Lifeafterballet

This new system and the statistics of how many children leave a particular school at the end of year 9 supports my personal belief and from experience that 11 is far too young to start vocational training. It’s a complete waste of money too 😏

My husband would kill me if I spent £30 on a book about ballet having spent over the best part of £100,00 on it 🤣

Aghhh it’s £30 😳

My Dd wasn’t “assessed out” of her vocational school and completed the full 8 years of ballet training. How we now wish she had been 😢 Rarely do children have the perfect physique and facility that classical ballet demands and when it’s their absolute dream and they are determined to succeed they will do anything to stay in. Our daughter from the age of 13/14, just before the first assessing out appraisal, started to abuse herself physically. She deliberately stopped herself growing and developing. It was calculated and controlled as she truly believed that this would help her achieve her dream. From that point on she became very successful. Rewarded you could say for her self harm. How can you convince a child that their actions are wrong and harmful when they are praised and rewarded. When we attended YAGP finals her belief was reinforced that what she was doing was necessary and working. In the masterclasses they all looked like her. I was shocked. It was the first time she hadn’t looked out of place with her age group. What can you do as a parent ? We felt so confused. She is a very intelligent girl, not mentally unwell, but so focused on her goal that she was willing to hurt herself to dance. The vocational school had no idea how to manage her. They just weighed and heighten her to with an inch of her life and punished her by threatening to stop her dancing if she fell below their set BMI level. There was no psychological support, it was like it was a new phenomenon !!! They never ever asked her why ? I’m sure they feared the answer as her rationale for her actions was in some ways justified by the outcome. We privately got her to see a psychologist who following the assessment concluded that the problem was ballet. She was just so driven to achieve. I feel very sad to read about these 13/14 year old girls who have been assessed out of their ballet school for various reasons. If your child has to force themselves to be a certain way to stay in that school then I feel more sorry for those as we personally know all too well the long term damage that this causes 😢The road to recovery from such choices and that particular ballet journey is very long and hard. My dd once said that it appeared that everyone who had left her vocational school seemed far more healthier and happier than when they had been there. Maybe 🤔 being assessed out of a particular school / environment that demands perfection is a lucky escape. So sadly painful at the time but for the best in the long term. Dd and I talked the other day about how she may have looked now if it wasn’t for ballet. But you can’t undo the past but hope that others will be supported better in the future with their training.

Still available x

https://news.sky.com/story/17-former-gymnasts-take-legal-action-against-british-gymnastics-over-physical-and-psychological-abuse-12229193

https://news.sky.com/story/british-gymnastics-whyte-review-reveals-abusive-culture-as-young-people-starved-body-shamed-and-punished-12635062 More very sad reading about our young athletes 😢

I would tell her not to worry. My Dd attended YAGP finals in 2018 and her and Ds did Elmhurst summer intensive lots of times. In our experience a lot of children accept these awards / scholarships at the presentation evening and don’t actually attend. Elmhurst isn’t that well known internationally. Unless they are considering the school full time of course then that would warrant the vast expense of travel and accommodation which isn’t included. I don’t recall a lot of international students at the Elmhurst one but that was some time ago. Also, my Dd found the international students at YAGP, especially the US ones, very strong at variations and performance but not so strong within the class. So don’t feel intimidated 😊 there’s a reason that they seek British training 🤣 My Ds was 14 when he first attended Elmhurst SS. He had only been dancing 18 months, knew no one and was very nervous. At the end of the weeks sharing of work he looked very inexperienced compared to the other boys. But he had a fantastic time and learned so much as well as making friends that he is still in contact with today. I would say that Elmhurst is a lot less intimidating and less favourable towards certain students than others we have experienced.

Robert Parker attended the YAGP finals in Tampa this year and gave out summer intensive scholarships. That’s the most I’ve ever seen awarded. Pre competitive, juniors and seniors. The scholarships and contracts awarded all over the world can be found on you tube 😊

My Ds dances with a European ballet company and all of his colleagues that trained in Europe did so for free. They are horrified how much we had to pay for his, and his sisters, U.K. training. If I knew then what I know now…..

My Dd did 8 years of vocational ballet training. She had a contract with a ballet company in the US but couldn’t get there due to Covid and so changed direction. It was the best decision she ever made !!! She has just completed her first year at University and what a fantastic experience it has been for all of us 😊 The BSc required 3 A levels, she has 2 A levels and a Level 6 Trinity Diploma in Professional Dance. She emailed the course lead a year before she applied with her CV and he encouraged her to apply. He personally assessed her in her end of year exam and gave her 86%. He made a good call. It’s not necessarily the grades it’s the attitude, commitment and work ethic that shines through. Go for it !!! You can sometimes defer to a later date if other opportunities arise. The best of luck xx

I wonder if football parents pay for their ‘graduated’ football academy son or daughter to play with a club as ballet parents pay for their children to dance with a company ? I guess if you really make it in football you really make it £££ There is no real comparison to ballet wage wise 🤔

Poor physical and psychological management of injury I feel plays a huge part in this 😢

3 brand new, still in the packet, pairs of Grishko 2007 Pro Pointe shoes for sale. Medium shank, 4.5 XX. £30 each inc delivery.

My son did three As’s prior to US. Then he did two full A levels and the Trinity Diploma. He was very petite at 16 and had only been doing ballet for 4 years so wasn’t ready for full time. His older friends had come from another vocational school and a CAT scheme. 6:1 is year 12 or lower sixth.

My Ds was 17 and his friends, 17 and 18 years old on entry into 6:1 US.

Four dancers with Estonian National Ballet discuss their experiences of living, training and working abroad. Might be interesting or informative to those with schools / contracts outside the U.K. 😌

I would just message Kate and ask her for a quote as it all depends on what you want. She is very lovely 😊 I found her very reasonably priced compared to another professional photographer we had used. And the quality and time and attention to detail was fabulous.

When my daughter attended Paris YAGP we stayed in a fabulous Airbnb within walking distance of the Paris Opera Ballet School. There were lots to choose from. Just a suggestion 😁 The first time we went we stayed at the Mecure Hotel opposite the school. It was nice but quite expensive. The Airbnb was far cheaper x

I don’t recall any children being out of their year in lower school apart from international students and Scottish as a previous poster has mentioned. But in US students are offered a year group on their ballet training needs rather than their age. In Ds’s first year of US he and a girl were 17 and another boy was 18.

My Ds’s first ballet contract in the US paid a stip end of $1000 a month. This was liveable on but there was an initial outlay of about £2000 to just get him there and set up in an apartment etc. He was lucky to get as much as he did as others in the state only paid $400 a month. His second contract in Europe is corps and pays enough to live on and there is a top up show bonus which varies for different roles. The apprentices there only get the show bonus but are fully integrated into the main company and a majority gain a full corps contract after a year. So worth the investment.

Sold 😊

My Dd had a DaDa for upper school and is now at University with student funding. The DaDa does not affect it. Only if my Dd had gone on to turn the Trinity Diploma into a degree in Professional Dance then she would have not been entitled to a second funded degree.

I can only explain how Elmhurst told me how they allocate it. They said they do the audition and list the children from 1 to 20 say in order of who they want. They start at 1 and allocate them as much of the DaDa pot as they need, then they move onto 2, 3 and so on until the pot is empty. If a child in the list is over the threshold they are just offered a place. Unlike other USs Elmhurst’s accommodation is included in the Dada so no maintenance fees are needed. For us it worked out about the same contribution as when the children were on the MDS. The DaDa is not repayable and doesn’t affect your child applying for a student loan to attend university later on if they so choose. If a child who has been allocated money from the DaDa pot drops out that gets offered to the next in need of a DaDa student on the list.

There were 110 on the first date and 190 on the second a week later. There are pictures of the audition still on their Instagram site. January 20th 2020. They all arrived first thing to be informed which group of three they were in. Dd went first so not alphabetical. Over 35 crammed into a very small studio. I recall the audition was under an hour. No pointe work. Flats were dangerous enough 😅 I sat with other parents and later auditionees in the theatre cafe. After each section they put up a list of numbers that they wanted to see do a solo in the afternoon. Probably about 5 from each group. There seemed to be no particular type of dancer they were looking for. The girls from Dds school and others ranged from approx 5ft 1 to 5ft 9. Lots of international dancers. Very random. We didn’t hear of anyone we knew being offered a contract that year. In hindsight we should / could have stayed in Vienna and commuted. It would have made the experience more enjoyable 😄