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Evie

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Everything posted by Evie

  1. My DD had glandular fever when she was 16, her liver was affected and she was admitted to hospital for a week. However, 2 weeks later she declared herself fit and went back to dancing. She bounced back very quickly, she was one of the lucky ones.
  2. Thank you all for your kind words and understanding. The only people I've ever opened up to about my feelings are you!! I'm very good at hiding behind my stiff upper lip
  3. I've hated every minute of every day that my son has been away, he's now in year 11. I don't feel any excitement at all about him becoming a dancer. I feel very disconnected from it all now. It might be worth it for him, I hope it is, but I can never get those years back. He's happy, I'm not, but I guess it's about what he wants now we're this far down the road.
  4. My ds started in year 4, a very young 8 year old. His JA teacher spent the first 6 months informing me that he kept leaning on the barre!! He loved the classes, it gave him the passion for ballet, he's now been at vocational school 3 years. Enjoy the journey everyone, it's making me feel nostalgic!!
  5. My disabled daughter did her RAD examinations with special conditions when she was very young in grade 1. She was given a low Mark, whereas her sister had a high Mark. I think she felt like a disabled ballet dancer, even though she aS still relatively young and gave up. However, we went on to ballroom for a while which she absolutely loved and even did the odd competition.
  6. The correct spelling is Aimee Marles, not Miles.
  7. Well in reality, if I were a dancer (instead of a dancing mum!), I would only be suitable for a big ballet production! Seeing, as I';m in heaven (and this is impossible for me, I'm an atheist!) and a very slim young ballerina, anything where I got to dance with Sergei Polunin would be just perfect!
  8. My ds went away to vocational school 2 years ago at the age of 11. We didn't do it, even though I have journalist friends on our local paper who wanted us to. I just thanked his teachers and schools for supporting him on my fb page and wrote a couple of thank you notes to them also. We did buy some lovely bouquets of flowers for 2 or 3 of his favourite teachers and have photographs taken with them as keepsakes. Everybody that we care about and that it meant something to were told so they could congratulate him.
  9. My friends daughter and her friend were both offered the 'dance connections' too. They are both trained dancers, but really wanted anything to do with acting, as this is what they would ultimately like to train for! Even though they live in the South West, I doubt that either of them will accept their places either.
  10. I think some teachers are high achievers and see something like dancing as a hobby. My eldest son went to grammar school, where he performed the lead role in, The Rocky Horror Show, he looked rather fetching in stiletto's and fishnets complete with pink feather boa. It was suggested by his English teacher that he apply for drama school, but that was never an option for him. In his eyes, no one that went to his grammar school would waste his education studying for a degree in Drama!! Move forward a few years and his degree is in English Literature and he is to become a primary school teacher. His younger dancing brother away at 11 at vocational school, missed the academic genes and was given the dyslexic ones, never I fear to achieve a degree in English Literature, needs to study much harder and stop messing about with dancing according to his brother!!!! So if this train of thought can happen between siblings, how many other high acheivers out there feel like this about dancing, drama etc..................
  11. Katymac. as the mother of six children, 2 of them dc, I can tell you from my experience that one size does not fit all! I knew when one of my children was 5years old that he would probably pass the 11+ and go to grammar school and university, he did! Equally I knew at 4 years old that one of my dc was going to be severely dyslexic and definitely would not pass his 11+ and go down the academic route. He eventually learned to read at 8years old and went to vocational school. My dd refused to audition at 16 like all her friends did, because I'm not good enough, she said and at 4ft 9ins, she was right. However it did not stop her performing and at 18 she went of to Paris to work at Disney. The following year she went to work in Mexico and now at 21, she is still performing and dancing. Encourage your dd, look for her strengths, you know her best after all. What's right for one child is not necessarily right for another and this is why I had 5 children at 5 different schools at one time, it was the right thing for them at that time. Good luck to you and your dd.
  12. My ds currently training as a ballet dancer, would I am sure not want to have to lift those ladies! Afterall he's training as a ballet dancer not a weight lifter!! I switched this programme off after 20minutes, it's another reality TV programme and read a book instead!!! My ds home for half term found it quite interesting and expressed an opinion or two and asked when the next programme was on!
  13. It's light entertainment..., X Factor in tights!! Maybe they'll get Linford Christie to do a series about 'fat athletes' next! I'm fat and believe you me, there's no way I'd want to stuff it all into a tu-tu and perform on a stage at my age! But whatever floats your boat, I suppose!
  14. Evie

    Too Tall?

    My ds son is now 5" 7 and just turned 13! His father is 5" 8 and his older brother is 6" 0!! I'm 5" 3, so I've no idea what's going on. I scoffed when his vocational school predicted his eventual height will be 6" 4, maybe they are right!!
  15. A couple of years ago at the Elmhurst boys finals day, there were approx 15 and they took 8 into that year.
  16. Sorry Jess, I didn't mean to sound unsympathetic. My ds has never been homesick or ever been bullied to such a point that he felt like your ds. I do know of other boys though that have struggled to settle because of varying problems (won't go into detail), especially the first term. My ds said that they went home for a few days or a week, he wasn't even sure that they were coming back! Illness was the reason given for these prolonged absences home. It obviously helped them because they all completed the school year and all came back this year. I say this all the time, that, most of the other ds in my sons year, he would not chose as friends outside his vocational school, but having got to know each other well now, they've become a unit and I'd like to think they watch out for each other now. There is some sort of camaraderie between them, it's like they've all been on an adventure together that only they understand! I hope this happens to your ds year, they are still getting to know each other. I don't know what to suggest about the girl, speak to his houseparent, I would definitely do something soon if he is so upset about it. Houseparents usually act on these sort of things quickly in my experience.
  17. Doesn't every boy that does ballet get called 'gay' at some point! My ds has 2 older brothers that have called him that for years, so much so that it's almost a term of endearment now and I know they are very proud of him! Afterall how many boys that do ballet, dread going to a normal secondary school and friends finding out that they are ballet dancers!
  18. Thank you Tulip for your kind words, I had a lump in my throat when I read them. I'll look back on this time in years to come and I know it will all have been worth it, I hope!!
  19. As a mum who has seen her 18year old off to uni and 11year old off to vocational school, I can tell you it is definitely not the same!! I text or rang my uni son every day to make sure he was eating properly for weeks (even though he was catered for), but I held onto the fact that he was a grown up now, with other 18 year olds and this was the start of adulthood. It's not the same for an 11 year old, they are still small children, who climb into your bed for cuddles and still look for reassurance when they fall out with friends. I also saw my 4ft 9ins, 18year old daughter off to work in Paris a couple of years ago, struggling with a giant suitcase at the train station. It broke my heart to see her go, but it wasn't the same either, she was starting out with her first job abroad and last year I saw her off again to work in Mexico! Some dc will cope better than others and the same for their mums and dads. I just have a deep saddness in the pit of my stomach that won't go away, but I haven't cried once! I wish I could be upbeat and happy to reassure other mums and dads, but there's no point me lying is there, I find it incredibly hard without him, but there are plenty of other mums on this forum who have the knack of being upbeat and offering supportive words of wisdom. That might be me in the future!!!
  20. There's no point trying to get away from it, that dc who go to vocational school at 11, go because WE parents have let them!! I struggle every day with this, I took my ds to his first ballet class, I took him to all his audition's and I sent him away to vocational school! If he'd never danced, he'd be home now, where he should be, with all his older siblings! It's like we're on this conveyor belt and can't get off now, I'm as guilty of that as any dancing parent. I do know lot's of dancers though that didn't go away at 11, I envy them and their parents. I've also heard of parents who make their children or at least coerce them into going away at 11, shame on you! It really does have to be 100% the dc choice, I speak to my ds at the end of every term and give him the options if he would like to give up and come home. So far I get a resounding no every time, he's quite determind to see it through to the end and make a career out of it. I can't knock him for that! He is definitely a different animal to his siblings, as I think back to when they were 11, not one of them would have coped being away at that age, but I knew he would. I don't have the answer to it all, but I know that I miss him so much.
  21. I couldn't bear it, if I only spoke to my ds (who's 12) once a week! It feels like he's far away,as it is and I've never been a fan of boarding schools either! I like to have dialogue with all my children, it makes me feel part of their lives, even if they live away and 3 of them do. My eldest child is 37 and lives close by, we may not see each other for a week or 2, but speak on the phone every other day. Even when one of my daughters was working in Mexico, we spoke every other day. But I guess this is more about my needs than theirs!!
  22. I am fat! I have been yoyo dieting for 20years, having arthritis means I can't exercise! Todays society is very judgmental, I don't smoke or drink, I'm a nice person, I'm kind and considerate, I love my husband and children and I never kick the dog!! Before the children and arthritis(Brought on my the sudden death of my younger sister), right up into my 30's, I was a size 10 and exactly the same person I am now!! My dd and dancing niece have come across predjudice in the dance world because they were not the desired size, but are both still entertaining and teaching dance. My ds is currently underweight for a dancer!! Not every young dancing child, boy or girl, is going to be a ballet dancer or even a dancer. Most of them will use the skills gained from dancing and performing in other aspects of their lives in the future, be it university, college or work. As a final note: my father was never overweight, he never smoked or drank, he ran marathons for most of his life and virtually lived at the gym! He died at 69 of heart disease, his twin brother who was always a bit podgy and smoked a pipe is still going strong at 88!!!!!!!! Some dc dance for fun not for a career!
  23. Evie

    Good Luck!

    My ds has just started his 2nd year at vocational school, he tells me that you don't get homesick in year 8! Not that he was homesick in year 7 either! I on the other hand hate every day that he is not here, I was hoping over the summer that he might tell me he didn't want to go back. His dad came in from work tonight and said he's really missing him too. I don't think it will get any easier and I struggle to think that dancing is worth the sacrifice I must admit!!
  24. This article conveys most of what boys have to endure if they dance, especially if they do ballet!
  25. My friend will be travelling up on Thursday by train, carrying a table. I believe it is a fold up one!!! My other friends daughter won gold this morning in the song and dance section. She has her lyrical modern this afternoon!
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