Anjuli_Bai

From AFAB's post: "But the final nail in the coffin for us was the RAD or ISTD "monopoly"... I don't want to upset anyone here so bear with me. I know and agree on the importance of having exams and our children always have exam at the end of the year to be able to go to the next level. You either pass or fail. If you fail, you stay in the same level. The exams are in front of a an unknown panel and it gets you used to auditions. The difference is that those exams are prepared in the last month of the school year and one don't spend weeks preparing. They consist of a class and a variation generally. The rest of the year is syllabus free and you're supposed to have reach a certain level through these free classes which shows on exam day... We were very nicely invited to sit through different classes at Tring Associates which is RAD orientated and that's what made us decide against going there even though the girls had already been accepted. The dance was so rigid and stilted even though the teachers were lovely, they had to do the same exercices every week in order to master them for the exam and that was in February when the exams are much later I think. I couldn't see any room for expressing yourself, musicality, trying new and difficult things, etc... " This has always been my view about syllabus classes - she expressed it much better than I.

Ian - it is entirely possible I didn't understand the procedure and got the instructions wrong. There just didn't seem (to me) to be any way to download except to click on the pay thingie - but I most probably got that wrong. I hope it won't deter anyone else from using that site.

My view for what its worth.....in reply to some of the thoughts raised in posts above... I think company style is not quite as distinct as it used to be. Whoever thought that NYCB would dance Swan Lake? The Kirov/Mariinsky does a fine job of dancing Balanchine. As dancers move across borders, i.e. Russians free to come west, western dancers/students beginning to go to Russia, Cuban and Chinese/Japanese dancers going everywhere, etc., the distinctions will blur more and more. Principals tend to move around more (they have that advantage) and so I think the one item which truly shows a company style is the corps de ballet. One can see the easy cohesiveness of dancers who have come through the feeder school together such as POB, Mariinsky, NYCB, RB, etc. This becomes starkly visible in a ballet such as La Bayadere's Kingdom of the Shades. Companies with hugely diverse corps like ABT, do manage it, but the dancers of the corps have to really concentrate on it - it's not as "built in." Companies can and do take on the styles of the particular ballet they are performing such as in Bournonville - but it is not bone of their bone - it isn't intrinsic - it's closer to the "surface" than from a deeper level - such as it is to the Danish Royal Ballet. The school not only feeds the company it also serves its heritage. There are some styles, however, which don't translate well from company to company - the Bolshoi comes to mind. I can't see another company dancing Spartacus quite like they do. I think it's not only their schooling - but that huge stage that they have grown up learning to dominate. Think of the tiny ballerinas of days gone by such as Plisetskaya, Ulanova, others - who had no problem filling that huge empty space. Whereas, the Danes have a small space - yet they knnow how to make it look large. Nureyev once said (paraphrase here) that Americans and Russians dance similarly because they come from countries with a large land mass - and it is part of their thought pattern and becomes a movement pattern. I haven't seen the RB many times in live performance (I did review it some yrs ago for this site) but I have seen them many times on video. My impression has always been that the company is known for its integrity, neatness, attention to detail and a bit of understated fire. All good assets - which I enjoy. I don't expect them to be the Bolshoi or vice versa. I think it is also important to remember that there are dancers in the corps who enjoy dancing at that level. The work is extremely difficult (much easier to dance a solo than to match 24 others). It should never be considered as a failure if one doesn't move on to other sections of the company - such as soloist. I judge a company more by its corps de ballet than its principals. In a stable environment the corps represents more closely the artistic direction and teaching and the vision of the company's heritage, intent and style.

Thank you, Janet - it was fun to paint.

I can't believe it - I actually managed a picture. Ok - some chocolate is due.

I would really like a profile picture - like you have. I did upload to photobucket - but in order to download to this site they want to charge me. So, instead I thought I could use a picture as a signature. I paint (oil on canvas) and draw (pen and ink) - and a lot of it is dance related. So, I thought (in my silly way) that would be fun and no copyright problems. The picture I tried was a jpeg - so it's not too large a package - all my paintings/drawings fit easily on Facebook - no problems. I do have them as TIFF's - but my husband says jpegs are better for internet "travel." What do I know - he's the electrical engineer - I'm just the ballet teacher - I deal in tendues and tutus.

It is not at all an odd request. I've had that happen many times. Well, I do want the picture - but very small. Just don't depend upon that "undo" thingie. I tried photobucket but it seems they want to charge me to be able to download a picture to this site.

Ahha - I did it - I used "toggle editing mode" icon. Who knew? One would think the "undo" would undo. Silly me.

It can be very valuable and is often done. You find another teacher who has nothing to do with the present school. You should inform the teacher of whom you are seeking a second opinion that this is your goal - not an ongoing class - but a second opinion. Don't tell her any of the problems which led to this - let her form her/him own opinion completely unbiased. (please excuse a huge picture which might come up as my signature - I meant it to be tiny - but it didn't work out that way. I am trying to get rid of it. ACK (ok - I think I got rid of it for this reply)

Ok - I'm In BIG trouble. I experimented with putting what I thought would be a tiny picture as a signature. When I tested it out I made sure that I could "undo" it. Well, the picture turned out to be huge - and when I tried to undo do - it wouldn't undo! How do I delete it? (There is no copyright problem - the drawing is my own - I drew it - I just didn't want it so BIG. ACK

This is to be expected since the shank took up a bit of room inside the shoe. When it is removed there is more space for the foot - sometimes too much space. The foam rubber insole will help with this as well as making the inside bottom more comfortable. Sometimes I have also worn thin socks over my footed leotard. edited for typo

In addition to Children of Theatre Street is another - almost a sequel - "Backstage at the Kirov" - about the graduating class - rehearsing and performing. But both of these are very old. I have both of them. Interestingly, when I saw "Children of....." there was a floor exercise that my teacher (who was American) told us was taught to her by her two Russian teachers (they were principal dancers with Diagelev). Well, she was right - the students were doing this exercise 70 yrs later! I'm not sure that any of these films or youtubes will accurately convey the daily atmosphere of the classroom. I would think that knowing there is a camera around would necessarily change things a bit. It's just human nature to do that.

I surely don't recommend a car going over shoes! ACK I also don't recommend door frames - I've seen the door pulled off the frame! Another ACK The shoe box needs to be softened in an organized sort of way; with your hands, a round head of a hammer. To help break it down you can use a cloth damp with rubbing alcohol and then hammered. Spanner: everything your physio is telling you is correct. Just learning to stand in a pointe shoe is difficult - the entire feel is difficult. It's like learning everything again from the beginning. You know that part of Act II Giselle where the ballerina is standing by herself and doing extensions and then does a promenade and a penché - that is the hardest part of her solo. As for sky diving - I am certainly NOT going there!

When I deshanked my pointe shoes to use instead of slippers I removed the shank (as you mentioned). Then I took the round head of a hammer and pounded away at the box (which was really quite soft by then). Next I got a thin foam rubber insole (like Dr. Scholl's) and placed inside because after I had removed the shank the inside was rather rough. How soft you make the box is up to you. By the time I got done with a pair of pointe shoes - and then using them as slippers - they were literally ragged. At the very end I took the ribbons off, washed and ironed them and used on the next pair of pointe shoes. Some of my ribbons were decades old. Some shoes have a glued shank, some a nailed shank and some a bit of both. The nailed ones are a bit trickier - especially if the nails occur at the toe end. However, my husband showed me that if I put a pliers - slightly open under the nail head and then hammer - the nail will pop out. Well, it worked for me - but it was much easier to go bake something while he was doing it. (Husbands are good that way!) Since it will be 50 yrs this June for us- I guess he didn't mind!

Balanchine was both a choreographer and a teacher....he often gave Company class. In the USA very few schools are syllabus based: Cecchetti, RAD, ISTD, etc. In the years I took class my teachers spanned the gamut. My first teacher was a product of two Diagelev principal dancers (Theodore Koslov and Alexandra Baldina - orig. waltz girl in Les Sylphides). Then I had three years of Ceccetti. Continued my studies with a Vaganova based teacher, and on to a teacher who was a student of Eugene Loring, a German teacher, several principals from Balanchine's NYCB, a couple of teachers from ABT, two from the Royal Ballet (Keith Martin and Elaine Thomas), etc. It was quite a variety. I loved it.

That is why in my post I said: "If what that one particular respondent at the Guardian is saying is true "

If what that one particular respondent at the Guardian is saying is true - regarding private sponsors for foreign studenst and thus preferential treatment - that is truly sad. That would be a heartbreaker for other dance students. It does make one wonder why the British graduates are good enough for other companies but somehow not good enough for the upper ranks of the RB.

Those of us who are tired of overdone extensions, balancing competitions, and the jumps from the moon - (which I have endlessly railed about fr years ) are, I think, in the minority. This battle began as far back as Fokine, and it is being lost. The AD's are responding to the market - look at the advertising, the posters, the pictures. From Post 126 - Quote: Isn't some of it about our British culture? We are a very self-deprecating lot and generally not enamoured with what we perceive to be showing off. Aren't we told from being young that "it's not the winning, it's the taking part that counts"? This is wider than UK culture.....I think Western civilization is often told it is culturally guilty of.........fill in the blank.

Do you think that the faculty at the school is subconsciously teaching and/or responding differently to the foreign student? All to often we hear about xenophobia - but there is a reverse bias too. I was once told by a parent looking for a ballet teacher that I couldn't possibly know anything because I was American born and didn't have a Russian accent. However, when I told her that originally my family had come from Russia - she signed her daughters up. duh

SAB was established as a feeder school to NYCB from the very beginning. It also trains to a certain style and was originally to serve a particular "vision" - and to a great extent still does. ABT is quite diverse and always has been.

I always stored my tutus upside down - that helped a lot. I also restrung them with dental floss.

I enjoyed watching it. I especially liked the rehearsal for the sword fighting scene from R & J. Some time ago a member of the Ballet.co forum - who was an instructor in fencing - gave a fascinating description of what goes into staging such a scene. So, I enjoyed watching this rehearsal with his remarks still in my head.

When I edit a post I've made the "new" post has lost all the paragraphing. So, then, I have to edit again and leave 3 spaced between paragraphs instead of 2 - and that seems to work. Also when I edit and click "save changes" - it doesn't show the "new" post. I have to reclick onto the board to see it. And I don't know what that "use full editor" is - when I click it nothing seems to happen.

An education, and that includes a dance education, is never lost. The skills learned, the discipline, dedication, musicality and how to move with grace and assurance - the appreciation for the arts and hard work of others, all will stay with the dance student whether that student remains in dance as a career or not. Education is never lost. And there are many other careers in which dance would be an important component: teaching (dance or not) almost any art form, physiotherapist, designing (almost anything), writing (learning how to sequence thought isn't very different from sequencing movement), child care, homemaking - everything will be enhanced by what was learned in those years of ballet classes.

At first when I saw the markings on his body I thought of Nijinski's Faun - or a variation thereof. Being barefoot its modern/contemporary dance and she looks to possibly be topless. Would Nederlans Dans do something like this? Very interesting picture.