Pas de Quatre

I wonder if the contracts are being offered early to pre-empt offers from other interested ADs.

Also works on glass vases.

Yes, just found out about the young lady via dd. Been expecting it for years!

Where did find this out Lindsay, are you able to say who it is?

Yes, Spanner, the link was the late Christopher Gable. Although his wife (widow) still teaches at Central it does seem the link is not as strong as it used to be.

They've had this on their site for some time now - certainly before this year, which is when they had the first batch of ballet graduates, so I've taken it to be for the Conservatoire in general, not specifically the "Modern Ballet" BA course.

Found this the other day on Royal Conservatoire of Scotland's website under "Overview". Their BA programme started in 2009.

"Our first cohort of students is about to graduate, with several going straight into the profession with contracts from the likes of the Vienna Festival Ballet, the National Theatre of Scotland, and Northern Ballet."

That is dreadful, 2dancersmum. However to redress the balance, I would like to tell you of my experience. Before DD, I lost a baby at 12 weeks and had to go into hospital for a D & C. When I was able to start teaching again all the pupils' mums were so supportive, many said "It happened to me too," or else to their sister or their neighbour. It was so helpful to feel I was part of a community.

Congratulations - so she obviously wanted an easy life!!! Vet school, medical school, just as hard to get into as Vocational schools. Any other challenging professions your dks are aiming for?

After experimenting, I have decided to stick with baby wipes/soap and water to clean, and foundation to touch up - which is what I have always done. However, calamine did help on drawstring casing and the elastics. Hfbrew, do you mean the wax cleans the shoe, or protects it from the beginning?

I know many people use calamine lotion on pointe shoes - but has anyone ever tried it on pink leather shoes to make them look cleaner/prettier. Do you think it would stick or just flake off?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRd4etYhBfA

Just happened across this link - Ballet News had posted it on fb. Example of "Courus" is Margot Fonteyn's entry at approx 24 mins 21 secs

Another wonderful resource for all teachers and serious students is the book "Classical Ballet Technique" by Gretchen Ward Warren. With photos illustrating every step, she analyses classical technique and give the different names and ways of doing steps in different ballet styles/methods.

 

I was taught the steps in a similar way to those she describes, pas de bourrée suivi (shortened to bourrées) is the smooth sequence of tiny steps in a well crossed 5th, leading with the back foot e.g. Myrtha's 2nd act entrance in Giselle. Pas de bourrée couru (shortened to courus) is in parallel or only slightly turned out 1st position on pointe (or demi) and is a fast run staying on pointe either forwards or backward e.g. used by soloists in Les Sylphides.

 

Edited to try to correct font, don't know why it is like this.

Spanner, that's a question that has often been asked before, are other schools not applying, or just not getting accepted?

I don't think they've released the names of those chosen yet - it isn't on the website.

If it is a school where there is a later audition for funding/scholarships, then usually you can accept the place paying the registration fee (which you might lose if you don't take up the place), but legitimately say that you will not pay the full deposit - often several hundred pounds - as you do not know if you can take up the place until you have funding secured.

Can anyone recommend a fragrance free detergent? Up to now I have been using Waitrose own brand which had minimal perfume, but they have now an "improved" version which is way too smelly - DH gets the sneezes with too much perfume.

 

I have found a detergent called Surcare which is fragrance free, but it contains optical brighteners which can act like bleach. So I am happy to use it for whites, but not coloured items.

 

Does anyone know of any good products?

Best wishes to you, and I hope you will see a way forward. It is not the end of the road, you explored one route, but found it wasn't for you. There's a saying - one door closes and another one opens.

It's dated November 2009 on the opening credits.

It says at the beginning that it is taking place in Livorno, (known as Leghorn in England) in Italy. But it also says audition for Royal Ballet School of London. I agree with everyone above, RBS would never release such a film. Only scenario I can think of is that perhaps there was an RBS outreach event going to take place there, and these were local auditions to see who would be put forward?

We have a similar version regarding cans of drink. When we go to the beach we open one at a time and share the contents between plastic glasses. This started because when dd was very little she managed to kick over a can that was planted in the sand, beside the rug. She was so startled by everyone's reaction, she jumped and managed to knock the rest over! A friend's child managed to do a similar thing with a plate of doritos!

Legat have some scholarships too. Unusually they are either from Year 9 or 6th form.

That sounds really good. Does anyone remember the Royal Ballet's small group "Ballet for All" which used to tour to smaller theatres with a handful of dancers, to explain about classical ballet and show extracts? I've often wondered why this approach hasn't been revived in recent years when "outreach" is so popular (or even a condition of funding in some cases I believe).

Actually, on second thoughts I'm not sure if the 4th year of funding does apply to post grad MA or just to a 4th year of a BA - sometimes people need to repeat a year.

Yes, that's why it is so confusing. Historically in Europe many companies had a few apprentices who were paid a bit less than the corps de ballet, but still a living wage. As taximom explains, there is now the post grad scheme, through LCDC, but you are still a student paying for tuition, so I think the label "apprentice" is a bit misleading. But if the dancer has only received 3 years funding on a degree course, then they can still receive a 4th year of student loans. Many of these apprentices do get hired by the company they are working with eventually.