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Legseleven

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Everything posted by Legseleven

  1. Legseleven
    Yes, the GMs were the only choice in the end - the additional cost was balanced by the additional longevity
  2. Legseleven
    Freed didn’t last for my DD either. She ended up using GM strong shanks but also liked Bloch strong and I think extra strong? shanks, although a pair of Blochs squeaked very amusingly (albeit embarrassingly) as they slowly died…
  3. Legseleven
    As Anna C said, my feeling would be that if you move your daughter - and if it were me I would move mine given what you have said about the school (my huge issue is that no-one should be teaching children that if they don’t shout at them then they won’t be any good and they won’t win at a competition!) - you could legitimately say that the last minute timetable changes are the reason as you and your family can’t deal with these. You don’t need to go into any other details and this wouldn’t be a lie, just a small part of the truth.
  4. Legseleven
    RAD in the 70s - good stuff. Grade 1 birdcage dance, grade 2 Breton dance, grade 3 tarantella, grade 4 I have a blank, senior grade that lovely variation I can still remember the music for the Breton dance, tarantella and variation and I can remember all of the variation plus some of those 2 dances. Fabulous. And I have the old syllabus book somewhere - was astounded to see that we did turns from 5th from about grade 3?
  5. Legseleven
    It seems sometimes to be a pre-emptive strike, so that if the child isn’t offered a place then the child and parent can say that they wouldn’t have accepted a place in any event? (We also saw a similar strategy in terms of associate places, although that was more of a ‘we dodged a bullet in not being offered a place because we now realise that said associate scheme is no good’. )
  6. Legseleven
    Thank you oncnp! I see that Curtain Up is now also known as Theatre Shoes. Odd, but not as odd - and just wrong I think - as The Painted Garden also now being known as Movie Shoes. There is a point at which things go too far and my view is that Movie Shoes for the truly lovely The Painted Garden represents that point for me! 🙄
  7. Legseleven
    I think Wintle’s Wonders may now be called Dancing Shoes? - or is that the new name for Curtain Up? I shall have to research…😉
  8. Legseleven
    Congratulations to those with a yes, good luck to those on the waiting list and sincere commiserations to those with a no. In response to the question as to why some students are accepted year after year and about fairness, I agree that it would be fairer to allow one attendance only. However, the RBS is applying selection criteria - I appreciate that this always seems a rather odd process as there is no audition for the summer school - and if they could not do so ‘fairly’ in relation to each and every applicant and offer places to those who best fulfil those criteria, then the summer school would not be offered to some of those who best fulfil the criteria and would become less selective and possibly less of an educational experience for those who attend. Whatever the field, I genuinely don’t think that ‘fairness’ is ever achieved. The fastest sprinter, the most talented footballer, the most-like-RBS-ideal dancer will always be selected if excellence is pursued. That isn’t fair to those who work hard and may be very talented themselves, but it is the reality.
  9. Legseleven
    Katherine Healy joined ENB as a ?principal aged 15 in 1984. I think Trinidad Sevillano was also a ‘baby ballerina’.
  10. Legseleven
    I couldn’t agree more that LCB should not prevent children auditioning on as many occasions as they are able. Life is not fair and the dance world is certainly not fair. Not everyone who auditions is suitable, whether generally or for the production being cast that year, and casting should be done solely on who is in the production team’s opinion the best choice for each role in that year’s ballet. AllAboutTheJourney, I have also seen the same happening in musical theatre and in theatre productions. They are cast in accordance with who the production team considers would best fit each role. Sometimes that is for example based on other casting and the actor ‘fitting in’ best - or in musical theatre the better actor may be selected rather than the more accomplished singer - and no selection process can feel ‘fair’ to everyone but that is its nature. Some children may never be successful and that does seem unfair - but the production team needs to put together the best possible cast. To be honest, this is something which means I have difficulty in accepting the view that ‘it isn’t a no, it’s a not yet or not this time’ which is sometimes stated in terms of unsuccessful auditions. In many children’s cases, this will be true. However, for many others it may in fact be that a no is a repeated response. This isn’t just in the ballet world - or the arts world - it applies to academic and sporting worlds too. Not everyone can be successful. And if the successful children cannot apply to be cast in other productions, it may be that a production cannot be cast due to lack of appropriate candidates.
  11. Legseleven
    Was anyone lucky enough to see Claire Calvert & Nicol Edmonds as the Sugar Plum Fairy and her prince?
  12. Legseleven
    What happens with the Royal Ballet School students who are appearing in The Nutcracker (is that all of them?) now that they have finished the school term? Do they stay on at school if needed to get to performances - especially in this wintry weather? Do students who live abroad or a long way from London miss out on being cast for further performances!
  13. Legseleven
    Given that GMs are worn by professional dancers and that students auditioning for upper schools are working at a relatively advanced level in terms of pointe work and should know what shoes work for them, I would be dismayed if any upper school ‘marked students down’ at audition if their pointe shoe choice is GMs. if the school then advises re pointe shoe choice once students attend their school, that is slightly different but I would still be wary of any school stating that these shoes cannot be worn - surely the shoes that best suit the individual are what is needed?
  14. Legseleven
    We saw the cinema screening - what a treat to start Christmas off, and a packed cinema which had been fully booked for over a month. DD kept saying how amazing Mayara Magri was as the Rose Fairy. Outstanding, as were Melissa Hamilton and Lukas BB in the Arabian dance - he was so sinuously attentive to her and her arms and pliability are just perfect for this role. Which is not to say that the rest of the cast weren’t as outstanding - Fumi Kaneko is so glamorous and William Bracewell so regal, with Joseph Sissens and Sae Maeda delightful. Such a gorgeous, glistening production and a lovely way to escape from the cold (into a make believe Land of Snow instead of a real one of ice and frost). - And the mouse taken off on the stretcher - complete with rigid ‘claws’ - always makes us smile.
  15. Legseleven
    I wish I was able to see this cast. Tours de force all round it seems, and not remotely surprising. By the way, my earlier comment about Osipova seeming too knowing in the cinema screening wasn’t in relation to the character’s lack of sexual innocence, it was that her 17 year old Mary appeared entirely un-shocked - or even un-surprised - by the skull and the gun and Rudolf’s dark obsessions.
  16. Legseleven
    Too knowing! Thank you Scheherazade, that is exactly why I didn’t relate to Osipova as Mary. She seemed too immediately ‘with’ the situation in which she found herself as a 17 year old character.
  17. Legseleven
    I enjoyed Hirano’s Rudolf very much - although I suspect it wouldn’t have worked as well live as it did in the cinema with close ups. The stand out performance for me was Morera, with Nunez also making a strong impression. I would love to see Morera’s Mary Vetsera. She really was Larisch last night and it was not an acting performance - she was ‘being’ the character. I was left cold by Hayward, who seemed to have one expression in the Act 1 pas de deux and I didn’t feel that that was a deliberate choice to show that she was frozen in terror. However, I may be wrong. Osipova was certainly passionate but I didn’t ‘feel’ it particularly. Not sure why, I am trying to work it out.
  18. Legseleven
    This is quite bizarre - albeit great news, I had wondered why Yasmine Naghdi wasn’t originally cast as Mary Vetsera - as I was only thinking recently about her ‘super sub’ reputation from a few years ago. I have no doubt that she will smash her debuts in both roles.
  19. Legseleven

    Room 101

    Legseleven replied to taxi4ballet's topic in Not Dance

    There are no automatic checkouts at all at our local Aldi stores - but perhaps it is coming…
  20. Legseleven
    DD also has banana feet requiring strong shanks. Her first pointe shoes were Bloch Sonata, which worked well - she then tried Freed Classic Pros, but they died very quickly. Grishko Vaganova hard shanks were great (‘cement-like’ apparently) although perhaps a little too tapered for her. Bloch Serenade strong shanks were great too although she ended up in Gaynor Minden hard shanks - which were great for my purse as they lasted longer! She would suggest elastics around the ankle from the back of the shoe and also vamp elastic, as that helped her feel more secure. However I’m sure your DD’s teacher will have her own views on what may be necessary for your DD.
  21. Legseleven
    Are you able to clean up her old flats at all? My DD did her Intermediate wearing very bashed soft pointes which we had washed as far as possible but still had definite signs of wear and were definitely less than pristine. One of her teachers is an RAD vocational examiner and was very clear that that wouldn’t be a problem.
  22. Legseleven
    Oh my goodness Confuddled, that seems such an unnecessary stress and expense for you! If soft pointes are not required until after December this year then it would be madness to require you to do this just because the teacher prefers it. And even if you are happy for your DD to wear soft pointes for her exam despite their not being required, then if demi pointes work for your DD I’m afraid I would be buying them rather than having to buy and destroy new pointe shoes in such a short period of time just because the teacher doesn’t approve of buying demi pointes. Something has to give if you are being required to get soft pointes which are sufficiently destroyed to be comfortable for your DD to wear in her exam in a week! You are the one buying and destroying the shoes, not the teacher.
  23. Legseleven
    Dancing unicorn - your post made me laugh, DD was just the same 😀 - they lasted amazingly and never took on that greyish tinge or indeed laddered. Plus they looked fabulous with the Capezio Juliets.
  24. Legseleven
    DD found that she could roll through her feet even in the green bag, hardest shanked GMs - just because it is possible to allow them to help ‘pop’ you up en pointe doesn’t mean that is what will always happen. As far as we could gather a lot of the prejudice against GMs was because they are new technology rather than the traditional shoes and can be used to ‘help’ dancers who perhaps don’t have the strength or the experience of others. DD also found it more challenging to balance on flat because of the slight curve to the shank, so would very much dispute that they are ‘cheat’ shoes in any way.
  25. Legseleven
    Hi leotardmum. DD found that vamp elastic (2 criss-crossed pieces) on the green bag with the longest vamp possible GMs worked for her. The vamp elastic was a total game-changer for her even with the hardest-shanked and longest-vamped GMs. It may perhaps also work for your DD?
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