JulieW

My daughter's the same - turned out not to be built to be a classical dancer despite looking just right as a JA, but has had a wonderful few years at local dance school - doing NYB, festival groups and solos, the odd competition, is confident, hard-working, has great posture, is really strong, fit and flexible and occasionally shares her talents by teaching her explorer scout group to dance . She possibly could now look at trying for a dance college but wants to be a vet - let's hope they have a good dance class near her uni in the future!

Wise words indeed. It is really upsetting when they get those "no" letters - and yes, many will go on, keeping trying and get in somewhere for sixth form and go on to be professional dancers. But being realistic - the majority will probably be more like my daughter and many of her JA friends - who had a lovely time and some wonderful experiences and then find something else that interests them and go in a different direction. So, no it's not the end of the world and it's not the end of a future dance career, but it may also be the start of something completely different. (I'm just glad my son stuck at it despite being assessed out of WL - I've had a whale of a time )

It's not quite correct to say that the vocational schools don't teach to a syllabus - they teach to their own syllabus - but as you say, most offer RAD as an "extra" (and in our case some Cecchetti) in order to enter some competitions. (I know what you mean, however, that they don't do RAD/ISTD etc etc as their everyday classes - blimey you couldn't - everyone would get completely bored ) I also agree with Primrose when she says that the schools aren't really interested in what grade you're on, however I do remember seeing one or more upper schools saying the students needed to be at Advanced 1 level. I've had to do lots of persuading amongst friends that their children didn't need to actually be doing RAD Adv 1, or had passed it, in order to get into the school. I also don't think that all the schools are looking for technically advanced students (although, if they're entering the school older than year 7, perhaps they need to at least show that they'd be able to keep up with their prospective classmates) - potential still does count at most of the schools. There is one where I feel that they are already looking for the (nearly) finished article to nurture along the way but that's just from my own experience. When children are trying to get into older years there's such a lot of competition for so few places, that unfortunately the not quite technically strong enough may well lose out to the stronger ones - if there were more places that wouldn't be so much of an issue.

Sorry to hear that Miracle - but as the others have said, it's not the end of the journey, hopefully there'll be other opportunities. Even though my daughter didn't get a chance to follow in her brother's footsteps and now only dancing for fun, we never regret trying for schools/associate programmes despite the disappointments along the way - all part of the learning process and she knows she gave it a go - and as we know some don't get anything until 6th form and go on to do really well. As for the "open the letter or not" - I'm a firm believer in opening it. The letters were addressed to me and then I could tell them what the news was rather than letting them read it themselves. I went to my son's school at breaktime when he got into WL with a congratulations card. He and his friends ran around like lunatics screaming "I/he got in" when one boy stopped running and shouting and said "Got into what?"

Ah ha - thanks Glowlight - being from the South (and having a son at full-time vocational school who hasn't particularly wanted to do summer schools!) I have to admit I haven't taken much notice - I think I was assuming they were more linked than that - the names are perhaps misleading. My friend must've been talking about going to a "summer school" at the company rather than the school. I'm glad I asked! Now my next question - I'm being lazy - could go on their websites - have they both had new premises fairly recently?

Slightly off the topic - about the company rather than the school .... Someone told me just the other day that it seemed that Northern Ballet have a tendency to "favour" students who have attended their summer schools when giving graduate contracts. However, from what Glowlight says, that may only be my friend's perception, if they're not connected. I wonder though whether David Nixon may just have seen them at summer school - is he involved with that at all?

I'm only asking for the sake of others as my son's now looking for a job rather than a school and he never applied to any schools where he had to prepare a dance, so I have no experience of this..... If you're applying to a school hoping to get an MDS funded place - wouldn't they want to see you do a ballet solo? I thought it was only the classical dancers who got that funding. Thoughts anyone?

I know you didn't mean anything raunchy from Chicago Spanner - but I'd also suggest staying away from Chicago or similar unless 16+. I'm not being much help though - must have a think......

I'm waiting with bated breath to hear what BRB are doing in the Autumn as son's in graduate year at Elmhurst and they often do something from it!

And please be mindful in your excitement of getting through to finals - that some children will be getting the sad news over half term that they're having to leave

Also - from my experience at WL and Elmhurst, most children starting in year 7 (so 11 year olds) haven't taken Inter Foundation about would be around the Grade 5 RAD standard. It may be different now, as I'm thinking of children I know over the last 10ish years - but many of the girls will have done no pointe before they go to the full-time school.

I thought the same as Spanner and am intrigued about this. (I think I have heard about this happening before, but I'd've thought that if that's what it says on the RAD "rules", that's what they'd stick to.) My "concern" about younger students taking IF is about starting pointe too young. IMHO I've even thought that saying 11 to take the exam is bordering on being too young as they'd have to have started pointe well before the exam to be ready. I know, I know - there's not much pointe in the exam (although isn't there more in the new syllabus?) but I've always felt a bit disappointed that the RAD are being seen to encourage children younger than 11 to be starting pointe when most research points to only starting point at 11. Sorry - I've gone off subject a bit - just made me think.....

Thanks again everyone - it's been like having a big hug from friends who understand (rather than my "local" friends who have no idea )

Thanks all - will keep you informed whenever there's any news to pass on - don't hold your breathe, could be months Happy to say that ds at least got on the plane this morning - no more news since then. And thanks to Glowlight for such a good explanation - you saved me a lot of typing. Incidentally, I have heard of a few contracts being offered to Elmhurst and RBS graduate year students - it's in the public domain that a girl from Elmhurst and a girl from RBS have been taken on by BRB this month, and a girl from Elmhurst went to Royal Ballet of Flanders in October. There are others I've heard of, but haven't been publicly announced, so not my place to pass on!

Just wanted to wish anyone going to auditions for jobs the best of luck - there may be some of you lurking who don't post I know there have been a handful of auditions already but the main lot are just really starting - my son's off to his first two tomorrow - I'm a bit hyper and nervous about him even getting on a plane for the first time - he's just excited to be going and seeing some old friends I've had wonderful support from the ballet.co community for the past 10 years since he was asked to audition for JAs - feels like a lifetime ago and lots of ups and downs along the way but this is definitely the worst bit - I'll be a nightmare to live with I'm sure while waiting to hear news of how his auditions go. Could take months.......

Not unusual to get distinctions in Inter Foundation and Intermediate (my daughter did in both, as did most of her friends - although the inter group at our school this year got more merits than distinctions for the first time) - but does get a lot more difficult to get them in Adv 1 and 2.

It's true that there are only 5 boys in graduate year, but there were only 5 of them in that year at Lower School too (and not all the same 5) (and in fact, their year at WL was relatively small too compared to some). I seem to remember that one of them didn't do the final audition because he was moving in more of a musical theatre direction.

Ah my son wanted to speak to him and he wasn't there - but of course that just meant he was in the auditions!!

Just a thought - my son tells me Desmond wasn't in school on Friday, so that may just slow down the letters a little - I know it's only a day, but as there's another audition so close it might have to wait until after that. It's great that so many people are auditioning - the school has gone from strength to strength over the last 4 years particularly. Although it seems daunting wondering how they choose from all those students, I think this is almost the easiest bit for them in that they'll have certain criteria they're looking for and some just won't "fit" at this stage - for a whole host of reasons. I have a feeling the most difficult part for the panel is when they've called back all those who initially seem to tick all the right boxes and then they have to decide between them. Good luck to everyone for Tuesday (and those waiting to hear)

I would say the same - please tell her not to worry about what the panel might think/do/say - there's no point trying to analyse it - you just have to do your best and then wait for the result. It could be for any number of things - perhaps just age - as different years of students audition together in some cases, or whether they're auditioning for associates only, or both associates & the school - who knows

Well done everyone It's such a relief to get the results out of the way isn't it. My daughter got a very respectable 68 (merit) for her Adv 1, so we're happy here (tinged with slight disappointment to not keep up her record of distinctions - but hey, the aim was to pass it ) She's just 17 and wants to be a vet, so I'm really proud that she's still doing so well with all her dancing and putting the effort in after all these years despite other (academic) commitments.

Oh and meant to say "thanks" for your best wishes for son's auditions - first two of many I suspect! And - I've just discovered that you can edit a post if you can see a faint "Edit" written at the bottom of the post (on the left of the "multiquote" button) - I suspect it disappears after a certain time so you can't edit old posts, but don't know how long (it's not on my earlier posts but was on the one above)

Well done Sheilabee And Stardancer - it was blisters two years ago for inter, and dodgy ankle this time for Adv! Just typical that they happen on exam days isn't it. She doesn't usually get nervous waiting for exams results (tbh she does very well in exams - dance and academic - lucky thing) but she really wants a decent mark for this and, although she's a good dancer, it'll be tough to get high marks in this one! Oh well - the wait's nearly over

Quite tense round here too - my daughter had trouble with her ankle giving way on the day of the exam - and stumbled a bit in her pointe work. One minute she's saying she doesn't think the examiner would have noticed, the next she's worried she's failed the pointe section She never normally has any trouble with her ankles and her pointe work is pretty good, typical - she also reminded me that on the day of her Intermediate exam she got blisters - never usually gets blisters!! Roll on next week - at least we'll know - then I can get on with being worried about my son's auditions - first trip in a plane next Wednesday

Sounds like a good idea to me - no idea if it helped, but you never know.... As I've said before - I'd love to know how they choose them just from photos