Pas de Quatre

In that case congratulations to Zamora his solo in the Pas de Trois was excellent!

Fine, we went up to the Circle quite early so obviously missed it, but looking at Zamora's photo in the programme I am not wholly convinced it was him. Does anyone else know?

I second everything Meunier says about the performance. Just one quibble - my cast list says Ali was danced Vadim Muntagirov, and it certainly looked like him!

Have just come back from Southampton and loved the production! Excellent dancing, beautiful costumes, jolly music and very clever use of frontcloths, backcloths, lighting and scrims to make different scenes. Doesn't matter who is dancing (although we all have our favourites of course) - just go and see it!

The last intake of 16 year olds for LSC was in 2009. So they graduated last year, 2102. From 2010 onwards it became post 18 years, so the first batch of graduates was this summer.

Dance-Passion, my reaction would have been the same as yours, with a second idea the same as Anjuli. However, having a little longer to think about it than you had, I wonder if her "drop" was meant to be "tombé", this would then be a tombé en arriere extending the front leg to degagé or en l'air devant.

On Southwest Trains website they have two-for-one offers for various exhibitions and shows in London. Le Corsaire is one so check it out.

Saturday matinee.

Glad to see it is so colourful - I thought the posters rather monochrome, or even drab! Looking forward to seeing it at Southampton next week.

Agreed - Moderators you all do a splendid job. We are all passionate about ballet and dance, so it is not surprising if sometimes discussions get a little heated. It is because we care! So thanks for sorting us out!

I love this version of Swan Lake, as well as more traditional ones and am looking forward to seeing it live. What always blows me away is how "dancey" the Swans are - I just want to join in. Whatever arguments people may have for and against reworking the classics, Matthew Bourne's work is always a brilliant musical interpretation. Although I admire much of Matt Eks work, I cannot watch his Giselle as it is so against the feel of the music.

I am really looking forward to seeing this in Southampton. Only time I can go is the Saturday matinee - so I was amazed and delighted to see that Tamara Rojo is dancing Medora for that performance! OK, so younger dancers do need to be given opportunities, but it is so refreshing to have such an illustrious dancer at a matinée rather than a novice.

Catch this if you can. I saw it last week at Pavilion Dance in Bournemouth. It is a new purpose built small performance theatre, but with the amazing set and lighting became a true Gothic pile! The dancing was fabulous, very powerful technique and interpretation - not for children though!

What a pity so much of the performance was disappointing. I saw Monolith last year and did like it, so I am glad you did too.

Brilliant news!

Best wishes, hope your ds makes a full recovery quickly. I am sure both the school and the hospital will be very vigilant.

This seems strange, as the gap between contemporary and ballet has narrowed these days and each borrows from the other. The main Contemporary schools and Conservatoires all still have ballet classes along side the contemporary classes in the different techniques, Graham, Cunningham, Limon, Release etc. etc..

I wouldn't worry about compromising technique with this class at school - it won't be that demanding and your dd should find it very easy. In the past my pupils who have done GCSE dance at school have told me that a lot of the marks are for group work. They are divided into small groups and have to invent moves and produce joint choreography. That I should think is why it is essential for your dd to do the class.

Is it Lisa Howell's Perfect Pointe system?

Susyzoo - your post sounds a bit like conversations with my DD. We may have made mistakes along the way, but each time we made the best decision we could with the information we had at that time! Hindsight is wonderful, 20/20 vision. And your spelling is spot on!

Thanks for posting this Janet. I passed it on to my dd and she is taking part. Will let you know how it goes.

You are correct taxi4ballet, all RAD exam candidates have to be registered in advance by the teacher - so usually it is done at the beginning of the academic year, when the RAD sends out its list to each teacher of their own registered pupils so they can amend or update it. The exam results then go on the teacher's record which is why teachers can be reluctant to enter borderline candidates. Dance boards whether ballet or other genres such as modern & tap have their own syllabus which the teachers have to learn. There are teachers' courses which are usually arranged regionally, so nearly all teachers in any one area teaching the same syllabus will know each other, and their relationships may date back decades. Then for examinations, teachers are encouraged to co-operate, e.g. a school may host other teacher's candidates during its exam sessions if the others don't have the minimum number of hours to run their own session. Sharing pianists is another area of co-operation, although now more and more recorded music is permitted in exams. So it is not a sinister conspiracy, rather teachers value the relationships they have with each other and do not wish to cause upset. It is not so much that the old teacher doesn't want to let you go, but does the new teacher want to accept you?

The physio examinations are usually to investigate beyond the ballet movements to check the underlying physique. In some schools they ask all candidates they are interested in to have an examination, in others it is just dancers where there is a particular thing they want to check. This may be related to hypermobile joints, or the contrary, is restricted mobility in a certain area constrained by an underlying structure or will the dancer be able to respond to intensive training.

In addition to those Ribbons mentions there are Northern Ballet Academy, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Ballet West and also from next year the new school of Ballet Theatre UK. There are not that many classical ballet jobs, so one option is to branch out into Contemporary or Jazz., possibly with extra training along the way. Then there will also be the graduates from Laban, London Contemporary Dance School and Northern Contemporary Dance School auditoning for Contemporary apprenticeships & jobs, and Laines, Birds, Urdang, Kate Simmons and others for the Jazz route, cruise ships, West End etc. So anyone who has a contract in any of the fields has done really well.

I wonder if in time the schools like Elmhurst, ENB and Tring will convert their courses to BA degrees like Central & Rambert so that students can access loans.