aileen

Pointytoes22, I don't know if EYB have a regular schedule as such. The next few productions are up on their website. You could contact them to find out whether there are any future plans to put on another production in the South West. As in many areas of life, it's hard to keep up with what's going on and easy to miss out on things. Keep an eye on this forum. It's a mine of information.

There are of course residential summer courses which others on this forum know more about than me. If you look at the other threads you'll find out more about these, although you may be too late for some of them for this year. Perhaps others could give a few pointers about these. Someone recently mentioned a Cechetti summer course which it was still possible to apply for. This may or may not be relevant to you.

Doesn't Elmhurst have an associate programme in Plymouth? Also, English Youth Ballet travel around the country. I imagine that they will be coming to the South West at some point.

Rowan, I feel that you have left us wanting to know more! It doesn't matter that you don't think that you are very knowledgeable about ballet. Most of us aren't, but we are still entitled to our own responses and opinions on what we see. You prepared before you went by reading the critics' reviews but how did you feel about the ballet yourself, if you don't mind telling us? If you like you could post your thoughts under the thread already started for Artifact. You'll see what I thought there.

I saw Artifact last night. I can't say that I loved it. I'm probably a philistine, but I did not like the speaking parts which I just found annoying, distracting and pointless most of the time. I also found the low lighting towards the beginning annoying. This is probably deliberate, but I sometimes wish that lighting designers would sit in the upper circle/amphitheatre and think whether the paying audience are getting a good view for their money (this applies to other recent performances I've seen as well). I really liked most of the dancing, both pdds and corps. For me, the section with the golden lighting in the second Act was the best part of the ballet. However, I'm very glad that I went because it may be a long time before it is performed in its entirety in the UK again (after Birmingham, of course). Btw, does anyone know how Artifact Suite differs from Artifact (apart from being shorter, of course). Is the former an excerpt of the latter or is the choreography completely different? I was interested to learn that it was created for Scottish Ballet in 2004.

So, what is your daughter concerned about then, taxi4ballet? If your dd is slim according to the BMI charts and she is happy with her changing shape then what is this post about?

It's quite worrying that these girls find it hard to embrace the fact that they are becoming young women with the bodies to match. It's all to do with the prevailing ballet aesthetic (very thin), I suppose. I'm surprised, Taxi4ballet, that at 13 more of her friends are not well developed. In my experience, many 11 year olds are already wearing bras or bra type vests. Regarding BMI charts, I too would be wary of referring to these (even the ones designed for children). Children have different builds and develop at different rates and the results can be really misleading in some cases.

Growth must surely be linked to the onset of puberty which varies greatly from child to child. Some girls start their periods at 10 whilst others may not start until they are 13 or 14 (or older). Those that start their periods later must grow later or go on growing for longer. I assume that the same is true for boys. One 14 year old boy may be physically mature whilst another is still immature physically. The latter will probably have more growing to do than the former.

Meadowblythe So your son is not yet 15. He's still very young. Without wishing to give you false hope, his age and the fact that his father and brother are fairly tall do make it likely that he will grow a bit more. My situation is strangely similar to yours: my son is August born; my husband is fairly tall (I am 5 foot 4) and my father was only about 5 foot 6 or 7). My mother fretted endlessly about my brother's height when we were growing up (he was very small when he started secondary school) but he grew to a "respectable" height in the end (5 foot 9 or 10). My mother was above average height, however.

Fix, I think that Ivan Putrov must be taller than 5 foot 4. I would guess that he is 5 foot 6 at least. Steven McRae is only 5 foot 7 or thereabouts and he's thriving at the RB.

I've never been very convinced by those height calculation formulae; there are too many variables. In my personal experience, young men who are tall often have tall mothers or relatives who are tall on the mother's side. I certainly think that Meadowblythe's son is likely to grow a bit more. The problem with the ballet companies nowadays is that they seem to have relaxed their maximum height requirements for women (in the past I'm sure that a woman could not be taller than 5 foot 4) but the men are not getting taller.

You could go and see ENB's collaboration with Flawless - ballet meets street dance - which is in London and on tour at quite a few venues this summer. See ENB's website for details.

Meadowblythe, do you think that your son has definitely stopped growing? Is he old or young in the year? Boys can go on growing much later than girls and some go on growing into their late teens. Apparently, bone scans can give an indication of how tall a child is likely to grow but I don't know how accurate they are. How tall are you and your son's father? If at least one of you is above average height then I would have thought that your son is likely to grow a bit taller (I appreciate that this is not scientific). Few young men are as short as 5 foot 4 these days and if your son is only 15 or just 16 there is a chance that he will grow a bit more. I would also check that your son is not nutritionally deficit in any way (eg anaemic) as this could affect growth (I know what teenage boys are like; I have a very small 13 year old boy of my own who I worry about).

Out of curiosity (and nothing is implied here) does anyone know how many rehearsals the musicians had with the dancers? And was a piano used for earlier rehearsals? I'm showing my ignorance here, but how many, if any, of the "songs" were commissioned for Carbon Life?

I'm glad that Yasmine danced well last night. We all want the young dancers to succeed when they are given larger roles/solos etc. Regarding Sweet Violets, I actually found the music a bit overpowering even though there were, I think, only three instruments playing and I was sitting in the Amphitheatre. Regarding the interval before Carbon Life, someone needs to get these rock stars moving a bit earlier! After all, they're free until 9.30pm!

How was the triple bill last night? Did anybody see it?

Thanks, ballet0. I'd found Citizen M hotel on the web. It looks pretty funky!

Admin and Leinstergarden, thanks for the tips and info.

Ian, thanks for the tip. I think that it must have been on the old ballet.co site that I read about the Nutcracker marathon. I must look at it again.

Alison, thanks for removing my duplicate post. I couldn't seem to do it myself. My daughter and I really enjoyed BRB's Cinderella at the Coliseum last year. I even saw it twice. I much preferred it to the RB's production which we saw the previous year I think; it felt lacklustre even with a star pairing. Janet, thanks for the info about NB.

I'm disappointed (and surprised) to hear that BRB won't be doing their much praised Nutcracker this year. I've never seen it. Janet, where did you see details for NB's Nutcracker? I couldn't see it on their website. Also, (don't hate me Glasgow residents!) is it safe walking around the area near the theatre at night? I do live in London and use public transport a lot and so I'm not particularly timid.

I know, we've just had Easter and I'm already talking about The Nutcracker! There was a critic who travelled across America (I think it was last year) sampling lots of different Nutcrackers in the Christmas season. That got me thinking that perhaps I might try the same thing this year -subject to finances- in the UK. I would need to travel north to see Scottish Ballet's production. I have some knowledge of Edinburgh but the dates may not suit and so I wondered whether anyone could give me any information about going to see Scottish Ballet in Glasgow (I would need to stay the night).

It's a shame that they couldn't somehow have managed to include some real male ballet dancers lifting the ballerinas, thereby showing everyone how strong they are compared to the footballers.

Because of the requirement to do some pointe work it can take a long time to take this exam. A girl may start the class at 10 but if she doesn't start pointe until she is 12 (fairly typical) she won't do the exam for several months after that at least.

I'm going to see Streetcar when it comes to London. Many people have seen the film and so that helps with the story.