Living the Dream

I don't know how many apply to RBS or ENBS, but a lot of international students are offered places via competitions such as YAGP and Prix de Lausanne.  Both schools have more international students than British students per year.

My DD started to develop bunions in Year 8, so I purchased bunion correctors from Betterware which she slept in each night and she also started to wear gel spacers between her big toe and next toe, to stop her big toe turning in when she was on pointe.  Thankfully this method worked and she did not develop bunions.  Here is a link to the bunion correctors, but not sure how they will work on an adult, because the bones are not as soft as a teenager.  Hope this helps LTD

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Betterware-Bunion-Corrector-Pair/dp/B006UCWX6G

Oh! So the 15 minutes break IS a reality! :-( well my DD is inspired to work even harder after reading the books ( though I thought she doesn't really need more inspiration!) so I hope she will also learn how to change clothes quickly, tidy her room quickly, eat her meal quickly etc etc I

wish!

Thank you for the information so far, still hope to hear from those who's children are at WL at the moment

Hi Happymum, my DD was at WL for 5 years.  From what I can remember Year 7 they had ballet class first thing, then a 30 minute morning break to get ready for academics.  Year 8 it was academics first thing, then she got ready for ballet during the 30 minute break.  Afternoon classes, they already had their hair done, so it was just a matter of changing clothes.  In her latter years, when she had to do french rolls twice a week, she would get up at 6am to do her hair, so that it was ready for the classes during the day, intertwined with academics.  Basically, your DD will need to be highly organised and tidy, to get through days at vocational school, but it's all worth it in the end.  LTD 

Sorry to open up this thread, I have tried to read as many of the posts I can but I haven't quite been able to find out what I am looking for. It refers to MDS and the questions they ask you with regards to income. Has anyone seen the forms from various vocational schools and whether they ask you the same questions. My dd's Dad and I live separately so I expect they ask for my income plus maintenance from DD dad. However if I live with someone else and am not married does that count towards income. The guidance on the DepEd section on MDS is very poor.

On MDS if you are not married to your new partner then they only want to know your income and court ordered maintenance payments from the absent parent. On DaDA if you live with your new partner, then they want the household income plus court ordered maintenance payments. I hope this answers your question. Feel free to pm me if you need too. LTD

Has anyone had this done already ?

Any recommendations ...

Is it expensive ?

At WL the school PAT test all electrical items, so you don't have to do this yourself.

At WL year 7 it's 4 hours dancing per day. 2 hours in the morning then academics, followed by 2 hours in the afternoon.

My DD has a Natwest Adapt account with a Visa debit card and Internet banking. She also has an ISA with Natwest and just transfers money across if she needs it. You can have the Adapt account from age 11 and it has no overdraft facility. Once her account has less than £10 in it, it won't let her use her card.

It looks like 25 for a summer school is not unusual, then 

 

I guess that if the teacher is just taking them through their paces then that is fine but it must be hard to give any degree of personal correction to that number - and as for 37, that must make it almost impossible!!

 

I'm glad to hear that the classes in the schools sound a bit smaller but then that opens up other concerns. Do ENBS really only take 12 each of girls and boys each year or is there more than one class per year group?

 

mum in a spin,  last year's 1st year at ENBS had 12 girls and 12 boys in total.  Some of the other years vary, but only slightly.  LTD 

For full time students, RBS Upper School, approx 15 girls and 15 boys each year group and ENBS, approx 12 girls and 12 boys per year group, sorry don't know about any of the other schools, but I'm sure that the knowledgeable people on this forum can help.  LTD

Yes, I remember what you mean now :-) But my original question referred to how, after centre-barre, adage and pirouettes, everyone in the audition danced an allegro enchainement in groups of 4 or 5. (It was then after everyone had danced that the few being considered for scholarships were asked to dance again.) So, when everyone in the audition does the same enchainement; in smaller groups- is this always a petit allegro combination as opposed to an adage, for example? Hope this clarifies my question, sorry if I was unclear!

When my DD did EYB a few years ago, even though there was 130+ on stage, the combinations were done all together. However the front row kept moving to the back, so that they saw each line at the front. Hope I've explained this ok. LTD

My dd is about to start full-time vocational training in Sept and we are debating about how many pairs of pointe shoes she will need to go off with!  Having not trained full-time before, it is difficult to guage how many she is going to get though until we know how many hours of pointe she will do per week.  However, having just done two weeks summer school, she broke one pair within a week.  So I'm just interest to know how many pairs everyone else kits their dd's out with at the beginning of a new term?

 

My DD has 4 pairs of pointe shoes at the moment, but never has less than a minimum of 3.  2 pairs for class to alternate, and 1 for solos/performances, plus 2 pairs of soft blocks.  Not sure where your DD will be training, but the schools normally fit the students for their shoes during the first week of term, if you have not already sorted this out. Hope this helps LTD 

This is what makes me the most sad about ballet... When will those working in vocational schools and with dancers realise how damaging this can be? It might result in success for a minority, who then become the next generation of dancers and teachers. And because this method worked for them, this is the basis of their own teaching/coaching style.

 

But what about all those young dancers (who are at a vulnerable stage in the development of their own identity) who become demotivated, lose confidence, suffer a loss of self-esteem etc etc? I suspect that for every dancer that succeeds having had this type of day-to-day negativity, there are many more who did not succeed, having been affected in some way.

Try being the parent on the end of the phone, hundreds of miles away, trying to convince a demoralised DD, that the comments weren't personal to her. It does start to grate 6 years later, when it still goes on. Just hope it's all worth it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Living the dream - that's true I know. Do they always tell you your not trying hard enough though? I like criticism to help me improve but surely being demotivated cant be that common?

My DD says that it's not a daily occurance but it does happen 50%+ of the time, sorry to say.

I had a teacher last year who was brilliant in getting us to move forward. I have improved so much this year it's unbelievable! The only problem I found was that she constantly was telling us we wernt trying hard enough. She'd say things like 'if you continue with this attitude you will go nowhere in ballet' and 'I think I'm wasting my time with you'. She'd address the whole class with things like this but it would really get me down as I'd try so hard until I was hurting and she never gave me a piece of positive feedback. I can definitely take criticism but I do think that this was a bit too far! It resulted in a few girls quitting and classes became very tense. Do you think this is normal? As I said she was a brilliant dancer and has taught me so much but I struggled to keep on with it this last year and that had never happened before.

My comment won't be very helpful, but my DD who's in her 6th year of full time training said, welcome to vocational training as that's how the teachers talk to the students.

where do ds get their blazers from, M & S, John Lewis or Len Smith?

We got ours from BHS. Don't spend a lot as they only wear them once or twice a year, if that.

Slightly off topic but I was a bit surprised to see in the RBS Annual Report for 2012 that 7 of the dancers got a C for AS Level Dance and one a D.  Fair enough, maybe it's a lot of writing and not much dancing, but a C/D?!  Surely that's like Einstein getting a C for physics!

You must bear in mind that it is the Year 11 students taking AS level Dance Studies at WL.  The majority of the year being 15/16 years old and at least one being 14, when they took the exam.  This is not an easy exam (just because they are at vocational school), there is a lot of study and not related to ballet, so for students who have not studied any other dance genre, it is hard.  My daughter really thought she would get a D, but was amazed to get a B and she is very academic.

 

Also meant to add that they have decided that they will not offer Dance Studies AS level at WL anymore, as it is a lot of work on top of their GCSE's and auditioning commitments.

 

LTD

Anyone know who WL uses?

The school policy was BUPA but ours was with AXA PPP and it was no problem. LTD

LTD have messaged u re the tickets

I've replied kiwimum x

Extremely hard work and long hours, but she's loving every minute.  Thank you for asking thequays 

I can't believe that a year has almost flown by and my DD will be completing her first year at ENBS.  Many of you offered valuable advice to me and my DD last year when we were going through the audition and selection process, so I wondered if any of you are going to watch their Summer Performances at the New Wimbledon Theatre on 5th & 6th July 2013.  It would be lovely to meet fellow Balletcoers.

 

I am so excited to see these performances and will share my thoughts with you when I have seen them.  Also I have some tickets for sale, which I have posted in the appropriate forum on here, as my partner and son can no longer attend due to boy/non dancing commitments 

 

LTD

I got quotes from AXA PPP and BUPA for my DD, as I had just missed the annual deadline for my company insurance.  I chose AXA PPP as they were a lot cheaper than BUPA, yet offered the same cover.  We have a family cover, but I'm sure they quoted me £25 - £30 per month full cover including physio etc just for my DD.  Basically it covered everything on the school policy.  Hope this helps.

Is it only for the families of children at the school or can others go?  We went 2 years ago but we were given a flyer for it and it seemed to be advertised.  I had thought that this year its just for the those at the school.

I believe that this year it is just for current/past/new students, family and friends.

My DD will be going as last years leavers are all meeting up.  You are right JulieW, a lot of the house and academic staff have gone, even in the last 12 months, and the Head of Lower school is leaving at the end of term too.  Hope the weather is great and have a wonderful time.

When my DD was at WL, any of her friends that started with iron on labels, soon began to sew labels in instead, as the laundry dryer is very powerful and they don't last 5 minutes.  We had a group of friends and family including DD before she started in Year 7, sewing labels in all her socks and of course everything else.  It took hours and we all had sore fingers, but after Year 8, they asked all students to have a net bag, to put in socks and pants.  You only need to sew a name label on the net bag.  All students must be able to sew name labels in their ballet uniform, sew shoe elastics and for your DD's they will have to darn their pointe shoes and sew in their ribbons, so if they can't do this already, get practising.  I would also recommend a laundry marker, so that they can initial their ballet shoes too.  Good luck to all the new starters, my DD had a wonderful 5 years there. 

I hope all the new starters enjoyed new Parent's Day at WL.  Before I put these items on ebay, if anyone wants to make me an offer (anything considered) either for the lot, or individual items, my daughters upper school fund would really appreciate it 

 

Many thanks LTD