primrose

My daughter danced 'An axe for my brother' many years ago. It was a lovely winning dance.

I think you need to relax and just enjoy the experience. Pups mum couldn't have put things better. My daughter did festivals for years and they are very enjoyable but incredibly subjective.Just enjoy your dd performance. Another top tip is not to get to worried about how your dd exam marks compare to another child's. Remember exam marks do not make a professional dancer and play absolutely no part in getting them into vocational schools or associate classes. If you relax so will your daughter and she will grow in confidence.

My daughter did a dance day at Covent Garden when a mid associate with RBS. Many years down the line and I still find it hard to spot her. They are all the same size and physique with the same posture. They all have the same sized heads and necks.

Look at it positively, that means two days for the girls to experience White Lodge. Stress levels will be reduced and less rushed and to top it all evening spent in Covent Garden. If finances are a problem then RBS are very approachable. Enjoy every minute of it.

Apparently so. Have a look at her doing the dying swan on you tube. She is exceptional and was very highly regarded as one of the best students in her year. As you know international students and Russian are taught together.

Isabella McGuire Mayes (Dancer)

Born in 1992, Isabella trained at the Royal Ballet School in London and with a Russian coach. Aged 15, she became the first British student to be accepted into the Vaganova Ballet Academy where she studied for four years. Her performances at the Mariinsky Theatre include Medora (Le Corsaire, 2012) and Queen of the Sea (The Little Humpbacked Horse, 2011). During her training she has also performed The Dying Swan (2011), Snowflakes, Lead Arabian dancer (The Nutcracker, 2010). In 2010, she danced Swan Lake with the Mikhailovsky Ballet on tour in London. She graduated from the Vaganova Ballet Academy in June 2012 from the class of Irina Sitnikova and joined the Mikhailovsky Ballet Company. 

Beautiful he has done so well. Isabella mcguire Mayes another talented UK student was also given principle roles. She was an ex RBS pupil now dancing with the

Mikhailovsky ballet company.

Army dancer just be mindful that the military only provide a certain amount towards the boarding costs. You will have to find approximately £3000 per term yourself maybe more. My daughter attended Tring and we are also a military family. MDS awards would be more beneficial.

My post wasn't really about funding as many foreign and UK nationals can afford to fund. My point was that there are very few places in UK lower vocational schools. I strongly believe that these places should be taken up by UK children. There are masses of talented British kids, who may not yet be at the standards of our foreign friends but that doesn't mean with good training they can't be. Sorry but I have seen so many talented children over looked and it's not right. I am not raising this point as a bitter parent whose child did not gain a place at one of these schools, on the contrary she had a funded place at two different vocational schools and was offered DaDa funding for several upper schools. I am saying schools should be looking at UK talent, it's there staring at them.

A British child is one who holds a British Civilian passport.

Many of you will know that my daughter trained at vocational schools here in England and also at the Bolshoi in Moscow . I am sure jojo will agree with me in that my daughter was not treated badly by the Russian teachers at all. The expectations from the Russian teachers are far greater. The student who works the hardest is given far more respect and that is not usually the best dancer in the class. The teachers are very hands on in that they show the student what muscles to engage and how to move. They don't however grab or pull a student around. The training is consistent and methodical. The students receive classical drama and gymnastic classes. It's unusual for students to have injuries. My daughter trained 18 months in Russia and the improvements in her abilities were incredible.

I edited this post to add that no student would ever question or answer a teacher back. If a student was rude or direspectful they would be ordered out of the class and potentially the school. The respect the students give to the teachers is very important and expected. When we visited the school, we walked down a corridor where younger students were stretching, every one of them stood up stood aside to allow us to pass and curtsied. This is something they do for all adults.

I have to say that I do feel quite strongly that our lower schools should be training British children. There is enough ability and talent in this country waiting to be nutured. Our vocational teachers need to be looking at what they need to be doing in getting our children to the same standards that they are currently looking for when auditioning abroad. British children can be trained to those standards. I am not sure how I feel about the same applying to upper schools and would have more of an open mind to auditioning foreign students. I do think our vocational schools should be doing far more to be getting British kids to a more competitive stardards to our foreign neighbours. Why are the Chinese, Japanese and Russians so much better, is it training or something else? Now I am not saying this to cause any upsets amongst ourselves and I am not saying that our British kids are not good enough but looking at top ballet companies across the world and where these people are trained tells a story. I don't blame the kids or parents but our schools do need to be looked at. Another thing is why don't our children compete in the huge international competitions that are world recognised and gets faces known. The ballet world is all about net working.

Just treat it the same as claiming for any other boarding school.

My husband dealt with it all. You just have to pay the difference. MDS is means tested so whatever that cost is can be put towards boarding school allowance. My daughter finished tring in 2011 so a few years ago now.

We are a military family. My daughter attended vocational school from the age of 11. Boarding school allowance applies the same for vocational school as normal boarding schools provided they are on the approved list.

Remember that to get in to a RBS associates scheme is incredibly difficult, there just is not enough places. Also regards the comments from the head of dance at Tring, it's just one persons opinion. I know children who have been turned down for Tring who have gained a place at Elmhurst and Young Dancers Academy. If your daughters only pysical negative is a long torso I wouldn't worry. I bet it's not that long at all. Audition for all five schools as every one of them sees different qualities in their dancers.

Lovely to get great feed back. Do let us know how he gets on with his auditions. I was also wondering is this for ballet schools or companies. Whatever it is for good luck.

That's the cut throat world of dance for you. I am sure the company will continue to have open auditions for company places making those accesible to all.

Let's be honest usually none of us choose to give birth and then allow our most precious bundle to go off to boarding school from a young age. Pre puberty is also a very confusing age for any child to cope with when mum and dad are not around to help. I think it would be very odd indeed to not feel an emptiness and sense of loss when your child is not at home. This forum is about support and celebration and we all hopefully offer advice.

I do not see hysteria here at all, but parents who have put their own feelings aside to enable their children to follow their dreams. A selfless act indeed.

Thankyou, my son's journey is ongoing he has been left with several disabilities. He has spent 20 weeks in hospital so far over the last year however like your son he is a fighter as are we, we don't give up and we do so with a smile on our faces and hope in our hearts. Ballet4Boyz your son has done so so well. I can also relate to your oncologist, my son had a neurologist who looked after him from new born, he also became a friend and followed my husbands military career with great interest. He retired two years ago and we really miss him. Doctors, nurses and all the other staff including the cleaners are so caring to our children. Two cleaners even put money in my son's recent 18th birthday card whilst he was in hospital.

Ballet Boyz you and your son are truly inspirational. Having been on a similar journey with my son, we see and hear things that nobody should. We also see smiles,hope,love and encouragement all around those hospital walls. You all become one big extended family from many families from different backgrounds. Over the last few months I learnt so much from the travelling communities. Just wanted to say how I really understand your journey after my own son has nearly lost his own life on several occasions through meningitis, brain infarction stroke etc. I hope your son's future is filled with great happiness and success and you and your family can sit back and really relax free from all that worry xxxx

Yes I see what you mean taxi ballet.

Calling him a stupid little man and then threatening to get every other school in the area to turn this little girl away is more than rude as far as I am concerned and actually borders on defamation of character.

Judging by the way certain newspapers have a habit of putting considerable 'spin' on the smallest of non-stories, it's highly unlikely that we would be able to tell whether either or both of them had been unreasonable. It is also pretty unlikely that either protagonist would have told the newspapers everything, or that the papers would have printed an accurate account if they had!

 

'Abusive' is a bit of a harsh term (and could be misinterpreted when used to describe a teacher) - maybe 'rude' would be a more appropriate word.

 

The family hadn't been absent from the 'watching week' class on previous occasions due to some Polish holiday obligation though, as it appears the mother had been to watch their dd but the father hadn't. Most dads are absent from these things anyway, unless they are the one who regularly takes their dc to classes.

From what I have read the family had booked a holiday to Poland which clashed every time it was watching day. Maybe the family are Polish and have to go home on those dates. Imagine if a parent could not attend a school parents evening due to reasonable other comitments. Would it be reasonable for the school to say tough you had your chance or would we expect the teacher to make an appointment that would accommodate both of them.

I think the teacher was unreasonable. The father wasn't asking to attend every lesson, just the one. Most parents would understand that this was mitigating circumstances. At the end of the day he is paying for a service and unless the teacher had something to hide and isn't as good as she claims then there shouldn't have been an issue with letting him watch quietly and discretely at the back. The father wasn't abusive in his emails but actually I thought very polite in his first one. Sadly the teacher was very abusive. I don't know this school or family at all but to my mind very weird almost dramatic behaviour from the teacher.