taxi4ballet

I would recommend the dance days at Tring Park School in Hertfordshire. They do short residential courses as well, for when she's a bit older.

Crikey. I think I might have to watch that then.

In my case, not at all, because I don't follow any of them.

Sssshhhh!!! Don't tell people about Cafe Nero in Long Acre, there won't be any seats left for me! That is my go-to place for coffee, lunch, cake and whatnot when I'm in that part of London.😂

A wander through Hatton Garden is always an eye-opener, some of the jewellery is truly spectacular. Mind you - one time I did that, little did I know that the infamous Hatton Garden safe deposit robbery was actually in progress in one of the buildings as I walked past...

RIP Parky, one of the greats who let his guests be the star of the show.

You wouldn't tolerate blatant favouritism in your dc's academic school, so really the same should apply to a dance school.

Agreed.

Good. A proper, regulated, age-appropriate structured syllabus at long last. Excellent news.

If she'd doing EYB, you will meet loads of other like-minded parents with dc at all stages of training at drop off/collect, so you should be able to pick up plenty of information that way. Also, it is well worth volunteering as a parent chaperone, EYB do ask!

Just a plain neutral style, in a colour that suits the dancer's skin tone, and slightly higher cut in the leg accentuates leg length.

Well there we are then... "a driving force behind the development of ballet as an artform." Ballet. Ballet as an art form, not ballet developed so far it morphs into contemporary.

I don't think it is unfortunate at all. I think it is highly appropriate in the physical sense, and I speak from a position of having spent most of my youth on horseback, and as an adult, have a professionally-trained ballet dancer as a daughter. I have an insight into both camps as it were. An Olympic dressage horse will have spent the best part of a decade being trained in a very specific, restrained, and highly controlled way to execute complicated moves with great accuracy, calmness and artistry. Its body will have developed musculature, ligaments and tendons specifically with those moves in mind, and to a large extent muscle memory will have taken over. The horse will have been specially chosen for that type of training due to its conformation, mindset and trainable physique in that style. Compare that with, say, a Grand National Winner. It will have been trained to the physical limit for endurance, and to jump at speed without losing momentum. It is not expected to respond calmly and steadily to nuanced aids from its rider, but to enthusiastic urging from its jockey to go flat out, get its head in front, and channel its instinct to win. Its muscles and physique will have been trained and developed in an entirely different manner to those of the dressage horse, and again, the horse will have specifically been chosen for its trainable physique and natural jumping ability. They are both world-beaters in their specific fields, but would both find it very challenging to participate in the activity of the other, and the possiblilty of injury would be high. The same goes for the riders. A dressage rider would have trouble on the racecourse. Some horses are trained for three-day eventing, in which they are expected to both jump at speed and to execute dressage manouevres. World-class horses in this field might very well win Olympic gold medals and World championships in three-day eventing, but none of them would be expected to hold their own when pitted against pure dressage horses or racehorses in training. So there we are, that's my view. As the old saying goes: horses for courses.

Ask her dance school if they do a non-syllabus / free work class she could join, or maybe whether they would let her start the next grade class up as well as the one she is currently in.

What concerns me is that students at White Lodge are funded by the MDS scheme (if they qualify for funding) but most of them do not then continue into the upper school and into the company or into other prestigious companies. The funding body might well look at the success of the MDS scheme and wonder whether their money is being well spent, bearing in mind how few funded students complete their training. They might decide that perhaps MDS funding is not the best use of taxpayers' money, at this school or at the others offering the same scheme, if the students don't go on to complete their training and find employment. It might call the entire performing arts funding system into question, and where would that leave talented British youngsters whose parents can't afford full fees? We are at a time when the government is looking very hard at degree courses, the drop-out rate and whether the graduates of those courses go on to successful careers in that field. They might widen the net and look at funding for performing arts courses as well.

I agree. Contemporary needs a considerable level of core strength, and the physical maturity which only comes with age. This is why many schools don't teach contemporary to younger dancers, but wait until they are older.

With the greatest respect, I do know what I'm talking about. As it happens, my family has personal experience of the psychological damage that can be caused by dance training. I do not believe that children should be shouted at in a dance class.

A 7 year-old cannot contextualise in a mature way. Maybe that's how things were done, but that doesn't make it right. I've heard this argument so many times: "Oh that's how I was trained, and it never did me any harm!!" There is NO excuse for verbal abuse or instilling fear into dance students in 2023. I had been hoping we'd moved on from all that.

There is a big difference between a raised voice to cut over the top of loud music, and shouting at the children to make them do as they are told. I find it quite worrying that children (and their parents) are being conditioned to accept that getting shouted at is normal in a dance class.

My dd had several years' break from pointe after a career-ending injury, and recently bought some again. She said the fitter in Bloch was marvellous.

Okay, her age changes things slightly. Might I suggest that you try to find a dance school which teaches syllabus classes in ballet, tap and modern, does graded exams and has a show every year or two. You will know where you are with the timetable every week, it will cost far less and she won't have the stress of learning routines at the expense of class instruction. She is young enough to go right back to basics, and if she doesn't, she could well end up with ingrained faulty technique that could take years to unlearn. There will be plenty of time for her to do contemporary and other dance styles (and musical theatre) in years to come, once she has a solid foundation. When she's 8 she can audition for English Youth Ballet if it comes round near your way, and it would also be worth keeping an eye on Tring Park School, which does workshops and dance days. Their residential Easter school is particularly good. In one of your posts you mention that she's sometimes asked to do double pirouettes - that is not something that would normally be expected of students her age, and you say yourself she can't do them reliably with any level of technique. They seem to have missed out great chunks of preparatory training.

I have two questions, firstly is this other school also competition-focused and secondly, how old is your dd?

How odd. Does it actually say that on their website?

OP - you clearly have misgivings about the current school, otherwise you wouldn't have started the thread. Practically speaking, one of the best times to think about changing dance schools is at this time of year. Between now and the end of term there is the opportunity for your dd to have a trial lesson or two at other dance schools locally, to see how she gets on, and so that you (the paying customer) can see what else is available. I know a lot of dance styles revolve around the competition circuit - ballroom & latin springs readily to mind - but for the most part, dance (ballet in particular) is a performing art and not a competitive one.

I don't think there is anything necessarily wrong with schools which enter their students into competitions per se. But (and it is a big but) as long as it isn't the be-all and end-all. Some of them concentrate so much on the competition aspect that there really isn't enough time in their schedule to pay attention to a solid grounding in technique, which is particularly important in ballet. That classical ballet technique also feeds into their modern, jazz, lyrical and contemporary dance too.