Dance*is*life

When I did comps as a child, I used to go over my dances before I went on. Well with one of my dances I suddenly went blank - just could not remember a section. I was quite hysterical - it just wouldn't come. So I went to my teacher and she couldn't remember what she'd choreographed there either. Instead she choreographed a new section for me which I inserted in place of the missing piece. I actually have no idea how I managed that on stage without muddling the whole dance!

There's a really warm supportive atmosphere on this board - it almost feels like an internet family! When you post you know that people are going to respond in the way you would want them to - no nasty undercurrents. I am so pleased a friend told me about it when she did - I love it!

When I took my Intermediate (now Advanced 1) I had been taught one of the pointe exercises incorrectly. The two other girls in with me went one way and I went the other. The examiner (the late great Phylis Bedells) asked me if that was how I had been taught it and I confirmed that it was. Oh well I won't down you for that as you stuck to your guns, she reassured me! Lovely lady! By the way I discovered last year in the newly reinstated discussion with the examiner after the exams, that I had made a mistake in the Grade 7 Ports de Bras. I had been doing it that way for years! It didn't affect the marking in the slightest, but I've changed it for this year!

My family is remarkably tolerant - especially darling hubby. I suppose they have come to understand that I wouldn't be me without my beloved ballet. It's been my life since I was a very little girl, so not much they can do to change anything now! Anyway, my husband and I met because we ended up with the same landlady, when he was a student and I was Good Fairy in panto! So I suppose he can't complain - he sort of knew what he was letting himself in for! Surprisingly enough my sons were always rather proud of the fact that I was different from all the other "normal" mums at school.........

Don't bring up the word hockey in front of me! I started out my education at a grammar school and was reasonably okay dancing part time and playing netball - I loved shooting and did a beautiful temps leve in arabesque to shoot the ball into the net! But then misery of misery they started us on hockey and I hated it! Whilst we were just learning how to dribble the ball with our sticks I coped, but then we started having to play games and I was TERRIFIED of getting hit! That was when I started nagging my parents to let me leave the grammar school and go full time to the performing arts school, where I was learning ballet twice a week. I have never been so relieved when they agreed and I could hide my hockey stick away under my bed!

I wouldn't deliberately take classes with teachers I don't like (!) but for several months of the year, in the centre where I take classes, the regular adult ballet class on Tuesday mornings becomes part of an enrichment course for dance teachers - bit like the professional development courses that the RAD now insists upon for their teachers, except that for some wierd reason the RAD doesn't think that taking class adds to our ability to teach . Anyway, the teacher changes every two, three or four weeks and I am not always familiar with the ones they choose. So I take the first class or two to try them out and then don't come if I don't enjoy them or gain anything from them. It's very interesting though to see how different they all are in their teaching methods and how each one finds some other aspect of technique or musicality to concentrate on. I do have different needs nowadays as a rather old adult dancer and if I don't get warmed up properly at the barre, I don't manage the centre, so there are some teachers I just have to say - Well twenty years ago I would have loved your class, but not now, I'm afraid ............

I had a really good boy, whom I encouraged to do summer courses and other stuff, including coaching with another boy and a male teacher. He tried out for a full time educational performing arts school here and was totally put off by the scathing way they reacted to his telling them that he had done the RBS SS - as if their summer course was better! Excuse me - we're talking about the RBS here! In the end he went to Elmhurst for two years and it was the making of him. And their attitude lost the local school a very good male student....... It also cost his mother a great deal of money

Just to clarify - the older ones are not in the same class - they've been studying for longer, so are in a supposedly higher level.

I have had several late starters who not only caught up with their peers, but surpassed them. They had natural talent and a good physique, the will to work hard and ambition. I also have several students aged 13 and 14 in Intermediate who have stronger classical technique than the 16 and 17 year olds. They're able to do much more advanced exercises on pointe (and look good doing them) than the older ones. I often find that the younger ones in a class are the best, even when there is a difference in age of two or even three years. As they say - it's just the way the cookie crumbles!

When I was at the US some 50 years ago, foreign students were not eligible for the company, so were put in separate classes and the level was much lower than the rest of the school. Each year the graduates from WL went straight away into a special class on their own and then Graduates - ie they were considered so good that they automatically went into De Valois' classes. The rest of us needed a preparatory year to whip us into shape and then two more years. A lot has changed since then, but I can't believe that the standard of training has lowered, just that the market has widened and there's far greater competition.

I do agree that it very much depends on the teachers you have and what suits your child, even in the best schools. When I was in the RBS Upper School, I was put into a class with Pamela May (former ballerina) as my teacher and I totally adored her - hung on her every word and excused her for smoking and teaching in high heels! For some reason after less than a month I and three other girls were moved into another teacher's class. They claimed that the class was too full and that we were the youngest in it - really?????? Anyway, the second teacher was one of the most respected, admired and beloved of all teachers and I hated her and her classes! I stopped working, cried most of the day and didn't shake out of it until my mother went up to the school and fought for me to be put back with Pamela May! Nowadays I take classes with a wide variety of teachers and some I like and some I don't. They are all very well respected and experienced teachers, but some just don't suit me. Teaching is a very personal thing.

I do think it depends on the examiner. One of my best students had a panic attack in the exam and was unable to complete the exam. I think she was Grade 4. The examiner whispered to me that she would make sure she passed the exam nevertheless, because she saw how good she was. She gave her all 9s and 10s for what she had done and she passed. I always thought that was very nice of her because a few marks less and she would have failed.

I suppose it depends on the technique they teach. When I wrote modern that might well be what you mean by contemporary - I'm afraid I'm not really up to date on the differences nowadays - our teachers don't teach the modern that I learnt at school any more! Unless that's what the original poster meant when she said the modern work seemed old-fashioned - perhaps they still do teach my modern in the UK!

All my students wore the low heels for all the old grades - it was simply easier to handle the exercises without a higher heel getting in the way. No examiner ever said anything. The only time any examiner mentioned the shoes was when I first started teaching the Higher Grades and they wore leather character shoes. She told me that the hard shoes had not given them the flexibility they needed in the foot work. With the new work it might depend on what dances the teacher chooses for each grade, but I can't see a low heel being a problem.

We don't follow a syllabus for anything but ballet in our school, but I can assure you that there is a huge difference in modern/contemporary and jazz dance. We have separate teachers for both genres and I think the dances for the end of year performance are quite distinctive. The interesting thing is that none of the teachers will accept a child in their classes who hasn't done ballet. In our school that wouldn't happen, but I believe they apply that rule elsewhere too, because they all insist on a level of technique which is not possible without a ballet foundation. We start preparatory modern around Grade 3 level and jazz is introduced in Grade 5. The repertoire of a classical ballet company is very different from what it was when I was at vocational school, so we didn't have modern classes as part of the timetable, although I had learnt it at my performing arts school. I don't think you'll find a vocational school today that doesn't include modern or jazz - all professional classical ballet dancers need to be versatile nowadays to cope with the varied repertoire they are expected to perform.

Just wanted to update you all and say that with the exams coming up in about 10 days time, she has really worked hard these last couple of months and has improved quite dramatically! I am so pleased with her and am keeping fingers crossed that she will get a decent mark this time. Hopefully I will have good news for you (and her!) in a few weeks time!

Her mother and I didn't tell my student that we had asked for special conditions, so I think she felt okay in the exam. The low mark did put her off doing another exam, but she carried on dancing until she left school. There were some exercises she couldn't do so I used to give her a simple solo whilst, for example, the others were doing turns in a circle - she was very bright - she knew what I was doing and appreciated it.

I put one girl in for the Grade 5 exam with special conditions. She had a medical condition which gave her extremely weak muscle tone. We had to provide a medical certificate to get it approved. The strange thing was that the examiner did not get that and I had to explain the problem to her just before the exam. She told me that as far as marking was concerned, she had to stick to the criteria, so the girl got a very low pass mark. However I suspect that without the special conditions she might have failed her. What I am trying to say is that if your daughter gets Merit without the special conditions, she will probably get similar marks with them. However if the examiner does know the situation and is able to make your daughter feel more comfortable in the exam, then she might well succeed in performing better and raise her mark, so it probably is worth while asking your teacher to arrange this for you. Very best of luck to your daughter.

Yes I agree - you really need to be patient! You can't run before you can walk and you can't do pointe work before you know enough correct ballet technique. Maybe you will reach that stage in a couple of years - perhaps it will take you longer, but you must be aware that pointe work is a lot more than learning how to tie the ribbons and managing to balance on the tips of your toes. Ballet is beautiful abd professional dancers make it look very easy, but it isn't - it takes years of hard work. I am not trying to be discouraging and I really hope that you will fulfill your dream and dance on pointe one day. However, it is not something that I would recommend for an adult who is an absolute beginner. Work hard and be patient and I am sure you will get there in the end!

Good heavens - you must all be tremendously talented if you can cope with IF without going through all the grades and having so few hours training! Perhaps it's because our Grade 2s are quite a bit younger that I have difficulty picturing them making that giant step! Anyway, I have to say that I am impressed!

I have to confess that when the overture started at a matinee a few weeks ago, I suddenly remembered that I hadn't switched off my phone (I suppose they made an announcement, but you hear it so often that I imagine I blocked it out - were we talking earlier about lack of concentration?). Anyway, the only way to switch it off is to light up the screen first and as soon as I did that the lady behind me virtually screamed at me that the light was disturbing her (the curtains weren't even open yet and there was nothing to see on stage). I told her that I was trying to switch it off, but I heard her complaining loudly to her partner, which was probably more disturbing to everyone around than the few seconds light from my phone. Oh well...........

The late Joyce Grenfell did wonderful comic monologues - I particularly love her nursery school teacher one. I don't think it would matter what accent you did it with as long as you got the right "tone" of voice. She's giving them a dancing lesson - they're supposed to be flowers. "Sidney dear, what have you got in your mouth?" "No you can't be a horse - you have to be a flower" "George - don't do that" That sort of thing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXhHFgDRNBQ

I can see that it would be a good idea to do a preparation for Intermediate Foundation after Grade 4 - instead of Grade 5 perhaps - but personally I cannot envisage a Grade 2 child, who only does 2 x 45 min classes of ballet a week, being ready for that. To me it sounds rather too ambitious a jump, but maybe your child is ready for it - without seeing her of course we can't know. There is no pre- Intermediate Foundation level officially in the RAD.

What an interesting post - I think I will suggest to the parents of children with injuries, that they ask for a Vitamin D test next time they do a blood test. We are in a hot country, but dancing children are in the studio a lot and may not be benefiting from the sun - I know my own son who doesn't dance, but is a computer freak, lacks it and takes pills.

Exactly! I stopped taking classes regularly during the 7 years when I was having my babies, until a friend invited me to join her ladies' beginners class just to try and get back into shape. My Dad came over to babysit the youngest and when he saw me with my hair pulled up into a bun again - he said Oh my dancing daughter's come back to me! And that was it - I never stopped taking class again and my baby is 34!