ClaireR

This video popped up on my YouTube home page. It’s Sarah Lamb and Marcelino Sambe dancing extracts from Giselle and then interviewed alongside Kevin O’Hare at the Cambridge Union. https://youtu.be/Y_srNXcPfAM I haven’t been to any of the performances, so it’s been wonderful reading about all of them, and seeing the pictures. This has been a really wonderful thread to keep up with.

Victoria Tennant gave a talk at the Chicago Humanities Festival about her mother's story and how and why she compiled the book. I found it fascinating.

Nana Lily, I was wondering about some of the music as well, I couldn't identify the end credit music, but with the wonders of modern technology (the MusicID app), I found out that it is the ballet music from Gounod's Faust. Go to 8:50 of this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4Taj8qbhnE. Definitely something to add to my list of music to listen to.

I'm thinking of booking tickets for Oxford but haven't been to this theatre before. Do all the seats have a good view?

I work in a higher education institution and deal with student support and know a bit about the Student Support Regulations. I'm not such an expert on HND's. The advice I'm going to give you below is based on a student living in England. The regulations are different depending on which country you live in. The number of years funding you get is based on how long the course is (my experience is with degree courses), so if the course is 3 years in length you get 4 years funding. The '+1' year is to allow for retake years where the student does not pass. SFE do not fund repeat years (where you are retaking a year that you have already passed), so if the HND the student completes is equivalent to the first year of the degree, they will not fund the tuition fee for that year, but will do so for the remainder of the course. Even if you were to pay the fees for the HND yourself, I think this would still be the case. I can't remember whether or not they offer maintenance as there are cases where they do give a maintenance loan but not a tuition fee loan. If the student then wants to go onto study a course at the same level (ie, another bachelor degree) they get no funding, and the institution is able to charge them the full cost of the course (the overseas fee), although this is at the discretion of the institution. This is referred to as the ELQ rule (Equivalent or Lower Qualification). The only exception to this is if the student receives a Disabled Students' Allowance (DSA) during their studies. They still don't get any student support, but are only charged the 'home fee' rate. Private institutions can charge what ever they like. Students can borrow up to £6,000 from SFE towards tuition fees (but I presume only if the institution and course is registered with SFE). I don't have experience of this so don't know about maintenance support. If you can call SFE during the day it normally takes about 5 mins to get through to a 'real' person if you call in the morning. The other alternative is to contact the institutions you are looking at and explain the situation. They should have a good understanding of the different pathways that students come from and what finance will be available. So many times students I come across seem to assume that funding will magically be available to them so I am glad you are thinking ahead about this. If you get an explanation that you don't understand, keep asking until you do because the regulations are not easy to access and understand, and it's important to make sure you are clear of the implications will be funding wise before making any firm decisions. Hope what I have written here is of some help.

I went to see Boston Ballet on Thursday evening. Overall I really enjoyed it and was pleased to have been there. When looking at the two programmes on offer I was definitely more drawn to Programme 1, but felt I should also go to Programme 2 to try and get a real feel for the company. They are obviously proud of the contemporary works in their repertoire. It’s always a pleasure to see Serenade, it’s one of those ballets that at certain points makes me want to get up and join in the fun. I thought all the corps ladies danced like they could all be principals. I especially liked Kathleen Breen Combes. I’ve seen Afternoon of the Faun a few times, and the more I see it the more uncertain I feel about it. I can’t work out whether I enjoy it or not. I didn’t really feel that it added anything to the programme on this occasion. Whilst the rest of the audience reacted enthusiastically for Plan B, I wasn’t so keen on it. Whilst it was danced with commitment, I didn’t feel there was anything deeper on offer from the choreography. It just felt like a lot of jumping, twisting and spinning about. I would be willing to give it a second go to confirm my reaction, maybe I missed something. Symphony in Three Movements is a ballet with which I am not so familiar, having only seen it the once in a performance by BRB. What I enjoyed most about the performance on Thursday was the ability of the dancers to bring out the wit of the choreography. I too was distracted by the teeth of Lia Cirio. I liked the programme book produced for this tour especially the pictures of the principal dancers taken against landmark buildings of Boston. It also contains portraits of all the dancers, making much easier to identify who is who. I also want to mention the RPO who played splendidly all evening, sound particularly luscious in the Debussy. I'm seeing Programme 2 on Saturday afternoon.

Hello, Lurker of many years on the old site, first time post. I just wanted to say how inspired I was reading this thread and so this week trotted off to my first ballet class since I was 12. I enjoyed it very much, it is definitely going to be a regular part of my week. Big thank you to all! (PS....I hear there is a principal position coming up soon at the RB, may be I should be thinking about a change of career...... )