hfbrew

Having talked to my DS about recent posts on Tring he has named a few students who successfully moved to sets more suited to their preferences (ie jazz,ballet or contemporary.) He s also told me that recently students were given the opportunity to specify their preferred genres but the vast majority decided to stick to their more all round training.

That said the ballet students successfully petitioned for an extra ballet class per day and got it...some days consisted of 2 ballet classes + classical pas de deux and either pointe work or virtuosity.

I have found the standard of ballet teaching very high with plenty of opportunities to perform and do competitions.(In last years international Cecchetti competition Tring Park had more finalists than any other vocational school.) Of these, two have professional ballet contracts, so do two of the girls who didn't make the final.

I will say though that before entering any school you must ask as many question as possible, if they are not answered to your satisfaction, don't go. If you are not interested in being a "triple threat" (ie competent at baller,jazz and contemporary) and are lucky enough to have a choice of schools then choose one of the ones that have a guaranteed classical bias such as Elmhurst. As Julie posted earlier their graduates have done very well!

My DS has sometimes hankered after Elmhurst but says he doesn't regret his choice as he felt that he needed broaden his dance abilities for todays competitive job market. He also wanted to do A levels and learn to sing. Now he has a classical contract but feels confident enough to explore other avenues of performing work should the opportunity arise!

Phew! Thats a lot of travelling! Maybe thats what put her dad off? It certainly sounds to me that you would all certainly have far more useful family time if your DD was settled in one place. And theres school work to consider, secondary schools in my experience are not generally supportive when it comes to juggling academic work and ballet lessons. This is where the boarding schools come into their own. We certainly found that DS was actually covering a lot of work within lessons (small class sizes mean no excuse for lazing at the back) so he usually found it very easy to complete prep in the supervised hour allowed. His day was done and dusted by 7.30ish, a big contrast to my students still doing after school classes and the going home to hours of homework!

I know my dd attended the lower school at Tring that year but I hadnt realised that quite so many students had chosen to go to other schools to further their dance training especially when there is a MT course available at the school. Do you have any idea where the 3rd year graduating students went to from the year before. I was rubbish at trying to find where the graduating students went after their 3rd year.

This year (2011-12) is the 1st year that 3rd year has been available so there won't be previous statistics altough I believe that there were a small handful around last year who were unofficial third years. I agree Tring should keep better records because the employment rate is actually not bad at all. Some of the students have already decided not to continue dancing but quite a few others have already got jobs, either commercially or with companies such as Cape Town or BTUK.

Well it was me in our family who strongly thought that you should not send a child away at 11 and not WL " over my dead body". And thats from someone in the business!

But it was turned round by a headteacher collegue who pointed out that I was not sending DS away, because it was he who wanted to go. She also wisely pointed out what I would do if he turned around at 18 and ask why he wasn't given the chance. Furthermore my husband still gets very upset about the fact that he wasn't even allowed to try for a prestigious school (not ballet) when he was 11 despite being virtually guaranteed funding so he was not going to hold his own son back.

Suggest you find out exactly why your DH has concerns and also just how much DD wants to go! If he hasn't already done so then I suggest he visits the schools and asks as many questions as possible. I did this and was even allowed to speak privately to the boarders.

Remember you don't cease to be a parent if your child goes away to school, in some ways you become more of one because time with your offspring become more wisely spent (I know I would have nagged more had he been at home!). You are also allowing them to spread their wings safe in the knowledge that they can always come back if it doesn't work out.

Good luck.

Oh I've been lurking for some time!!!

And like Julie I've always knew that my DS may not actually become a ballet dancer still less make a living from it!

And I was right about the making a living part but to see the joy in him as he prepares for his first professional performance is just brilliant - 8 years of hard training coming to fruition at last. And he is soooo happy, you can't put a price on it.

Just wondering whether I can tentively step off the roller coaster now...

Well my DS insists he had the best training and is rather indignant about the fuss over the fact that this year no one who had been through RBS from yr 7 got into the company. He says that they are all still getting jobs afterall and many look forward to going abroad to join other British dancers worldwide. And I have heard in the past of RBS graduates preferring to work in smaller companies as soloists rather than as corps in RBS!

As it happens no one from his year got assessed out in year 7 and they really do try to avoid this. And a high proportion did go through all 5 years and all of those went on to further training though not necessarily Upper School. Admittedly some of those have now given up but the majority have now either got jobs or are still in training thus fulfilling the promise shown when they were 11.

My DS point is also that a British dancer did get into the company having been funded by MDS, even if she didn't go to WL.

Don't be scared about dance in the UK, we are so lucky to have so many brilliant places to train - thank goodness because different places suit different students. And all places have highs and lows but isn't that what prepares you for life?

I would also like to say that being assessed out is not the end of the road, just a different path by way of training at a place more suitable to a particular students needs. Indeed one of my DS closest friends was in this situation and ended up being one of the first of that particular set to secure a contract.

And I don't know of anyone who regrets being given the chance to follow the dream, but I do know three people who bitterly resent their parents for not allowing them the same opportunities. All three showed promise as dancers but dutifully followed the academic, university path demanded by their well meaning parents. And all three have abandoned their more lucrative law profession in favour of dance!

One of the reasons why my DS chose to finish his training with Tring was to broaden his range of dance styles in order to improve job opportunities. It wasn't easy but the fact that he got all the way to the final 7 in an audition for purely contemporary dancers speaks for itself.

What I noticed as a dance teacher myself is that he and the other"ballet bods" did not look as out of place doing jazz as the "jazz bods" did doing ballet.