Dance*is*life

I had a student attend the RAD course last year and she enjoyed it, but didn't find it particularly challenging. She was actually 14 and had only taken Grade 7 (this year she's taking Inter.)but she was placed in the Intermediate group. There was no pointework. Central school of Ballet is cheaper, but their intensives are only until 27th July for one week or 3rd August for two weeks. They also have new studios.

We have been sending two students to them for some years now to the summer course and every student has loved the courses. I've also watched myself a few times when they were in York. Excellent course and very high standard of participants.

Are there any performing arts day schools still in existence? I spent 4 wonderful years in one and revelled in it. Obviously the education couldn't compare to the grammar school I was at before , but I got to dance instead of playing hockey 😊! Also the all round performing arts training, with an emphasis on high level classical ballet, gave me a lot of options for career choices. There was no way I would have boarded away from home at 11, so for me this was the perfect alternative. I went to RBS Upper School at 16 also non boarding. Interestingly, in my day anyone coming from White Lodge only needed two years training at US (I had three) and were pretty much guaranteed to get into Graduates which fed into the company. Of course in those days you had to be British to get into the company, so it was very different. It's rather heartbreaking to hear the stories coming out now........

LinMM - I'm some years younger than Monica Mason. I was at school with Wayne Sleep, Alan Hooper, Marguerite Porter, Georgina Sibley among others. I actually owe a great deal to my teacher, Barbara Fewster. She kept on and on about my extreme shortsight, because it really was affecting my dancing - for example I couldn't see anything to focus on in pirouettes 🥴 She pushed me to get contact lenses, which were quite a new thing then. They transformed my life!! Before I got them I would wave back randomly at people walking in the school corridors, only when I got nearer I'd realise that it was Fonteyn waving at a dancer walking behind me! Sorry I digress from this very serious subject, but yes you're right the bodies were different then and so was the technique. There wasn't the athleticism and "tricks" that are expected today, although that is not to say that the ballerinas weren't brilliant. Nerina could balance the Rose Adagio like few I've seen since, Beriosova had beautiful extensions, Seymour was an incredible actress as well as having strong technique and then there was Fonteyn...... I saw her live in Ondine and she was exquisite. Yet somehow there wasn't the clone look of nowadays. All the dancers were so different, but they had such artistic quality.

My sister gave me a pile of letters I had written to her from the sixties, when I was at RBS upper school. They are very revealing, particularly the fact that I was obsessed with watching my weight, as I was weighed every week by the nurse. However, they were also full of comments about fantastic classes and little technical achievements, which offset the disappointments that came along with lesser casting etc. I don't remember being belittled in any way, but maybe I was but the remarks washed off my back! I do know that they wrote in my acceptance letter that they had noticed some physical problems, which might preclude me from getting into the company, but they still accepted me. I used to come in the top three or four of my test classes, but as they had warned, didn't get into the company. My dream had always been to go to RBS and I feel that my training there was a significant part of my dance journey. Of course, the fact that I lived at home and had a very close and open relationship with my parents was a bonus, I think, because I was less vulnerable. I haven't been able to watch the programme, but I can see for myself that the modern day expectations of physique and technique can't be compared to what they were in my day. If you look at old films you can see the difference in the "look" of the dancers. As a ballet teacher for some 40 years, and a grandmother, I think I understand how teenagers feel and react. It's a tough world - ballet, gymnastics - anything that requires a certain physique. So tragic how children were treated so negatively instead of being in a nurturing environment.

Oh dear -your poor little daughter! I really do think that in trying to make the marking more accurate over all by using a rather complicated marking system, that the RAD have ended up making it almost impossible to get a high mark! I tend to instill in my students that they should not expect to get high marks for their RAD exams, so that way they are prepared. I explain to them that I know them and watch their progress and dedication every day, but the examiner sees them for one short period on one particular day and that under the pressure of the exam they may not do their best on that day. I send them for exams, because I see the difference it makes working towards them with that goal at the end. The last couple of years marks have been lower than I thought they deserved, so I told them that although I would have given them more, that I was still proud of their achievements and what was most important was how much the whole class had advanced over the year. We don't do graded exams anymore - only Class Awards. That way we can send the whole class and the marks are not the be all and end all of their efforts. Also, that way they get to Inter Foundation and their first real exam by a much less stressful journey. In the long run of things her mark for Grade 3 will not have any effect on her future as a dancer and honestly 71 is a really good mark! Did you receive the breakdown of the marks? There are ten marking categories, so getting one mark more or less for any category is pretty insignificant, even if it has an accumulative effect. I should add that the RAD has always been tougher than most other systems. When I was training - many many moons ago, we used to pass our Russian style ballet exams with marks in the high 90s, but if we managed to get a pass (60% in those days) for our Major (Vocational) exams on our first try, we were in seventh heaven and considered it a much greater achievement!

Although I am a ballet teacher and devotee to learning ballet technique first, I am also very aware of the fact that most classical ballet companies include more contemporary ballets in their repertoires nowadays and that classical ballet dancers need to be versatile and trained in modern technique to be able to dance everything. Also, in an after school programme like ours, there are very few who have the physical attributes to become classical ballet dancers, however strong they might be technically in classical ballet. The classical technique, however, allows them to advance really well in all the other dance genres, so that when we do add them on, the students adapt to them easily and often find that they excel at them.

They start proper school here at 6, but before that there are two years of compulsary kindergarten. Our students who turn 10 during the school year are usually in Grade 3 ballet. They get 75 minute ballet classes 2× a week plus an hour flamenco. They have an intro to modern class added on the following year in Grade 4. From Grade 5 when they're turning 12, they get 90 minute classes and add on jazz technique classes. When they are 13/14 they get an extra classical class. Obviously in every level there are younger and older students. In regular school in first grade there are kids who start at 5 (intake is up to Mid December turning 6) but also kids who are nearly 7. My 9 year old grandson whose birthday is in January had to wait to start school. His sister who is 18 months younger is a year behind him rather than 2 years as she would be in the UK. His cousin whose birthday is in October, so is only 2 months older, is a year above him in school!! That's why I can't really compare school years!

I think 90 minute classes at this age are a bit much. At least in my opinion. Our students of that age do twice a week ballet of one hour and that's it. The school year, when they are 9 going on 10, add on more hours and longer lessons, but still don't have back to back classes. I also agree with the others that it's a bit early for contemporary. Your daughter sounds very talented - you obviously want to encourage her, but perhaps take it a bit slower and less intense at this age.

I'll never forget watching a summer course in the States. It was a character class and one very talented dancer kept making a mistake. Watching her I realised that she was simply using the wrong foot at one point and that led to the muddle. However the teacher just kept shouting at her until she reduced the child to tears, humiliating her in front of everybody. Eventually, after ten minutes, she grudgingly told the girl in a very spiteful way, what she could have told her gently right at the beginning and of course the girl got it right. When I mentioned it to someone else there watching, their reply was "Oh yes that's so and so -she gets wonderful results"! My immediate thought was that no results were worth what that teacher put that poor student through! I believe in positive coaching. A child who loves what they're doing and is encouraged and taught to believe in themselves will work hard and improve and come through it safely and healthily.

I think the French are actually a bit more open to speaking English nowadays than when I first visited in 1968! My friend and I thought we could speak French reasonably well, but whenever we asked for directions the answer would be in bullet speed French and all we could do was follow the pointed finger in the general direction and then ask again. They have a problem with speaking French slowly!😅

From my own experience we have students who moved to us from other schools and whilst they had been quite happy where they were, once they moved they realised the difference in the quality of the teaching and were sorry they hadn't moved to us sooner! When my niece was 12, I started teaching in a school near to where she lived, however my sister-in-law didn't want to move her as she had lots of friends in the dance school she was attending. Then one day when they were working on the end of year performance, the teacher had a screaming fit and really shouted at our niece, who has always been a quiet, hardworking person and the opposite of trouble maker. She walked out and went home on the spot and finally they transferred her to me! She had such faulty technique and it took quite a while to rebuild it correctly and it was too late to develop her potential. She is now a research scientist and would never have become a dancer anyway, but I often think of the years she wasted at that dance school. Of course your problem is knowing which alternative school would be better - it's difficult for non professionals to decide that! The point is that your daughter may be happy where she is and not want to move, but she doesn't really know anything else and those things you pointed out are troubling......... I completely agree with Taxi4ballet - there are competition schools, whose whole focus is preparing tricks and working on dances and then there are schools, where they do competitions as an added bonus to give more performance opportunities, but concentrate on strengthening technique. The latter is definitely preferable.

Obviously the social aspect of dance classes is important, but I am sure your daughter would make friends wherever she went. It really doesn't sound to me that she is being taught seriously and their demands and general attitude sound unreasonable too. I would go and investigate other schools if I were you.......... as Pas de Quatre said - what qualifications do the staff have??

I think she's at a good place for 9 years old. Our Grade 3s are 9 and they do twice a week 75 minute classes, plus modern and flamenco. Going away from home at 11 to board can be traumatic (and being autistic might be even harder for her) and as people have said - joining at 11 is also no guarantee for continuing on to upper school, which is vital. Most important of all is that she enjoys her classes and that she is being taught correctly. If you can increase her ballet hours as she gets older that would be beneficial. She would also need to start pointe work at some time. I knew from a very young age that that ballet was what I wanted to do, but whilst being immensely supportive, my parents also made sure I enjoyed my childhood.

I think the most important reason for continuing in the dance world is because you love it. My husband's accountant asked him when I was going to retire from teaching and my lovely hubby told him - For her, teaching is not just a job, it's her passion. As long is she still loves it and is physically capable of teaching, she won't retire! How well he knows me, bless him.