JulieW

Welcome Petipacat - and well done for being brave twice this week

As far as I'm aware - out of all the ballet schools in the UK, Rambert is the only one to "sift" first (all a bit of a disaster a couple of years ago with DVDs I seem to remember - how on earth they have time to watch all the DVDs I don't know - personally I'd rather look at them all in the flesh in class) - all the others audition all applicants with some selected for "finals" - this applies to lower and upper schools.

Hi Poppy - I don't think I heard of anyone being turned down, but that's not to say it didn't happen - they can only fit in a certain number (mainly dependant on bed space I should think). My son loved it last year (he's in the upper school, so he stayed in his own flat which helped us financially!) despite recovering from injury - he just did as much as he could and it was great to mix with other students from elsewhere.

Thanks both - we're not holding out much hope for winning anything as we don't think she ranks up there with the amazing tappers from other schools, but she'll enjoy taking part and she's got a new solo she's enjoyed getting her teeth into.

It's obviously worked out well for your family - but there's a huge difference from those who earn above the threshold for funding (so would be paying the £26,000 or so for fees), to those of us on more modest incomes who struggle to pay our reduced fees. We have struggled to afford my son's fees for the last 7 or so years - there's no way we could afford an overseas school, flights etc and I'm happy that he's been close enough for us to see him regularly. But I wish everyone all the luck in the world who takes the brave step to train overseas.

My daughter's in the Premier Section on Sunday. Anyone else going? First time we've actually been despite friends being in it before (and one winning the Junior class a few years ago - shame we missed it!). She's done the modern awards (Janet Cram) a couple of times, but I gather this is a bit different.

I think you usually hear by the Easter holidays or end of March, depending how things fall - so hopefully only a week to go!

We never considered my son going abroad to train because we felt that we're so lucky to have world-class schools in this country, with funding, so why would we need to look abroad. I do understand why people do, but personally we didn't feel the need! The British schools are attracting international students because of the high calibre of training, we were more than happy for our son to have his training with them. He'll soon be off to Estonia so I wouldn't say he's scared of going abroad - just didn't need to train there.

I think I'm going to have to agree to disagree with people who have done both (vocational and associates, or two associates) as it's not something I would ever have even considered for my son or daughter. When ds went to full-time vocational school he needed some "down time" not travelling to another dance class, and when my dd was a JA I wouldn't want to take away a place for another student who didn't get into JAs but might've got into another associate scheme. Don't mean to sound grumpy - just something I feel quite strongly about

Also the connection is perhaps more to do with day-to-day stuff than where the graduates go (as we've already touched on, there just aren't enough contracts to go round even if the students were all amazing!). For instance, the links between Elmhurst and BRB have gone from strength to strength over the last few years, with BRB dancers regularly coming into the school to teach or take masterclasses, and the students are "used" in BRB productions. I believe the same happens with RBS and RB (I have to admit I've been slightly "miffed" in the past that BRB use RB students, whereas it doesn't happen the other way round). The Elmhurst upper school students also get to take class occasionally with BRB (maybe only the graduate year).

I've not heard of anyone at WL or Elmhurst going to an associate class, but I knew a girl who used to go to Tring who went to RBS MAs. At the time my daugther was a JA and I did find it odd that someone at full-time school would carry on with associates - in their case they were hoping that one day she'd get into RBS and it was a case of "keeping their hand in". From a purely personal point of view I don't think it's right - I think associate classes should be there for those not in full-time training. Just my opinion..... (Edited for typo)

And welcome from me too - hope to see more posts from you soon

Not sure how I did it now (but did use Gravatar) but as you can see I chickened out of using a photo of me (I never have my photo taken if I can help it) and went for one of my dogs instead!!

Sorry to hear that Karen - good luck for the Hammond funding.

Janet - I was also pleasantly surprised at the numbers! I thought it might be fewer than that. It's also an interesting question that Aileen asks about how many graduates are still dancing 5 years on. One of the things that surprised me a year or two ago when we started looking into this more, was how short the contracts were. So, just using RBS as an example, they might all (or almost all) have "good-looking" contracts when they graduate, but I'd really like to know how many still had jobs a year or two later (I know that some were only 6 months). Just interested.....

I know I've just commented on your FB wall - but wanted to say a huge CONGRATULATIONS on here too. I love the way they tell you on the day (although that does leave me wondering about all the others who don't hear - how long is it until they're let down gently?) I was going to say the other day that I thought you needed a wing or a studio named after your family

Can't quite remember how . But go to the drop-down button next to your log-in name (top right), then I think it's in "My Profile" and you click on where there should be a picture. I think I tried uploading one straight in but it didn't crop it very well so I put one on "Gravatar" (I have no idea how I came to that conclusion - I must've seen that someone else had done it - just had to open an account and you put photos in there). Not much help, might might just point you in the right direction. Anyway - I digress......

Ribbons - check out the forum tomorrow - there'll be news about it's new committee etc, but yes, we are both now moderators

Fortunately it's rare Evie - I don't understand it either

Please don't think that they're "saving spaces" for Japanese students - most of the places at Elmhurst are funded through the MDS scheme now, and the Japanese students can't have those. I understand your frustration with those who know they want to take a WL place but still attend the Elmhurst audition - if they know for certain that they want to take WL and are only doing the Elmhurst audition so they can say they were offered both (if they are!!). There are people who do that - and IMHO it is wrong. However, as Spooky says, I would be pleased to hear that there are people who are offered WL but would consider taking Elmhurst instead - perhaps it's closer to home, they have another child already there, or they just prefer the feel of the school. But, no matter how much I would like to believe that's the case (and certainly we're starting to head that way) - honestly I don't think there are many people who would take Elmhurst if they've been offered WL. However, if someone does that and ends up taking WL and turning down Elmhurst, that means some lucky child from the waiting list gets good news (and quite soon, as decisions have to be made pretty swiftly). Again - don't think that a British child has lost out because someone's turned down a space - there are several "waiting in the wings" on the waiting list. Just read Oldermum's comment while I've been typing and I agree that perhaps it's so soon after getting the WL offer that they don't feel they've made a proper choice until they've been to both - although I think WL want to have an answer well before you'd get the result from Elmhurst so it doesn't really all add up. And Evie - I have known people turn down WL - but they auditioned because they thought they should and wanted to see if they could get in, without actually wanting to send their child away to school.

Many, many congratulations to Lala and Evie and your children - how exciting for you all. I usually try to see the show on the same day as the induction day, so perhaps I'll get to say hello! I'll be the one crying lots when the 6.3s are dancing!! And commiserations to those with a "no" today. It is a horrible feeling, and even though your head tells you it's not the end of the world, there's always another year etc etc, it is still a huge disappointment to have got "so near, yet so far". It'll pass....

Please don't think I'm criticising anyone personally - it's just my opinion - but I have been surprised this year by the number of people who leave the letters to be opened by their children. They are addressed to parents and I think it's important that we are able to prepare our children for whatever the answer may be. It saves all this speculation about whether a thick or thin letter is important (who knows when a school might change the way they do things - granted a "no" will probably always be a small letter, but they might decide to send the "yes" letters out on one too sometime, to send out the other info later). When we got any of our JA/WL/Elmhurst letters for my son and daughter I always opened them. For JAs I had a congratulations card ready for when they came home from school, for WL I took the letter down to school at lunchtime and when he heard from Elmhurst he was away at WL anyway, so I couldn't have waited to give it to him! And when you get the "no", as my daughter did for WL and then MAs I was able to compose and prepare myself for telling her - and have something nice planned to take her mind off it. However you decide to do it, I wish you all luck and remember you can't do anything to change what's about to drop through the letter box. It really isn't the end of the world (although I know how that disappointment feels) if it's a "no" and be prepared for a bit of a reality check to kick in after the excitement's died down in a few days if it's a "yes" (don't worry, the excitement comes back ) - it's a huge change in your life about to happen and it might last one, three, five, or eight years - enjoy every step along the way. xxx

Just wanted to remind all the people who usually only look at Doing Dance, to take a look at the section at the top of the page - the bit called "Discuss this site/forum etc". Your input about the structure of the forum and it's future would be appreciated I'm sure.

Even though I'm quite heavily "involved" in the Doing Dance section, I too find the contant stream of "when will my letter arrive" tedious at times, but for those parents at that time, it is important. I've been trying to think about how best to "tidy up" Doing Dance, and wonder whether we could have sub-headings (obviously as few as possible) to include "Auditions - vocational schools, associate programmes & performances" (that would keep all of those discussions in one place) and "Advice on technique" (this is where Anjuli might find it easier to keep track of when her advice might be appreciated!) and then an "Everything else" What do you think? As Anjuli said - Doing Dance is a different beast to how it was when I first found the site about 9 years ago. At the time I was looking for advice about applying to White Lodge and I think there were about two comments when I searched. This has changed dramatically, and I think it's great that parents from all around the country now log-on to find out what's going on and hopefully some of them "stray" into other parts of the site/forum. I did..... (bit like churches who encourage parents to have their children baptised even when not regular church-goers in the hope that they'll see something they like and start attending more often ) As a moderator I would hope to gently enourage and point people in the direction of the other sections - but it's "horses for courses" isn't it - if they're only interested in the Doing Dance section, who are we to say that they should look elsewhere too? (I'm astonished that most of the children at our local dance school - heavily ballet-based - have never been to a ballet. Drives me nuts and I don't understand it, but I take a deep breath and remind myself that it's not up to me!!) And just had a thought - so going back to technique and Anjuli's input - I think we've got quite a lot of new users who may not have seen Anjuli's articles on the old site and don't know what they're missing - we should start something again - even if it's just re-posting your old articles Anjuli - I'm sure they'd love them

I'm a bit late but good luck to everyone for today (and boys tomorrow I think!!). And to those waiting to hear about lower school - keep up with the breathing exercises...... (I shouldn't think they'll make you wait until the overseas auditions )