thewinelake Posted November 27, 2015 Share Posted November 27, 2015 Just thinking that those not moving onto vocational courses generally stop doing ballet in year 13 (upper 6th form in old money!) and some schools seem to try to coincide that with passing grade 8 exams. I was wondering, though, are there many "ballet societies" at universities? Do they put on shows, etc? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terpsichore Posted November 27, 2015 Share Posted November 27, 2015 (edited) ........................ I was wondering, though, are there many "ballet societies" at universities? Do they put on shows, etc? We had a dance society at the University of St Andrews as long ago as 1969 and I was one of the founder members. We had ballet classes in the sports centre which were given by a biochemistry undergraduate called Sally who had once been a dancer. We even had a pianist. I don't think we put on any shows - though someone thought of choreographing Sibelius's Swan of Tuonela - but we did organize a coach party to Edinburgh to see Scottish Theatre Ballet's Beauty and the Beast which had been choreographed by Peter Darrell to a score by Thea Musgrave. That was incidentally the first ballet I ever reviewed and my write-up appeared in Aien which was then the student newspaper. We had particularly close links with STB through John Steer, our professor of fine arts, who was later to chair the company. He had known the company when he taught at Bristol and I think he was instrumental in bringing it to Glasgow a year after he made a similar move to Scotland. I think our high point was to bring the company to the Buchanan Hall on the day that the UK adopted decimal currency. Professor Steer introduced me to Darrell and some of the dancers including Elaine McDonald and Kenn Wells. I believe there has been a ballet club at the University of Leeds for many years because one of my patent agents used to dance with it in her spare time. I am also aware of a ballet class every Wednesday evening between 18:30 and 19:30 at the University of Huddersfield because I used to attend it. The class is given by Fiona Noonan who danced with the Queensland Ballet and is open to the public. I have written a few articles about these matters in my blog if anyone is interested. Edited November 27, 2015 by terpsichore 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
munchkin16 Posted November 27, 2015 Share Posted November 27, 2015 Dance societies definitely and I know a lot do put on at least an annual show although these may be more commercial/contemporary dance based than ballet. I know of a couple of unis that also have ballet societies but I'm not sure whether they do shows. I think they tend to just run classes and obviously the level and standard of these can vary. Some are just run by students so not necessarily professional teachers involved. It varies a lot depending on the university I think. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thewinelake Posted November 27, 2015 Author Share Posted November 27, 2015 Just did a slightly random search and found a "ballet club" at Cambridge who are putting on a couple of performances of Romeo & Juliet at West Hall (a reasonably size auditorium) in Feb. They have a guy called John Clare (who I think may be a professional choreographer???) who teaches the advanced class (suitable for grade 8/vocational students). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triphazard Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 At Bath Uni there always seem to be classes offered by the arts centre there, which have varied in quality over the years but are now taught by, hmm, one of my most favouritest ballet teachers ever... (how real life challenges the bare constraints of English grammar...) No pianist though, at least not in my day (which was way back... back when a blackberry was still a fruit). There is also a mostly unrelated dance society called, of all things, BodySoc. I personally used to think of them as rather frighteningly intense and tended to avoid, but then again that was a very long time ago: dance culture has opened up quite a bit since. Bristol dance society organise classes themselves but then there are also loads of other good classes in Bristol. They also appear to do an annual dance show and attend various competitions from the looks of it. In both cases the shows look to be 'variety shows', if you see what I mean: bits of this, that and the other, no full-scale two-hour performances of classic ballets seem to be likely to occur. That said, Bristol has an increasing amount of adult ballet performance stuff going on, like Ballet Bristol, though still little compared of course with the trad age groups, so perhaps there's no need for the uni to host... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amum/Cathy Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 Durham University have a ballet company. Don't know more than that but when ds and I went to an open day and saw a dance studio in the students union there appeared to be a good selection of classes on a timetable. The Bristol uni dance society appear to have 2 adv 1 classes a week on their timetable and mention adv 2 (although we couldn't see it on the timetable). They also have a good range of other advanced classes in tap, contemporary and jazz etc. Really hoping ds gets an offer from them (my favourite!) Birmingham uni's dance society website has a reasonable range of classes, taught by members. The uni is currently ds's fav choice and he could go to the dance eXchange for classes as well. We have googled other university dance societies but haven't really got much of an idea about them so more information would be welcome, Exeter, Warwick and Royal Holloway London in particular. We don't really understand the competition scene ( ds has never done festivals)- is that what uni dance societies are about? Is it like sports and you compete with other unis? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thewinelake Posted November 29, 2015 Author Share Posted November 29, 2015 I wonder if colours are awarded for ballet? I know that there is a university ballroom dancing competition- my sister competed in that back the day... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kate_N Posted November 29, 2015 Share Posted November 29, 2015 (edited) I work in a university, in a field not unrelated to dance. From what I've seen of the kind of thing that University dance societies do, they can be very variable. They rarely concentrate on ballet - they cover a lot of dance forms, with what looks like a focus on contemporary commercial/street stuff, and competition dancing. Some get qualified experienced teachers in to give classes, but a lot teach each other (which makes me shudder a bit). The standard is not very high, to be honest, but that might not be the point - the clubs are as much social as anything. Edited November 29, 2015 by Kate_N Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amum/Cathy Posted November 29, 2015 Share Posted November 29, 2015 That's useful to hear your perspective Kate_N. I think ds would probably prefer to be in full scale productions so maybe he's better concentrating on musical theatre societies and finding his dance classes in local schools/classes that can teach to Adv 2 standard. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimi'smom Posted November 29, 2015 Share Posted November 29, 2015 My non dancing daughter is in her first term at Royal Holloway. A mum/Cathy there is a very active Musical Theatre Society which she has joined which seems to put on a few productions per year. Dance wise, I don't think there is anything ballet related - a general dance society which, from a little showcase we saw at a recent event, is more modern jazz/street/commercial; a Ballroom and Latin Dancesport society (maybe from the title they compete but I have no idea) and a Bhangra society. If your son is into singing, there is also a Savoy Society that I believe put on productions of Gilbert and Sullivan etc as well as a number of choirs. However, London is very commutable from Egham, with a reasonable priced day return ticket that includes all underground transport too (I think my daughter said it is about £8 with her railcard) which obviously opens up a whole new range of opportunities, although might not be practical if he wants to dance several times throughout the week. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue Brett Posted November 29, 2015 Share Posted November 29, 2015 Thanks amum/Cathy and triphazard for the Bristol uni info - answers my question in other thread (Adult ballet: UK cities good for dance). Bristol is edging it, my favourite too! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lemongirl Posted November 29, 2015 Share Posted November 29, 2015 Even if there isn't provision at the university, there is nothing to stop students finding a local dance school in their university town which offers adult classes. Not sure how easy they would be to find though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimi'smom Posted November 29, 2015 Share Posted November 29, 2015 A mum/Cathy, actually there appears to be a ballet team and classes at RHUL! They have Facebook page which has a timetable of classes if you are interested. https://www.facebook.com/rhuldance/ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triphazard Posted November 29, 2015 Share Posted November 29, 2015 Additional note about Bristol performance options: especially if 18-20something DS's are involved, folks such as the Bristol Russian Ballet School, who do full-length ballets, will quite probably be very happy :-) Sue: Things have really changed in the Bristol/Bath area (they are very close) in the last couple of decades. While Bristol still isn't (yet) a patch on London (who have RAD, ENB, all the dance schools in town, LAB, Crystal Ballet, loads and loads of classes and quite possibly a partridge pirouetting in a pear tree), these days you could describe adult ballet opportunities in the greater Bristol area as 'encouraging'. It's relatively easy to find a class now, with groups like Third Stage Dance doing drop-in classes in various locations. I have also heard dark rumours to the effect that one or two of the London adult ballet groups may contemplate expansion towards Bristol, which would be even better. Back in the day, there seemed to be the square root of nowt in terms of adult dance other than 344 in FIshponds, who are not tremendously accessible from the uni, or classes offered by universities. If you didn't get on with the teacher at your uni class you pretty much had to go to another uni for classes or give up ballet (yes, I did this. Bitter? Maybe a bit). Nowadays it's wonderful to see so much going on. It's even possible to have a choice of summer intensives, at least in the sense of a week of daily evening classes. That's something to celebrate :-) I'll try to add a few notes to the other thread, should've done that before really... That said, the one downside is that there's still, sadly, a strong tendency in the area's dance schools to view adult ballet as sixty minutes of stylised keep-fit: I still find it very very hard to find anyone in the Bristol/Bath area willing to teach RAD syllabus to adults. If anyone comes across someone who does please PLEASE post about it! It would save me a lot of travel time...! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amum/Cathy Posted November 29, 2015 Share Posted November 29, 2015 A mum/Cathy, actually there appears to be a ballet team and classes at RHUL! They have Facebook page which has a timetable of classes if you are interested. https://www.facebook.com/rhuldance/ Thanks for the lowdown on RHUL mimi'smum, especially the musical theatre society. Ds will be very happy to hear that (currently choerographing West Side Story for school, and playing Bernado). I see they are starting a dance degree in 2016 so there may be more dancers around from next year to bolster the ballet classes. What productions are the musical theatre society putting on this year? triphazard thank you for the lowdown on Bristol. Will pass it all on. If he has the luxury of more than one offer he can start a spreadsheet (acknowledgements to Katymac) including ballet classes on the plus points for each uni. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimi'smom Posted November 29, 2015 Share Posted November 29, 2015 Hi Amum/Cathy the MTS have recently put on a production of into the Woods as well as taking part in the Arts Societies variety show earlier in the term. I'm not sure what the next production is - I don't know how far ahead they plan! I'll ask my daughter more when I see her next weekend and let you know. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kate_N Posted November 30, 2015 Share Posted November 30, 2015 The other thing to know is that all Student Unions or Student Guilds (either term may be used) have websites, and there's usually a section for Clubs & Societies. You can have a look at activities now, via societies' websites. They usually also have FaceBook sites. Here's the Royal Holloway Clubs & Societies webpage, with their Performing Arts section chosen: http://www.su.rhul.ac.uk/activities/societies/# 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thewinelake Posted December 3, 2015 Author Share Posted December 3, 2015 (edited) Thanks for the lowdown on RHUL mimi'smum, especially the musical theatre society. Ds will be very happy to hear that (currently choerographing West Side Story for school, and playing Bernado). I That's a coincidence, my DD is doing just the same! (No boys at her school). Edited December 3, 2015 by thewinelake 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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