taxi4ballet

My dd wore Russian Pointe shoes, which suited her high arch and instep, but I don't suppose they will be all that easy to get hold of at the moment. She switched to those from Bloch Serenade Strong, and I think she once tried some Grishkos 2007 pro but couldn't get on with them because the vamp was too long, maybe.

That could be because it was MT rather than a dance course, and some of the attendees were more into the singing side etc and were less experienced dance-wise?

They did trips to see west end shows during their Christmas residentials. I don't remember them doing the same at Easter, so maybe they do that now. The teaching was always a very high standard.

My dd did the Tring easter residential several times a few years back and always really enjoyed it.

It all depends on how those years were funded though. If they had a student loan, then that's that - they can't get another one.

From remembering what they said when my dd was auditioning, they ask for the grade passed or currently being studied, or an indication of the equivalent if no syllabus is being studied. Which of course is very common anyway for international applicants. I believe that most (if not all) people who apply for an audition will get one, and naturally during the audition they are looking at the dancer and not pieces of paper (as a very wise dance teacher once said to me!). They may well only go through the applications in greater detail when they are deciding who to recall for finals, but who knows?

It is not unknown for students at one or two establishments to - (how can I put this?) - er... 'disappear' at the end of 2nd year. Their 3rd year places are miraculously filled by other dancers, already fully trained elsewhere and practically company-ready, who arrive for a final polish and the name of the school on their cv. Not that I'm a cynic or anything.

I think whether the dancer thinks that the result is fair or not has a big impact on how they feel about it. My dd did a fair few auditions, and at one place she had two, a year apart, and got a no from both. After the first one she came out really indignant and said that she felt the panel barely glanced at her and was watching other people all the time. She was particularly annoyed that they were looking elsewhere when she felt she did very well at some of the exercises. On the second occasion, she came out saying that she'd been aware that they watched her a lot and paid close attention. She could also tell that the panel was talking about her between themselves. When she got a 'no' that time, she said at least it was fair and she'd given it her best shot. And yes, it was RBS!

I agree - there's Equity for the acting profession and the Musicians Union - dancers need one too really, don't they?

Can you imagine the Musicians' Union standing for this? Orchestras bumping up their numbers, not by employing professionals, but by offering a trainee programme where people pay for the privilege of performing with the orchestra? Not likely.

The little boy who fell 100 feet down a well in Morocco has been rescued after nearly five days, and has been taken to hospital.

Schemes like this can sometimes be a way for a company to have extra dancers without having to pay them a proper salary or give them a contract. Not that I'm a cynic or anything.

My dd's first dance school would charge £10 per costume. The more you were in, the more you paid. All the costumes were owned and mostly made by the school and they had hundreds upon hundreds of them. Most would be altered and adapted for different performances and they would sometimes make whole new sets, so really by everyone paying a flat £10 they managed to keep costs down overall. They also had literally thousands of headdresses and accessories. Some dances only needed such things as black leggings and t-shirts with a scarf or whatever, and you just supplied your own and borrowed the scarf so you didn't pay anything for that. Another of her dance schools charged about £25 per costume and you kept them afterwards. They were the cheap mass-made ones like fancy dress outfits and were a waste of money.

I think on the whole it is easier for boys to be accepted into full-time training at 16 if they are late starters and show a lot of potential / have the right physique and facility. The pool of boys for the schools to choose from is a lot smaller. With girls the situation is entirely different and far more difficult. In my dd's case and for many of her friends who were successful the year she auditioned, they were all at Advanced 1 or 2, had been on pointe for several years, and were also associates at one vocational school or another. You also have to bear in mind that they are up against the best international applicants too. There are so many girls to choose from that it would be incredibly rare for a vocational upper school to offer a place to someone not already at that level. They are more likely to offer places at lower school on future potential only, rather than the level they are already working at.

It is a system of training called Progressing Ballet Technique, which is used in addition to regular classes, and is offered by some dance schools.

There are far more upper school places than there are at lower school, and yes it is perfectly possible to stay at a regular school until 16 and then go full-time at 16+ (or often 18+ for contemporary and MT courses). You do need to be at a good local dance school though, and ideally something like an associates programme as well.

The quality of the teaching rather than the syllabus followed is what's more important.

I was wondering what the reason is for wanting to do both. How old is your DD?

DD's school did them, and they were called 'Invitation Class' and were either Junior or Senior.

How many of those JA's make into RBS upper school though? And I can't help wondering whether upper school finals will clash with the Prix de Lausanne finals again... no prizes for guessing which of those the AD will be attending

Well yes... but in other sectors you will find that the victims are adults, not children under 18.

It is no different at ENBS either. This year, four out of their six preliminary auditions are being held overseas, plus the preliminary video auditions are for overseas candidates only as well. There are two UK auditions.

One of the issues of course is that young dancers pretty much everywhere else in the world go on pointe at a younger age and are pushed far harder than their British counterparts. When AD's and others from British vocational schools attend international competitions such as YAGP and see kids of 13/14 doing full variations on pointe (and doing them very well) it does make it harder for students trained in the UK to be accepted for vocational training. They simply can't compete in an audition with international students who are already known to the panel. So we are caught between a rock and a hard place.

The RAD specifies that the minimum age to take their Inter Foundation exam is 11, and this exam includes a small amount of pointework; and the age to take Intermediate is 12, which has a corresponding increase in quantity and difficult of pointework. So it is recognised by the RAD that there will be students with the ability (and physical maturity) to progress to pointework when they are 11. But I suspect that those youngsters would be the exception at most dance schools, rather than the norm.

Nitpicker. 🤣 You know what I mean.