Pas de Quatre

I really enjoyed the interview too. She sounds like a breath of fresh air. The first time I saw her dance was with ENB in Ben Stevenson's Three Preludes and I can still picture it clearly. I wish her every success in her new position.

As the Intermediate Foundation exam is optional, your dd could usefully go to the classes and learn the work without it necessarily leading to taking the exam. In the new syllabus IF really does provide a useful foundation for the Intermediate exam, many of the exercises are similar and you can see how the more difficult Intermediate builds on the work learnt in IF.

http://www.fitfordance.de/documents/gesunde_fuesse2_danceForYou-jul-aug-2004.pdf This is a link to a German article which was discussed on another board. I have German speaking (mother tongue) pupils so I will try to get a summary over the next few days.

There is another school of thought which believes that it is the floor which should provide the "resistance" and so split soles help dancers to use full articulation of the feet. When the feet are compressed in the block, wearing soft blocks actually weakens the intrinsic muscles of the foot.

I am still confused - it seems in reply to Aurora the RAD are saying that it is split sole soft blocks which may be worn - I have never seen these anywhere (and I did a google search for them just now). When I was doing the teachers course recently for the new G1-3 Grades, all the teachers there understood it to mean split sole soft shoes would be allowed.

I don't think the Central building scheme ever got planning permission.

If we are discussing graduates destinations, we need to take into consideration that there are many different types of contract out there. A friend whose dd graduated from RBS and gained a full corps de ballet contract told me the following. In previous years the contracts RBS students gained were all for full corps de ballet contracts, but last year many were only apprenticeships or 2nd company positions. Apprenticeships used to be paid positions, salary a bit lower than corps. There are also some 2nd companies that are paid positions just encompassing a younger age group than the main company. However in the USA, and now this is happening in Europe too, these apprenticeships and 2nd company positions are like the unpaid internships in other walks of life. Traditionally in Europe contracts were for a full year with options to renew. Now there are many that are short term - ENB augments its company with contracts for a few weeks when it is performing at the Albert Hall. In one of the recent documentaries some of the girls were highlighted - beautiful dancers who were having difficulty finding another job. Angel Corella's ballet company did the same last year, short term contracts for a production of Swan Lake. The difficulty with these short term contracts is how the dancers can keep their standard up when not employed. Hence my comments about dancers returning to Tring to continue training after their tour with BTUK finished. That solution can only work for a short time. Hopefully they will then go on to longer contracts elsewhere. In the contemporary world there are a few companies in UK, but the majority of work is for specific projects. Even Matthew Bourne says he does not "run a company" as he auditions and employs dancers for roles in specific productions.

I'm afraid Tring's 3rd year company has been cancelled after just one performance. As mentioned in an earlier post, only a few of those who stayed on for 3rd year were classical dancers.

It's great to see new companies like BTUK, but how long are the contracts for - just a few weeks at a time I believe. Good on the CV for experience, but not really earning a living. Last year's dancers seemed to spend a lot of time back at Tring.

To further clarify the position at Tring, of the 13 dancers who stayed on for 3rd year in 6th form, only a few were classical dancers, there were also jazz dancers and contemporary dancers. Tring Park does not have a structure to the 3 Year course like other Vocation Schools. Their Senior Dance course runs from Year 10 through to Year 14, i.e. 5 school years. In each class there may be 2 or 3 different year groups. As Primose posted previously, the students do not know which class they will be in until they arrive at school in September and there is much unhappiness for some dancers when they find they are being allocated to classes which do not give them enough hours in the discipline they wish to study.

The second one sounds a better option to me as well. It might be quite hard to keep up doing classes elsewhere.

Congratulations Tulip, to you and your DD!

The only published list from Tring Park is at the back of their year book and lists the "Class of 2011" i.e. those who took their A-levels in 2011. This was the first group who entered 6th form with a 3rd year available. 13 dancers listed as staying on for 3rd year. 2 dancers going to Ballet Theatre UK 2 pursuing academic studies 6 going to dance courses, one dancer to each of the following places: - Ballet West, Birds, Laban, Laines, Rambert, Studio Centre. 1 "work experience" 2 gave no destination. Edited for clarity

Rambert are still auditioning, they don't have a recall audition but just post results a couple of weeks after each one.

2dancersmum is right, you have to audition for 3rd year at Central. Current 2nd years on the BA Hons course have been told only half of them will make it onto the third year. I have grave reservations about this - do any other degree courses (not just ballet) accept students into year 1 knowing that many will be asked to leave at the end of year 2? What can the students do then, it is too late to audition elsewhere, and in any case they have used up 2 years of their student funding, so cannot start another degree course.

In the past, many UK graduates went abroad to work - often the Ballet Companies and Opera Houses in Europe. However, many of these now have their own schools and also produce a surplus of graduates chasing the same jobs. It really is tough out there.

Most auditions for entry into Yr 10 have finished now, and as places for Yr 11 are generally not available (no one wants to disrupt GCSEs), you should be thinking of 6th form entry in September 2014. Perhaps a separate thread for post GCSE courses would be useful?

Thanks for posting this - the debate continues. Has anyone read Lynn Seymour's article in Dancing Times? She has some very strong opinions about what is lacking in ballet training/production today.

I believe your DD is an Associate, so I am confident she would be offered a place. My DD went a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it, I am sure yours would too and would soon make friends.

I think it would be an excellent idea to start a new topic where people could discuss their experiences of Vocational schools. So often no dares mention that "The Emperor has No Clothes" for fear it is just seen as sour grapes. (Is that too many metaphors?)

I danced professionally as a ballet dancer in France, and although that was some time ago I try to keep up with what is happening there. Also I have had personal experience of Tring (my dd was there for a time), and I have to agree with afab.

What I find frustrating as a teacher is that all vocational schools pay lip service to the fact that hypermobile feet and legs often lack strength and are prone to injury, but then nearly always select those dancers who are hypermobile. Is this one of the reasons that UK girls seem to have less technique than those from abroad? The wrong bodies are being chosen for training? For some reason the UK boys seem to do better than the girls and are right up there with those from overseas.

If that is so Ribbons, it is very good news for all UK seniors who have been auditioning. There's a sort of trickle down effect, so if RB Upper School doesn't take the Year 11s from WL then they have to look elsewhere and take up places at other schools.

RSAMD is now Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

My dd's Mids teacher used to say to her class "If you work as hard as you possibly can, I can't guarantee you will succeed. But if you don't work as hard as you possibly can, then I can guarantee that you won't succeed". Our family now calls this a "Miss X Guarantee" - it can be applied to lots of life situations!