primrose

I personally know the McKays and they are a very close family with an even stronger marriage. A very talented family indeed.

The most important thing I would pass on about festivals is to enjoy them for what they are. The adjudicators comments are their opinions and ones that may or may not be agreed with but they are just an opinion by a qualified adjudicator. They teach children (and parents sometimes) to win and lose graciously. They can be great fun if not taken too seriously. They can help to develop stage confidence especially if the student has a positive experience. They wont however have any bearing on getting you into a vocational school or company.

Yes been around for about 12 years.

Julian McKay also one of the prize winners. Well done to all the candidates. Every one of them are superb.

If anything he has had a wonderful opportunity with all the right people watching him. A very special opportunity indeed.

A lot of girls at my dds MA class continued with festivals. The opportunities that the children get at the RBS associates are wonderful. How many children get the opportunity of dancing in Covent Garden or in some cases the Royal Opera House with the RB company.

The finalist have been announced. My friends son Julian is amongst them.

CeliB your son is doing so well. What an achievement to even be at this competition.

We are following two of my daughters friends from the Bolshoi Academy. Julian McKay and Nere Barrondo Aguado.

I have never had anything to do with centre pointe or Kate Simmons just heard good things about both schools.

I am not sure. I think I may have got mixed up with centre pointe.

Kate Simmons has a vocational school attached to it. RBS associates use the studios there. Seem to be very good for ballet.

Kate simmons in Warrington is meant to be very good.

I agree with everything JoJo has said regarding The Bolshoi Academy. My dd was there for a while. She was also training at a vocational school in this country from 11 years of age. She like jojos dd was a RBS associate. She was also offered Dadas for upper schools in England but having tasted the Russian method of teaching she was adamant that this was what she wanted. The differences in her ability after being there for a year was quite astounding. I must also add that to my knowledge the younger girls do not start pointe until 11 years of age. She was only there a few months when she was given the opportunity to appear on stage and then workshops with the Joffrey Ballet School. Performing is a huge part of the school.

They are beautiful. Love the Russian style.

My dd was offered a place on the POB summer programme a couple of years ago. It was the first time they were doing it. I did not send a Dvd just photos. They were happy with those alone. Sadly my dd did not take up her place that year so again places do become available.

Did he do all of his training in Brazil and just two years at ENB.

At the Bolshoi the students in lower and upper school have to study a full programme of academics. This is something I have copied from word press that my dd wrote when entering first year of the upper school. have lots of new subjects this year.. mainly academics. My new subjects are; History, History of the Theatre, History of the 20th century, History of the World Culture, History of Ballet, Music Literature, Physics, Geography… and duet (pas de deux). These were all subjects that had state exams attatched that also had to be passed at a certain grade in order to graduate. It is not true at the Bolshoi regarding poverty. All children in Russia receive free education much the same as in Britain. They even have there own universities. Russia has many wealthy people and a lot of students at the academy are very rich.

I dont think there are many like that any more. That is not a teacher but a control freak bully.

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&ei=qW6pVKXUG4qN7QbSy4H4DA&url=http://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3Dha_ZKR38aZs&ved=0CB0QtwIwAA&usg=AFQjCNEjRgKQEThFsk7USxJ8wccsPs984Q&sig2=v6_URcvyCooKoVNg8BtbSg

I dont know if this will work but this link is a third year upper school acting exam. My dd knew all these students. If it doesnt work type into youtube Bolshoi acting exam 2012.

I wonder if the British schools do specific gymnastic classes where students are shown properly how to stretch and build strenght. I am not talking about somersaults here but about building core strenght etc. Those clips you see of little Russian children hanging off climbing equipment bars still happen. My dd under the instruction of the teacher did this most days. They were shown how to do the splits and back exercises. This was all in a specific class. They used to also have acting classes several times a week. They were shown how to express themselves through mime. They then had historical dance classes as well as duet. They also had a full academic programne on top of this. My dd did not have these classes at her lower voc school and I know that the upper schools do not do these gym and acting classes. Class sizes are also small between 9 and 12 pupils in my dds class.

I have to admit that the Bolshoi have end of year assesments and they do asses out. A panel formally watch class and the students are told straight away. I am certain that conduct is taken into consideration throughout the year. The teachers during class dont mince their words either. Teachers say what they mean rather than playing mind games. They are sympathetic to when girls might be menstrating and they are allowed to sit out of class during these times. The teachers are very firm but also affectionate with the students. My dds teacher cried with my dd when she decided to leave. She also held her in her arms for quite some time.

When my dd was a RBS associate and did classes with the Royal faculty they were hands on. I believe that they are trained well there. RBS have a 100% graduate list of students getting jobs. However RBS are very quick to get rid of students who dont appear to be benefiting from their training and that can be interpreted in many ways. I believe in some cases that many of the students just needed more teacher time to grow into their bodies and abilities. Once again the confidence of those students must be so low. I must be correct in what I am saying as so many of the assessed out students have continued their training elsewhere and have sucessfully gained professional contracts. During the audition process so many extremely talented dancers are overlooked due to them not being quite right for RBS. I think what I am trying to say is that if they nurtured their students more and instilled and built confidence every step of the way. If they instilled a desire to want more and to be pushed more then maybe so many more would be selected for upper school. Its not okay to say students lack motivation. Whose fault is that? They were certainly motivated enough to audition for the school and probably worked their socks off to get to that stage. The schools themselves need to look at who is to blame for this lack of motivation as I dont think the students should be blamed.

I dont think they have a sense of entitlement. I think they fight harder for what they want. Because their self esteem has not been crushed they believe more in themselves. Its seen more of a challenge to achieve where sadly a lot of us Brits give up and that is mostly because they believe they arent good enough when really given the training and nurturing they are good enough.