dependent on passing assessment in certain years. Edited June 22, 2017 by amos73 Edited to add - 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
margarite Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 6 minutes ago, Dancer123 said: Thanks lovely forum peeps, beginning to feel a lot better.thought doing the 11+ was bad but waiting for ballet results seems even worse!! I think your daughter is doing so well - she has places at two really good associate schemes already so she's clearly very talented. We've had a no from RBS two years running, which I've always expected as my daughter while long limbed, is small for her age which as far as I can tell isn't their ideal. We're still deciding what to do next year regarding vocational applications, as while DD loves dancing, I think we both feel that any added pressure might dampen the joy of her favourite pastime. We've decided not to talk about it until September so she can relax all summer and decide what to do with a clear mind. Glad you're feeling better Xx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MAK Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 Bluebird22 that is really helpful perspective ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoobyLou Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 55 minutes ago, Dancer123 said: yes when we got SWL in Year 5 no place came up at London. But if its your destiny then it will happen!! Does anyone have any inspiring stories to lift my disappointment after a NO?? Do you still just keep plodding along & trying. Just can't even work out now if its worth applying for vocational schools. DD is totally fine, not sure whats wrong with me but not sure how much rejection I can take!!!! There are many girls who never get into vocational school at 11+ but then go on to vocational training at 16+ and do very well! Can I ask how much dance your DD is doing per week? And has she got the coveted long-legged proportions that they seem to be after? Wondering myself whether it's worth bothering to go to Elmhurst associates audition if proportions take precedence... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarahw Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 On 6/20/2017 at 17:45, Dancer123 said: We got a NO for a Year 6 London place.Thought we had a chance as got Short Waiting List year before & have invested so much time in doing more classes!!feeling a bit rubbish & have not told DD yet as she is at ballet but she will be fine.Think I have to realise we need to scale things back & concentrate on school & focus on ballet as more of a hobby. It so competitive we just can't keep up! Good Luck to everyone else & if you got a Yes that's such an amazing achievement!!! So sorry @Dancer123. That must be hard to take. Hope your dd is ok but I know it's often worse for Mum's! ! If you're at YDA she'll be getting good trainings. JAs is not the be all and end all. Be guided by what your dd wants to do... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanceMum83 Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 (edited) Hi everyone, just thought I'd reiterate what had always been said, in terms of disappointment with no's remember your DS Or DD were not determined by the ja's before audition and are not now afterwards. So keep them doing what they enjoy and would always encourage if they really want to try again to certainly go for it, as I know people who have had no and then yes next year. I was shocked and very fortunate for my DD auditioning for the first time this year in london which I hear is the most competitive and getting a yes for a year 4 place. We are very grateful, but knowing how hard competition is we honestly weren't expecting to get in. Edited June 22, 2017 by DanceMum83 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katniss Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 (edited) Hi, I have posted my DD story before so apologies... but please don't give up.. myDD got a flat no for JAs(and CBA Tring) in yr 4:SWL for yr 5 JAs & much to our surprise JA place for yr 6... in the year we gave up other associate places to cut back and do ballet for fun...& then got a place at WL for Yr 7 despite not getting finals anywhere else!!She and us just try to enjoy the roller coaster as much as possible and never take it for granted that she'll end up dancing as a career.xx Edited June 22, 2017 by cupcake Missed out words 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foreverdrivingtodance Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 when she got SWL she was only doing 1/2 classes a week.So we felt inspired decided to up the amount of lessons so she was then doing 4 classes in the week, Saturdays at YDA then every other Sunday at a local associates.I think I had just got it in my head if she got wait list doing so little then after a year of hard work & determination we would make it!!! People have often said she has the perfect ballet physique but who knows!! Not sure her neck is that long!!! She is very dark skinned with random blonde hair which is quite unusual maybe they thought she was covered in fake tan!!! who knows!!! She does have that American beauty pageant look but its all natural! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoobyLou Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 Fake tan ? so funny Dancer123! Sounds like American Dance Moms ? I guess the bottom line is that there's roughly a 1 in 10 chance of a place for girls which is tiny so have to keep that in mind. What will be will be! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lspendl828 Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 Might not be the right place to ask this but....... Having had a 'yes' for Manchester Y6, I've just received the info pack from RBS with the class timetable etc. I'm a little stunned to learn that the classes run on Fridays and Sundays across the academic year. How does that work then???? There are 14 Friday morning classes between September and June! I'm wondering what her (school) head teacher will say when I tell her "sorry, but DD can't come to school on Friday mornings as she's going dancing"........... I know DD is very, very fortunate to get a yes and I shouldn't be complaining (and I know how dreadfully disappointing it is to the little one's and their mums who got a 'no') but am I missing something? I'm feeling very perplexed indeed about the whole thing now but haven't told DD. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balletmum22 Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 Not related but has anyone with a yes from Eastleigh received their info pack yet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumofballetmaddaughter Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 7 hours ago, Dancer123 said: yes when we got SWL in Year 5 no place came up at London. But if its your destiny then it will happen!! Does anyone have any inspiring stories to lift my disappointment after a NO?? Do you still just keep plodding along & trying. Just can't even work out now if its worth applying for vocational schools. DD is totally fine, not sure whats wrong with me but not sure how much rejection I can take!!!! Hi Dancer123, my advice would be to continue for as long as your daughter wants to and you have the time and money to do so. I think I always felt the disappointment far more than my daughter did but I have to say that the more rejections she got, the tougher I got, to the point of being quite blase by the time she was an adult and was still auditioning!! The odds of being accepted onto the RB associate schemes are so small that your daughter did extremely well to be on the SWL in a previous year. Just because it's a no this time doesn't mean it will be next time. Even for those children who make it all the way through the RBS there are no guarantees of success. My daughter, now in her late twenties, tried every year from JA through to SA and never made it past the waiting lists. She did gain a place to the junior summer school after being on the SWL one year but there have been many, many rejections along the way, far more than the successes. She auditioned for upper schools but didn't make it off the waiting list for funding for Tring and NBS so auditioned the following year and gained a funded place at NBS. Although my daughter didn't achieve her dream of being a classical dancer, she has had a very successful dance career and has danced all around the world doing ballet, tap, jazz, ballroom and latin. After dancing continually for 8 years, she decided to give up travelling and retrained last year at the RAD on the professional dancers teaching diploma course and now has registered teacher status. She now teaches in several schools in London and occasionally dances at corporate and promotional events when it fits in with teaching. Hopefully my long winded response shows that a rejection from the RBS does not mean it's the end of the dream. I wish your daughter the best of luck for the future. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluebird22 Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 I think it is marked as education offsite? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lspendl828 Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 Ah! ....so I'm guessing that doesn't count as absence on her attendance record, Bluebird. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
celb Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 "Having had a 'yes' for Manchester Y6, I've just received the info pack from RBS with the class timetable etc. I'm a little stunned to learn that the classes run on Fridays and Sundays across the academic year. How does that work then????" In response to above Congratulations Ispendl828 to your DD: My DD was a Manchester JA .School were delighted to support her and she was marked as being present but being educated elsewhere.In fact it suited us quite well as I was in the fortunate position to transport her on Fridays and proportionately less family weekends were disrupted by JAs as we were a 2 1/2 hour drive away from the JA centre. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanceMum83 Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 Anyone got any idea what time classes are for year 4's in london? My dd has classes in a sat afternoon just wondering whether could still make it work to do both! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balletmum55 Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 (edited) Ispendl828, I think it will be up to your school to agree. I know a friend one year who auditioned for Manchester asked permission from her head teacher in advance due to the different days they do there, but i imagine it will be even harder for them to cause a fuss considering she has an offered place. Im not sure if they actually can refuse, but with year 6 being SATS year, there may be some Fridays they don't want her to miss? Yes it's a big ask, especially for the parent getting them there if they work, but hopefully if you can make it work, it will certainly be worth it xxx Good luck with it. Nb. whenever my dd has needed time off school for JA events, auditions, or when she was in a production with JAs, she was marked as education offsite so it didn't affect attendance and her school have always been very supportive. I have heard of less supportive schools however xxxx Edited June 22, 2017 by Balletmum55 Extra info 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarahw Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 16 minutes ago, lspendl828 said: Ah! ....so I'm guessing that doesn't count as absence on her attendance record, Bluebird. Yes we did Fridays and it should be marked as educated off site. We were very lucky and had no problems with school but some do. I would approach school emphasising how only 11% of girls get a place as schools will have no reason to know what an achievement it is. Congratulations! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarahw Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 To dancer123 and others who have Nos and are wondering whether to carry on I would say: 1)Discuss with your teacher 2) if they say it's worth trying and you and your child want to then keep trying - you never know. 3) As someone else said JAs is not the be all and end all and it is certainly worth applying to vocational school and not just RBS. 4) Very very few have a smooth path of JAs to White Lodge to Royal Upper School. Dancers arrive in companies by all sorts of pathways. 5) people get injured, girls especially can become the 'wrong' shape at puberty. All potential dancers need a Plan B always. I am so sorry for the disappointments. I've been there many times and it's hard. For us the re-application processes were driven by dd obsessive desire to dance. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Littlebear Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 1 hour ago, Pixie said: Not related but has anyone with a yes from Eastleigh received their info pack yet? I haven't and really want to know the class times. Having just read about the Friday classes in Manchester I'm confused! Think we are Saturdays - hope so!! I guess we will get our pack any day now ? Very exciting... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balletmum22 Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 (edited) Yes same here. Need to plan the rest of the weekends so quite keen to find out what time the classes are...Very exciting indeed! Edited June 22, 2017 by Pixie 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balletnewbie Posted June 23, 2017 Share Posted June 23, 2017 I had Bath info on Wednesday, not much help to be honest. It has given me all the dates and either 10:15-12:30 or 12:45-3 but no info on which time is for which date. just hoping we find out which one correlates to which date soon x 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Littlebear Posted June 23, 2017 Share Posted June 23, 2017 16 minutes ago, Balletnewbie said: I had Bath info on Wednesday, not much help to be honest. It has given me all the dates and either 10:15-12:30 or 12:45-3 but no info on which time is for which date. just hoping we find out which one correlates to which date soon x Oh no that's not helpful, was hoping would be same time each week!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancefanatic Posted June 23, 2017 Share Posted June 23, 2017 Re Bath JAs, it depends which group your child is in. If Yr4-5 (JA1 from memory) then usually always morning sessions. The Y6/JA2 class is a mix as depends if they are after the younger JA class or before the MA class. My DD was Y6 JA a few years ago and it was clear which session was which. I recall she started mostly doing the morning session. Hope this helps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rudolph23 Posted June 23, 2017 Share Posted June 23, 2017 1 hour ago, Balletnewbie said: I had Bath info on Wednesday, not much help to be honest. It has given me all the dates and either 10:15-12:30 or 12:45-3 but no info on which time is for which date. just hoping we find out which one correlates to which date soon x How did the info come through: by email or post? Should I have had anything through for Manchester? ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balletmum22 Posted June 23, 2017 Share Posted June 23, 2017 I have been wondering the same for Eastleigh as the audition was before Bath. I have just emailed them to ask but not sore if they will respond. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lspendl828 Posted June 23, 2017 Share Posted June 23, 2017 The info for Manchester came by email on Wednesday. It was titled "Associates" not Royal Ballet School as before - just in case you miss it. Balletmum55, luckily I don't work on Fridays so I could get her to class just fine. Her school have been very excited about her achievement and have asked me to write a piece to go in the next newsletter and they're going to have her up in front of the whole school at the next merit assembly. Hope they still support her after I tell them about having a lot of Friday mornings off! Our classes are all 10am - 12.15pm, Fridays and Sundays for those that are interested. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Littlebear Posted June 23, 2017 Share Posted June 23, 2017 6 minutes ago, lspendl828 said: The info for Manchester came by email on Wednesday. It was titled "Associates" not Royal Ballet School as before - just in case you miss it. Balletmum55, luckily I don't work on Fridays so I could get her to class just fine. Her school have been very excited about her achievement and have asked me to write a piece to go in the next newsletter and they're going to have her up in front of the whole school at the next merit assembly. Hope they still support her after I tell them about having a lot of Friday mornings off! Our classes are all 10am - 12.15pm, Fridays and Sundays for those that are interested. Are you talking about the receipt of acceptance email or have you received the pack in the post with the handbook, acceptance form etc? We're Eastleigh and haven't had our pack yet... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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