Nana Lily

YellowCar, my view on the timing of the SS this year is its an indication that this is an a International SS, not s UK one. Posts from last year's SS at Covent Garden share how there are only 3 or 4 girls from the UK in each of the year groups. If your dancer is lucky enough to get a place and can get the time off school there are bursaries available.

Just took a look at the website and the application form is now on line

I emailed a week or so ago and had a reply to say they had a technical issue. Hope to put it up soon.

Agree David Plumpton's music is fabulous. Each piece is for a specific exercise or enchantment to a wide variety of music styles from classical, musical theatre and I think there may be a Christmas one! He is also a well known and highly regarded ballet pianist, playing for companies, Northern, Royal, associate schemes and summer schools to name a few.

Did a lot of research for a practise Tutu for sixth form. We decided on the one from Just Ballet. It was around £50 with the postage. Good number of layers, 8 or so and they are stitched and net is much stiffer than the Bloch one. I found a very nice one in the Capezio shop in Covent Garden by Intermezzo and it was £100, but didn't appear to be much different to the Just Ballet tutu. Grishko are beautiful when new, but they have a hoop and over time the net then flops over the net, though it does still look pretty if you are happy for that to happen after spending £400. We also have a second hand Grishko which of course was significantly discounted. DD is using the Just Ballet tutu for sixth form. We personally don't like the Bloch, very floppy and for the same price you can buy better quality from Just Ballet. Edited to add in 'intermezzo'

The next time you are looking for lost property Karen If you come across a duvet and pillowcase set from IKEA of Rosebud design do let me know! How that can have gone missing heaven only knows! #themysteriesoflostproperty

We all know how DD's are supposed to hang out their pointe shoes, stuff them with tissue paper etc and alternate pairs shoes between using.....the reality is though this often doesn't happen with very busy schedules at vocational schools, dashing off between classes/academics and often there isn't a safe or practical place for dancers to do this and so shoes often get shoved into a locker or bag until the evening. I have ordered a set of these: http://www.trekmates.co.uk/absorba-balls They are designed for drying out wet hiking boots and gloves. They come as two sets of 3 balls, clearly too many for a delicate pointe shoe, but am hoping that one ball will fit into each shoe. I am hoping this will encourage DD and prolong the life of her shoes. I will let you know how they work. At £15 for 6 balls, quite expensive, but if they do work 3 girls can share one pack! NL

Janet I too watched the matinee yesterday and am still feeling the emotion. I was overwhelmed by Delia's performance. Went along with my friend at the last minute. We stood during the curtain calls with tears rolling down our cheeks. Brandon was outstanding. There was emotion too pouring from the swans, all in unison. I don't think I ever felt as involved watching a ballet before and of course there was much joy too. Quite an experience!

My interpretation was that it gets credited against the student account, meaning it gets taken off the amount of fees for the first year... So they are charged less against the student loan for their fees. I wasn't therefore expecting the deposit back. If it does, then that will be very helpful!

Thanks Dance is Life, did manage to watch after fiddling around. Really enjoyed it. Well done to all entrants.

After paying out £14 for the live streaming I am still struggling to get past 1 minute 20 and am viewing half a screen so I can watch either feet or heads, but not both! Could be my settings on the screen size, but rather annoyed I can't progress beyond 1.20 mins and I have top notch broadband hmm

Well done to your daughters Kat09 and tracieanne01. Fabulous achievement. What I admire so much about the Genee is how they have the dancers for 5 or so days and so actually have a jolly good look at them and give fab coaching so decisions aren't made necessarily on a one time moment. Good luck to all the finalists. (Edited to add last sentence)

Sorry Billy Elliot I disagree with your comment about technique. While the steps are simple they have to executed beautifully...with good technique. Yes costumes are a major consideration, but so is performance quality (which your DS has in abundance!).

My youngest DD did Nutcracker with BRB and my eldest went on tour with BRB when she was 10. Our journey was 160 mile round trip. I work full time, but all the family pitched in to help out. All expenses were reimbursed and the rehearsal schedule and castings were well mapped out in advance...it's a professional company after all. None of us would have missed it for the world. Both DD's are at vocational school, eldest now in sixth form training. Congratulations to your DD! Go for it, this particular opportunity won't happen again. It's well worth it as they are on stage for the whole of the first act.

I think there is some confusion. There are two courses. Professional Dance Exoerience is running a course at Rambert School in Twickenham. Anondancer is doing the course run at Rambert Company studios on the South Bank. Looks like they are very different courses.

Thank you for posting Anondancer I really enjoyed your blog. I struggled to find the link. Hope this helps others https://lifeofadancingfangirl.wordpress.com

Thanks Bruce, wise words. I usually watch a performance and wished I had been able to get better seats or had spent more money.

At Hammond and Elmhurst RAD is covered by MDS too. At Hammond RAD is part of the general dance timetable during weekly class. There are optional early morning classes for those about to take an exam for extra coaching. At Elmhurst while on the general information on the website and in handbooks it states that RAD lesions are 'optional' you have to get special permission to miss a Saturday RAD class and unless there are exceptional circumstances permission is never granted to miss the class. Children are automatically 'opted in' to RAD classes. I have never known a vocational student 'opt out'. The school has been an integral part of the development of the new vocational syllabus, being a test bed for the syllabus and students took exams prior to the new syllabus being on general release. They are also in the DVD's for all the vocational grades. The classical variation for Advanced 2 was choreographed on a specific sixth form student as ecsined the the launch of the new syllabus.

A friend and I decided to treat ourselves and went to the performance on the 29th July paying £90 each for tickets. was relieved to read this post. While I am still learning to understand what contemporary dancing is all about I was rather underwhelmed by Miss Guillem. From the performance that night I can appreciate her amazing facility, and she communicated well. Of course we both love a tutu and while we knew that we weren't going to see one but we were disappointed in the evening generally. For me the highlight was the male duet. I didn't keep my programme so can't reference who they were.

Of the four vocatonal lower schools with public funding 3 of them do RAD classes and exams and one also does Cecchetti, so there must be some value in following a syllabus and taking exams in addition to vocational non syllabus based work. With such a precarious profession none of us has a crystal ball and dancers may move away from performance careers for a variety of different reasons at any point in time. I would rather have a recognised exam than not so that moving across to teaching is easier for the student.

Wonderful new SP! Well done!

Both my DD's have had the Nat West accounts for a couple of years now. The phone App is excellent as they can keep a track of spending or see if I have transferred money very easily. A word of caution though it will allow them to go over drawn which we discovered when the younger one accidentally ticked the Amazon Prime offer when ordering on Amzon thinking she was getting free deliveries free for life. This was before they had the App and I spotted on her bank statement. I phoned the fraud line at the bank thinking someone had hacked her account. They were really helpful, explained what had probably happened and how to reclaim the money back from Amacon. The money was refunded very quickly. That doesn't resolve the issue of the bank allowing children's account to go overdrawn which I complained about. Aapparently 'small' transactions will go through without any check even if there aren't sufficient funds in the account. Apart from that concern the accounts have worked very well. The App has encouraged them to save too! Am sure that Money Saving Expert has a section on student accounts for a comparison, though as mentioned above most are likely to be for 18 years and above.

If you have DC1 on MDS then DC2 is awarded an MDS you pay half the contribution of DC1 for DC2. In summary: DC1 100% of assessed contribution DC2 50% of assessed contribution of DC1 You fill out an MDS form for each child and put down the other sibling so they take off the £1900 for a dependent child on each form. In our situation the total contribution for both was then added together and split 50/50 between each child, but not sure if all schools do this. We are nearly at the end of having two DC's at lower school. We made the decision that we would let both have this opportunity, but really consider very carefully as the extra contributions you will pay plus all the hidden extras for the second child is a massive burden. The contribution for the first child is a massive stretch anyway for most families, no matter how great or how low your household income is the contribution you have to make takes up a huge portion of your 'disposable' income once basic bills of mortgage/rent, utility bills and council tax are paid. Would we do it again, yes, but there have been sleepless night with worry. Good luck with auditions!

In the spirit of the forum of sharing information, what a strange public post. How does this help folks who are reading the forum?. If you want to share information with personal friends then send them a Private message. If you want to share with the World Wide Web post info which will help folks then shFe the full info. A previous poster took a similar approach too. Why who knows. If you want to keep your DC's news private or share with a Few friends then do so on private message facility. My DD asked me not to share audition results on this Public forum and I have respected this and not 'tantilised' the public with obscure messages. My DD has her place at school of choice, but know of many who are waiting and recent contributions by posters haven't been too sensitive

Elmhurst did accept CCV a few years ago, but only for full fee paying children. I don't know if they do still. Apparently MDS covers firstly the cost of boarding, then the other elements of the fees meaning that CCV can not be used if you are on an MDS scholarship.There is an old thread on this somewhere I think on the old forum platform. The amount you can save using CCV's is a drop in the ocean versus full fees, though as they say "every little helps" NL