spooky

If she is thinking of applying to MT schools for sixth form it might be worth seeing what courses those schools she is potentially interested in offer. Otherwise I would say consider things like NYMT or YMT-UK. These are very expensive and performance based but are the sort of things which look good on applications/cvs. Or just don't bother with summer schools - they really aren't necessary for MT in the same way as ballet - use the money saved to go to watch some (less well known) shows instead. My MT daughter was asked about shows she had seen at almost every audition interview.

I have also suffered with this and found just flexing the foot (like in baby ballet 'naughty toes') when i first wake before I get out of bed helps tremendously, Going downstairs first thing in the morning was extremely painful if I didn't do this. Also found wearing a good supportive shoe/trainer helped and very flat, thin-soled sandels did not!!!!!

I once heard a parent call Miss Lewis 'Janet' and she was quite sharply reprimanded by the lady herself but I do think its just an old-fashioned curtesy thing.

Dead point shoes refers to shoes which no longer provide adequate support for pointe work because of wear and tear. How long they last is extremely variable and depends on many factors but your dd will be able to tell when the shoe is nearing the end of its life from how it feels.

I really don't think it will make any difference which one you send but sending two might just make them wonder why and look a bit more closely for faults! Actually I would go with your dds choice as I have learnt over the years that they actually know a lot more than we give them credit for even at such a young age. Also this would prevent the situation where if she doesn't get in she says to you ' I told you we should have sent the other photo'!

I would say go with whichever feels best for you. Several years ago now but my dd auditioned with the overseas students even though she is uk because she had an injury and this allowed her maximum recovery time before the audition. This was Central's suggestion but she was already a pre-senior there so they did know her. Not sure if results are emailed nowadays but back then they were usually posted so for this audition they all had to wait/come back at the end of the day and were given an envelope with either a no letter or a recall for the following day.

My dd danced with Chelmsford Ballet Company for many years and I cannot praise them highly enough. DD went on to vocational school at 16 and has danced professionally but still keeps in contact with them and we always watch their main production. Feel free to PM me if you would like.

I agree with everything said above however it might be that although the class is called inter-foundation the title may be misleading. In my dds old school pupils were invited to join the inter-foundation class from around grade 3 which if i remember correctly (it was over 10 years ago now) was about age 8/9 but it was quite usual to remain in this class for 3 or 4 years before taking the exam and most of the class concentrated on strengthening exercises and building on basic technique outside of the syllabus. If a pupil was then felt ready to take the exam they were required to attend an extra 'exam class' in addition. So I would advise finding out as much as you can about this class from the teacher before making any decision. If you feel you dont have enough knowledge yet could the ISTD teacher voice her concerns (diplomatically) directly to the other teacher as one to professional to another as surely they both just want the best for your dd.

Many, many years since we did festivals but we used several pieces from this cd http://novadanse-creativemusic.com/music-shop/show-festival-classical-stage-dance/the-orchid-suite/ not sure if link will work but if you google ' The Orchid Suite music cd' you should find it It was quite popular and several times came across other dancers using tracks from the same cd although luckily never in the same section. Not sure if this would still be the case but all tracks are short enough not to need editing. edited to say link does appear to work!

A while ago now but I also had problems trying to get gp to refer dd to the London dance injury clinic ( we are in the south east). We were told it was not on the list of hospitals that they had a contract arrangement with. Didn't pursue it as managed to get seen privately on dad's work insurance but definitely seemed to be a lack of understanding. Hopefully your local physio will know something about dance or even pass you on to a colleague who does. A nurse in A&E told us about a local physio who turned out to have worked at White Lodge in the past! She was so understanding when she told dd she wouldn't be able to dance for a while, she explained what exercises she could do to keep the rest of her body toned and told her to enjoy having time to just socialise with friends and do some of the things she would normally miss because of dancing - a sure sign she really understood!

Just another thing to consider but I have found that there is often very little praise in the ballet world especially at more advanced levels. It would probably be beneficial to encourage your dd to start viewing corrections as a positive rather than a negative. When my dd was about 10 she came out of her local class quite upset that the teacher 'kept picking on her'. Some astute questioning revealed that she was actually just giving her a lot of corrections so I explained that this was good and from then on when talking about a class I would often ask 'did you get many corrections today?' and regard this as a positive. Regarding the report - presumably your dd will know this is expected so would it be possible to explain that as students get older these things do not bother saying what you are good at but just highlight areas for working on. She will probably be a bit upset or even cross at first but then will either decide to return with new determination or quit. As long as she knows you will support her either way and suggest what else you might try for if she decides to leave the current associates (understands there are no guarantees she will get places elsewhere) I am sure you will come to the right decision for her. I am assuming here that this teachers attitude is the same to all the associate pupils in your dds class.

In the south east there is www.thechelmsfordballetcompany.co.uk (highly recommended) http://www.sussexyouthballetcompany.co.uk/(no personal experience)

It was a few years ago now but my dd took GCSE dance as one of her options at a state comprehensive school and although her dance was way above the level of the class (she went on to Central) she learned a great deal from the course in terms of analysing dance, studying the set pieces and choreography. She was somewhat frustrated when working in groups but there was one other student of a similar standard and she worked on a duet for her own piece. Actually watching this was the first of only a few times that I have been moved to tears by watching her dance. My only problem is that the school still 'sell' this course to students saying things like 'one of out past pupils is now......' without any mention of the hours and years of dancing and associates etc dd used to do outside school leading to false hopes for others.

It might be worth looking at the NODA website listings to see if there are any groups doing the same show and contact them to see if they have costumes to hire/sell on. If you end up buying/making lots you can see if anyone will buy it off you afterwards to recoup some cost.

Just to confirm Paris Pinks for NYB are indeed as in the link given above. DD did NYB for several years and we had to get these.