Jan McNulty

I thoroughly enjoyed the mixed doubles final. Heather Watson and Henry Kontinven had obviously gelled. Congratulations to both of them and let's hope we see more of this pairing in future years!

50% but all were guesses apart from 2!

Well done to Andy Murray! I didn't dare watch in case I jinxed him...

I finally caught up with the Ballet Black documentary this afternoon and I really enjoyed it. Watching the work they were doing it made me think that there will always a place for Ballet Black, even if the reason for that place changes. They commission new short works every season and are building up a very varied repertoire using interesting choreographers. Long may that continue, no matter what the make up of the Company become. May Ballet Black live long and prosper!

Several posts on this thread have been hidden because they could have led to children being identifiable. Members should speak about their own experiences and not about what they may have heard "on the grapevine". It is suggested that members think very carefully about the content of their posts to prevent their own or other people's children from being identified.

Thanks for the report Vicky, it sounds intriguing. These type of "installation dances" seem to becoming increasingly popular. Doing the links, I have seen quite a few reports from the USA of dance installations. I think, though, that ATdeK's is probably the most famous company I have heard of doing one.

Here's a thread from a couple of years ago that may be of some use: http://www.balletcoforum.com/index.php?/topic/2882-foot-thongs/?fromsearch=1

Here's a list of cat sanctuaries in NI: http://www.catchat.org/adoption/irelandu.html?gclid=Cj0KEQjwwYK8BRC0ta6LhOPC0v0BEiQApv6jYSZqjSgXu7Vr4YMtzN3NAl2O0vUMWPqNC0t04DhBpaQaAmwm8P8HAQ And the website has a forum if you don't want to telephone any of the sanctuaries: http://www.catchat.org/felineforum/

Congratulations to Biscuit on giving birth. Sorry I can't give you any practical advice Lisa but perhaps could you place her water and food bowls in or very close to the cupboard for her to help herself to more easily.

Done. Bullying seems endemic in all walks of life these days. It is dreadful and can seriously damage a person's emotional health, whatever their age. I was bullied on 2 occasions in my working life and still get upset if I try to talk about it. One of my nieces was bullied in her secondary school - she gained a lot of confidence from joining the drama group but it still hurt her. When I was telling one of my colleagues about my niece being bullied, my colleague started crying because she had been bullied at school and this was over 30 years after the event. I would have thought that with the environment being much more controlled in a vocational school environment that bullying and bad behaviour would have been much more visible to the staff and that it would be easier to take action against the bullies.

Hello balletbomb and welcome out of the lurking shadows. I can't answer your specific questions but I thought it was usual that that the documentation did not come through immediately.

Kenneth Tindall's Children of the Mantic Stain is being shown at the Clore Ballroom in the RFH at 1830 on Wednesday 10th August. It is a free event and cannot be booked in advance. The piece lasts about 35 minutes. I have managed to get train tickets in the Virgin Trains sale so will be there. I just LOVE the rug! http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/children-of-the-mantic-stain-1001740?dt=2016-08-10

Would you have a quarter of your company as graduates?

Our local ATG company fortunately seems to have stopped selling popcorn now. When you are booking tickets you get a lot of options for pre-booking snacks and drinks packages. I've got to admit that, because I go to several ATG theatres, I gave in and got an ATG card. You don't pay the fees and they have some good card holders offers on tickets. I've saved over £100 pa for the last 4 years since I have had one. But you have to work out if it is worth it for you.

The daughter of an ex-colleague got onto cruise ships around 10 years ago; I don't know if she is still doing it. She was having a fabulous time and one of the intangible benefits was that her parents were able to go on fabulous cruises with her at very cheap rates!! It wouldn't surprise me if all DPs didn't encourage their children to get on the cruises for that very point!

Hello PointeBlanc and welcome to the Forum! Thanks for the information about the Mayflower. I visited the theatre to see Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet, so probably nearly 30 years ago! I sat mid-stalls and, from what I can remember, enjoyed the view! Sounds like you are planning a great trip Petunia!

There was a big turnover in dancers a couple of years after David Nixon joined the Company and so many of the more established members joined in 2003 and 2004. Perhaps they are coming towards what they see as the end of their performing careers and want to retire (e.g. Kenneth Tindall, Sebastian Loe, Darren Goldsmith) or move on to try something different (e.g. Michele Paolacci, Lori Gilchrist, John Hull). I cannot comment on why people have only done one or 2 years with the company. In recent years we saw a large number of dancers leaving BRB at the same time, but again they were dancers who perhaps were looking for a different direction at that point in their career after quite a few years with one company or were retiring. When David Nixon joined the Company in 2001 it had around 30 dancers. It now has 45, a 50% increase - a high proportion by anyone's measure. As we are having a similar discussion on the thread in Doing Dance, could I ask if you have a particular issue with Northern Ballet? It is well known that I am a huge fan not only of this company but of BRB and I declare that as my interest.

And I think a number of people have given reasoned responses to your points. There is no point in speculating why dancers have left the company because we just don't know. We also don't know why the company has taken on experienced dancers rather than graduates. One member whose DD was on the course has already very kindly shared the news that her daughter has changed direction. Why don't you contact the company and ask them?

Sadly, not any more. I haven't got the space. I buy a programme for something new and keep it for a while. As I mostly follow 2 companies I only now buy the first programme of the season so I can see who the new dancers are.

There were still programmes at the Saturday matinee, I bought one! I think it's quite a decent programme. Thanks for the link to the online version.

A place that may be worth looking for nice backpacks is TX Maxx - my niece got a fabulous one there a while ago for around £10. It was a well-known (if you are young and trendy) make and was retailing for around £50 elsewhere. Unfortunately when I went they had none left. As ever with this type of shop you have to be in the right place at the right time.

I've copied this very useful post by PicturesInTheFirelight from another thread: "With regards to the qualifications I wondered if it might be useful to give a run down of what all these different qualifications and levels mean because if most of you are like me back in the day we had O Levels or GCSES, A Levels and degrees and you knew what level they were at. Today we have a myriad of different academic and vocational qualifications that sit on the QCF Framework and it all gets a bit confusing. Qualifications have a level (which indicates the difficulty) and Credits (which indicates the size) so if you do Grade 5 ballet its the same level of difficulty supposedly as GCSE dance but the GCSE has more content if you see what I mean. GCSE Grades A-C, Grades 4-5 dance & music. Inter F dance & Btec First Diploma are all Level 2 qualifications A Levels, Grades 6-8 & Intermediate & Btec National Diploma are all Level 3 HNC (BTUK's qualification) Advanced 1 & 2 ballet and the first year of a degree are Level 4 HND, Foundation degree Trinity Diploma in Classical Ballet,Solo Seal & the second year of a degree are Level 5 Trinity Diploma in Professional Dance & a full degree are Level 6 A masters degree is Level 7 & a doctorate is Level 8" As an old fogey product of the O and A level days, it's very interesting.

The bombing was a dreadful, murderous tragedy. This is one young man, a dancer, who lost his life in this senseless atrocity: http://dancemagazine.com/news/dancer-among-dead-baghdad/

As Northern Ballet has expanded by around 25% over the past couple of years perhaps they were finding that the graduates they had been taking on could not get on quickly enough with the rep or did not fit in with the style. Perhaps they wanted to bolster the company with more experienced dancers. I was at a talk by David Nixon some years ago around the time that the Professional Graduates Programme was being set up and he said that a lot of the dancers he was seeing from the schools were not what he would call "stage ready" and that is why he had decided to set up this programme. You have to bear in mind, imho, that NB is a smaller company than those you list and cannot afford, with their touring commitment, to take on dancers who can grow into the company slowly. They need people who can come "up and running". Of the current company, 4 dancers (excluding the new apprentice) came via the Professional Graduates Programme. Tabitha I am sure you have the statistics to hand but my feeling is that, until this year, when numbers of dancers have been taken on they have mostly been graduates. I do not know why that is not the case this year. I would not have expected to see a list of graduate destinations listed on the company promotions, leavers, joiners notification as the Programme is run as part of the Academy not the Company.

I've heard that somewhere recently too Anna.