Sadielou

Parents have to decide what they want from a school do they want their child to do exams, performances, festivals, just exercise or dance purely for fun. A schools priorities should all be shown on the schools web site . From a teachers point of view it is very frustrating when parents are obviously only sending their daughters so they can wear a cute pink ballet outfit, or for social reasons, a friends DD goes to a certain class so my daughter needs to be in the same one (even if not suitable) or to fit into a packed timetable, DD only has Tuesdays at 5pm free can she come to that class (even if the students are 2 years older). It often makes me wonder wether certain parents care at all about the quality of teaching as long as the class fits in to their busy schedule. School shows are always notoriously difficult for so many reasons. It is impossible to only let the talented dancers take the spot light as all parents want to see their child on stage regardless of ability. So to parents of a more talented child these other students may not look up to much, however I personally think hard work and enthusiasm should be rewarded as long as the teacher is careful to give these less talented students, flattering costumes and choreography. Have to agree to a certain extent about physique being of uppermost importance for WL, however it does take slightly more than that and have known several children with great bodies that didn't have a dancers brain or the dance quality to ever make it to WL and all though I have nothing but praise for Associate classes, I do think that students still need the nurturing of their local dance teacher. I would however always encourage any child that I thought had a chance of a ballet career to audition for vocational school as I think it is extremely hard to fit in the hours needed in an after school scenario and it only gets harder as GCSE's get closer. Talented students also need the healthy competition of others like themselves.

I think one of the problems is that parents expect and need certificates to present to senior schools/Universities to prove how accomplished or talented their child is, and the only way they can do this is through the exam system. Over the years especially in London, playing an instrument, dancing, acting, singing to a certain standard has become another way of possibly gaining entry to otherwise oversubscribed state and private schools. When I first started my school (20 years ago) there wasn't this same manic need for exams and passing them year in year out. We used to do exams one year and a performance the next and quite often put in totally non syllabus classes. But now so many children (at least where I teach) are up to their necks with every after school activity under the sun and tutoring for school entrance exams (even the 6 year olds), that for most coming to ballet more than once a week is an impossibility, (however much I push) and yet parents are far more adamant than before that their child must take exams. The RAD has recently overhauled it's syllabus and now all the junior and senior grades are more dance orientated, the enchainments involved are a lot longer and contain more complicated mixtures of steps, (it has been said that may of these enchainments have everything but the kitchen sink thrown in) and although the children really seem to be enjoying the new approach, there is never enough time for teachers to really get down to the basics, especially on one hour a week. It is really quite sad, but non vocational ballet training in this country is being pushed to go along the same route as our educational school system exams, exams, exams.

London results are out !

So glad to read this PDQ was beginning to think I was the only one. Also the CPD requirements are ridiculous, call teachers in on a refresher course if the students they teach are not reaching required standards, but other than that it just seems to be yet another money making exercise.

Totally agree with everything you have said and my words exactly "Everything but the kitchen sink"!

I agree with you entirely well said, I have some talented pupils that come to class twice a week and I know that there is no way that they could do this work in any less than two years if at all, some have just passed their Advanced 1 but can't see how they are going to ever reach the technical standard of the new Advanced 2. I am glad you pointed out the expense, it has put a lot of my pupils off, I hate telling parents the cost of the exams (even the grades) when I know a lot of them are struggling. Seriously thinking about dumping the exam system all together.

I think the new work is lovely to look at and paired with some gorgeous music choices, but think that the RAD has now created an elite syllabus from Grade 3 upwards which is geared towards the (potential) vocational child. The Advanced work particularly is not going to be possible on 3 classes a week and even then I think it will only look good on very talented students, it will also need extremely talented teachers ( that can still dance and demonstrate full out ) to teach it. The fact that they used Royal Ballet company member Anna Rose to demonstrate says it all !!! Quite honestly I don't even think the vocational schools will have the time to get through the syllabus and fit it into already busy schedules.

Personally I think that it all comes down to the split between WL, the Upper School and the Company as up until very recently there was no love lost between these three establishments. There needs to a total re think and a merging, possibly with one person heading up all three, so all are working with a common goal. If a child has survived five years training at WL then they should, barring injury or lack of desire be guaranteed a place in the Upper section of the school, if not the only people to blame are those who have taught and moulded them for the past five years. As Bryony says, if the students are not up to the standard required then maybe the establishment should employ the audition process, teachers and methods of those that are. I do also think that the WL students are still cosseted in a very small environment and until they reach Upper school standard are still basically unaware of how much talent is out there, and how hungry some of the foreign students are, maybe the RB school should get some of their own dancers out into the world of competition, to give them more of a fighting chance in the years to come. This also seems to be exactly the case in most of our English football schools and their relevant clubs, come sixteen the boys that have trained solidly for the last 5 years are replaced by foreign students who in the managers eyes are better. Is it an English malaise that we always put our home grown talent down in preference for those taught elsewhere or are our children just not good enough ? It just can't be that we as a country are so much less talented than our foreign counterparts can it ?

Even in my day (30 something years ago) there were a lot of extremely talented overseas students coming into the RBS upper school. But the school was a lot bigger and 10 out of the 12 White Lodge girls in my year were accepted on the dancers course. When we arrived it was quite a shock to the system when we were confronted with dancers such as Alessandra Ferri, and several amazing Australian girls who could all to things we could never dream of, and in truth had been told not to do. Throughout our time at White Lodge we were told to keep our legs lower, and then along comes Ms Ferri ! and only do 16 good fouettes, when our Australian counterparts where whipping out 64 ! We of course were slightly shocked and surprised that our teachers hadn't tried to build us into these type of dancers if this what they in fact wanted, rather than the slightly staid, perfectly placed, but not terribly exciting dancers that we were. One of the Australian girls got into the RB and the other two into Sadlers Wells and we all know what happened to Alessandra Ferri. Although the White Lodge training is now a lot tougher and I have no doubt they are pushing the children a lot harder than in my day, it still makes me sad that those in charge of the RBS are still so enthralled by those foreign students who have been taught abroad. These students are still a lot more savvy than our dancers, as many of them have entered international competitions and know, what is out there and many are honed in the tricks that make ballet so exciting for audiences (and judges alike ). If this is what the RBs want in their upper school then surely they should be moulding their lower school pupils before it is too late, obviously some are going to fall by the wayside but if you have the best bodies and most enthusiastic minds for five years solid training you should come out with dancers of the required calibre at the end, if you don't and you have to look for dancers who have trained elsewhere, then this surely should tell you that something is wrong. Nobody is saying that foreign students shouldn't come here, but our students should not feel overshadowed or passed over, as they should after five years be of the same calibre of those training elsewhere and should be appreciated by their school principal.

It is fantastic what has been achieved by YDA and also West London School of Dance, however what some people seem to forget is that YDA although relatively small and new is still a vocational school where the pupils are doing the same amount of dance per week as pupils at the three main vocational schools. Also many of the pupils at YDA are JA's MA's and SA's when they join the school (and carry on being so whilst at YDA) so in truth have already been singled out by the RBS, YDA also have a teacher in common with the RBS associate scheme. I know several teachers who have lost their JA, MA, SA pupils to either WLSD or YDA as parents obviously feel once they have talked to other associate parents that these are the schools that will give their children the most career opportunities. Although I have no doubt that this is the case, and as said before the students and teaching are excellent, it also quite sad for those teachers that lose the pupils that they have worked so hard with to get them to associate standard and are then given no thanks for the invaluable work they have put in, some parents seem to have very short memories. As WLSD has charity status and obviously has some extremely generous benefactors (which can be seen on their web page) it is very hard for your every day local ballet teacher to compete. One thing White Lodge is very good at is keeping ex teachers in the loop and allowing them to still feel part of their ex pupils current training. The people that really should be congratulated here are the local dance school that got three pupils in to White Lodge this year that is truly amazing.