Pas de Quatre

Congratulations to everyone for their success! Could somebody please explain what is the PPP course at ENBS? There isn't any mention of it on their website, or have I missed something.

Generally, if an Associate scheme is properly run, it will ensure that the dancers it accepts continue training with their regular teacher. These teachers are also welcome to visit and watch a class (having asked first if a particular date is convenient). However, there are some schemes which are not so scrupulous and I can't help wondering if they are just trying to poach pupils. So a good Associate scheme will normally tell candidates that they need their teacher's approval.

This article is actually quite old, and yes, it was a political answer to criticisms of his appointment to the Directorship of the Vaganova Academy. Just as a quick answer, if he thinks RBS is not in the top league of training, then how did Xander Parrish and Sergei Polunin manage to be so good? Everyone, please feel free to add names of other International stars who did not train at the three schools he says are the only ones that are any good, (Vaganova Academy, Bolshoi & POB).

When dd was still at home, we would come back together after class and get dinner. I would usually do the meat/fish and she would do the veg, generally with her leg up on the sink to stretch as she was doing so! Sitting in splits while doing something else is another common form of multi-tasking.

Thanks Yaffa - I think this should be more widely publicised!

This deactivation of phones that haven't been used is dreadful but standard industry practice now. My elderly mother has a pay as you go phone for emergencies and doesn't use it regularly. So I make a call on it every few weeks to keep it valid. A lot of peolpe don't realise that numbers that haven't been used will be reassigned to another customer and all credit on the phone lost.

I believe this is indeed one where the origins are "lost in the mists of time". The equivalent years to RBS Upper School also have a similar continuity in that dancers are assigned to a teacher who then takes them through all three years of training. This was explained at the Russian "Focus on Style" one of the RBS series of seminars a couple of years ago.

I haven't done it for a long time at a machine, but I seem to remember there used to be a final step of touching your Oyster card again to the pad to validate it, and the screen tells you it has been credited. In your haste could you have missed this step?

Last year one of my students who doing A-levels turned down an offer from a prestigious University as she would only have two hours contact per week on her course. When she told me this I thought it meant two hours with her tutor in addition to lectures. But no she explained, it meant just two hours of lectures per week! She accepted another (equally good) offer and is very happy there.

If you just want pay as you go, then I believe Tesco have some suitable phones. Giff Gaff is for a set amount each month, I think the lowest is £5 per month.

Try Giff-Gaff. DD has used this for some time. There are various options some of which are very cheap.

The students are indeed told this at Laban during their audition process. During the three years they all study 'everything'. But some modules are by choice. However during the third year the student chooses whether for their degree they will be marked as a performer, as a teacher, as a choreographer or as a combination of two of these. So yes, not everyone is looking for a performing job. I posting about Laban because that is the establishment I know. The comments about lack of rigour in training are inaccurate. Everyone has a ballet class nearly every day. There are five levels and students are put in the appropriate one. Some have never learnt ballet, other have a vocational ballet standard and pointe was included for those who wished. Likewise Contemporary classes were streamed according to ability and previous experience. Graham, Cunninham, Horton, and Release are among the disciplines studied.

Don't forget either, that if it doesn't happen this year, you can audition again next year. At worst it is a "not this year" situtation rather than a "no never"! Rambert school take dancers at various ages.

It doesn't hurt to ring Rambert to show them you are still interested. People can decide not to take up a place for all sorts of reasons and it may still happen.

If a teacher identifies a problem, surely the teacher should also show you what you need to do to solve it.

Roynon also stocked Gamba last time I looked.

Saw it earlier this year at Pavilion Dance in Bournemouth. An amazing and fun production!

Would recommend her too, but if you want to explore other options Roynon in Southampton is good They are a well respected school and also have a dance shop. Google their website.

Thanks Bruce for such a gracious reply! Ballet is my life, but unfortunately running a ballet school means I spend a lot of time drafting information sheets about term dates, exams, shows, costumes, summer schools, auditions etc. etc. By bitter experience I have found that if there is the slightest chance of something being misunderstood, then someone will misunderstand it - the balletic equivalent of Murphy's Law! (Sorry a bit off topic).

Bruce - do you really mean twice a year, bi-annual? Or do you mean every other year, biennial. There seems to be a lot of confusion between these words. Lots of school I know say on their website that they do bi-annual performances when I know they actually do them every other year and should write biennial. Sorry to be pedantic, but it does help if language is clear!

Another point - are you walking around a lot when not dancing. If you are wearing shoes without any arch support this can lead to them slightly flattening, so then they become painful as the arches get pushed up again in tendus in class.

I really enjoyed last year's day too and am delighted it is going ahead again.

Maybe it is just the way it is taught around here.

Perhaps sticking the behind out doesn't convey the feeling - on a beam the gymnast has the toes forward and the heels behind so the foot is almost at right angles to the beam. It can only be done by allowing the pelvis to tilt. For ballet, as in Pilates, the "neutral" pelvis without tilt is necessary to allow rotation and turnout.

Turnout (rotation) and splits are quite different. Ballet box splits involve rotation, so the knees are to the ceiling and heels to the floor, or even slightly forward so the audience can see the soles of the feet and the behind is firmly on the floor. Gymnast box splits are without rotation, so knees look to the front and heels to the back and the behind is sticking out backwards - imagine it done on the beam. In ballet, turnout comes from the rotation of the ball & socket joint where the femur fits into the pelvis. Edited for spelling