CouldDoBetter

Piepie I agree with a lot that has been posted. My DD went to a vocational school from Y7. Although she had an MDS we struggled throughout to afford it. She was bright and we had concerns throughout her time at the school with regard to the academics. A concern shared by a number of the other parents. If you are convinced that she wants to be a dancer, and she has the ability, then you will probably find the money somehow. My daughter did no go on to be a professional dancer so there have been some “what if?” conversations, but I am sure taking all things into consideration that she has no regrets. She managed to reintegrate back into mainstream school in 6th form without any significant issues. If my daughter had gone to a local school I am convinced that she would have had better GSCE grades. This probably narrowed some of her options when deciding degree courses. But if she had not taken up the option to go to a vocational dance school then we probably still would have wondered “what if?” at times! Good luck to you and your child whatever choice you make.

Hi Lala Something similar happened to me. It became a taboo subject. Whenever I tried to raise it I knew it would be an awkward conversation that would end in an argument. Finally I discovered that it was guilt. She realised this was not the path she actually wanted to follow anymore for whatever reason, but felt bad about all the sacrifices that had been made by others. Your situation may be totally different. I am sure that your DD with have gained life skills from her performing arts training that will help her whatever she decides to do. CDB

Personally I think that the government spend an incredible amount on dance training - the problem is that so many want the funding compared to the number of opportunities at the end of the training so many are disappointed. Unfortunately it costs a lot of money to train a dancer. It is very difficult for anyone to make it without a lot of support from their families - and that is not just financial.

DrDance I am sure you are right the children do not need to go away at 12 to succeed in ballet - but it is all too easy to get on that rollercoaster ride when they become JAs in primary school and so so difficult to get off once the ride has started. My DD is now off the ride and just a recreational dancer, pursuing other options. I never danced myself so cannot give an educated answer to the many questions posed on this thread. But I do have a view that the students at my DCs school should have done more performing than they did - particularly classical performances. I understand that this is improving. And I do agree with you that children do not need to go to vocational schools at 12 but only if they can go to a particularly good local school. CDB

I suspect that all of the top ballet schools have some funding available for students - obviously some will have more funding than others.

BankruptMum - you deserve a medal for supporting her that long! My DD is 17 and about to do her first festival for many years. she did not start until she was 6 or 7 and stopped at 11 or 12, she was never very successful. I do not think that she will do solos again, but she has decided to do a couple of group dances. I have not forgotten how stressful the experience was - I hope she is more relaxed than she used to be!

Hi Swanprincess Just a personal opinion but if you really want to dance then my advice would be to go for more auditions than just one. All schools are looking for slightly different things. Nothing ventured nothing gained, so what if you do not get offered a place you will be no worse off than you are now thinking that you will not get offered a place! I am sure that a little more self-confidence will go a long way, if you show your love for dance and self-belief at auditions that will help. I hope it goes well whatever you decide to do. CDB

Just reiterating what everyone else has said, when my DD had a similar problem my GP told me to use rice. I thought he had some strange alternative treatment but apparently it stands for rest, ice, compression and elevation.

This thread is a good example of why I wish I had read this website before I took my DD to ballet lessons when she was 3 years old!

I have not heard of this. My DD does a few festivals in the local area and that is expensive enough - I cannot imagine the cost of going to Portugal for a dance competition. I am sure my DD would love it but it is not going to happen!

Is there reason to be concerned?

That is really good news that so many graduated to upper school - anyone know how many of them were the original intake in year 7?

Sadielou, One thing that I never envisaged when my DD went to vocational school was that the amount of times I would get to see her perform would be so few - and in particular doing ballet. I do envy some of the parents of children who did not go away the number of opportunities they get to see their DC perform. If fact I have seen more of their children dancing than my own! I am sure that the schools could do more "closed" performances to give children those opportunities without the school having to worry about its external image.

I can see both sides of this argument. It is good reward for better students to be in more dances, the school wnat to show off the school and it is an insight for the dancers into life after school competing for jobs. But parents of very good dancers (as all the children are that get places in these schools) who are only appearing in a couple of compulsory dances in the end of the year show get very little opportunity to see where all that money goes to keep their children in these schools. As a parent with a DD that does not get many opportunities I have to admit it is very frustrating sometimes.

Why do schools do this ... last year my DD knew that another girl was in an opposite cast so we were able to come to an arrangement with the other family to buy tickets for different shows knowing we could swap if our daughters were in the other show. But this year it is not so simple and I still do not know what end of year shows she will be dancing.

I am sure that this is inevitable. I suspect that the school are often not aware that pupils no longer wish to dance as a career. If the school is aware that they have given an MDS or DaDA award to somebody that has no intention of pursuing a career in the performing arts but choose to ignore it and do nothing about it then that is a shame.

Some of my thoughts to some of the questions raised in this thread. Are we training too many dancers? We are training more dancers than could possibly earn a living as professional dancers, but that does not necessarily mean that we are training too many dancers. If you knew at 11 who would be the best dancer at 20 then we would train far fewer! In any sport there are a lot of people that try for professional careers that never make it for various reasons. Dance is no different. Is the funding working? MDS finding does seem more effective that DaDA. However I think MDS would be better if it looked at post-tax income as just looking at family pre-tax income puts single parent or families where only one parent works. But it works much better than DaDA which I suggest there should be less awards but adequate funding so that it helps the most talented. Should MDS and DaDA award be scrutinised better? Possibly, I am not sure what scrutiny is placed on these awards. However, I thought all the top schools assessed students out if they were not doing well. Presumably this is not just related to dance ability, but also application and behaviour.

Surely DC at vocational schools will struggle to do festivals when they go to the school - especially if they board - as their vocational school will not choreograph dances for festivals. Would they choreograph their own dance? Or go along on Sundays for private lessons with a dance teacher to learn/perfect the dances? Either way, it seems unlikely that many, if any, would want to do this. They could keep doing their old dances for a while but they would soon outgrow them.

Loulabelle There is a lot to consider when deciding if your DD (or DS) should go away to vocational school at 11. Whether they are ready, the dance training available locally, the academics and the cost to name but a few. It must have taken a lot of soul-searching to decide not to take up the offer. But I am sure that your DD must be amazingly talented to have been offered a full time MDS place at an associate audition so I am sure she will still have a number of options at 16.

I wonder if it might be that they are waiting on responses from the offers they have already sent out. Surely everyone will get a response, whether positive or negative, eventually.

When we were there at the end of January the principal said that the letters would go out at the end of the first week in February - but in fairness to him, he probably did not realise that there would be a half term in the month when he made the promise!

Another example that there is some funding out there for a lucky few ... http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/10798045.Strictly_judge_awards___20_000_scholarship_to_Swindon_dancer/ ... sorry I have gone a little off topic.

Hello Red Shoes, How did you get on? I notice that Swindon has a number of other choices when you get to 16, Liberatus, Swindon Dance and Wilkes Academy. Unfortunately I have no experience of any of them so could not give a recommendation.

Hi Tulip. Nothing ruled out yet. We will need to see what options are available when she gets the results of auditions next year - but not optimistic at the moment. I am trying not to think too much about it now as I cannot influence anything - and trying not to stress out DD so that she can just concentrate on her dancing and GCSEs.

It is as it ever was ... we all want to give our children the best chance to succeed but most families have financial limits. I was angry when I first heard the new DaDa funding arrangements. But I am becoming more philosophical as time goes by. Why should the government fund so many ballet dancers? I must admit there are a lot of things they do fund that make my blood boil - but there are clearly more children trying to become ballet dancers than the world really needs. At a personal level, one DD is at vocational school (yr 10) and I really cannot see that she will have any options at the end of yr 11 to continue at ballet school as we simply will not be able to afford it. Does that annoy me? Yes. But would I have made different decisions at the start of yr 7 if I had known at the outset? I don't know but I suspect we still have gone down the same route. We have still not made any decisions yet - and she will audition for places next year. But my expectation is that she will come home and do A levels at a local college and dance at a local dance school for a couple of years. We have had a few difficult chats with DD so it does not come as a bolt out of the blue. I expect she is in denial - "they will find a way" - but it is just not possible on a DaDa as stands. My other DDs currently has a DaDa under the "old" funding arrangement which we clearly can afford - which makes it even harder. "You can for her but not for me!". So I may be philosophical - but none of this is easy. But I am buying a lottery ticket every week so you never know.