Pas de Quatre

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.

Following on from the thread about graduate contracts I thought it might be useful to open a more general discussion. Some lucky dancers do find a job on graduation, but many more are left considering their options. There are various "finishing" years, graduate companies and apprenticeships that new graduates can apply for - normally selection is by audition. Once upon a time apprenticeships were paid, and although it was less than a full member of the company, it was still a living wage. These paid apprenticeships appear to be an endangered species though, and most apprenticeships these days are a placement as part of a post-graduate diploma or MA. Not only do you have to pay for the privilege, but student loans are not available, so living costs have to be found somehow. It is a constantly evolving field, so it would be helpful if anyone else has more information to contribute.

I'll second that hfbrew, it is the mums and dads who make it possible for their DKs to follow their crazy dreams! I was once the child with the crazy dream and now am both mum to one & teacher to many!

I would be delighted to be wrong, but I understood Phoenix apprenticeships were under Northern Contemporary Ballet School's post graduate diploma placement, (similar to those through LCDS) and Springs company doesn't pay apprentices.

Congratulations to all. However, just to clarify (please don't think I am contradicting you Tulip), several of those from Central are further training rather than jobs. The ballet schools, universities and the apprenticeships are fee paying (unless on scholarship), not salary earning.

There always seem to be a few, in particular at ENB and Tring, both of whom hold auditions abroad. Also Royal Conservatoire of Scotland has a "foreign" allocation. When they first started in September 2009, as a teacher I enquired, and was told they had 12 places for UK/EU candidates and 8 for the rest of the world. But the numbers may have changed since then.

It is a nice article but nothing new. Basically saying how "sunny" she is, but that she has proved she has a more dramatic side in recent roles. And that now that Alina, Tamara & Leanne have left she is the senior ballerina. Then a bit about the new production of Don Q, which is really the PR purpose of the article I think.

I think it would be an excellent idea for John Neumeier's company to marketed in UK as "The Hamburger Ballet", think of the press coverage. It could also be done for "The Frankfurter Ballet"!

That's just the Scottish establishment being particularly anti the rest of the UK - it is the same for any English/Welsh/Northern Irish student who wishes to go a Scottish University. I don't know how they get away with it!

They are free to all EU students (or were when we looked). Not sure about the rest of the world though.

At audition preparation days they usually recommend that dancers try to wear the same leotard for the photos as they will wear in the audition - and yes a nice flattering colour makes for easy identification.

It is an excellent school. DD applied several years ago. It was the year Rambert School asked for a DVD of the dancer to accompany the application form. So we filmed one. (However with the subsequent outcry, Rambert dropped this requirement.) As we had the DVD already we decided to sent a copy to Stuttgart. The only trouble was, they replied by e-mail saying they couldn't get it to play, and could we send a different format. So if you do go this route, try to find a format that is universal. Anyway, DD had by then accepted a place at a Vocational School in UK, so we didn't take it any further.

In our area, it is considered a matter of professional etiquette among the better teachers not to accept a new pupil unless it has been confirmed that they have given notice correctly to their previous school.

Exams have absolutely no relevance to who will be selected by Vocational schools. It is entirely possible for an able, well trained dancer, to get quite high marks in exams but still not have the physique and potential for being a professional dancer that the schools are looking for.

I was at one of the group showings for teachers, and the general reaction was one of dismay. Although we have only seen excerpts, if the rest is in a similar vein I think it is very disappointing. The solos are very poorly choreographed and I too think it is "everything but the kitchen sink". In ballet as in music or literature there is an internal logic and syntax, even in very modern works. If the RAD wanted challenging solos, then they would have done better to use ones from the established repertoire or else commission good choreographers to produce new ones. This combined with the overbearing CPD requirements will, I am sure lead to many teachers questioning whether it is worth continuing with RAD.