Anna C

Alison and I have just been posting a lot! :-)

I agree flexibility is taken into account. My point was that when my dd auditioned, all the "no"s got the same letter which mentioned flexibility. I just wanted to point out that when Miss Rist was involved in the selection process (and bear in mind my dd auditioned a couple of years ago) I know that "performing" was one of the criteria she looked for. Good luck to everyone auditioning this time. My dd has a couple of friends who love CBA. :-)

That's good that you got a personal response. Good luck to your dd with her audition. :-)

Yes! My teenage dd is exactly the same. Managed to work out that she's a 3 in Sansha, Petite/XS in Wearmoi.com, S in Capezio and Dans-ez and M in So Danca. Oh, and age 14 in Bloch. That's just in leotards! Skirts are usually way too big if they're not wraparound so she has to size down in those. Nightmare! Still, no different to women's sizes in shops; they're all different too. :-/

Lemongirl, something to bear in mind is that I think everyone who gets a "no" from Tring CBA gets a pro-forma letter which mentions physique and flexibility, BUT that doesn't mean that every student who gets a no is inflexible. One of the things they certainly used to look for a couple of years ago was performance skills, particularly smiling. This was one of the things my daughter has come to only recently, and in fact she still struggles with it from time to time. She got a "no" for CBA despite an excellent report from her teachers at Tring's syllabus classes, and we received the standard letter about flexibility. My dd is actually extremely hypermobile and shortly afterwards was accepted onto another Associate Scheme. :-) So by all means encourage your dd to carry on improving her flexibility, but Tring may also be looking at other factors in addition to flexibility. Like all schools running auditions, Tring obviously can't feedback to every pupil, so I think that the nicely worded "no" letter which mentions flexibility may be a general one. If you think that your dd's performance skills might also need work then that would be helpful to work on as well. What does your dd's local teacher think?

:-(( Spooky

Same for us Spooky. The 10.30 start time was very helpful at Easter.

Unless you're on crutches ;-))

Excellent! No pointework this time round but watching the ballet class I was so impressed with the teacher and the work she was doing with the girls; a really great mix of technique and performance. I always think it's good value for money too.

There are two versions of the Central Summer school as far as I know; the shorter one and a new Advanced one which is about 9 days long and intended for people who plan to apply for the Senior school. So the course content will differ between the two. The timings for their recent spring course were 10.30am to 4.30pm.

I must admit it helped that I worked in Central London for some years, so am pretty good at finding my way around. But pre- Associates I found the bus system very daunting as I'd always stuck to tubes. Getting there now though! :-)

Amelia, you're a "member" now, not a "newcomer"! :-))

While it's useful to hear all experiences - good or not so good - of EYB, if people have complaints about how it's run then of course they can choose not to do it again, or raise any issues with the Company. It's not cheap but it is comparable in value to summer schools and for many children (mine included) it's a wonderful, invaluable experience. Stardancer, it seems that perhaps EYB isn't what your daughter is looking for this time, but I would suggest you make the decision based on your experiences of EYB and not on other people's experiences. There may be all sorts of reasons why people pull out but unless those people choose to post here, we don't know their reasons.

My body won't let me do ballet Anjuli, but I always find your articles fascinating and inspiring. :-)

So pleased for your beautiful girl, kiwimum. Wishing her success and happiness. :-) xx

If I were a dancer I would prefer slightly fewer performances to losing my job... I don't think 64 is a particularly huge company; it's still small enough for the audience to feel as if they know most or all of the dancers. Another 30 doesn't sound like a huge difference but certainly with the Royal Ballet it's enough to ensure that there are a lot of names I'm not familiar with, let alone faces. I know "Agony and Ecstasy" helped but one of the things I love about watching ENB is spotting familiar faces. It's becoming difficult enough for our young dancers to get jobs when they graduate; let's not give anyone reading this forum the idea of actually sacking dancers!

Thanks Ribbons! I'll ask about it for the year after then. :-)

I don't honestly think people do EYB to feel challenged, to be honest. By that I don't mean it's easy, far from it! I mean that I think people do EYB for other reasons. My dd rarely gets performance experience as her school does not take part in festivals, and only does a senior show every couple of years. So she loves to do EYB as it gives her valuable performance experience which is really helpful to her. The technical aspects of the dances did not particularly stretch her last time, but that didn't worry her at all as she did it for the whole experience - dancing all day, making some lovely friends, and getting the chance to learn new dances and perform on stage. If your dd already gets plenty of performance experience and wants to feel challenged technically then maybe EYB isn't going to give her what she's looking for. But only you and she can decide that, really.

As well as your local train operator, I can also recommend www.thetrainline.com - got some absolute bargains on there for Birmingham last summer.

My dd's school does not do festivals, so my knowledge is very limited, but from what I understand, festivals in this sense seem to be competitions. If I'm right, the All England competitions would be an example of one: http://www.all-england-dance.org.uk/index.html Hopefully someone with experience of these events can tell us more but that is my understanding. :-)

The only time I've heard of people leaving when we last did EYB were a couple of older girls who weren't happy with the parts that they had been cast. Personally that seems rather odd because they must have paid for the whole thing by then. My daughter wasn't particularly enamoured with her mouse costume but she just got on with it. She still absolutely loved the whole experience and the pretty Mirliton costume made up for the mouse one! :-)). She can't wait to do EYB again. Did the girls say what they were unhappy about?

Yes, I think it's Upper School auditions and some summer school applications for older girls which specify or allow tights. For Year 7 places we went with bare feet/legs for photos and socks for auditions. However for ENBS Sumner School photos last year dd was wearing tights and ballet shoes.

I think the socks/tights issue depends on age of the auditionee. Some audition forms specify socks, but for seniors often they specify tights. I would be hard pressed to get my dd into socks now she's a teenager. :-)

Welcome to the forum Tippy_Toes! :-). Anything you want to know - just ask!

Great, thanks everyone. All good experience! :-) I will ask dd's teacher about it as a possibility for next year.