ballettaxi

Many of us in the UK don't have that much choice either Cara. We're in Central Scotland and have access to 2 shops in Edinburgh and 1 in Glasgow who stock Pointe Shoes, the one in Glasgow I would never take DD to for a fitting. The 2 in Edinburgh have a very limited choice of makes and styles - one tried to sell us Gaynors which DD hated and the other fitted her with Grishko's which at the time didn't work for her at all, she's fine with them now as a spare pair but that's after 18 months working with them. We rely purely on mobile fitters who have been a godsend to date. Whilst DD was auditioning in London earlier this month we managed to get time to visit both Freed and Bloch for her to get a fitting at both. It turns out the Bloch style she's been wearing for the last 2 years is exactly the same as they would have fitted her with in the shop - great news. And at Freed they were able to find a style which suited her and she finds really comfortable - so we bought these. She's always worn Freed soft blocks but couldn't find a Freed shoe she liked from the mobile fitters - so we're hopeful that if this one works out that she has a choice of shoe to wear. It's a customised one that they had in the store that someone had failed to collect and we were just really fortunate that it fitted DD perfectly. Personally I've no ideal what the customisation is, but if it works then I'm happy.

Thanks for all your congratulatory messages - DD is still grinning like the Cheshire Cat . So lovely to see after all the stress she's put herself under in the last few months with prepping for auditions and 'normal' school prelim preparations. We will be celebrating in some form this weekend.

Thanks Miracle. This is where it becomes very complicated for us. Being Scottish and living in Scotland IF DD were attending 'normal' uni we'd be in the very fortunate position of having the majority of her fees paid for her. However as this is a 'private institution' it would appear that we will get almost nothing! From my first glance I believe we'd get circa £1,200 max against ALL fees - hoping that's wrong but needs to be carefully scrutinised. The next few days will be a series of calls to SAAS to try to find someone who understands. From previous hypothetical conversations no-one there has been able to give any solid advice. Pass me the paracetamol please!! :-)

So I haven't posted anything about DD'S audition plans as I didn't want to 'jinx' anything, but today has just been the most amazing day for her (us)! Today she auditioning for full time training at Ballet West, starting Sept '17, and has been offered a place !! She managed to hold it together whilst we were there, but as soon as we sat in the car she burst into tears - just so happy! She has an audition at The Place next week so will of course attend, and a few more lined up in the new year, but the sense of joy in our house is overwhelming. Personally, as a parent I love the real sense of family and support that I get from Ballet West but she needs to make the decision herself - however I do think she may have been very fortunate and found 'the one' that's perfect for her. She is of course still submitting her UCAS applications for University as a back up - just in case something were to happen. Now we just need to wade through the information on student finance to figure out what she can get. Not looking forward to this part!!

Hi, DD has both (smooth & one with Knobbly bits) - purely because they were bought as gifts when I'd run out of ideas for suggestions! She definitely prefers the knobbly one - for working out any areas of tension/tightness, but likes the smooth one to relax with - certainly doesn't look that relaxing to me but what do I know! Tennis balls are also a favourite - to the fury of her brother - and the balls with the knobbly bits on too. All purchased from TK Maxx and I think the most expensive was about £10 - I find people overlook items in TK Maxx if the box is bashed, I wrap up in tissue and put in a nice gift bag and she's none the wiser!

Just realised I probably share too much on this forum!!

..... in the shower tray - and more disgustingly in the waste pipe when it clogs - major YUCK!!! And these one's are definitely not re-usable! (DD has a lot of hair so even after brushing hairpins can remain in the 'mass', only coming free when she washes her hair!)

Ballet West application form available on their website today. Spotted late last night that Central form also now available. Glasgow audition scheduled for Sunday 23rd October, with a deadline of Monday 17th (I.E. Next Monday!!) for submission of completed forms - guess what we're doing tonight!! Payment submitted at 7am this morning as I believe it's on a first come first served basis for a place. This all feels very real and way too scary all of a sudden. Yikes!! Keep your fingers (toes and eyes) crossed for DD please.

Every Monday DD has a 30 minute walk home from school (or if it's raining a 35 minute bus journey - don't ask!!), drops her brother at home, has 5 minutes to change and then a 30 minute walk to her first Ballet class of the evening. IF she is delayed at all, her teacher doesn't give her a hard time as she knows that whilst making her way to class she has been warming up by alternating between walking and running, stretching all her muscle groups and absolutely arrives alert and ready to work - for the next 4 hours! Her hair may be a bit 'hectic' by the time she arrives - Frizz Ease can only be expected to cope with a certain degree of weather conditions(!) - but again no problems from her teacher as she knows that DD's attitude is absolutely spot on. For me that's the key message - attitude is everything. Yes, turning up smart and presentable to a class is the aim, and in no way should someone be disrespectful to a Teachers wishes, however similarly once the Teacher knows the dancer the attitude is what counts - In my opinion obviously.

Oh Pups_mum I know exactly how you feel and I experienced this firsthand this year. My DD is now in 6th year and my sports mad son started 1st year at the same secondary school this August. He has joined a 'specialist' stream focusing on Basketball, which equates to 0730 pre-school conditioning sessions 2 days per week, one extra Basketball skills PE session within his timetable and 2 hours after school on 2 days of the week training sessions. Alongside this the school has in place a Homework club on a Friday, once classes for the day complete, where one teacher from each curriculum subject will be available in the school Library to assist the children with their homework to allow them to get their homework completed to allow for weekend matches and then give them some free time. It's to reward them for their commitment during the school week by enabling them to have fun at the weekends. It's a great system and it's been working for a number of years now with huge success - some of the children in this stream have attained some of the highest exam scores at National Exam levels. When I attended the Parent Induction meeting in June I pointed out to the assembled group that I'd be very interested to see first hand what level of support the school was capable of providing to these children, given the fact that I'd had to fight tooth and nail for my DD to get an 'approved absence' agreed each time she was sitting her vocational exams. Having to meet with her HT personally to advise her that DD wasn't wasting her time, and asking her if she knew of any other children in 2nd year who had already achieved UCAS points (yes, okay that was maybe a bit cheeky, but I was hugely frustrated at the time). What followed was a real surprise to me in that the Head of PE approached my daughter when she returned to school to ask her about her 'dancing'. DD told her, at length, everything that she does, what levels she is at in the various genres and what schools she's hoping to audition for this year. To say the Head of PE was surprised is probably an understatement. Now, 4 weeks into the new term, DD is now a Youth Ambassador for her school, she has an after school club in place to teach 'basics' to some of the younger pupils (hugely oversubscribed with a waiting list!) and has set up a whole school recognition scheme for all those children whose achievements would otherwise have been missed, as they don't sit in the world of sport or music. The statement I loved when she shared a conversation with me was, that the Head of PE stated 'I can't believe we've missed you all these years - you've been here under our noses and we didn't know anything about what you could do. We've really been idiots for not recognising this sooner.' Yes, I'm tempted to send in a letter saying 'I told you so' - but I don't think I'll bother, I'll just smile smugly whenever I'm at school meetings. (Apologies for the long post)

Trying to get people to understand that, at least in DD's case, that the determination to pursue her ballet aspirations post 6th year (Scottish schools) is actually significantly more challenging that pursuing an Academic Degree at University. People just don't understand that the Ballet option is far more difficult and stressful - in respect of auditioning for a place on a BA course - than just applying to start a 'normal' degree next September. At the moment DD has sufficient qualifications to gain entry at 4 Universities to study Law with a Foreign Language - but people look at us as though we've taken leave of our senses when we say that IF she can get on a Ballet course that we'd be happy for her to put her Academics on the backburner to see how far she can go with Ballet. I might just start saying that she's going to be a plumber - that's maybe easier for others to comprehend (no offence intended to plumbers obviously! )

Good advice Pups_mum. We have already started our prep by taking ALL last years photograph requirements from every school DD is interested in auditioning for and have these now all taken and saved off in a newly created folder on my laptop for this mammoth task. I did allow my OCD to kick in a little bit and have a sub directory for each school, with a downloaded copy of last years application form - completed(!) - in the hope that as soon as the 2017 forms are available we can do a 'quality check' to ensure we've answered everything correctly and then simply copy and paste. I've saved the photographs into each of these directories too, with the naming convention of 'DD's name_2017 <School Name> Application_pose name' - so that in the excitement of submitting we don't send the wrong photograph to the wrong school. We also have a directory containing 'general' info i.e. DD's personal statement, Dance Teacher References, Academic References, Volunteer statements etc. Now that I've written this down, I am actually quite worried about my sanity!

Can I jump on this request and ask for any advice for Rambert and Bird too please if at all possible. (Hope you don't mind balletbean - but it's just all too confusing and hurts my head everytime I sit down with DD to look at this.) I can share some info on Ballet West as I spoke to them earlier this week. They are currently updating their Application form for 2017 entry and this will be available on the Website shortly - I have been promised that I'll receive an e-mail when this is available, so I'll provide an update here at that time.

So glad you raised this question arabesque1 as we're in the same position and trying to figure out when DD should be advising school of this requirement for time off. As we will have to travel to all bar two of her options this could be very tricky to arrange. I'll be watching this thread closely for all advice.

Not an Associate Scheme, but Penny Withers frequently runs non syllabus courses at Easter and October holidays. She has also, in the last few years run courses across a four week block on Sundays. If you search for Penny Withers Intensive Classes on Facebook you'll find her contact details there. She will also be running a Summer Course, which I believe still has some places. Not sure if the level would be right for your daughter - but certainly worth contacting Penny. This is the 3rd year of the Summer Course (if I remember correctly) and I know all the attendees have loved them in the past - very hard work but so rewarding for them. My daughter attends everything that Penny runs as she loves her. Good luck finding something suitable. Let us know how you get on. Feel free to PM me if you want more details.

For the last year DD has been attending Gyrotonic classes with an ex Ballet dancer (she also takes DD for private Ballet lessons) and the difference in her turnout is amazing. I have no idea about the terminology etc, however DD explains it to me that the difference is that she needs to pull 'up' her bum, which in turn gets her pelvis in the right place and then she needs to work on the correct muscles in her tummy and legs to get everything properly aligned. These are obviously not the technical instructions she received, but what she tells me she has to do for it to be correct. All I can say is that she can now get into a position whereby she is completely flat at the front of her legs as her front thighs appear to be out to the side - not doing a very good job of explaining this, but hopefully you get the picture. What her Gyro teacher explained was that DD wasn't rotating her hip properly previously and in fact was almost rotating her hip out of the socket (!!) so nothing was actually aligned correctly. At DD's last exam (Intermediate) the examiner actually commented to her teacher afterwards that it's been a long time since she's seen such a fabulous turnout and that the strength and control that DD had should be commended. (She received a very high Distinction ) Hope this helps - if not, might be worth a Gyrotonics session to help explain it to your DD.

Interesting to read a comment on the Wear Moi shoes. How does your DD find them for comfort and fit Quest? DD has had many problems with her feet over the years - so finding pointe shoes that suit has been a bit of a problem. Not as much as many others but as we don't have a great selection of fitters near us it's had it's own challenges. DD started with Freed Studio Professionals, then Bloch Triomphe, then Grishko 2007 and back to Bloch's again. At her latest fitting it was suggested that she try a Wear Moi shoe as the customisation elements might allow her to get something that is more suited to her feet. We have a pair on order at the moment and she's really looking forward to trying them. Sorry to jump in on your question ballemum, but it's rare to spot someone commenting on Wear Moi's.

Doubled over with laughter here at this thread and all the comments - best way to start a Friday in the office! DD has a wardrobe full of beautiful clothes however, as I'm sure most dancing mums will attest to, lives in the same ballet combinations most of the time. Her staple outfit is the Bloch all in one warmup (black of course!) with a combination of knitted fluffy warm up jumpers underneath. At less than 5' tall and the smallest in her classes they all refer to her as the baby as that's exactly what she looks like. We haven't bought the Bloch Booties - yet! - but there's always a plethora of legwarmers on various joints - including elbows and shoulders - to help warm them up before specific classes.?? I just don't even question it anymore - but her dad and brother find it hilarious!!

Hi Jade DD had a pain similar to this appear overnight a couple of years ago. X-ray's ruled out stress fracture, however our Doctor referrred DD to a podiatrist. She recognised that DD's arches had dropped (collapsed may be a better description!). She recommended a couple of week's rest and provided DD with shaped insoles for her shoes - nothing too drastic but enough to support the foot in the 'proper' position. The pain stopped as soon as she started wearing these. Two and a half years later DD still wears insoles in her shoes, however her feet have actually shrunk due to the development of an instep (was a 4.5 now a 3.5) which we can only attribute to these insoles giving her the support she needed for the foot to develop properly. It might be worth checking your DD's day shoes - is she getting enough support outside of dancing that is causing this? Good luck getting this resolved.

My DD is at the end of 4th year too ScottishDSmum (currently sitting 7 Nat 5's) and has selected 5 highers for 5th year, with a view to at least a further 3 in 6th year, with possibly 2 Advanced Highers. She attends a normal Academic school and dances 20+ hours per week on top of this. As her school cannot support her in her dancing aspirations we have a very tight schedule for her to get from school to the studio which is supported, along with whatever time off she needs for exams etc. They have recognished that while she is very academic, her heart is in her dancing and that we are supporting her to do whatever she can to achieve success in this area. However she has a 'Plan B' which requires her to achieve academically if she has any chance of following that route - if needed (she's interested in law/politics with languages/history as her preferred University route). I would suggest speaking to your DS's school to assess what they believe is a balanced workload for him. I meet with DD's PS teacher once a term to review her workload and this has really helped them to understand and work with us to get that balance. (DD's also has a maths tutor as this was proving a stress point for her - the difference in having this extra resource has allowed her to relax in this area.) You say he's thinking of the degree when he's 17/18 so presume he's planning to stay on for 6th year - so he has plenty of time to gather some Higher's. If he does 3 a year then he could come away with a decent academic fallback. Feel free to IM me if you want to chat on any specifics.

Singing4dancers, my DD is 15 and has been a 28D for the last 3 years, she's 4' 11'' and is dwarfed by all her friends (both at Ballet & school). She was very upset when her bust developed, almost overnight, and she suddenly hated all her leotards as they didn't offer any support. Thankfully her teacher allowed her to wear the grown up ballet that the older girls had as their uniform (with a really supportive shelf) - as her group would be moving to it at the next level - just by commenting that it was a bit faded looking and if I was thinking of replacing it that it would probably be best to 'just get the next style'. - We'd had a conversation beforehand and agreed on this approach - so that it didn't become a question in class for DD from the other girls! Now everyone else in her various groups has developed a bust and she doesn't feel as self conscious. Although she's still obsession about her lack of height, but there's nothing we can do about that one - I'm only 5' 2'' and 'a wee bit' (which is Very important!!!) and her dad is 5' 10'' so she's unlikely to be a giant. So Irishballetmom please tell your DD not to worry about it - dancers come in all shapes and sizes, and there are so many pretty leotards which offer great support that she never needs to feel uncomfortable.

You must remember to take a photograph of all these lovely tutu's on your washing line - what a lovely sight that would be.

Hi, DD had this issue a couple of months ago. I couldn't find them anywhere but then decided to try the local cobblers. They were able to source and repair - however they did say they weren't sure how long they'd last. So we bought a new pair to have 'ready in the wings'. The repair lasted about three months so was definitely worthwhile. And bearing in mind that these were well worn Blochs -bought second hand from a friend and then DD wore them for almost 3 years years. So if yours are newer then a repair may last longer. Good luck

Thanks thequays and Tulip - his excitement is infectious each week. We always end up in fits of laughter at home, just because he's on such a high!! He's just such a wee cutie that he still looks like my baby boy when he's this excited - dimples on full display each Wednesday - it's the perfect drug to get me through to the weekend. I'd make a fortune if I could bottle it.

Don't stress about it 'thequays', I'd say everyone falls off the wagon at some point - we're all human. And if you adopt the approach of having your cheese and bread as an occasional treat then you'll enjoy it all the more as it won't feel like a disappointment that you had it. Whenever I muster the will power to diet I make sure I have my special treats in the cupboard as I know that if I don't have them available for when I 'need' them (bad day at work etc) then I will just not stop eating everything else in sight - but if my treats are there ready for me I'll pick one of them and savour the pleasure of it (I've been known to make a chocolate biscuit last up to an hour!). Good luck tonight.