VBee

Yes they are. Sorry for not replying sooner I didn't get a notification to say there'd been a reply. Please let me know if you would like them and I can arrange posting them to you.

Now Sold

For sale. Gamba 93 pointe shoes size 5x. £10 Only worn about twice Gamba 93 pointe shoes in size 5 (38) x. Ribbons and elastic sewn on, box is solid and not broken in, just a bit of dirt on the sole and end of the box. I can send photos if you're interested

For Sale. RAD Grade 6 DVD. £5 Ono. Send me a message if you're interested.

Thanks so much for all the information Kate! That's really really helpful. The teachers sound fantastic. It does sound a little bit beyond my ability, but maybe it would be a good challenge. I'll see if I'm feeling brave on the day and maybe give it a go.

Thanks for your replies. Kate_N I know what you mean about the beautiful extensions, a couple of the girls in the video are beautiful to watch. Do you know if they work the same exercises and combinations each week, or do they change? i.e. will everyone know what they're doing without having a mark through? Can you give me some examples of the allegro that you would do? Also do people wear leotard and tights? Or a combination of things? As you can probably tell I'm a bit nervous about it but I think i'll give it a go and see what happens. I'll just get out of the way if I don't know what I'm doing.

Not sure if this is the right thread to use, mods feel free to move it. Has anyone been to the adult advanced ballet class at danceXchange in Birmingham on a Wednesday? I'm going to be in Birmingham occasionally for work and would like to do a drop in class. Ideally I'd try the improvers class, but it isn't on on Wednesdays. The description on the website says "An advanced learning of classical ballet. Ideal for dance students and professional dancers looking to maintain a high standard of technique, this class provides challenging barre and centre work." However the video shows a mix of abilities in the class and doesn't look to be quite that challenging. I don't want to be the idiot that can't do anything and gets in everyone's way, does anyone know what level the class is? I've just done my RAD intermediate and do open classes too, do you think I'd keep up?

To follow up from Terpsichore's comment. Hype Dance in Sheffield are currently looking for a new ballet teacher, since our brilliant teacher has emigrated. There's an advert on their facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/hype.dance.7/?fref=nf ** Ballet Teacher ** Due to our current ballet teacher emigrating to Australia, from January we are looking for a new ballet teacher to join our team as follows. Monday's, 18:30 - 21:30 (approx) Adult Beginner / Improver & Intermediate / Advanced classes Saturday's, 09:00 - 15:00 (approx) Teaching the RAD syllabus to children from Preparatory to Intermediate level. Wednesday's, 19:00 - 20:30 Adult RAD Grade 7 Please email anna@hypedance.org.uk with CV and cover letter if you are interested. ** Does anyone know anyone who they think might be interested in the job? Do you think it's worth starting a new post? There are a lot of dancers in Sheffield who are interested in lessons. Before our old teacher went on maternity leave Hype had 4 different levels of adult ballet and an additional 2 levels of pointe work as well as RAD syllabus classes and all the classes pulled in large numbers. So there is definitely an appetite for dance in Sheffield.

Can anyone recommend any good shops for pointe shoe fitting in South Yorkshire? I'm not looking for a particular brand, my current shoes are Gambas but they seem to be breaking down too quickly for me at the moment. I'm not keen on Grishko and Freed, but I'd have a look at any other brands. I work all week and I haven't got the time (or money) to travel to London for fittings unfortunately and I need a new pair before my intermediate exam in about 6 weeks. I wondered if anyone knew of anywhere local to me (Sheffield)? I would consider travelling to Leeds if that's the best place to go.

I purchased the Intermediate syllabus in July and I have the same issue. Regardless of what exercise you select it always goes to 'Pliés' and then you have to hit forward then back again to view the exercise you wanted to watch. I reported it to RAD when I purchased the video, as I also had the same issues with download as described above, but they simply said they'd let their app developers know. So they've obviously not fixed it in at least 2 months.

Thanks CeliB and to your DS for replying so quickly. And thanks everyone else for your well wishes, I think I'll call the fracture clinic in the morning just to make sure. Porthesia I am so, so sorry to hear about your DD, that's so sad to hear. Thank you for the advice about getting the X-ray at the end of the 6 weeks, I will make sure I do. Dance is life, thank you for your advice on moving the ankle, I'm keen not to loose muscle in my legs, and I'd love to be able to continue on pointe in time.

So on Monday night whilst performing a simple turning jump in my contemporary class I managed to break my foot! I landed on the side of my left foot and have broken my 5th metatarsal in a few places. The X-ray didn't look good and A&E thought that they might have needed to operate. Thankfully when I went to the fracture clinic the following day, they said I wouldn't need an operation and have given me crutches and a walking cast, which I can take off at night and to shower. They booked me an appointment to come back in 6 weeks and sent me on my way. I was so relieved ( and slightly hazy on codeine) at the time that I wasn't having an operation that I forgot to ask a lot of questions and feel like I could have done with some more advice. I had the rest of the week off but I'm going back to work tomorrow. I've been trying to keep my foot up as much as possible at home and I'm not sure it's going to cope being under a desk all day. I'm also not sure how much to weight bear on my injured foot. One of the doctors said it was good to start weight bearing early on to help the healing process ????? But I've ( stupidly) read a lot of things online that say not to weight bear at all. I don't want to be doing anything to make it worse or that will make the healing process take longer. I've also not sure how much I'm allowed to move my foot and ankle. I take the cast off at night and so my ankle does move around and my foot does twinge sometimes. But I don't want my foot and ankle to seize up and take longer to get mobile again. Has anyone else had a similar injury and do you have any advice on what I should do? I'm not sure how I'm going to cope not dancing for so long, even though it's just a hobby. Sorry for the long message. I hope some of you lovely people can help me. x

Flit and float that sounds exactly like what I need to do! Is 'Pointe Shoes, Tips & Tricks' a website or a book? Would you need to unpick the drawstring casing along the top too? Or double it back on itself above the waist seam, or cut the drawstring casing and stitch that back together to fit to the new size?

Talking about messing around with pointe shoes, I wondered whether anyone has ever tried modifying their pointe shoes to make them fit better? I only ask because I'm pretty sure that my feet fall somewhere in between regular sizes. In the past I had an old pair of Gamba shoes and wanted to try them again, so I found what I thought was the right size online and ordered (I know this was a silly risk, but I couldn't find any Gamba stockists locally). However after breaking them in a little they turned out to be a bit too big . I've since had a pair half a size smaller, which seem to do the job, but I do feel that they would be better if they were a little longer. I still have the slightly too big shoes, and it seems such a waste that they're just sat in a cupboard not being used. Does anyone have any tips on adjusting pointe shoes? I don't mind if I ruin them experimenting as they're of no use at the moment anyway, i'm just not quite sure where to start.

In my old dance school we used squares of white felt and the number was either drawn on with a black fabric pen or marker, or stitched on in embroidery thread. Then just safety pinned to the leotard. I don't know if the transfer paper Pas de Quatre mentioned would work on felt, but at least the felt won't fray.