Dance*is*life

I have a student who is just 14, who has been accepted for Senior Summer School. She apparently saw a film of someone at YAGP who had been awarded a scholarship and is now absolutely terrified! Is the standard really that high or do they accept normal standards too ??? She's around Intermediate level, although she hasn't taken the exam yet and her pointe work is probably up to Adv.F level.

Perhaps they're later than usual because the course is not till the end of August ?

What a great story! Yes indeed I wonder who she thought you were?

I have a funny tale about seeing people in weird places and being embarrassed to say something. I went to the Garden once with a friend and in the interval paid a visit to the ladies, as one does. Well so did Madam (de Valois) at the same time. My friend hissed in my ear - Don't you dare curtsey to her !! It was so difficult not to after three years of doing just that whenever I saw her -I have often wondered how she would have reacted had I done so :l

Mrs. Brown - that really is impressive - well done! 😁

Another amazing thing from those far away days was that the mothers made all the costumes! No ordering from IDS then! My mother was actually a professional dressmaker, but the other mums weren't and it boggles the mind what they were expected to produce - and did! Nowadays I can hardly find a mother who can sew elastics and ribbons on their children's ballet shoes - they have to get Grandma to do it 🤣

I think it was Swedish, but it was a very long time ago so not sure! By the way there's a wonderful play on Youtube about comps in those days of yore! It's called "Happy Feet" - BBC Screen One 1991. The ballet teacher is played by a very young looking Phyllis Logan - Mrs. Hughes in Downton Abbey!

I can't believe that the All England is still going strong! Your post brought back memories from when I was 9 (well over 60 years ago!) and also the only candidate from my school! I got through to the southern semi finals and came 8th with my national dance. In those days the top 4 from both the north and the south semi finals came together for the London finals. A couple of days before the final, they informed me that as no-one was coming down from the northern semi-final I could take part in the finals! I was so thrilled, but my Dad was working and couldn't take us, so my mother and I went with the pianist by bus up to central London, clutching my dress and character shoes. In those days we danced to live piano music! Anyway, we got off the bus and suddenly the pianist realised that she had left the sheet music on the bus! Luckily she remembered it off by heart and to cut a long story short, against all the odds, I won! Wouldn't it be nice if the same thing happened to your daughter, Mrs. Brown! Good luck to her! I hope she enjoys herself. I adored comps, because they gave me a chance to dance on stage 😊

Agree with you totally Pixiewoo! A few of my most promising and keenest students had a wonderful time doing zoom repertoire master classes and jumped at the chance whenever they could, but they were alongside twice a week zoom classes with me, so they knew how to get the most out of them. Now that we're back in the studio, they're not really interested and no spare time anyway. As an extra, a special zoom master class might still work for them, but zoom classes are no substitute for face to face teaching.

My goodness - I wouldn't dream of subjecting my students to wearing demi-pointes if they are not mandatory! Totally uneccessary expense and stress! If it's not too late, I would tell the teacher that you understand that it's not mandatory at least until December '22 and that you can't afford them! Your daughter needs several months to break in demi-pointes and you want her to do her best!

Odyssey -you brought back memories! Paul Clarke was at RBS upper school, when I was there. We girls always flocked to the Baylis Hall to sit in the balcony and watch him with adoring eyes! So tragic that he died so young! Jane Landon danced as Aurora in my first school performance. I was a very humble lady-in-waiting thrilled to be in it at all! Alfreda Thorogood trained with Nancy Robinson in Streatham originally, which was where I had my start in ballet too. And of course I was a great fan of David Wall, Brenda Last and Margaret Barbierri, who was also at RBS when I was there.

I think a lot of people are, like you, crossing their fingers and toes in the hope that the option NOT to use demi-pointes will remain! Life is still unpredictable - students continue to miss classes because of Covid and quite honestly, the parents really don't need the added expense of demi-pointes in these difficult times. As a teacher, I really don't see the need for them - I would rather give my students a pointe class and let them wear soft shoes for regular class. Not everyone who studies the Vocational syllabi, for example, is hoping for a professional dancing career, but still wants to take exams for the challenge. As far as the music is concerned I feel that this could also be made optional. We are lucky in that we work all year round with pianists, but many schools just hire a pianist for exams, who may well play the music quite differently from the recordings. As you noted that is also quite problematic. Last year when we came back after 6 months on Zoom and eventualy filmed some vocational exams, we opted not to use the pianists, because they were rusty and the students had got used to the CD. I was so grateful that the option was there.

I didn't realise that this was an online iniative. We were actually discussing something similar at a session yesterday during the RAD Open House with regard to getting more boys involved in dance. A suggestion was made to use online lessons in schools to get them interested, but I am personally doubtful that that would work. I think boys need face to face tuition. I know my current lone male student left zoom classes, because he found them uninspiring. He needed interaction. However, many years ago, when I was still living in the UK, I was approached by a kindergarten teacher and invited to teach a ballet class once a week. Because it was a regular kindergarten, there was a good proportion of boys. They really loved it and were delighted to join in! No-one had told them that boys don't do ballet 😅. I really believe that going into schools could be a positive approach and could well interest children in learning ballet who otherwise wouldn't......?

I once mentioned to an examiner about the fact that the students sometimes come out in hysterics because they'd muddled some exercises. She reassured me that the points were not for whether or not the syllabus was shown without mistakes, but how well it was performed! We all know that even without the stress caused by Covid, exams can be stressful, so for that reason I play down the marks. For me it's the effort they put in to preparing for the exam that's important. Those that take the exam always advance more than the ones that don't - they don't miss classes, they practise, they put in more effort - all that shows in the end product! The important thing is how much your daughter has improved training toward her exams, not the mark she gets. As I told my students, the fact that they were ready for the exams after the last two years is in itself an achievement! Having said all that well done on the High Merits!

The amount of actual dancing you're doing is good. Well done for advancing so quickly! And good luck for the future! Don't forget that there's an unseen enchainement in IF for whuch you need to know all the ballet vocabulary. The examiner sets it on the spot, by telling you just the names of the steps.

Neither are good, unless they're not the only class a student is doing! 45 minutes once a week is not nearly enough unless it's beginner ballet for 5 year olds! And 3 hours once a month is, as someone already noted, dangerous - unless it was in addition to regular weekly training two or three times a week.

As far as I remember it was just a day out for the maid to visit the haunted house in the local fair! It's a beautifully made red and white striped dress with leg o' mutton sleeves, which was worn with a white apron. My mother was actually a dressmaker, but in those days all the mothers sewed, something that as I said above is very hard to find nowadays!

I am not based in the UK, so it's obviously going to be different, but in our school we do exams and a show every year. The students at around 12/13 take 3 ballet classes a week including pointe as part of one of the classes. They also take modern and jazz. The bright sparks might be invited to do an extra class with the class above them. Those of our graduates who are talented go on to various dance careers without hours and hours of dancing every single day! Children need time to be children and for regular school so it seems to me that the friend is overdoing it! I wouldn't worry too much at this stage, just try and give her a good summer school and perhaps an Associate. Good strong classical technique gives a base for all the dance genres.

I still have a maid's costume that my mother made for me well over 60 years ago! It was for a demi-character dance -The Maid in the Haunted House! It's still in pristine condition and actually fitted my 6 year old granddaughter perfectly when she tried it on!

It seems to me that unless a school is putting on a story production, where you need specific costumes, it makes more sense to make a stock of costumes gradually, so that they can be used over and over again. We normally get a small budget every year to sew new costumes and then we just keep using them. The parents only pay for the actual tickets to the show. Of course when I was a child, the mothers sewed all the costumes themselves, which I find amazing, since the mothers of my own students can hardly sew elastics on shoes!!!

Thank you! Yes - It was from 2014 with the amazing cast of Ed Watson, Steven McRae and Federico Bonelli, plus Lauren Cuthbertson and Sarah Lamb - can't get much better than that! I am rather in shock that this is the first time I've seen this ballet - I honestly hadn't even heard of it. I have to say that for those of us who live abroad, the fact that they have started streaming regularly has been the one bonus from Corona!

I bought the stream of the Royal Ballet's The Winter's Tale and absolutely loved it! Inventive, lovely dancing, beautiful stage effects and wonderfully atmospheric original music. I would love to see it on stage!

Osipova came here to guest star in Giselle with the Israel Ballet. Of course I saw the performance and yes she was wonderful, but what was even more fantastic was that she agreed to give a student master class, which I was privileged to watch and two of my students to attend. What struck me more than anything was how unassuming she was! Her corrections were so pertinent and she gave a really excellent class and even extended it to an hour and forty minutes! She talked a lot about head and arm movements and the articulation of the feet. She also made the point that just because you could lift your leg round your ears, didn't mean that you should do so at every opportunity........ a truly great artist.

My mother started me off at ballet classes after I'd gone on stage at the local panto and looked absolutely at home there!! And that as they say was it! I am sure that I saw performances before that - probably Festival Ballet's Nutcracker - but the earliest performances I remember are the three in 1956 during the Bolshoi's first visit to the West. When my Dad saw that the Bolshoi was coming, he got up early on the first day of sale of tickets. Got a queue ticket and came back later in the day to buy them. He was absolutely determined to take me to see them, but when he got to the box office, he was told that only two per performance were allowed as the demand was so great. Somehow my darling Dad managed to persuade the clerk that he had to have three for each performance, as his dancing daughter was going to be a ballerina and had to see the Bolshoi! I have no idea where he got the money from, but he bought wonderful seats in the main house for three performances and I saw all the greats including Ulanova and Struchkova! I remember dressing up in my best party frock and sitting in the front row of the Stalls Circle. Amazingly a few years ago, I found a DVD of Ulanova dancing Giselle from that visit and she was every bit as wonderful as I remembered. Those performances were truly truly magical ! Today as a Grandma to 6, I continue teaching and loving ballet! And the ROH is still my favourite place!

I am rather proud that I actually know Darrion Sellman's teacher from his previous school in California. He won a scholarship to Princess Grace from YAGP, which is why they get the credit, but his training was in the States and at an RAD school! This teacher is brilliant - she trained her own son, whose win at YAGP gave him a scholarship to the Royal. He's now leading Principal at Joffrey Ballet!