Anna C

I must say from The Place's Open Day, we thought the CAT scheme looked absolutely amazing. The only thing that stopped our dd applying is that her great love is Classical Ballet, and there are no CATs in London/S.E. which concentrate mainly on ballet. She likes Contemporary as part of her Associate Classes but wants to stay there for now. If she feels differently in a couple of years' time I will certainly encourage her to apply for a CAT scheme though.

Definitely don't panic! Back when dd was 10 she was not doing tap, GCSE, or "real" Associate Classes (by which I mean she was dancing on Saturdays at Tring's "Junior Conservatoire" which was the previous version of Tring's RAD/ISTD classes, not an equivalent to RBS/Elmhurst/Central etc.) She would have been doing ISTD Grade 3 Modern and RAD Grade 4 ballet, and had literally only just started to learn RAD Inter Foundation. She wouldn't have been dancing anywhere near as she is now. :-)

I too have been wondering about WS...guess we will just have to wait and see. Dancing daughter delighted to be seeing Nunez/Acosta, not least because they grace her lovely ROH poster of La Fille. :-)

As she's more interested in a singing/dancing career than classical ballet, then the second school sounds as if it offers a good package. I agree about attending open days, but also look at the standard and quality of teaching as well as which classes are offered. Singing lessons are a must in my opinion, if she wants to attend somewhere like Laine, as good singing lessons teach proper technique (which may help prevent or at least lessen the chance of throat problems). What are the graduate employment rates and stats on further training like at the two schools?

Still wishing we could afford YDA.....:-( However! Until we win the lottery, this is dd's schedule (she's year 8): Monday: 45 mins ISTD Modern, followed by 45 mins ISTD tap Tuesday: 1 hr 15 RAD Grade 6 ballet, followed by 1 hr 30 RAD Intermediate ballet Most Wednesdays: Private ballet lesson (non-syllabus) Thursday: Twilight GCSE Dance 4 - 6pm Saturday: Associate Class (3.5 hours - ballet, pointework, Contemporary) At school she has piano and singing lessons and is in 2 choirs and a lunchtime dance club. She usually gets an average of 1-1.5 hours homework every night. I feel tired just reading this, but I would add that everything is entirely her choice!

Indeed. It's obviously worked because dd apparently has amazing core strength. Obviously a dvd isn't a substitute for a real class but Monique was great about giving me info on which exercises would be best for dd's age when we first got the dvd a couple of years ago. Now she's a teenager she can do them all, and the instructions are really clear.

Hi all, I got mine directly from Monique Richards after searching for Pilates DVDs for dancers. I came across a clip on Youtube and messaged Monique to see if it would be suitable for my dd's age. Can't get the link to work on my ipad but if you search for "Monique Richards Pilates" hopefully you'll find her. She sent our dvd from Australia but it came within a couple of weeks.

If I remember rightly, RBS do sometimes like people to come back and audition again, so if it's a "no" for a year 4 place, it's well worth auditioning again a year later. :-)

My dd has a great dvd called "Pilates for young dancers" which I can recommend for teenagers. They do have Pilates/Body Conditioning at her local school but it would mean doing Pilates, straight into Grade 6, then straight into Intermediate - think that might be a bit much on a school night! :-)

I can vouch for just how hard it is - financially and in terms of time - to try to keep up enough hours of quality ballet training to be in with a chance of getting a Vocational Place at 16, AND juggling an awful lot of homework if you have a bright child at a demanding academic school. Including a twilight GCSE dance course, my Year 8 dd is dancing 5 days a week, and having piano lessons and singing lessons. With travelling, her Associate Class takes up most of Saturday. Approaching Vocational exams, she adds in a Sunday morning ballet class. Tuesday is probably her hardest day as she has to eat a low GI dinner by 5pm, be at G6 ballet by 6pm, and doesn't get home until 9pm after Intermediate class. She's an academic high flyer and gets a LOT of homework, which takes up Friday evenings and most of Sunday. She likes to do Easter and Summer Schools, and EYB every other year. All this is entirely her choice, but she looks tired out most of the time and never really gets any time off. Her friend is a day pupil at a private Vocational school, and does have two late evenings a week, BUT once she's home, she's home - not rushing out to dance class. If she had been offered a funded ballet place at 11 we would have definitely let her try it - not that Vocational pupils work any less hard, BUT they aren't trying to fit all their dance training AND homework in after school.

Brilliant Tulip! Huge congrats to your dd! :-))

All I would say is that you can do a university degree at any time of life - but to become a professional dancer you have such a small window of opportunity in terms of time. My advice to my daughter is to get the best GCSE results she possibly can whilst keeping up her ballet training. But she's worked so hard that if she wants to apply for post 16 training, I couldn't deny her the chance. :-)

Ah, I wondered about that one! I know what you mean John, the Mail and its readers' attitudes towards disabled people are so shocking, I sometimes wonder if they are joking... :-s

Anyone know the Daily Mail one this year? They had me utterly fooled a few years ago with the joke that Tony Blair had painted 10 Downing Street's door. :-)

Gosh!

Excellent Amethyst! Well done and good luck for the waiting list. :-)

If this hasn't already been done, could I suggest starting a new thread for post-16 training and discussing Central etc. in there? Thanks. :-)

Or Freed and Dancia both sell issues. If you don't want to subscribe, you can just order an issue at a time from the DT website.

Gosh, thanks everyone....one of the girls at our local school auditioned for both; I've been wondering when people would hear. Do Rambert audition in dribs and drabs then?

Morning all! I know Central held their finals recently, and I believe Rambert are either auditioning soon or have done recently. Just wondering if anyone had heard of any results from either school yet? Thanks. :-)

I would have thought for Classical Ballet, one would ideally be finishing training by 19 or 20, but for Contemporary, I think schools are more easygoing (and almost like a bit of life experience), hence at schools like Rambert you can apply at 18. Good news for academically minded dancers who may want to stay on at their current school for A'Levels.

Welcome to the forum, Dancingdaisy3! :-)

I absolutely love Nutcracker! :-). It's just so Christmassy! (*blushes and runs away*)

Hello Happymum and welcome to the forum! I was also going to suggest the JA for the day programme. :-) Can't help with JAs but wanted to say hello.

You certainly are! :-))