Anna C

If I were your Mum I would be having words with these teachers if this is what they’ve said. A person is either hypermobile or they aren’t. At the Ehlers-Danlos/Joint Hypermobility end of the spectrum the connective tissue disorder that gives - among other things - swayback knees causes chronic pain, propensity to injury, sublaxing and dislocating joints and a whole host of other medical issues. Even dancers with “just” swayback knees should always be mindful of *not* “sitting back” and locking the knee joint backwards, but rather strengthening the muscles above and around the joint to pull up and support the knee in a straighter position. Your supporting leg in arabesque will look nicer if it’s sufficiently turned out and the weight is balanced evenly across all 5 toes. Personally I’m not a fan of a very winged foot; as long as you’re not sickling then you’ll be fine. If you want to safely increase the lateral range of movement in your ankle then working safely with therabands is fine if you are doing exercises prescribed by a Dance Physio. Not all dancers have swayback knees or banana feet, by the way. Watch Natalia Osipova dance without tights; her feet are really quite straight all the way from under the knee to the platform of her pointe shoes, which actually is ideal. Work safely with what you’ve got.

Good luck! If you can get tickets for the Welcome Performance let us know and we can help you with seat choices. ☺️

Lauren Cuthbertson is one Juliet who is particularly convincing as a teenager and for me, retains that innate quality of youth every run. Probably why she’s one of my favourite Juliets and I always try to see her dance the role.

@Creakingstool I wondered if you were aware of the ROH’s Welcome Performances, for families who have never seen a main stage performance at the ROH? If they are doing a Welcome Performance of Sleeping Beauty, you can sit in premium seats for bargain prices. Over a decade ago I took my then 9 year old dd to a Welcome Performance and we had front row Grand Tier tickets for around £10 each, if I remember rightly. Here’s a link with more info: http://www.roh.org.uk/welcome-performances Edited to add: it looks as if there is a Welcome Performance of Beauty on 11th January but I’d advise you to register now as they do sell out very quickly.

Fabulous idea! 🥂☺️

I wonder if lamb’s wool would help under your other toes? Is there any way you can go back to the shop and ask for the shoes to be looked at again? If there’s any chance you are slipping down en pointe then don’t squash the box because it’ll just make it wider.

Are you using any padding, balletgremlin? Could the box be slightly too wide so that your foot is slipping down en pointe and putting too much pressure on your big toe? Is your big toe a lot longer than the other toes?

Bit harsh. 😳 I liked it a lot; much more than I expected to. Osipova was outstanding and I rather enjoyed the music too, although I would have preferred a Bass to sing “What power art though”. Some of the costumes (the soldiers and Athena) were not my cup of tea but I loved the lighting, the design and the chemistry between Osipova and Ball. I loved everything about Within the Golden Hour. What a joyous piece. Stix-Brunell was a delight. I hoped to be more moved than I was by Flight Pattern - perhaps better live than in the cinema where it was very difficult to see what was going on. Sambe and McNally were excellent and I loved the snow but oddly, my overriding feeling was anxiety. Shame not to see Cuthbertson; I do hope she’s ok. I was unpleasantly surprised that although “some cast changes” were announced, no effort was made to give us actual names!

Oh and DH has reminded me - pack kit bag the night before because getting to an audition and suddenly realising that you haven’t got both shoes/water bottle etc does nothing to help the nerves!

If you watch elite athletes (and racing drivers) pre-race, lots of them wear headphones and “zone out” before the race. They often do a short warmup and/or visualisation routine while wearing their headphones. This can actually be really helpful pre-auditions as the atmosphere and “competitive stretching” can be quite stressful. So if your DS has a set routine of warmup/theraband exercises to do that he can do before every class/workshop/audition, this can help bring consistency to a strange environment. These exercises should be personal to the student so they can do them, know that they’re beneficial and can ignore any students who are overstretching, shouldering legs, doing oversplits and so on. Favourite music or podcasts via headphones while this warmup routine is done can be very calming. It’s very easy as parents to feel nervous and sometimes get over-invested on behalf of our dcs. Rather like a nervous dog owner unwittingly transmitting anxiety “down the lead” to the dog, it can be tricky to keep outwardly calm and unfussed, often ecause we know just how much our child wants to succeed. Sometimes my DH was better taking my dd to auditions because he’s able to be very calm outwardly when I sometimes get nervous on dd’s behalf. If parents are able to leave the students at the audition it’s often better all round to be very breezy and matter of fact, make a swift exit and go and get a stiff drink coffee nearby. Just as some students over-stretch which can psych people out, there are unfortunately some ballet parents at audition who like to try to psych other parents out so the less time you have to sit and listen to that, the better! If you do have to stay, headphones or a book are useful. ☺️ I always used to drum into dd that auditions are just a ballet class like any other. I knew she would feel better once at the barre and as soon as the music started, so I reminded her of that. If the student can treat every audition purely as a class to be enjoyed - just as if you’d booked them onto a one-day Masterclass or workshop, it makes it more “normal”. I just used to say “do your best and try to enjoy the experience” because if the student is enjoying him/herself, this will transmit to the panel. Open Days are great so “joining in” with a class sounds like a great idea. I would just emphasise the “going to see what we think” aspect and how nice it is to be able to join in with a class. Best of luck!

Hello mercedeicool and welcome from me too. Here’s a video showing a basic temps lie:

Yikes. My poor bank account. 😳

No Fille 🙁 but Coppélia and Beauty will be nice. I’ll go and see Swan Lake again (and hope, probably unsuccessfully, that the ending has been changed). Very very happy that Onegin is back! 👏

No problem. The photo shouldn’t be visible now. 👍

Indeed. @MummytoIzzy I hope you don’t mind but I have edited your post to remove your photo. Although only Forum Members can post, anyone on the entire internet can read the forum.