tutoo2much

Everyone has there own line in the sand as to how much they are prepared to further their children's dance education. I do more than some people who think I am mad (or a saint) yet I read about what some families do on here and I am shocked. I did look the web site to see what this opportunity involved. I was unclear whether it purely ballet and who would be teaching and what performing opportunities there would be. Take away the name ENB does it still have the same attraction? Could your dd get a similar opportunity nearer to home? Is she doing it to get more hours of ballet, a chance to perform, a chance to be noticed? How much will the fares be? Would that pay for a summer school? NYB ? A week in Morrocco dancing with the Royal Ballet? Only you can work out whether it is the best use of your time and money. Good luck editted to add I just noticed I made the same points as Rowan

I don't think it needs to be new, if it is a good fit and hopefully a good colour for your daughter. I think it would be better to wear the old one than buy a new one with a bit of room to grow. I think most children wear dance school uniform. It used to say on the letter that a swimming costume would be ok. Maybe it still does. As long as she is comfortable and feels confident, (less chance of fiddling!)

It's a bit like childbirth. You just ignore the horror stories, or think it won't apply to you. Maybe it's something you just have to experience for yourself!

C4D- This is my very personal experience. I ended up letting my daughter go to vocational school at 11. I had been told she would probably get a place and warned that once offered it would be very hard to turn down. But it is so easy to get caught up in the process and a big part of me did want to see what the outcome would be, so she auditioned. It's awful,I dont remember being estatically happy when she got in, neither was she, but she is an adventurous sort of person and decided to take the place. I still remember waking up the first few nights after she was gone, feeling sick to the bottom of my soul knowing she wasn't in the the house. For weeks, if not months it felt like I had left a limb somewhere. Dancing, with all the attendant fun of festivals, exams, performances, long car journeys to JA's was meant to be a fun shared activity. Instead I felt a bit like I shot myself in the foot. Sometimes I still do and I wonder why I actually thought it was a decision that should be left to a 10 year old child. I really don't think she would have resented me if I said she couldn't go. A part of her would probably have been relieved. My point, albeit a bit longwinded, is that I had control of this process and allowed it to happen. I think it would have felt very,very different if it had happened against my will and someone else made the decision to let her to go away. And the other thing is, it isn't that easy to leave, especially for a child who is proud and resilient and has heard comments made about children who haven't coped and have had to come home. She is having a lovely time now, and I have got used to it, but it doesn't get any easier. You do miss out a lot on your child's life and if you are lucky see a few classes a year and the odd show. I will never get this time back. We both agree we should have waited till she was older, though this is what we were advised and didn't take any notice anyway!

Well, was a bit taken aback to read thequays post and just ran it by my daughter, as she has never mentioned incredible bitchiness or girls encouraging each other to eat in order to sabotage them. She is not at WL, but was adamant it is nothing like that. They all love chocolate and pizza and are really good friends, (except for when they are not, they are teenage girls after all)

My corner shop gets one in for me. They sell the usual newspapers and magazines but it seems they can actually get in any magazine you want, including foreign ones! I live in a small village, so I can imagine that applies whereever you are.

I am sure all the main school provide excellent training, and the success or otherwise of students and their employment rate will depend on lots of factors, one of the first being the quality of the intake. As someone pointed out, the reason RBS have such a high employment rate as they will usually have first pick of students. The Dancing Times dancer of the month in March trained at Dance school of Scotland and Millenium College of Performing Arts. He now has a contract with Scottish Ballet.(Not the usual 'route' to a highly prized contract with a British company. ) But presumably if someone has true potential and the drive it can be realised, without going to one of the big four.

There is a satellite CAT scheme in Exeter.

Does she want to do A Levels?

How big is the original (file size). Maybe you need to resave it as a smaller file!

Are you saying that if you approached a well-known teacher or a teacher from a well known institution they would not think this was an odd request. Well done for getting rid of unwanted picture!

I just wondered how people went about getting a second opinion with regards to their child's potential for ballet. Seems hard to know where to start. Anyone already teaching them, whether home or associate teacher may have a vested interest in their opinion, yet I am not sure how you would find someone else, or if it is an accepted thing to be doing. In some ways an audition is an opinion, but without feedback you may be none the wiser as to why you were given a yes no or maybe. editted to add a sentence.

I get the impression Tamara Rojo is an intelligent, thinking dancer with a super arched foot! I don't think they are mutually exclusive.

I would also factor in size of school and location. Ballet West is quite remote as I understand it whereas Laines very near London.

Not sure where I read it but I am sure that the awards cover music and ballet only is because of the importance of early intensive training. Whereas with other types of dance it is acceptable to begin vocational training at 16 or even 18.

I think only one CAT specialises in ballet

Sorry didn't explain myself clearly. I wanted to know if children on a CAT scheme received medical insurance as part of their award. And also when medical insurance was part of the MDS award would all children receive it or would it be dependent on parental contribution. ie high earners don't get it. Conversely, when the child comes from a low income family, but goes to a school which doesn't include the medical insurance, is any provision made. Now I am also wondering if medical insurance is mandatory for students at vocational colleges? Do Dada's include it?

Does the MDS award cover medical insurance at all schools or does it vary? Does whether or not is offered depend on parental income? Is it part of the award run by CAT scheme?

Would children with hypermobility in knee joints struggle to engage the muscles to pull up? Privates certainly can be of use if a student struggling with something specific to their body type. But it is difficult to tell what will come with time and what needs extra help and attention.

Perhaps some general information on flexibility, which seems to be popping up a lot in another topic. I am not sure if I am correct in believing that there can be limits on how much flexibility an individual can achieve due to factors such as length of tendons? I am not sure I fully understand the difference between hypermobilty and flexibility. My last question relates to improves flexibility of feet. Thanks Anjuli

I think RBS and Elmhurst will offer on the spot places too.

I can see where you are coming from JellyBean. However, I think (as a mere parent) that some of the issues you mention arise simply because children grow change and develop in different ways and at different rates, which aren't always predictable at 11. It seems very few children have all the qualities that a ballet school may look for, so they hope that some things will develop with the correct training. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. I once read an article by Mary Goodhew (ex Royal Ballet School and Elmhurst) in which she stated that she would gladly look at every child in the country to find the right children to train. From this I got the impression that rather than being overwhelmed with choice the schools can't always find enough suitable children to train. Another quirk that you didn't mention was that sometimes schools will bypass the final audition altogether and offer a place to a young person at the initial audition. I don't know if this happens with Year 7s though. I think for children from poor families, voactional school may be the best way of getting a dance education. But if you have money, time and and total focus and a good enough local teacher, it is possible to keep up with the array of associate and holiday courses and youth dance companies that are around. (Oh might depend on which part of the country you live)

Not sure if this is the right place to post- lastminute.com are offering 50% off tickets to this show http://www.lastminute.com/site/entertainment/theatre/event-product.html?eventID=914000004-1&multipleIDs=914000004-1%7C1%7C1%7C11&catID=117419

http://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/media/574723/trinity_laban_cat_report.pdf Not quite sure what they meant. This is a link to the original document. It might be of interest to quite a few people on this board. And of course it is very encouraging in the sense that it states that most of the qualities that constitute a talented dancer can be trained!

I recently came across a report which was the result of research into the development of dance talent by Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Dance and Music. One interesting finding was that students who did the most ballet were deemed less creative and less expressive. The research was based on young people involved in CAT programmes and presumably they all did some ballet. So maybe the amount of ballet you do is the key factor. Professional ballet dancers presumably have done so much it is a struggle to move in a different way.