taxi4ballet

I'm a great believer in instinct too, all the best to your DD.

I found that with the RAD regulation leotard as well, and it doesn't seem to fit my dd very well either - the straps at the back seem to be too far apart. Papillon seems to suit her best.

This is really helpful - my dd has quite high arches and now you've explained it, I can see they are higher in the foot. She's also got little feet (uk 3.5) and I was wondering whether the size of someone's feet combined with a high arch could cause problems?

Do the vocational schools assess out in year 11 halfway through GCSE's?

Having started this topic out of mild interest and in an idle moment, I've been genuinely surprised and taken aback by the strength of feeling it has provoked! That wasn't my intention at all, I had no opinions either way and was just being curious.

Does anyone else have this trouble? My dd is currently wearing leotards in sizes 3a, 3, 4, petite, small adult, & medium adult, depending on the style and/or brand. Our local dancewear shop only stocks a limited range, and we don't go to London all that often, so we often have to buy stuff online, and it usually doesn't fit, even when following size charts to the letter. Any dancewear manufacturers out there? Get your act together, please!

There are several schools in the UK teaching Russian ballet (eg London Russian Ballet School), perhaps one of them might be able to point you in the right direction?

I agree with Frangapani about being fixated with appearance rather than ability, all the more frustrating then, that places (eg RBS SS) are so often allocated by using photographs!?!

Yes, ironing here too! My ironing pile is currently nearly as tall as the ironing board...

The world of dance is a tough one - and being cast in whatever role you are needed for is all part of it.

I would be interested to know how freelance ballet dancers continue with training and daily class etc. How can they afford it if they are unemployed?

Took my dd aged 13 to see this in Milton Keynes a few weeks ago. She already knew the story from having seen (and been in) the traditional ones. It totally blew her mind (and mine!) and we were absolutely riveted from beginning to end. It was a great experience - particularly as she is hoping for a ballet career - and it opened her eyes to a whole new world.

I agree with the comments about casting with height and costumes in mind. When my dd was 11 and danced on pointe with the older girls, she had just had a massive growth spurt (4 inches in the summer hols!) and was their height, so she was put with them rather than with girls her own age and level. She also struggled with the quantity of pointework in rehearsals. When I talked to them about it, they said that they didn't realise during casting that she had only been on pointe such a short time, as she was doing really well. We agreed that she shouldn't do quite so much, and from then on she practiced in flats for part of the day, and just wore her pointe shoes to go through the dance at the end of each rehearsal. So, please don't suffer in silence!

My dd was only 11 too. Sorry to hear your dd didn't make friends, mine made a few, but it was difficult for her because all the girls in her group were older - she was the youngest by about 18 months - and that is a huge gap at their age! What's been nice though, is that she now bumps into people she recognises at other things, so hopefully next time your dd will already know some of the other girls and making friends will be easier.

My dd did the Nutcracker and was stretched to the limit - on pointe in the Waltz of the Flowers - when they did the casting she'd only been doing pointework for 3 months!

My dd's dance school doesn't do festivals, but we went to watch a friend in one - in Northampton, I think - a year or two ago. It was particularly interesting watching the ballet solos for dd's age group and listening to the adjudicator's comments afterwards, although there are so many categories the festival can go on for days!

A question about MDS funding, if a school has one MDS available and two students who qualify for partial funding, can they split the money between the two of them?

This is mind-boggling... How old are these girls?

Just had details in post today, the NYB are running their 1-week (non-residential) course again this year at Tring, alongside rehearsals for the main company. It's The Pied Piper and is from 13th - 17th August, ages 7 - 15. My dd hs been for the last two years and had a fab time, but can't do it this year as it's slap in the middle of rehearsals for EYB Sleeping Beauty in Aylesbury.

Were there lots of entries?

That's a really good tip to remember about wearing the same leotard for photos and the audition - it would never have occurred to me! Does anyone have advice to give about the colour & style of leotard? Don't really want to go for black all the time.

Tomuchtalent, my dd had a round belly for a couple of years and my doctor brother-in-law explained that as well as back muscles being stronger than stomach muscles / core, most young children have a rounded tum due to arrangement of their internal organs, particularly the liver, growing sooner than the rest of the child. He likened it to why our adult teeth don't have enough room until the jaw is big enough. By the way, last night I told my dd her BMI, she grinned and then ate a huge pile of fish and chips washed down with half an easter egg. Not much to worry about there! I agree with all the comments about some dancers looking too thin, it's no fun at all watching someone's ribs rather than their dancing, and I do think that the winds of change might just be starting to blow...?

Aileen, as I said in my first post - she is one of the slimmest in her school class. My dd is not finding it hard to embrace becoming a young woman at all, it's just apparent to her that nearly everyone in her vocational class is stick thin and bustless (that's their problem, not hers), and some of them are 16. An RAD examiner told me once that vocational schools ask for height / weight on application forms so they can calculate BMI so it can't be as misleading as all that, can it?

Glowlight, that's a really good idea, most of the girls in her regular ballet school classes are 16/17, so that will help a lot.

I found a bmi calculator on the internet and she comes out at 16.5, which was roughly what I thought it would be anyway, she is naturally slender - must get it from her dad who is built like a racing snake! She doesn't think she's overweight at all, I think it's more to do with being self-concious about her bust developing, when most of the girls in her associate class are totally flat-chested. She also started her periods when she was only 10. Having found the chart though, I think if I show it to her she will see proof that she has nothing to worry about. Obviously everybody's kids think in different ways, but she's quite scientifically-minded and will take a chart on board and accept it much more readily than listening to mum's reassurances.