Legseleven

Congratulations to your DD, dancertaxi! All the sweeter after your anxious wait I imagine x

That is great news, Anne ley. So glad it has been resolved!

One of DD’s teachers was a product of the ‘dancers don’t eat, they just fill up on lots of water’ and ‘we want to see the bones’ school of teaching. Thankfully he was very aware that this is not an appropriate way to treat students and on one occasion after a particularly gruelling class (but with lots of laughter 😉) he told DD to ‘go home and eat lots’ to refuel. So the cycle of abuse isn’t always perpetuated, thank goodness. We just wish he was still teaching but can’t begrudge him his successful career in a classical company!

It seems to be very similar to the Oscars then!

I thought it was only her second performance - must have missed a date!

How fabulous! Did you have any particular favourite cast or dancers within each cast? I can imagine that each of those 3 principal pairings would be amazing but for different reasons and probably appealing more or less to different audience members.

Anne ley, that doesn’t sound right. They asked her to agree to a change in audition venue - she agreed - then they told her she doesn’t have an audition after all? I would contact them to clarify, especially as she agreed to their request to audition elsewhere. Perhaps that alternative audition venue is no longer feasible? But I would definitely ask them to confirm the position because to offer an audition and ask a candidate to attend a different venue surely shouldn’t be followed by a withdrawal of the audition offer altogether?

I have no experience of this and will be happy to be contradicted but I would send a bit of both so that your DD’s ballet solo performance can be seen alongside her polished technical expertise. Perhaps leaning more to the solo performance if a choice has to be made as of course EYB is a performance. Toi toi toi to your DD!

DrewCo, it is fabulous to read your views and for you to have taken the time to post on this forum! Wishing you safe travels back home and, perhaps, a return visit in the near future? Which cast did you see for your third Swan Lake, by the way?

That is so true, Karen. As you say, children of whatever age often desperately don’t want their parents to intervene and state the facts - but unless someone does so, how will matters ever change?

Plume seem to run a size smaller than every other make of dancewear so I would agree that they are likely to be a good option.

Kat09, your daughter is extremely brave - and extremely eloquent - and I have no doubt that she will, with your continuing support, be successful in whatever she chooses to do. I’m so sorry that her ballet dream has ended for now and in the way she envisaged it unfolding and that she didn’t receive the support she should have received from her vocational school. Sending you both huge virtual hugs and I hope that dance continues to play some part in your lives if you would like it to do so xxx

I echo Tatasmum’s and DancingUnicorn’s views and would suggest a change of school now. You don’t want to risk your daughter becoming despondent and losing her confidence and self-belief if she seems to have been ‘cast aside’ by her current teacher. If she changes to an RAD school then as DancingUnicorn says she will be doing the syllabus she would follow at vocational school (if any at all, I’m aware that the RBS don’t now do RAD exams). I understand that you are concerned that she would slip behind if so but it isn’t the actual exams that matter, more the level at which your daughter is able to work confidently which can only assist her in auditions. She could perhaps work at the grade above (and possibly below) her main class - which I would assume would be RAD grade 3 - to increase her confidence with a different syllabus. That would also give her time in a lower grade to concentrate on the basics while stretching her in her own and a higher grade - as well as increasing her dancing time!

You won’t be expected to wear overtly girly clothes for a ballet class if that would make you uncomfortable. And tutus aren’t worn in class anyway - but as you are imagining yourself wearing one, that might be an incentive to become good enough to perform ballet on stage! If the ballet classes are held at the same dance studio where you do hip hop, why not ask your teachers if you could try out ballet classes? As the foundation of all dance (possibly excepting tap), ballet could help you with your hip hop as well as possible becoming a new passion for you.

Lots of luck to your son, Lisa! X

Preston College has a very good reputation.

Did he sit still after the interval, Anna?

It certainly isn’t healthy or normal, Dancermum2003. I have known several non-vocational students whose parents declared that they wouldn’t be doing PE at high school as they were allegedly already doing excessive hours at their dance school and were therefore considered by their parents to be above PE classes - and would be doing yet more dance classes instead! Thankfully each school gently but firmly informed the parents that this would not be happening, thus saving their children from their parents.

Good grief taxi4ballet, that is so familiar! They are bullies and usually unsure of themselves so they pick on other people and insist - even when demonstrably wrong - that they are correct. Insufferable.

Is this the 3rd time in about 5 years that Elmhurst has offered an additional audition date in May or June?

Dar Danse summer schools are held in Morocco and I think are advertised as a summer school/holiday in one. I believe their website is bubbleonthebeach but perhaps if you Google Dar Danse that would be better.

Practice may not make perfect quickly but it will definitely work An alternative is a ‘bun maker’ from Claire’s or Boots or similar, which you roll up to make a bun. Not necessarily great for exams or festivals etc but fine for class and once you get the hang of it it’s very quick. No pins needed (although it looks neater and better with pins for any stray wisps and a net).

Most dancers seem to cut the ribbons rather than have them going under the foot. DD prefers to have her ribbons going under the foot for extra security.

DD had one pair of Freeds - which died shank-wise after approximately an hour, even though this was when she was a relatively new pointe student and not doing an awful lot in them. Better luck with Bloch hard shanks (although one pair started to squeak positively agonisingly as they reached the end of their life - amusing but embarrassing) and with Grishko hard shanks and is now using Gaynor Minden hard shanks; even they are more ‘mortal’ then expected but they have lasted for c 8 months of pretty heavy use (RAD Advanced) before the shanks start to feel precarious.

To be fair I would go to watch Naghdi do any role - even to watch her read a telephone directory as someone said recently 😉 - and I have no doubt that her intelligence, acting ability and musicality along with her technique would mean that she could play any role in Mayerling extremely well. I realise I may be a little biased...and I appreciate your views, Darlex whilst disagreeing with them 😉