Lifeafterballet

1 hour ago, exdancer said:

If you don’t mind me asking what course was this in? Is this in one listed by @Allwrong? Just trying to get some information 

BSc Sport Rehabilitation 

I know of lots of ex vocational students who have gone on to study a variety of subjects at University with funding. 

2 hours ago, exdancer said:

Hi everyone, I graduated 2 years ago with a Level 6 Diploma in Professional Dance from Trinity College London with the help of DADA funding. I’m now looking at going into something completely different and going to university to study a degree unrelated to ballet. My question is would it still be possible to access student finance for my university degree even though I already have my diploma? I have read multiple topics on here on the matter and there’s not one straight answer: some say you can and some say you can’t!! Any advice would be helpful thanks!

My daughter graduated with a Level 6 Trinity Diploma and 2 A levels and had DaDa funding. She is now in her 3rd year of her University Degree with funding for tuition fees and a maintenance. So the answer is yes. 
Good luck 😊

Dar Danse, Wellsaway. I believe that Francesca Filpi moved her teaching to Cadiz in Spain. Not sure if it’s still running.

Dar Danse in Morocco was amazing 🤩 

19 hours ago, sunrise81 said:

Well......truly priced out of applying for RBS now. £950 for what is 5 days of training?!!! I have read that correct haven't I? They have put their dates out for summer on their website:(

My husband refused to pay when Dd got a place and it was £550 then. He said it was a very expensive audition 🤣 

Save your money, you will need it for all the auditions later. 

Estonian National Ballet run a summer intensive for Professional and pre professional and have just added a youth section too. 
There is accommodation provided and the classes are held in the opera house studios where the company train. 
We haven’t done it personally but I’m sure someone else can give feedback. 

1 hour ago, Kat09 said:

My Ex DD left vocational school a term before graduation - left with nothing - a devastating time but let’s FF 5 years.

After some hospitality and a ski season in the alps, a second ski season and subsequent Covid took her to enrol on line for some digital marketing courses/diplomas - not university and not OTT expensive. From these she was offered a digital marketing apprenticeship- not completed as tbh she recognised it was not helpful.

On walking away, she was offered a marketing entry level position with a local company , 1 year later she made the move back to London to a well known estate agency chain - digital marketing executive. 18 months on and she’s just landed an amazing marketing management position at Sothebys Residential - I’m so so proud of her - she was broken by the ballet system and has put herself back together, she can recognise the transferable skill that her ballet training gave her and has utilised those to great affect. She harbours no bitterness or regret for her time at BS (me , that’s another matter!)

The drive that took her to ballet school has returned - there is definitely life after the ballet - just go and grab it - your training and experiences are greatly valued by future employers. 😊

So so pleased that your daughter is loving life after ballet. 
I totally get the part that she harbours no bitterness or regret for her time at BS. My daughter was also physically and mentally damaged by ballet and it has taken time for her to reflect and heal but she too holds no bitterness.

It’s a wonderful quality to just let it go.
But as you say it’s more difficult for us parents. I’m not bitter, I just wish I had done some things differently. 

32 minutes ago, Jewel said:

Lifeafterballet.  I'd really like to ask you some specific questions about your daughter's degree  & the application process but you are not accepting messages

My inbox might be full. I’ll change that 😊 Bear with … 

7 hours ago, Kerfuffle said:

Is that so for any degree or just the ones to do with health, computer science or architecture (from the list)? 

We were told by my daughters ballet school that the DaDa is a totally separate pot of money from student finance and that she would not be limited in her choice of degree subjects because of it. 
This was one of the reasons she opted to stay on at that particular school for 6th form and not go to a degree one. She didn’t want dance to be the only degree she ever had as it was always her intention to change pathway completely.

My son is currently a professional ballet dancer in Europe with the same qualifications and was DaDa funded too. 
In the country he is in, degrees are free to all EU passport holders and for those that are not they average about £3000 a year for tuition fees. That’s a third cheaper than the debt his sister is running up 🤣 He not coming back to the U.K. to study. 

45 minutes ago, Peanut68 said:

Can I please ask if it was DaDa funding for Upper School or a continuation of MDS funding from having been at lower school? My understanding is MDS - even if in US - does not hinder student loan eligibility but DaDa funding might….

And very pleased things have worked out so well for your offspring & congrats to them & good luck on their journey x

She had an MDS for lower school and DaDa for Upper. I know lots of children who graduated and went on to study at University with funding. The DaDa doesn’t affect eligibility for a funded degree. My belief is that if you have gone on to study the second part of the Trinity Diploma that turns it into a degree then it does. 

4 minutes ago, Peanut68 said:

I do believe subject choice can have sone bearing… certainly funding is possible for midwifery & other medical related degrees I understand…. Lifesfterballet - you mention your DD is doing a Bsc… is this also healthcare related possibly? 
Congrats to your offspring with achieving their post ballet academic studies! 

BSc in Sport Rehabilitation. It’s not classed as Healthcare and she doesn’t get the £5,000 per year bursary that the Physiotherapy, Nursing etc students get. 
She always talked of wanting to go to University post ballet and Covid just made it happen quicker. It proved to be a god send really and letting ballet go was the best decision she ever made. 

18 minutes ago, Petit Jete said:

 

Sorry! That is meant to say that I have no idea if this post is helpful or not! My daughter graduated with a Level 6 Trinity College Diploma after 3 years on a full DADA Award. She performed and worked professionally as a dancer for 8 years and then applied to University to do a BA course and needed full funding. This she got easily through student finance, it was no hassle whatsoever & very straight forward. You can most definitely access student finance if you have already had a DADA award. Hope this is helpful.  

My daughter is currently in her final year of her BSc after graduating from a ballet school with 2 A levels and a Level 6 Trinity Diploma in Professional Dance. She was DaDa funded and she also had no trouble accessing a student loan for tuition fees and a maintenance grant 😊

14 minutes ago, Ruby Foo said:

Thank you for sharing this Peanut. I can empathise and know these issues don’t just disappear when you leave the school or the world of ballet. They are with you  in some context for a lifetime.

My Dd thought it was completely normal that a teacher never looked or corrected her in class. It was only when I asked her how she liked that certain teacher that she said ‘ oh that teacher never looks or corrects anyone except ? and ? , it’s the same every week. ‘ The rest of us know to work for ourselves in her class on things that we know need to be better because she doesn’t even give us a glance.

The quiet kind of abuse that the students accept as part of the course.

I wonder if this is the same teacher that was at YBSS and only acknowledged the pupils from her school 🤔

Luke Jennings described ballet as a “cult” and I am in total agreement.

Its not only the child that gets pulled into that world but the parents too. 
And, in my experience and the mum of two children who attended a school in the Panorama program, the more successful your child is deemed to be, the more blinded you are to the reality of what is happening and you start trying to justify and defend behaviours that are hurtful and damaging. 
It’s only when you and your child leave that world that the fog clears and you acknowledge the failings. But by then it’s too late to address the issues and you walk either bitterly away or quietly make peace with it. 
The Panorama program for us brought a lot of buried feelings to the surface as I’m sure it did for many past pupils and parents. 
 

51 minutes ago, Anna C said:

Absolutely.  In addition to “possibly traumatised”, you can add any or all of these:  depression, anxiety, loss of confidence, loss of any remaining self-esteem, body dysmorphia and/or eating disorders, physical injuries, and grief for a life/career they will now no longer have.  Plus the (sometimes temporary) loss of the love of dance itself.  
 

It’s heartbreaking.
 

 

All of the above 👆 

1 hour ago, Janeparent said:

Elmhurst only offer two A’ levels (from a very limited choice of subjects) which, as has been pointed out, isn’t usually enough for university entry. The only place which offers three, with a good range of subject options, is Tring. 

It does all depend on the Degree that the student with only 2 A levels is applying for. 
My daughter, and others in her year group, were very successful with University offers after A levels. 
It’s hard work to manage 2 A Levels, a Trinity Diploma and full time vocational ballet training. I can’t really see how you could do 3 😅 Something would have to give. 

Body shaming from teachers / adults is unacceptable and damaging but more prevalent from a child’s peers in my experience. 
Ballet students are not only under intense scrutiny of the teachers and themselves but from each other. 
Being judged, gossiped about, isolated and shunned is devastating. 
Snide comments about weight, your peers not wanting to stand next to you at the bar or in the centre or go to lunch with you. 
Their fear that you will ‘trigger’ them. 

Being the ‘thinnest’ girl, the one who the teacher singles out that they can have a donut and will stand a better chance of getting a contract, isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. 
It’s lonely 😞 

Im sad that wasn’t talked about in the documentary. 

19 minutes ago, Mummy twinkle toes said:

Do not forget these institutions, Elmhurst in particular, have nurses who are accountable for their actions and omissions. Where were the nurses and doctors when these particular children were becoming ill? Teachers may not necessarily have the knowledge to manage but mental health nurses should.

Elmhurst employed a Registered Mental Health Nurse in one of these young ladies graduating year. So only one ex student on this documentary had access to that kind of support and by then it would have been too late. Prior to that the Medical Centre was run by a General Nurse. 
 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001qdt6

😢

8 hours ago, Peanut68 said:

A couple of indirect things on this thread that I’m curious about….wondering if there was support from the UK vocational school to enter YAGP… did the school select & enter pupil & assist with coaching & financing? 
 

Not at all.

The first time we went to YAGP Paris was on a scholarship that was offered at the Cecchetti International Ballet Competition which my daughter was entered into by her vocational school. They weren’t very happy about it but we went. Then when she made NY Finals there was nothing, no support, advise, coaching, help with costumes etc. The opportunities she was offered there and went too were classed originally as unauthorised leave until we took it up with the principal.
Already being on the naughty list 🤣 we went again in graduate year, we love Paris, and got some fabulous footage of her solos which she used for her company applications. At the time the school offered no help at all with filming. The students did it all themselves in the studio at the weekends with an iPhone and tripod. But that wasn’t allowed either 😏 due to health and safety. 
Travelling to different countries and meeting new people are the happiest memories we have of her vocational school time. 

She also did 2 weeks at Houston Ballet Academy. Invitation from YAGP. This was during their term time. She stayed with the full time students in the accommodation which is in the same building as the studios. 
She found it very restrictive being inside 24/7. It wasn’t for her.
Again though she made some lovely friends, 3 of which she met up with recently when she visited her brother at his ballet company in Europe. It’s a small world really 😊 

My daughter did a summer intensive at The Harid Conservatory in Boca Raton, Florida. She won a scholarship to attend at YAGP finals in New York. 
A couple of days after she had flown home we received an email offering her a year round place with a scholarship. It would have worked out considerably cheaper than her DaDa in the U.K. but we gave her the choice and she decided to stay at her ballet school. Good job she did as the A levels she took came in very handy when Covid hit in her graduate year and she decided to go to University. 

She made some wonderful friends and got an insight into training abroad. 
Harid select a lot of their students through their intensive. 

Most probably as a result of her poor diet, she developed hormone problems and did not menstruate until a doctor intervened and put her on the pill at age 24.
 

The pill is not the answer sadly 😞 

Missing those teenage development milestones is hugely detrimental to bone density and fertility. 
All the bone health supplements in the world won’t repair the damage, just hopefully stop it getting any worse. 
Just like with this dancer, Covid saved my daughter from continuing to harm her body and start on her recovery journey. 
This should be taught and talked about openly in our vocational schools. 

Most U.K. upper schools offer the Trinity Diploma in Professional Dance level 6.

It is completed over the duration of the 3 years and is 18 months of a degree that can be topped up later. Both my children did it. It sounds better than it is. The dissertation they submitted in 6:3 didn’t even have to be referenced 😳 

Now Dd is at University we realise that it wasn’t particularly of a high standard. 
That’s just our opinion, others may disagree 😊