taxi4ballet

Pas de Quatre - yes, she is hypermobile, and she is lazy with her feet too, so foot strengthening exercises do sound like what she needs. DD tends to instinctively tense her muscles, even when trying not to - perhaps it's the body's self-defence mechanism kicking in to stop her over-stretching her joints (?) and it seems to give a jack-in-a-box effect. She' been told to not 'lock' her knees, as otherwise she has a gap between her heels in 1st position, and also has to work hard to releve close together in 5th, and she finds it really frustrating that her body is almost working against her.

I'm hoping that someone might know whether swayback knees can cause problems when landing from jumps. My dd's teacher has mentioned that dd has trouble bringing her heels down on to the floor, and dd says that she can't relax her calf muscles enough and tenses up as she lands. Are there any exercises she could do to help?

Thanks Anjuli, I might try and order a copy of the book via our local library

We were sitting in Trafalgar Square in London the other day, and dd noticed three tall, lean, fit, agile young men (I noticed them too ) and she said that they looked like dancers. I had to point out that I knew they definitely weren't, as they were dressed in army fatigues and green berets, and were in fact Royal Marine Commandos!

I would be interested to know the type of foot a 3/4 shank is suitable for.

If it's got to the stage when I just can't ignore the ironing pile any longer, I fetch out Hairspray on dvd and iron along with John Travolta!

With mine, it's the high arch and narrow heel

Thanks, always good to know when there are bargains about

Your poor dd, and her sore feet It sounds like these shoes definitely didn't fit, nobody should have bleeding, blistered feet when they are starting on pointe. What a shame it put her off, no wonder!

We've found Dance Line tights are reasonably cheap and last well

Nine pages - I didn't get that far!

Today, hung up bunting, went clothes shopping, saw a Lancaster Bomber flying very low and very loud!, dd having sleepover. Tomorrow, family dinner Monday, possibly a walk in the rain? Tuesday, street party Wednesday, into London for pointe shoes

So frustrating...

I used to overrule the fitters in Clarks - I'm not sure their training includes 'ballet' feet!

When you see a man in the chemists buying bun nets and you don't think it's odd. Edited to add - his dd was a gymnast!

Absolutely! This is dd's teacher exactly - have you met her, Anjuli?

Thanks everyone, as dd is hopefully taking her Inter exam soon, and if we move schools, your advice will help us in our decision. It does look like quite a leap up (having looked at the pointework on the dvd I got on ebay a few months ago), but as JulieW says, it's probably better to spend the time in Advanced 1.

Do many schools miss out Advanced Foundation and go straight from Inter to Advanced 1?

It must be quite daunting for boys to go into a studio full of girls prancing about in pink!

My dd wore shoes with a wedge heel to school for a few weeks (on the advice of a physio after an injury) despite school rules not allowing them. I got around the problem by buying her extra-long trousers that covered them up and no-one noticed!

Pups-mum, how old is your son? Is he genuinely disinterested, or does he think it's not 'cool' and his mates would tease him?

There's a lot of it about, they do seem to be run by rather young people. Perhaps they can't find work on stage in the performing arts themselves, and have decided that being self-employed is better than being on the dole. I do admire their enterprise, but I wonder about their expertise.

I was in the paper shop this morning and there was a mum with a little girl of about three waiting in the queue. She was standing in first position naturally, and I later saw her skipping beautifully away down the path. She was really graceful and light on her feet - I think if I see them again, I'll be nosy and ask her mum if she takes her to dancing classes yet!

I think the panto companies like the children to be smaller that the professionals, and some are quite short! They usually also seem to use sets of 'stock' costumes as well, and need to find people the right size to fit in them without needing to make alterations.

I've recently found myself idly playing the 'spot the kid who should be doing ballet' game. Does anyone else do this or is it just me?