assemble mum

I would just like to add that whilst dancers do know their own bodies and dont dance when injured, some companies, if a dance has a recurring or prolonged injury will put that dancer on notice. Usually the dancer will be paid while not dancing and the company will pay for treatment, physio etc but once the notice peroid is up and if the dancer is still not fit, the contract will be terminated. If a company feels a dancer is prone to injury a no injury contract may be given, which means the company does not pay for injury time or treatment. Obviously then a dancer may want to cover up an injury if they are desperate to stay in work. edit for typo

A class mate of my DS put a really clapped out old pair on ebay. They were snapped up by a shoe fetishist who sen ta message asking for more, . Doesnt bear thinking about too closely !!!! :-) :-)

To do the maths very roughly.... say 5 companies with maximum 2 or 3 vacancies depending on funding,repertoire etc. So possibly 10 vacancies which wont all be permanent. Graduates come from the 4 main contender schools .... say 24 per school or that ball park figure. Plus graduates from other smaller institutions.So getting rougher by the minute 100 graduates for 10 jobs. Now add in all the graduates globally .Plus a fair smattering of last years graduates who are still on the market for whatever reason and you ve got yourself some very hot competition. Every graduates needs to realise that they need to take a global view and audition abroad as well as at home. Go for the dream, strive for the dream but be realistic. Plus dont forget they may want all boys or just girls depending on the vacancy so you may not even be in with a chance !!!!!!!!!

In the article from the guardian it asserts that several of the dancers are dancing in fear. This shows how the british cohort have had their confidence knocked out of them. When the overseas students arrive at RBS upper school they have confidence in spades. They are totally self assured and openly say that they are the best in their own country which is reflected in their dancing. Even if they make technical mistakes in class their confidence carries them through. Many of the british children will worry endlessly over the tiniest mistake. They do not believe they are one of the worlds best. They dont even believe that they are the best in an empty room

RBS school for example manages to get 100% employment for its graduates but these jobs are rarely permanent. Most companies give temporary contracts for up to a year so even getting into the big two ie RB and RBS doesnt mean the dancer is there for ever as they have a kind of probationary year. If you look at a list of RBS graduates a year later a huge majority will be somewhere else...... not just the UK students, but the overseas students will have moved about too, as often european companies take students from schools as apprentices and then only keep one or two when the apprenticeship ends after one year. They then take another batch. Northern ballet school as far as I know is in Manchester and Northern Ballet is based in Leeds. Northern Ballet have their own academy which trains youngsters but this does not specifically feed into the company. They use youngsters from the academy when they are in leeds and need children ie for nutcracker. Their home grown dancers come from RBS, ENBS ,Central and Elmhurst and they also take a fair few foreign dancers. There was historically a link with central so several of the older dancers went there but in more recent years the net has been cast wider and dancers come from all over. As far as I know if you are what they are looking for they take you. If they dont find what they want ,they dont just take because you went to school A or school B but wait to see who they see next. This goes for most companies these days I should think because the size of many companies is shrinking because of funding cuts, not just in Britain, as I know dutch National suffered heavy funding cuts last year.

My DS is one of only 2 from his school year who trained from 11 to graduation who are now working in the UK as professional ballet dancers. Several are working abroad, mainly in europe and there are also some who are now dancing in disciplines other than ballet. A few got ballet jobs abroad but decided they did nt want to carry on as despite being able to live the dream the reality fell short of what had been imagined. Some decided not to dance as a career whilst still at school. The Dancers who are working in the profession have to develop a certain resiliance and independence as often much of the year is spent touring and they have to be prepared and able to live out of a suitcase moving from city to city and organising their own travel and accommodation. It is also hard to make and keep friends outside the company when you have such an itinerant life style. Having said that my DS would never swap what he has for a "normal" life and embraces his life style. Sometimes students in training feel that when they "make it" it will be all applause and glory. Its exceedingly hard and the arts cuts make the life of a dancer in the UK more precarious as contracts get fewer and fewer and less likely to be long term.