Tulip

Jellybeans I seem to be mis-understanding your post. You say that you think that it is healthy for children to eat crisps, biscuits and cake as part of a healthy eating and should be encouraged at all times. However you then go on to say that they should be part of a treat, which you say is something not consumed everyday. I work in early years, foods such as cake, biscuits, crisps are NOT allowed on the menu, except for a celebration such as Christmas party. Ofsted will give us a poor grade in the Staying Healthy section if these foods were part of the children's diet. Portion control again is a massive area. Practitioners are encouraged to serve the right portion for a child, but not allow seconds and thirds. A typical menu is Sheperds pie, vegetables and always afterwards they will have a selection of fruit. We do have quite a few little ones in my setting that would if you allowed them to, to eat and eat and not know when to stop. It is my job (and in early years we have worked closely with families in supporting each other) to actively promote healthy eating. The government have been really pushing this, and have provided lots and lots of courses for practitioners to tackle issues of obesity and how to promote healthy exercise and nutrition. It is up to the parents when the child goes home if they want to TREAT or allow as part of their menu cake, biscuits, crisps sugary drinks etc. I also have add that because these foods are not availabel at my nursery the children love tucking into the fruit, they are used to drinking milk or water, so do not expect to find fizzy or sugary drinks. We start right at the beginning with little ones in promoting good health, so where does it all go wrong. Ofcourse I do know this, but if in early years we are governed by Ofsted in promoting Staying Healthy, why do schools and independant schools (vocational) get away with it. SORRY for the rant everyone, but I have to say if the crisps, biscuits and cakes were freely available everyday they would be consumed in one day, and I mean that. Mind you so is all the fruit. Teenagers are like little ones, they munch away until somone tells them that they have had enough.

Good luck to those students on the waiting list, who have been called today to re-audition. Fingers crossed for you all.

I have to say that the food at my DD school is excellent, I must however point out an eating disorder is a mental illness. These youngsters will keep their illness a secret at all costs. Food will either be the enemy or the friend, what will be provided on the menu is completely irrelevent in my oppinion for someone with an ED. A person usually a perfectionist may be more vunerable to this illness, and this is where teachers need to be very careful in what they say. Teachers need to be trained in understanding this illness and when to detect when a child may need help from a professional. This is a massive area not only in dance schools but in society in general.

I know that if my daughter stays onto the third year at Central she will hopefully obtain a degree. If she is unsuccesful in the ballet world for whatever reason then she will be able to use this degree towards a teaching training qualification, an early years professional status (I am choosing areas in which I am more familiar with), and many other professional fields. My daughter has worked so hard towards her chosen profession, this is more than a dream this is a itch that can't be scratched. a burning desire to do what she feels she needs to do. Fortunately we have been able to fund her towards her journey. Every penny spent on her dancing, has 100% been earned by her, and it has been a pleasure to have been able to give her this opportunity. My daughter is very, very careful about money and understands the cost of everyday living she is not given money easily. I would not however go into debt or put the rest of the family at risk. In my daughters school the children there know realisticaly where their style of dance lies. They definally know if their physique is wrong for ballet, just by observing what the required physical shape is. Because of this knowledge they have gone on to study specificaly more towards jazz etc.

I found the school to be very nice during my daughters audition. The principle appeared to be very proud of her school and the students. I have seen some of the Northern ballet student at dance x change in Birmingham and have found them to be of a very high standard. My daughter has chosen to go to Central school of ballet but we still found Northern to be very nice.

They don't advertise it, I think if you have a sponser then Tring will give a small bursary. You will need to ask, it deffinately does exist.

Sorry got it wrong, the day begins at 8.00 and yest there are scholarships available internaly, you would need to speak to Mr Anderson regarding them I think.

Assembly is at 8.30 am and they have RAD on a saturday. If you have not got an MDS award then the Saturday class is optional as you have to pay extra for these classes. If you are lucky and have been awarded an MDS then these classes are free, but they have to be attended.

Congratulations to you son Mariejen, that is brilliant news.

Wow amazing story Spanner I wonder who the lady was? My husband went on for years saying to my daughter you don't appear to be breathing through your nose when you dance, turns out she couldn't she has terrible rhianitis can't spell that sorry. Once that problem was sorted, exactly what Anjuli is saying things began to significantly improve. The teacher my daughter has at the moment is wonderful and my daughter not only appreciates her she has a lot of respect for her.

Thankyou ever so much, she will practice at school. Never realised just HOW hard ballet really was. I knew it was hard, but breaking down all these muscles and engaging with them aswell as remembering everything else whew. Will they ever get there as the mountain sometimes seems so high to climb (my thoughts not hers).

I understand and agree with a lot of what has been said and why. I just feel a little sad that because my daughter has never done PE at school she has missed out on opportunities such as rounders, net ball, cross country running etc. She tells me that she doesn't like that sort of thing anyway, I said how do you know, the last time you played things like that was when you were at primary school. I was very sporty and competitive at sport, I was lucky enough to learn how to throw a javelin, discus, cross counrty running etc. She has never had the chance to learn any of these skills and never will. I am saying all this, however she has no interest in any of the above and if she thought for one minute that injuries occuring from PE would harm her beloved ballet WELL.

She has actually tried that exercise Pas de Quatre, but she feels the muscle between her inner theighs when she does it. She had a similar problem a while back when during arm exercises it turned out that she wasn't using the right muscles there either, she thought that she was. It was when the teacher touched her arms she realised that some of the muscles were loose (bingo wings even though her arms are very thin). Now she understands and can feel what muscles she should be using everything right down to piroutes have improved. It seems the student assumes they are using the right muscles and only when the teacher touches certain muscles to see if they are engaged, the student realises and then can go on to feel and learn. This must be a reason for bad habits setting in. This is just one more impotant muscle that her teacher has discoverd she is not engaging with. We are so luck to have such informative people on this forum, and best of all my daughter understands what you are all telling her, me I haven't got a clue. Thankyou again everyone.

Thinking of you this morning Julie, hope you had a wonderful time watching these wonderful dancers, such a treat.

My daughter is home at the moment and she read your comments. She understood what you were both saying (I didn't) she said her words, sometimes it is hard to feel the smaller muscles, because the bigger ones get in the way. I think at her stage of dancing there are soooooo many things to remember, pull up knee, high demi-point, what are my arms doing etc etc. It is just this one muscle she is having a problem with. Her fear is that by doing certain exercises, she will en up building her thigh muscles up too much. Is this a common fear amongst classical dancers, as my daughter is always going on about her thigh muscles. Thankyou both for your very informative feed back, my daughter very much appreciated it, she is going to talk further with her dance teacher tomorrow.

Just wondering if anyone has got any suggestions regarding this problem my daughter is having. Her teacher has pointed out that she is not using her muscle in the back of her inner thighs, that is the only way she has explained it to me. The problem is more significant during arabesque (sorry forgotten how to spell it) The muscle is not in the back of her thigh but more moving to the middle but not quite. Very difficult to explain. She is using every other muscle including squeezing her buttocks, except this one. After trying lots of different exercises, she says that she can't feel this muscle. My daughter is also very concerned about building her muscles up in her thighs too as she thinks that they are too muscley, they are not in anyone elses oppinion. I am hoping Anjuli may have some suggestions.

Slightly off topic. Yes the dance teachers at Tring who teach my daughter are wonderful, my comment was purely regarding comments made at our audition regarding parental genes.

I asked that question to one of the young girls in the auditorium that was a Central graduate, did many students go on into the third year. She told me that it is assumed that all of them will go through, however if you were not going to be sucessful then you would be told by the teachers. I don't know how true this is, she could also have been talking about her own year.

That is true Jellybeans, but these children that were auditioning were of a good physique. I have never heard anyone say at The Royal, Elmhurst, Hammond, Central or ENB that it is down to genetics in front of an audience of parents and children. Perhaps they just felt that it would be more professional to keep that fact to themselves. My husband laughed when I reminded him off this audition as I jockingly told him to breath in and duck down. Our daughter is 5ft 5 1/2inches, small framed and very slim, I am small and slim and my husband is 6ft and has a bit of a belly ha ha. I don't know who she took after. Clearly if a child is probably not going to be the right shape for classical dancing then ofcourse a parent should gently direct that child towards another form of dance.

As adults we may understand this, but really should that young boy have had to look at his mother to see that possibly he may inherit her genes. I am very slim and I felt uncomfortable for that woman, if size had not been mentioned I would not have even noticed that lady. It is now four years on and I have not forgotten how shocked I was when this was mentioned. Also by perhaps telling them it was not their fault that they did not get selected it was their parents is not in my oppinion a kind way to go about matters either. ( I know we are summising this is what she may have meant). Surely I am not the only one to feel shocke by this talk, perhaps I am hormonal sorry everyone.

I went to see this production last night Nana Lily and yes it was very, very high standard. There were three girls at the front of the theatre talking to audience members and yes they were an absolute credit to their school. I am so pleased my daughter will be going to Central in September. Unfortunately she was unable to see this production as she was at school. I also urge people to go and watch what Central ballet are doing as it is a thoroughly inexpensive night out. The only problem I had was some people were eating crisp during the peformance (audience members). I felt like telling them off but thought better of it.

I remember Rachel Rist saying this at my daughters audition, unfortunatley there was a huge woman sitting with her son. I felt uncomfortable for both that woman and her son. This speach must be said at all the auditions but no one should EVER be made to feel uncomfortable about their size and shape. I still remember that poor woman squirming and blushing but trying to laugh it off. The son was long and lanky. As it turns out a lot of the parents at Tring are all different shapes and sizes and funnily enough so are the dance teachers, who happen to have been professional dancers in their younger days.

Elmhurst is the 13-18 aug.

I enjoyed this production, but in my oppinion it wasn't ballet. I think my husband would have enjoyed this version of Nutcracker though. As an audience we are so lucky to see so many variations of our beloved arts, thank goodness for talented choreographers and directors of companies.

This looks lovely, has anyone had experience of these events before?