Stirrups36

Well, we really enjoyed A Christmas Carol. A lovely simple setting, great costumes, and great atmosphere. The music (evidently from over 30 separate pieces of music) was well 'mixed' and added to the enjoyment in my opinion. It was good to see how the scenes led into each other - although we could have done with a balance of less of ghost past and more of ghost present. In a week where ballet companies are worried abut dance not being taught in schools (shameless plug - www.class-dance.co.uk), supporting local companies as they tour can only be a good thing. Not just that though, it was a good night out and just a little strange to have watched ballet and be home by 10:00pm! Break out the mulled wine and mince pies.

In the interval with family and loving A Christmas Carol. You really must catch it if you can.

If he's anything like the other boys, he will be eating loads. At elmhurst, chips only once a week. Loads of fruit always around. They keep an eye on them as well but probably the temptation has been to be eating too much. My son also says the portion sizes the catering staff give out have been reduced. What we do notice is he is much more careful abut his own diet now. He makes his own decisions about what he eats and how much. Bt as for forcing the,, i don't think that would happen. Probably peer pressure would help him adjust.

we went yesterday, and yes, the intervals seemed very long. At 25 minutes each, they were almost as long as each section. We enjoyed Lyric Pieces and Grosse Fuge the most. Take Five was pleasant enough, but maybe now a little undemanding to watch. The stage settings in Lyric Pieces were great - loved the way the dancers rearranged the collapsible black backdrops/stools etc. Grosse Fuge had a story to it, as the relationships moved from female domination to male. The way one of the dancers 'kicked' the man off the stage was a little scary...

easy - if they want to do it, and have the required technique and physique. Go for it! Elmhurst is super too. (you will need to think of the costs, even with awards, but even so...)

At least one of the 'big four' finds the administration too onerous a task... So will not do this. Even though St Ethelburga's school (google it) had some very good advice about doing so to aid their parents. Be careful with salary sacrifice, as if you have some partial form of benefits as well, the salary sacrifice can cause problems and reduce these by more than the salary sacrifice scheme. If the schools did accept this, then it would be VERY helpful, and would have been even more helpful last year before they changed the tax brackets. Maybe it's time to ask again.

Half term for the family at Bishops Stortford before son goes back to ballet school. Definitely want to support a young British company

Our son has just got splits - but couldn't all the way through year 7 and into year 8. And we too remember seeing very flexible boys at auditions as well, it was sometimes quite intimidating!

loose T-Shirts or hoodies/fleeces for our son. And as has been said, once dancing they don't stay on for long.

Here's a nice piece from ITV central about the Swan Lake this week, that includes Celine and Tyrone talking about their experiences, alongside a lad from Elmhurst School for Dance talking about inclusivity. http://itv.co/PWMiHM

We had a great time at SF Ballet last night - programme B ( courtsey of some last minute tickets - thankyou SO much). First thought was how young they all seemed. But then also, how fresh the dancing was. Personally, I like a ballet that has some form of easy to follow narrative, that involves me, so I enjoyed the middle movement of Trio the most. My wife preferred the incredible Guide to Strange Places - indeed an incredible score, a genre of music I need to get used to. Almost as enjoyable was watching the orchestra as well as the dancers (if you can imagine doing so as there was so much activity going on actually on-stage). The patterns drawn onstage were perplexing sometimes for me in their complexity. Ghosts left me a little disengaged. I think having seen the hypnotic, mesmerising Mariinski 'Shades' and the Royal 'Wilis' means I need to adjust my expectations of spectral representations. Maybe I am just a little too literal at this stage in our continuing ballet educaiton. but it was a super evening - I have yet to be disappointed by an evening at the ballet (your time will come, I am sure some of you will be thinking), and SF Ballet were fantastic.

i think there are a number of schools that have adult classes, and adult performances. In places where we have loved, I can think of the London School of Russian Ballet, that has a well established adults programme. In Harlow, the harlow School of Ballet have adult classes, and contributes to the Chelsea-ballet.com - I think - and they put on performances. then you have the other larger studies on London - Dance Attic, Danceworks, Pineapple etc and I am sure there are more. I don't know about other cities as I haven't lived there! as for dance in schools Porthesia... I reckon that's a good idea, especially for boys (as I have a dancing son). There are some good programmes around. Forest Hill Boys school is one of the few that has an established dance programme and 2 super dance teachers. There may be more such things in the pipeline!

maybe Plan A should be thought of as your local school, plus dance classes and summers schools and so on. Then do the open days, auditions and such like and if they work out with a funded place, then that's excellent and Plan A can be shelved. But if lots of hope is put on vocational school and it doesn't work out for whatever reason, there will always be that negative thought in the back of your minds. so go to the open days and take a look - lots of good advice above. Make it clear to your daughter that without an award, it isn't possible, which is why THIS is plan B, not plan A. And chat to parents of current boarders. You will always get different takes on the experience (our DS loved every minute of it, but it is still a wrench dropping him off - we take comfort in the fact that he is having a great time), but if the boarding at vocational school does come about, there is lots of advice on here! there are some very experienced parents who have had children go all the way through the system and have good advice.

Dance school of scotland would have been my suggestion as well - they do boarding during the week as well as all the academic work.

we always used to ask specifc questions about toics rather than general 'how are you feeling?' 'are you feeling better?' type of questions. that usually got him talking about classes, other students, teachers, food, anything really! and that seemed to help. We also tried not to say that we were missing him, whilst letting him know we cared about him. House parents were always useful to talk to, but be prepared for them to possibly give a completely different version to that you hear on the phone from your child. Not saying they either don't care, or that your child is overplaying things, it is just that there are always two different views on how someone is feeling. Probably somwehere in the middle is the actual case. I do hope everything settles down. It is difficult those first few weeks away from home. It's also difficult for us having them away those first few weeks (although i am missing DS a lot at the moment after such a good summer and that's after 2 years at school)

Hi Julie from past experience, taping my own ankle (even doing so with nice mutipore tape and using guidance on the correct positioning) led to worse biomechanical prolems as the ankle started to rely on the tape rather than the muscle. I have problems even now, many many years later with that same foot and still have to do daily exercises to relieve pain and enable me to wallk and run (strangely, through running on my forefeet, 'barefoot running', I have no pain at all now, whereas I always do for walking). so my advice is get it seen by a physio and relieve what might be an underlying problem that could evidence itself in any form of dancing. If it is weak on pointe, then it will still be weak for tap etc and who knows what other biomechanical damage might occur through over compensation.

as the saying goes - if you want something done, ask a busy person! enjoy the dance and the studies. I am sure given your motivation, you will be fine. After all, you are doing two things you really enjoy, an enviable position. the journey continues...

lots of info for ballet dads too. As we started our ballet journey, all the comments (even the ones we didn't agree with on 'doing dance'!!!!) were useful.

And this just appeared on my twitter feed https://www.facebook.com/AllIAmFilm All I Am - featuring Soares and Nunez with choreo by Scarlett and filming now for release in 2013 - one to look forward to maybe?

Here's one it seems almost no-one has seen. From Russia in 2011, it's semi-autobiographical and features boys dancing in the Bolshoi School. However, it's more Billy Elliot during Perestoika than documentaryl. It's called Moi Papa Baryshnikov, which translates as My Dad's Baryshnikov. The story though is not at all 'Elliotish'. Take a look at the trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMQhl2C00cA And also the pretty good review from Variety - http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117945570/ Edited to add- there are some BE similarities, pirouettes in the bathroom anyone?

the school my daughter - aged 12 (and older son when he is home from vocational school) currently go to do no grades whatsoever. One of the two schools they went to in London did no grades at all. They're doing alright without the grades and actually enjoy the lessons more. They also don't have the stress of the gradings.

I think the TV coverage has had some issues. The Organising comittee doesn't award the TV rights just to one company, but each event seems to be covered by a different country. So the road racing was covered by Belgians I believe, the Gymnastics by another country and so on. I suppose in this way the pictures don't concentrate on one team against all the others, annoying the rest of the world! and then once an aspect of the live coverage has finished, the home broadcasters can choose which 'repeat' images or interviews they show. So in the Gymnastics, UK viewers could see Team GB repeats and interviews, US viewers, Team USA repeats, Ukraine - Ukraine repeats etc etc.

what usually happens in the UK with regards to time differences is that the event is shown live for those who want to stay up late/get up early/take a sickie off work! Then this is followed by a highlights programme later in the day. With Social media being around now of course, you would have to shut that off (including NBC's live tweets about the events). It was a shame about the USA missing Akram Khan and Emile Sande's tribute to those who lost their lives in the 7/7 bombings, and to others who couldn't be at the event. I was imagining attendees thinking at that point about friends and loved ones who couldn't be there. I know I was thinking about my Dad.

I was only joking about the speeding up! But i also agree that the camera work could have been better.