Anna C

I can vouch for the Central Associates and they do have people travelling from all over. If not there are heaps of great summer and Easter schools around, many of which are residential. My DD used to enjoy the Tring Easter school very much. :-)

Dancerbabe82 is spot on and the names do cause confusion! For the life of me I can't understand them changing the name to Tring Park Associates when in actual fact the Associate programme is really the Classical Ballet Academy. TPA does offer some non-syllabus classes but in essence it is more like a local school which offers good syllabus-based training, but which uses the Tring Studios.

Apparently children over 8 have to audition for TPA so I'm sure your youngest DD won't be the only one auditioning! :-)

Kiwimum, is it still the case that Tring like the TPAs to do their exams at Tring as opposed to with their local schools? This did cause a bit of a conflict of interest when my DD was there because Tring wanted her to do her ballet and modern exams with them, but our local teacher wanted DD to continue doing her exams there as she had previously.

Might be worth bearing in mind, afab, if you want your DD's to continue their local training as well as joining TPA.

Indeed! Just so happened that we could only make opening night so Carlos is a bonus and = one happy daughter!

I believe Dancia is - from 10-4 or something like that. Not sure about the others. As Freed shuts at 3 or 3.30 on a Saturday I would be surprised if they open on a Sunday.

Up at 6 to try to get B'ham rooms for the Genee Dance Challenge in July....eventually got two of the four nights I was after. Their server is obviously built on the same model as the ROH's.....

Brilliant! Well done! :-))

Definitely seemed to be a lot of opera buyers yesterday from what I could glean from the Facebook threads. Mind you when I looked this morning there were only a few single seats for La Fille on the opening night so on balance it was obviously worth pressing redial for 2 and a half hours (!) and obviously people were buying ballet!

Are there any good summer schools out there please?? x

You might want to start a separate thread Proud Mum. :-)

I think you have to find a balance between trusting (and hoping) that the teacher knows what they're talking about, and doing the best you can for your child. Not always easy! I don't always agree with my DD's teacher, but I choose my moments very carefully and sometimes bite my tongue. :-). Just like any other relationship really!

But I know she will always be honest with me about my DD and she has her best interests at heart. Plus I'm not a ballet teacher nor a dancer so she knows a lot more than I do about ballet.

I would say always do your own research though, because sometimes teachers have ideas about schools, for example, that they've formed quite a few years ago. If, for instance, a Director of Dance has since changed, then the whole ethos could change. It's always worth keeping up to date with news. :-)

I agree with you to a certain extent rachael, but I do believe certain attributes can be improved upon if physical, and learned, in the case of "performance", and that in a learned attribute, some children will find this later than others. I don't believe a child should be written off at 10 because they may find that at 13 or older, they come into their own and suddenly something "clicks" for them.

Hi Karen, my daughter has done English Youth Ballet once in 2010 and has recently auditioned successfully for 2012. From watching the recent Senior Audition I can tell you that "everyone" most certainly doesn't get in. 101 Seniors from 12-18 auditioned and Miss Lewis took 50. The audition was quite tough with some reasonably complex enchainements and there were some dancers who were clearly out of their depth. My friend's son auditioned in the Junior section and the numbers were the same.

I know the experience is fee paying, but Miss Lewis has a reputation to uphold and has high expectations of the standard she expects, so she certainly wouldn't accept anybody and everybody just to get money.

It's a big time commitment and hard work as the children are also encouraged to learn other parts as well as their own, in case understudies are needed. The teachers are firm but fair and my daughter had an absolute whale of a time. The production was of a very high standard and my dd had got so much out of it we felt it was well worthwhile - hence she's doing it again!

Hope that helps.

In general the site works ok for me using firefox, but that is always on non-booking days as I never even bother trying to open the site on a booking day.

New website or not, I can't help feeling that ROH are going about it all wrong by having one booking day for both opera and ballet and for a three month block. Something's got to give.

I despair when it's time to book ROH tickets. Being disabled and a member of the ROH access scheme, I can't book online as we have to phone the box office. Some venues have dedicated Access phone lines which make it relatively easy to book suitable seats, but with the ROH we have to phone the general box office number. This morning I got the engaged tone permanently from 9.57am to 12.25pm, which meant that I spent almost 2 and a half hours pressing redial every 6 seconds.

Eventually I was put in a queue for almost 40 minutes. Spoke to a very polite chap who initially thought that the seat he suggested was an aisle seat, and booked it, only to find on checking that it wasn't an aisle seat. Eventually had to split my party into 3 and 2 but at least we are all in the same row in stalls circle. Trouble is whilst booking the site is so rammed that I couldn't find any way of seeing a photo preview of the view (never sat in stalls circle before) so it's a rather expensive gamble.

Still, I do at least have tickets for first night of La Fille so have one VERY happy daughter....let's just hope we can see!

I agree Primrose, but I also agree with how small the ballet world is. I'm sure the last thing any of us would want is to jeopardise our child's dancing future by potentially angering or offending someone they may come across elsewhere!

Obviously if any teacher, whether in an academic school or dance school behaves in an unacceptable manner, we should and would all make our feelings known and "stick up" for our child. I'm just saying that there are usually ways of doing so which hopefully wouldn't impact on our children.

Absolutely agree! My DD was not ready at 11, but in the last year or so she's suddenly started to come into her own. Some children are ready at 10 or 11, others aren't ready until 16! :-))

Stardancer, no offence, but do you think that there could be any chance that you are perhaps "sticking up for your daughter" too much, or in the wrong way? Obviously some of the behaviours you mention that your DD has experienced are completely unacceptable and I too would have removed my daughter from that environment.

But to have had fallen out with so many teachers, you are either incredibly unlucky where you live, or....no offence meant...but could the way you tackle these issues be partly to blame? Do you think there are any instances where you've may have come across as a little aggressive at all?

Gosh, that is bad luck. :-(

Tring has the most beautiful premises, particularly with the new dance studios. Mansion House can be a little chilly at times from what I remember so wrap up warm in this weather! We were supposed to be there for the Contemporary day of dance today but they very sensibly postponed it. Enjoy the day and good luck! :-)

That is a very good point Ribbons. I even seem to remember my DD's teacher saying that she wouldn't be happy to sign the application form for RBS because there was no point. But three years on I'm inclined to let my DD at least audition next year, if for nothing else than the experience.

Gosh, two moves from ENB to BRB within a couple of months....interesting! Very best of luck to Ruth; let's hope she settles in more easily than Max W....:-)

Yes, that is a very good point Amber. Is there literally no other school within reasonable travelling distance Stardancer?

Thank you because I did hope that someone with experience of the RBS system would be able to post! :-). As I said, this was just what I was told by my DD's teacher. It certainly does seem to be along the lines of the classic Balanchine body type, which I find fascinating because if you look at what the companies go for, it isn't always that body type - look at Darcey Bussell! Surprisingly long bodied! :-)

Well, I must stress that this is only my personal experience, but my DD has never applied for RBS or RBS associates as her teacher says that she doesnt have the RBS physique, which apparently is a shorter torso and long legs. Despite having long legs, she also has a long - as far as RBS are concerned - torso.

Of course they will also be looking for beautiful feet with - I assume - high arches and insteps, flexibility in turnout, hamstrings etc, and musicality.

I hope anyone with more experience of RBS will correct me! :-). That is literally just what DD's teacher told me. Fortunately different schools look for different things and my daughter's Associate classes don't think she has anything wrong with her proportions. :-))

I know! Allegedly it was because they weren't happy with the part they were given....and yes, payent would have been made in full by then!