taxi4ballet

I have already made my mind up, Tulip.

My dd has never been keen on learning French at school, and one of her associate teachers suggested that German could prove to be very useful one day...

So, what do we do then, if a dd/ds auditions for all the 'big' ones, and is offered only Tring?

Does her teacher have a preference? Some prefer one method over the other. We have found that the darning method gives good grip, but my dd gets through pointe shoes so quickly that now we don't bother, and cut the satin out of the toes instead.

Welcome to the forum 2peas!

I have never actually chucked a book away, but I did throw a Rubik's Cube out of the window once

Anjuli, don't feel sorry, most of them get away... If you could see the size of some of them !

It isn't an Old Wives' Tale, snails really do have a homing instinct - a few years ago we did a test (don't ask!) using nail varnish. We dumped them at the bottom of the field near our house, and most of them made it back in a couple of days. Each time we found one, we would put another blob of varnish on. One of them managed to get back eleven times! The test was scuppered by a local thrush, who used to bash the life out of them on a stone in our rockery.

Far from the Madding Crowd, I just couldn't get into it, no matter hard I tried.

Happymum, re toes curling under, and the 'good toes naughty toes' exercise they do when they're tiny. When my dd first started at 3 she did exactly as the teacher said and pointed her toes - she didn't point her feet! She didn't really understand what the teacher was explaining and at home she would argue with me until her face was blue... She did this for ages and it has take years for her to kick the habit, straighten her toes properly and use her foot in the right way. One of the exercises she did in bare feet was to stand with her feet in parallel and slide one foot backwards, lifting the heel as she went, ending up on demi-pointe. It helped to uncurl the toes. We also had to be careful when buying ballet shoes, as it's very easy to buy them a bit too small if the toes are clenched.

Hi Happymum, she got in! I expect her feet are fine, otherwise they wouldn't have taken her

Not entirely sure what you mean, because unless it is a specific scholarship, the funding comes not from the school, but from the Government.

Something else I think is good, is that they can adapt the choreography to suit each particular cast. They can change a pointe group dance to non-pointe for instance, or vice-versa, depending on the numbers they have.

We know of a boy at vocational school who was also a gifted tap dancer, but hardly did any tap at the school. He took private lessons in tap for that reason.

Thanks all, that's really helpful. I'll talk to dd's teacher about it too.

Perhaps one isn't better than the other, just different. I suspect that it does older children the world of good to experience different teaching styles and methods, rather than having one teacher all the time. What do I look for in a dance teacher? Glee on dd's face when she comes out of class!

Most of the summer schools clash with each other, it's really frustrating!

Mine arrive today too. Strangely enough there are a couple of other articles in there which touch on subjects much-discussed on this forum. I wonder if the editor is a balletco-er?

It looks great, and it clashes with both our family holiday and dd's summer school... oh well, never mind! I shall look out for it next year.

Hi Spanner, when is it?

There is a very informative article in the Dancing Times (July 12) entitled 'Dancing through injury', by Debbie Malina

Perhaps it was two places available in their particular group?

It could be that they are fee-payers auditioning for funded places elsewhere, or they were previously on short waiting list and want to try again, or their best friend is there, or it is nearer home, etc etc. Presumably the auditions are open to anyone, so I see no reason to prevent it. If course, if they continually keep re-auditioning and don't get in, perhaps they should be content with what they already have!

She will start yr 9 in September

Strange, I thought somebody mentioned on the forum a while ago that EU nationals could apply for funding.