balletmadmom

As a parent of an MA (SA from September), she has been offered summer school for the past couple of years, but not all associates get offered summer school. There does not seem to be any sort of pattern, as usual with Royal.

Crystal Costa (First Soloist) is one of the dancers. The one with the more definied leg muscles.

I just wanted to say well done to YDA and Anna du Boisson for all their achievements this term. My daughter got her SA letter today offering her a place, as did two other YDA students. For such a small school, they are doing brilliantly. 12 of the 28 students in the whole school are Royal Ballet Associates and there will be 8 students from YDA at White Lodge next term and 2 at Upper School. Also, of the five students that have just auditioned for training post 16, they have just got their results too... one has Royal Upper School, one has ENB, one Elmhurst, one Central and one Laines, all with scholarships/DADAs! Clearly they are doing something right.

Morning, A pupil from YDA got into Upper School at Royal and was an SA.

As I understand it, vocational exams and grade exams are unnecessary when applying for vocational upper schools. At my daughter's school, YDA, they do not do the exams, but all of the classes are unset, they never ever know what they are going to have to do in each class and they then do performances twice a year. The students this year are in the Royal, ENB, Elmhurst, Central, etc. finals and some have already been offered places at Laines, Millenium, Northern and Rambert, so obviously it has not been detrimental to them. Clearly the exams are a benchmark and something to put on the forms, to indicate their level and I have just filled in that they do performances and that my daughter is at equivalent level to intermediate. However, really the dancers at sixth form auditions need to go in and pick up the steps quickly and perform and really doing RAD classes, which teach the same steps for a year at a time, is not useful experience for this. My daughter's previous teacher did all of the RAD grade and vocational exams and it was a big money earner, but I think it can become very boring for the student repeating the same syllabus week in, week out.

So.. There is an Associate scheme at YDA which has been running for a year. It was for years 4-6 and there were two levels/age groups. I understand that there is now a further level, which I assume is year 7 plus. It would be worth calling and speaking to Kerry, as she and Anna teach it on Saturday afternoons. It always very hard to know what to do. I remember being torn between a very good academic school for my daughter (with local ballet and associates) and taking the leap into vocational training at YDA. I feel that we definitely made the right decision, as all of the dance training is finished by early evening and then she can come home for dinner and homework.

I do understand and it is not that we are wealthy. We have three other children too, so we do struggle, but thankfully they are all at state school/college. I was already paying out nearly £3,000 a year in dancing fees before she joined YDA, for local dancing, associates, summer courses, etc. Of course, it means that all holidays are very cheap, as we just land on relatives for weeks at a time! However, it would definitely be worth contacting YDA though and I do think that there is another student who comes in from Hertfordshire.

Morning, I just wanted to add that another student from YDA has been taken into White Lodge from the finals last week, so 4! Amazing. About the fees, I do understand, but I am sure that YDA are much more reasonably priced than most vocational schools. I am sure that when my daughter was offered Tring three years ago, the non boarding fees were about £23k. Obviously it would have been cheaper for me to send her to Elmhurst, as she had funding, but I believe that she would not have been as happy or nutured and I would have spent £100 a week in petrol collecting her for the weekend!

I think that the final for seniors on the 18th March is for Upper School though, not for Associates.

Yes, brilliant for William to get to the final of YBDY. Everyone at YDA is so proud of him.

Hello Tulip, My daughter does an academic class and then 1.5 hours of ballet in the weekday mornings (except Friday is jazz). Then academics until 3.30 and three evenings a week another 1.5 hour ballet class. There is also a two hour ballet class on Saturday am, followed by tap and singing. They all then audition in year 11 for upper school (sixth form) at their chosen schools:- Royal, ENB, Central, Laines, Elmhurst, etc. Happy to answer your questions.

Sorry to confuse everyone. 7 students overall have been invited to the Royal Ballet School finals over Lower School and Upper School. The Upper School finals are still to come, but those invited to Lower School finals all got a place. Sorry to be confusing. There are 28 students at YDA, so 25% of them were invited to finals. I hope that makes sense. Of course, the other 75% were not auditioning anyway. Finally, although it was before my time, Yasmine Naghdi was a pupil of Anna's at West London School of Dance, which is the other part of the school doing after school and Saturday classes at Danceworks, The Mercury in Notting Hill and the school house in Bulwer Street.

Primrose is absolutely right, Anna is a fantastic teacher, as are all of the teachers at YDA and it is very nuturing, which is ideal for my daughter. I was just going to say that YDA now have an associate scheme too, for those students who are unable to train full time there. And... the graduates from last year went to Central and Laines.

Hello again, so....let me answer the questions you have all posed: Their fees are not cheap, but nowhere near the price of Tring or Arts Ed. There is some funding, but not a great deal. Although, there is no boarding, some students lodge with other families. My daughter is an MA and when she auditioned for MAs, was invited to the White Lodge final (although she had not ticked the box). She did not get into White Lodge, but would not have boarded (not even for summer school), so it was probably a blessing. This year when she auditioned for SAs, she did not want to do the joint audition for White Lodge and SAs, so just did the single audition. I think about 6 students auditioned for White Lodge this year and 3 got into the final and they got into White Lodge. YDA goes up to Year 11 and there are 6 students roughly in each year and then they audition for upper school. My daughter is very happy there. I think that is it.

I just wanted to say well done to the Young Dancers Academy for getting 25% of all their total students to the Royal Ballet School Finals this year! Not only that, but for the second year running, 3 of their students have been taken into White Lodge and one of their students is in the semi-finals for Young British Dancer of the Year too. They are clearly doing something very right. My daughter chose to go their three years ago, when we did not want her to board at Elmhurst and it has been the perfect vocational school for us.