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Pointetoes

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Everything posted by Pointetoes

  1. DD did it, as did quite a few from her dance school- they all went to various different local schools. They were all a high level in most genres of dance. For them it was an 'easy' GCSE One they could go to enjoy,relax and have fun. Yes DD was the highest standard in her year at her school and the only one to go on to vocational 6th form, but she enjoyed the way they all worked together helping each other. No-one got below a B, DD got an A* ( old grades) I would add that if DD hadn't taken Music GCSE early, at the end of Year 9 she would have done music instead of dance.
  2. My DD lived for her evening dance and music classes when she was at school. Although very bright (straight A* at GCSE) she couldn't wait to leave. We were lucky in that there were a few vocational 6th forms in the area all doing Extended Diplomas in dance or MT or acting. This gave her the equivalent to 3 A levels and UCAS points. It also gave her time to work out which direction she wanted to go. She always thought she would go down the contemporary route but was also always concerned about giving music up, she is a Cellist amongst over instruments. She graduated from GSA (Guildford School of Acting ) with a BA (Hons) Actor Musician .She found a course that incorporated every thing she loves - music, acting and dance. Until she went to her 6th form she had never acted. She has had some great jobs in the last 18mths from the West End to Lapland! How far away are you from Manchester? Pendleton 6th Form College has a really good reputation. DD was at GSA with several people from there not all on the same course as her. We had strong opposition from her school, friends and family but we knew she had to follow her heart. If it didn't work out after 6th form then we cross that bridge. I will add my eldest daughter thought she was going to go down the music route and indeed started a degree in performance music with the view of going into RAF Music Service within 6 months she realised it wasn't for her much to everyones surprise. She took a few years out of education, re grouped and is now back at university studying to be an Orthoptist and very happy.
  3. I can also vouch for GSA. My daughter graduated from there last year as an Actor Muso. She always thought she would go down the contemporary route having started ballet age 3 but at 16 realised she would miss singing, Cello and other instruments. She was lucky enough to discover a way of combining everything. Yes she is one of those dread full triple threats although we didn't discover this until 6th form. Funny how things happen.
  4. We got DDs from The Ballet Barre Company, about 8 years ago. I have just looked at their website and boy have they gone up in price. We paid about £150 of which £100 was scholarship money. Having said that, it still looks as good as new and got her through school, vocational 6th form and 3 years at GSA including the pandemic.
  5. When DD audition 4 ago some places gave a choice of dates once she had been offered an audition. Some were at the weekends and some during the week. This was for places through ucas and not through ucas
  6. My DD was a “no” 3 times, all for the senior group. She then got in off the waiting list and performed with EYB 6 times in total. She had the most amazing time, learnt so much. Her final production she and the others in her group ( 4 of them) were in cited by Miss Lewis to join the professionals classes each day once they were in theatre. Something that they knew was rare and a huge privilege. The whole team of staff including Miss Lewis were so supportive to her and to this day we will always be very grateful. They knew she was auditioning for Actor Muso and gave her all sorts of incredible advice. Yes Miss Lewis is old school but this is an opportunity to perform professional, completely different from associates. They learn so much. As for being told yes or no, my dd has just finished her degree and is auditioning. Her face to face auditions ( group ones) they are told in front of everyone if they have a call back. She said that all though it was tough being told No ( and she had it both ways at EYB) it has held her in good stead for now. Sometimes I think we as parents find it harder. I would also throughly recommend volunteer to help backstage, it’s great fun, hard work but great fun and you are really appreciated
  7. I will throw a spanner into the works. Whilst I appreciate this is a question about younger children, if they go on to train at 18 ( yes they are adults) they will be expected to be active on social media. So perhaps teaching them at a young age how to be sensible etc isn’t such a bad idea. DD is about to graduate she is expected to have both IG and Twitter, the majority of them have their spotlight link on their IG a bio and yes agents do look at social media. A friend of mine’s daughters works for an agent. Basically I am saying let them have it but support them, help them stay safe. Both mine knew that I could at any time gain access to their accounts. They were their accounts but I knew the passwords, changing their passwords was not up for discussion.
  8. That’s ultimately how my DD decided. Mine disliked Bird, walked out of her Laine audition……..loved GSA from the moment she arrived at her audition. Graduates this summer from GSA
  9. I think it’s personal choice and by that I don’t mean parents I mean child’s. My DD had several offers including a full scholarship to one. It had to be her choice because at the end of the day she is the one doing the training etc. I am afraid I have no idea how she choose but she knew at all her auditions whether she like somewhere or not. The one thing we did ask was that purely for easy of funding if possible she would go for a degree. She then went and took that out of the equation by getting a full scholarship for a diploma course.
  10. Sounds like they are beginning to filter through. Fingers crossed you don’t have to wait much longer
  11. They do but please remember they are dealing with thousands of students. I appreciate its frustrating and I am sure those of us who have been through it remember it really well.
  12. Sadly that means you are waiting for Ucas to push the button and that is completely unpredictable. I remember the course director at GSA saying in his talk that they inform UCAS as soon as they can but it can take days sometimes weeks for UCAS to let the applicants know.
  13. Some places take even longer. It is frustrating. DD had friends who didn’t get offers until May/June/ July from places they had audition at in January/February
  14. Just to give you an idea when my DD was in Yr 10 she was doing 15 hrs a week of dance, all genres plus various other dance companies and county choirs /orchestra. She also regularly do workshops in the holidays and things like EYB. If this really is the way you want to go, I do think you need to increase your dance hours. As has already been said 16+ entry particularly for Ballet is really tough. Good luck
  15. Why don’t you give them a call and ask. If the result has to go through UCAS it can take longer because it will be down to UCAS pushing the button.
  16. No just the highest grade in each genre Not all universities will accept them as but it’s definitely worth putting them down.
  17. The best piece of advice we were given regarding Plan B was get a degree. DD’s school ( not dance school) dance teacher said when looking at post 16/18 do a course that gives you a degree. A degree opens far more doors to you when you have to stop. She performed for years but sadly her body eventually said know. Her degree made it much easier for her to get into schools and teacher. It did shock us at the time but the more we thought about it the more it made sense. Our bodies are fragile and there reached a point when they can’t take it anymore.
  18. I suspect this might be a good thing. My DD walked out of her Laine audition, she didn’t like the building or the attitude of the foundation students who were auditioning with her.
  19. Sometimes I think we find the rejection harder then they do. DD has a couple of friends, male and female, who are much more dance based than MT who are at Wilkes and really enjoying themselves. Mine has never quiet forgiven me for replying to her now Course Director “ you can keep her for 3 years “ when he saw me in the cafe waiting for her and said to “we need to keep them a bit longer “ I honestly don’t know what came over me. All I will say is it was an odd day because he, the music director myself and DD spent about half of the welcome/ this is the course etc talking about a theatre we all knew really well and is known as the home of Actor Muso. She is doing Actor Muso
  20. I am very sorry hear this but unfortunately it’s all party of the industry, even after training there are still rejections. She needs to remember that although it feels very personal it’s actually not. It’s simply that she isn’t right for them. Equally as hard I appreciate. Has she been at a vocational 6th form ? If not it maybe worth looking at some foundation courses as a back up plan.
  21. We found staying somewhere the night before was way less stressful especially when some of the auditions were early starts. It took away the worry of traffic etc. All DDs auditions were in the morning. There was only two we drove to on the day both that 9am start and were only an hour away on a Saturday, so we knew we were ok. Even now DD says she is glad we went up the night before where necessary and she is in her third year. We let her apply to as many many as she wanted but did say for the sake of funding we really wanted her to do a degree.
  22. DD stopped auditioning once she had received an offer for her first choice. Yes this meant we had paid for auditions and she didn't go but there really seemed no point. Conti are notorious for late audition dates especially if you have have to change the date. It is an expensive time, I worked out including audition fees, travel, accommodation , food etc it cost us over £1000 However I think it was money well spent, its amazing how quickly you for get the stress.
  23. I would really advise, if you can, to go up to RCS DD audition there a few years ago for MT. She absolutely hated the place, up to that point it was one of her top 3 choices. She got through to the second round ( in the afternoon) called me and said she was leaving the building. If we hadn’t gone up there we would never have known how much she dislike it.
  24. IAB is Institute of Arts Barcelona and MADD is Midlands Academy of Dance and Drama. A chart is definitely the way forward, having everything in one places makes it so much easier
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