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.

Are you aware that there is a major change in the science A levels being taught from this Sept in that there is no longer a practical exam or alternative to practical paper. Instead there are 12 'set' practicals to be carried out over the two years and most schools seem to be planning to use lab books for these which are kept in school. There is also no requirement to take the AS level as this will be purely a stand-alone qualification and not count towards the A2. In reality this will mean less time 'lost' at the end of the first year in revision but more to remember at the end of year 2. Some of the students in my school (top state grammar school) are taking an AS level (not sciences) over 2 years and will be receiving just 2 hours tuition a week for this but this is in addition to up to 7 full A levels so probably a similar workload to a vocational dance student! Also I have no personal experience but I do know of children who have been home-schooled finding it difficult to find a centre willing to enter them for public exams as all entries would be counted in a centre's statistics and they have no way of knowing an external candidates ability. Don't know if this is a problem with on-line courses or if all that is arranged as part of the course.

My first dancing school had the pink leotards with the little pleated skirt attached in pink but when we moved house the new school all had blue. To save money Mum tried to dye mine and I ended up with purple (with pink stitching)! Also remember birdcage and tarentella dances. Was the Bretton one the one with an apron? I didn't do anything after grade 4 as it was obvious by then that my body wasn't up to it (hip and lack of flexability problems) but my sister continued with senior grade which i remember had just been introduced and the vocationals.

Was just reading through this thread without realising it was an old one and nearly commented that one posters experience was identical to ours then realised it was actually a post I had made - oops time for bed methinks!

I have two large suitcases full of pretty leotards, skirts, shorts, ballet warm-ups etc but as soon as she left school dd refused to wear almost any of it. Her favourite outfit for company class was probably a cheap onsie from Asda! Otherwise its all just leggings/crop tops/general sports wear. Bloch booties are still popular though.

My mother was Delphene which was a mis-spelling by her father when registering the birth. Should of course have been Delphine!

Obviously you should listen to advice and do all you can to protect your dds long-term health but in my experience some doctors are very quick to predict arthritis following bone traumas. I have had problems with my hip since birth and during childhood my mother was repeatedly told I would get early arthritis and need a hip replacement probably in my 30s. I will be 50 this year and have absolutely no sign of arthritis although whenever I go to the doctors with hip problems the first thing they do is suggest an x-ray saying its probably arthritis. I now ask for physio first as I have had so many x-rays I think they are more of a health risk than arthritis!

Sorry sugarplumsmum you will not be able to get anything back from the local authority. The reason given is that the government gives each LEA money based on the number of pupils enrolled in publicly-funded schools in their area. If child is at a private school the local authority will not be receiving any funding for them to be able to pass anything on even if they wanted to. This is how it was explained to me many years ago anyway. I find it hard to believe how many 'extras' most private schools manage to bill parents for on top of their standard fees which imo are large in the first place. This last comment is meant as a very general one.

It might be worth letting your dd know that even at Central (don't know about the other schools) although there is no singing as part of the audition process students have to do a singing class as part of the course and are assessed on this although I know many of them hate it.

My short-legged/long-bodied dd always liked this leotard http://www.dancedirect.com/uk/Products/Ballet/P12/ although it is a cotton/lycra which I think is rather dated now and doesn't look as high legged as I remember but it may have changed as its been several years now since dd was auditioning This one has a lovely cut to the leg and is the style that was worn at Central when she was there http://www.dancedirect.com/uk/Products/Ballet/D911/ If trying to minimise a long body the v-neckline is also a good idea.

All these attendance figures are absolute rubbish in my opinion and should only come into consideration if other problems appear e.g. falling behind in work/grades going down etc. Luckily all my dds are now past this stage but it has caused me numerous issues in the past particularily with my youngest dauhter who took part in panto and was also in a professional WE show. The school were often quite reluctant to allow time off and it was always marked down as 'authorised absence' so affected her attendance figure whereas others I know in the same productions but at different local schools had it marked as 'educated off site' and therefore it didn't affect the figure! Luckily dd was a very healthy child and by the end of the year her attendance was usually back up to around the 95% level having fallen quite low around Dec/Jan but I remember one bizarre occasion when I was called to collect her due to illness and then told by head of year that they were not happy to let her go home because of her attendance. It actually got to the point when I said to them that what they were saying was that they would keep an ill child in school just to up their figures! I also worked out that provided they were present for registration they were marked as present for that session (am/pm) regardless of what time they actually left. Thus I learned to 'play the system' and rather than picking dd up at the start of lunch would collect her just after afternoon reqistration or take her in for just the first half hour of school. Another stupidity was that each session (am and pm) were counted separately but in that school there was only one hour of teaching in the afternoon and four hours in the morning so missing an afternoon only involved missing 1/5th of that days lessons but on paper looked the same as being absent from the morning in which 4/5ths of the teaching was done! One time when school were being very difficult over authorising absence I actually worked out how many hours of each subject were being missed which if you discounted things like PE (she would be dancing anyway) and presented that to them. I do not envy you as I believe things are even more difficult now. So glad all that is behind us!