atacrossroads

No, this is the last one for us! Have Hammond results come out yet for those who went for it?

Hi tutu girl, we are also waiting and I'm sure a parent asked last Tuesday and was told around 10 days for results. I'd imagine they'd be arriving any time now! Good luck to your 2 pupils!

It's a wonderful school for musical theatre and their tap and modern are very strong. As well as a great all round musical theatre education, it's very small and has a really lovely close family atmosphere

Oh they do Ribbons! You still have to put the mother and father's height on all RBS JA application forms, so I'd imagine that that follows through. But what if the father is 6 ft and the mother is 5 ft 1" , what predictions can they make from that?

That's fantastic news! Well done you! My dd starts in Yer 7 in September and is so excited!

That's so lovely to hear tutugirl. My dd will start at Tring (dance course) in Yr 7 from September and she can't wait. For me it has exactly what we're looking for in terms of great training, great education/music and most importantly, the diverse training to keep as many doors open into the professional world as possible

Judging by some of the beautiful dancers I know who've auditioned and not been asked back for MDS, I think you're right taxi4ballet..

Great that she got the offer! Well done! To be honest we have only heard through the grapevine of 1 child who has been called back for an MDS funding audition (for a Year 7 place). Many RBS JA's have been offered places but not offered the funding audition, so I think there are only a very few MDS places on offer. Has anyone heard of any other funding auditions for Tring?

Really sorry about your dd's no Dragonlady Glad she's bounced back though Yes, (balletjack) - Year 7, well done to your dd!

The Elmhurst letters are arriving today for 16th audition date (or at least the first session that my dd was in). She has been called back for finals and I wish everyone else waiting good luck too!

If you audition early for Tring, the offers come out within 10 days and then (for year 7 anyway) you have to pay an initial registration fee if you acept the place and a further deposit by the end of December. It might be worth considering leaving Tring until the January auditions if it's not your first choice, so as not to a) have to pay money out to keep the place open and feel guilty for accepting an offer and then turning it down.

Out of an audition that lasted over an hour, the flexibility test was a 5 minute thing. I think Tring are looking for all of the above attributes that have been mentioned and flexibility is just one of may elements they are testing. I'm sure musicality, presentation, physique etc. are further up the list

I totally agree Jellybeans! I don't see how they could without the chance to look at the ligament structure of the rest of the body. Splits cannot show the level of natural turnout for example anyway.

Ah, those naturally flexible children are so lucky! I would say however, in my experience and looking at boys in particular who are naturally less flexible than girls, with every day commitment and being willing to warm up gradually each day to sitting in each splits for 30 seconds, over a year or so pretty much all children would be flat in splits. The trouble is that after a day of school and dance classes, then homework, the last thing they want to do is spend 15 minutes limbering!

I wonder whether they use it as a sign of how committed to dance the child is? (and I'm not saying I agree with this by any means). My dd isn't flexible, so it took her 2 years of pretty much doing splits every day to get down. A child in my modern dance classes was so stiff we thought she'd never get down despite all her exercises, but to my amazement, she was down this September. It's fine for a child not to be flat in splits before entering year 7 vocational as they can catch up at that age. The only worry is if this is now part of the audition process, you wouldn't want it to count against them in a room with other talented children who appear more flexible.

Yes, she started CBA this September and is 10, in group 3. The girls in group 1 tend to be 8-9, group 2 are 9-11 and group 3 are 10 - 12. They are setted according to ability/ how high they are in RAD grades. The Sunday classes start at around 10am in the lovely Park Studios and last for about 1.30 - 1.45 hours, with a break two thirds of the way through. The uniform is a lovely lilac for groups 1-3 and the girls seem really happy there - my daughter loves it. The flexibility test in the audition is all 3 splits for 20 seconds, straddle and pike for 20 seconds also I think. The judges will make notes on their level of flexibilty at that point. The fact that she is down in her splits will be a big plus for her - let us know how she gets on! X

Hi, I think the auditions were about 1.5 hours each session as I remember. They run them as a normal ballet class and they all have a number pinned to their chests. Some girls had buns and some had crossed plaits with a little ribbon bow matching their leotard. Really good idea to do a little limbering in the side room that all the girls wait in before going into the audition. My daughter and her friend had no space so had to do their splits etc. under the big table that they keep in there! They were glad they did when it came to the flexibility tests :-)

Does anyone know how many go into Year 7? Is it just the Dance course and Theatre Arts Course at this stage or is there a Drama course too?

Best of luck to your dd 4dancers and well done to your dd tinydancer for her offer. It's a shame Tring doesn't get a bigger pot for funding. I'm sure I remeber reading that they only have around 8 MDS places per year (to cover years 7, 9 and 6th form entry), but please someone correct me if I'm wrong!

Junior Dance Course result letters from the 10th and 15th October auditions are out this morning. My daughter and her friend who is a RB JA were offered places but not for MDS funding finals. She's delighted anyway as it's her first choice vocational school, so we will be taking up the place :-) Just wondered if there are any others who will be accepting places also for next September? Well done to any that have been called back for MDS!

Hi, my daughter is in CBA and auditioned last September. The had to sit in pike, straddle then splits with square hips on each leg for 20 seconds and then the same in side splits during part of the audition. The rest of the audition was based on a normal ballet class in front of the judges. I would suggest really working on flexibility before this audition as they seem to write in their 'no' letters that restricted flexibility is an issue. Hope this helps.

I'd like to echo BallerinaX - Employment!! If graduates from RBS Upper School can't get work in UK ballet companies (roughly 2-3 graduates going into the Royal Ballet Company each year I'm told) and are having to move abroad to make some kind of a living, then surely having training in other diciplines such as jazz and tap, give Tring Park it's strength. After all the hard work that these children have put in over the years, they need to be able to make a living from their vocational training. If they've only trained in classical ballet, that's the only auditions they can attend. If they've trained in all diciplines as well as being beautiful classical dancers, they can audition for West End musicals, Pop videos, Band tours, Contemporary companies etc. etc. For us Tring offers the training for a talented dancer to be able to actually make a living from all their training, instead of the hash reality of living back at home with their parents for long periods of time waiting for auditions for ballet company places, whilst still having their parents paying for daily classes at Danceworks etc. plus travel to London, to keep them in peek condition for the auditions when the do come along. Unless your dd is so exceptional that a place in a top ballet company is a certainty (in which case they will be at RBS, YDA or Elmhurst most likely) I think the chance to divercify and broaden their horizons to actually be able to have a dance career other than just classical, at places like Tring or Hammond, should be seen as a fantastic opportunity.

Rowan, you're right. They have been told that the cast can re audition at the end of the year for the new cast, but I'd imagine that re employing them would be seen as defeating the object of the company, so I guess the hope is that they get enough exposure to move on to greater things. Until a year or so ago, I presumed that graduates of the Upper School went into the Company and that their paths were mapped out for them....I had no idea of the reality.

I wondered how many of you had heard about NEBT yet? It's a wonderful new company with Darcey Bussell and Carlos Acosta as patrons. This article gives yet another insight into just how competitive the ballet industry is for British trained dancers: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-2161039/Future-stars-given-step-revolutionary-new-ballet-company.html I went onto the Peacock Theatre website earlier to book as one of the company is the daughter of my dd's ballet teacher and was amazed and saddened by the availability of tickets. It's an amazing, ground breaking show, with a very short run, so I'd recommend anyone to see it!

Yes, LJB & LSB will be relocating too. We heard West Acton and that the final lease for the new building should be signed during the next week and then they can make the announcement. Again, don't quote me but that's what I heard this weekend.