Dance*is*life

Did she do the new Grade 2 syllabus? It's supposed to be much harder than the old one and worldwide teachers are saying that the marking seems tougher. Anyway, this is what I tell my students - the examiner sees what you do on that particular day and at that moment in time. She doesn't know you, has no idea who you are or what you are - she simply has a job to mark what she sees, according to the criteria the Academy has given her. The examiner is also a human being - she may be having a bad day too! Also, sometimes a student gets so nervous that he/she muddles half the exercises, or he/she might have an injury or a cold. There are so many things that can go wrong in an exam under pressure, so even though you may have worked really hard and improved so much, you can still end up with a lower mark than you deserve. In the same way, someone might have a fantastic exam and pull out the very best in themselves and even end up with a higher mark than someone who is considered better than them. Everything can and does happen in an exam, or an audition or a performance. The point is that yes, it's frustrating when the mark is lower than expected, but what is important is the process of working towards the exam. The extra rehearsals and hours of extra practise and the effort that the student puts into the preparation for the exam are what count and make all the difference in the future, whatever the exam mark eventually turns out to be!

You can check with RAD Headquarters for a list of schools in the area, who might have classes at that standard. Pointework is vitally important - you can't do Advanced 2 without having strong pointes. I suggest looking for a pointe class even if it's not syllabus.

There are tights in baby pink and in salmon pink - perhaps the latter might be a better shade for her. I haven't really thought about using darker tights for a darker skinned child - I have a great many students with darker skin tone and they all just wear the regular pinks.

At 12 I had grown to nearly 5'4" and had developed a small bust. I was taller and more developed than most of the girls in my dancing school. In the end,though, I pretty much stayed the same after that and everyone else overtook me! I still wear size 4 shoes!

Agree totally youngatheart. I was only discussing that this morning with someone else. The morning class I attend on a friday is pretty advanced, but there are no restrictions on who can attend, so there are dancers who have picked things up as they went along and are now able to keep up. However, and this is what we were discussing, because they have obviously not learnt the advanced exercises in a proper methodology lesson, these dancers perform them with really incorrect technique. For example this morning we had sissone doublee en avant (sissone to attitude, coupe, assemble en avant) in a series, changing direction on each new sissone doublee. Many of the dancers were not closing the final assemble in a turned out plie and then turning to the other direction with the sissone. They were closing in a turned in position half way round to the other side and then jumping from there, so everything ended up out of alignment and progressively more and more untidy and turned in. We thought it was actually rather a shame, because there were some talented people amongst them, who could have been really good if they hadn't leapt in, in the "deep end", so to speak.

When I was working as a dancer in a summer season at Great Yarmouth, trying to earn a bit of money for a change, I came home to my bedsit, pealed an orange and left the knife on the bed. When I sat down the weight sort of tiddlywinked the knife into my behind! I managed to pull it out, and ran through the streets at midnight to the A & E. Sadly everyone there found it hilariously funny when I informed them that I had sat on a knife! I couldn't sit down properly for two weeks after they stitched me up and one of the dances involved sitting and standing in time to the music, which was as you can imagine very uncomfortable!

The good thing about a syllabus class is that you repeat the exercises over and over, so even if you find them difficult at the beginning you practise them so much that in the end you absorb them into your body. Much easier than a free class, even if it is at a slightly higher level.

It seems to me rather inconsiderate that in a class of three beginners they put the class at a time when two out of the three can't attend. Can you not talk to the school owner/principal and see if they could put the class at a time when all of you can attend?

One of the things I love about ballet is its combination of the arts - going to see a performance exposes the audience to so many different things and not just dance movement. There is also music, scenery, narrative, drama, lighting effects, even the make-up and costumes. You take a child to the ballet and one of those things will connect with them. Our nephew was rather against his wife taking any of their sons to watch ballet, but I persuaded him to let his eldest see Romeo and Juliet when I portrayed the Nurse. The boy especially loved the sword fighting and the music (he plays the piano), but what fascinated him the most was when he came backstage after the performance. He was enthralled with the scenery and how different it looked onstage rather than from the audience and how the back cloths were hung above the stage waiting to be used - he was particularly interested in the lighting console. It was a learning experience for him. When I was 9 my parents took me to see the Bolshoi in Romeo and Juliet. I was enthralled with the story even then. A few years later we studied the actual play in drama classes and even went to see the real thing at the National Theatre. So ballet first exposed me to Shakespeare. It also made me love all kinds of classical music. If we look at dance history we can see that Diaghilev's Ballet Russes had a huge influence on the public. By using such a variety of composers and designers, he really exposed the audiences to a wider vision of the arts. Bakst's designs in particular spurred a new fashion in clothing with brighter colours and avant garde styles that echoed his creations for the stage.

I used to darn all my pointe shoes and even sew tape inside the ribbons for more traction. I would stitch through the satin at the end of the row, then I would sew the thread to the other side of the block and return to the first point. After that I would blanket stitch the two rows together, (occasionally catching the satin too) and then stretch another row across sewing it at the end and blanket stitch the next row to the existing row. Hope that's clear! I rounded it off at the top and stitched the last row all the way across to secure it all. I didn't stitch it all to the satin - no need. I am really impressed at how many of you are handy with the needle! The parents of my students seem incapable of sewing on elastics and ribbons - they either get Grandma to do it or take it to a seamstress, who inevitably sews everything on in the wrong place. They are always coming off in class and I keep needle and thread in my teaching bag permanently, so that I can quickly stitch them on for them. I am NOT going to volunteer to darn the pointe shoes! I tell them to stick patches on if it's slippery.

In the days when ENB was Festival Ballet, they used to use the children from Arts Ed for mice etc. A good friend of mine was a rat and when she knew we were coming to the performance, she tied a knot in her tail so that we'd know which one she was!!!!

Just wanted to say that he got 6th place, which was a tremendous achievement on his first try. He was also called on stage 4 times to receive scholarship offers! Royal Ballet School and ABT made him offers among others! He actually got accepted to the RBS Summer School last summer, but was unable to attend because of moving to the States. I don't know if they remembered him from that, but they were presumably impressed with his potential.

According to his mother there won't be live streaming of the final performance as the tickets are mega expensive and sold out! Perhaps there will be a video. Also mega expensive no doubt!

Farooq Chaudhry's comments are mentioned in the Standard article, by the way. I think it boils down to what a choreographer/company director is looking for in his dancers and what suits his particular type of choreography. Some modern companies seem less focused on technique and more on freedom of movement and expression, others expect both! I saw an American modern dance company a year or so ago - they did a neo-classical pointe dance which was beautiful and then launched into a really wild contemporary piece that was mind boggling, so their training presumably encompasses both. Perhaps that is what is lacking in the UK schools - a versatile training system that prepares the dancer for the different types of contemporary dance? I am not familiar with the works of these three choreographers, but possibly what they are looking for to compliment their styles of choreography are dancers with less precise technique and more abandon and strength of movement. It doesn't mean that other choreographers are looking for the same thing or that dancers trained in a certain way are necessarily looking to join the type of company that wouldn't want them anyway!

Have just heard that our former student, who moved to the US last summer, was chosen for the final top ten Junior Men age12-14 in the YAGP! That's the competition featured in "First Position". He was 12 in December and is really talented! He took his Grade 7 with us last year and got 95%! Anyway, he started at his new school in California in October and they immediately began teaching him a classical variation. He has an excellent male teacher who coached him for it personally. He won the San Francisco heat and they then had to add a contemporary solo for the NY finals. Luckily during his 5 years with us, he also learnt modern and jazz and flamenco all of which he was brilliant at too, because he only takes ballet classes in his new school, and otherwise they would not have been able to create such a good solo for him. It's important because to get to the final group both modern and classical variations are taken into consideration. He will be in the final concert, the awards ceremony and the Grand Defile. Wish I could be there!

Sorry didn't notice there is another thread on this in Doing Dance. Moderators please feel free to delete. Locked rather than merged - it's probably a bit late for that. Ian Macmillan.

Sarah Crompton writing in the Standard quoted three contemporary dance choreographers who complained that contemporary dance training in the UK is not producing dancers with the necessary "rigour, technique and discipline" that they are looking for in a dancer. Farooq Chaudhry producer for the Akram Khan company was quoted as saying that across the UK's whole education system there's a drop in expectation. In research done on graduates of the London Contemporary Dance School they complained that their teachers didn't expect enough of them. Sarah Crompton's headline is " Talent is worth little without the hard graft that must go with it" - it seems that there is a lot of soul searching going on about dance training in the UK. Any opinions on this?

In my opinion a strong ballet technique is vital even if all you want to do is musical theatre or modern. At the school where I teach all students are grounded in ballet before being allowed to start learning the other dance genres. If you look at the short CVs of the dancers in all the West End musicals, which I always do, you will see that they have all graduated from vocational schools and performing arts schools, where ballet is taught seriously. Your daughter may have aspirations to perform on the West End stage and not in Covent Garden, but that doesn't mean that she doesn't need to invest seriously in ballet training. If they are complaining of her stance and turn-out at the musical theatre school and the same ballet teacher who trains her for RAD classes is going to give her privates, I'm afraid that doesn't fill me with confidence.

We had the opposite problem - new romantic tutus that were made from such stiff net that when the girls lifted their knees, the tutu stayed up even when they put their leg back down! I washed them in the bath and they didn't soften at all, it was only when I did them in the washing machine that they softened enough to use. So I would definitely recommend hand washing them in the bath, rather than machine wash. I think if you don't soak them too long and use cold water you may not even need starch.

I don't know if this is the right place to post this, but I did want to share some sad news, as there may be some members of this forum who knew her. I have just learned that a much beloved ballet teacher passed away earlier this week. Audrey Kraft (Mrs. Audrey James) began her teaching career in Wimbledon at Letty Littlewood's Associated Arts School, where I was a student. She was a wonderful, inspiring teacher and we all adored her. She left in the early sixties after having her first son. She and her husband moved to Bolton and I believe that she taught for many years at Muriel Tweedy's school in Manchester and also adjudicated a lot. I kept in touch with her for 50 years and even managed to see her from time to time, mainly at school reunions. The last occasion was in 2013 when I visited her with my husband in the Care Home in Bolton. I am really sad to think that this beautiful lady is no longer with us - she was a truly special teacher and person to have inspired such love from her pupils.......

I haven't been on the site for a few days - busy with ballet - so missed this whole thread. Still better late than never, Regattah, I would really like to send you my best wishes wishes for a speedy recovery from this setback to your younger daughter (what a lovely idea to send her a gift from the forum!) and many many congratulations to your older daughter for being accepted to Central! Well done to her for managing to do her best, when she must have been so worried about her sister!

I tend to skip grades with older beginners, who might start off in a lowish grade for their age, but often catch up and pass the younger girls who may have been learning for some years. I have a student who took Intermediate this session. She is just 15 and also goes to a middle school with a dance stream, so the extra classes there gave her the push she needed to go from Grade 4 to Intermediate in three years. Last year she took IF and got a very good Distinction and after the exams I jumped her to the next level and she went up with them this year to Intermediate. When I do this it is never at the expense of the girls already in the class. We only have one exam session in March, so we do non-syllabus classes when exams are over in order to start teaching them the new steps for the next year. Having multiple exam sessions in a year has the advantage that if you're not ready for one session, you could be for the next, but with that comes the disadvantage that new girls are constantly coming up to the next level and having to either try and pick up by themselves, or to hold back the rest of the class. Frustrating to those having to repeat............

A miniature ballet shoe went down well with my students when they danced in Nutcracker - I gave the boy a little frog and said that one day I hoped he would turn into a Prince! He did too! A very good gift is a face or hand towel with their name embroidered on it. Can you find shops that do that in the UK?

The level that I love showing best is Grade 7. I do a pointe class the first watching week and leave the actual exam material until the end when it's complete and polished ready for the exam. It is such a beautiful syllabus and when the parents see them in the matching chiffon skirts etc, it really is like a performance! For the last couple of years I also had a boy in the class, so had to learn the male syllabus for the first time - it's also really nice. Both examiners told me that they'd never had to examine a boy before in the syllabus!

I have enjoyed this thread! Priceless humour, Petalviolet! I personally always do two watching weeks - one before the winter break and one before the exams. There is always such a difference between the two and the parents usually seem to be very pleased at their ballerina's progress! They come with Grandparents and Aunties etc and film the class and give their total attention (well apart from one or two dads who you can tell just come because they were dragged to it by Mum!). I find though that once they get to a certain age, the kids don't want their parents watching. I actually tell them that they are being mean to their mums, who just want a chance to gaze in awe at their daughters' accomplishments, but it doesn't help. I have started informing the parents myself on our WhatsApp group, as when we give them notes, they simply don't pass them on. Unfortunately, that doesn't help either as the girls know I'm doing it and tell their Mums not to dare come. I even have students who stay away from class on Watching week!