Anna C

With all due respect, you cannot possibly say that it’s not true. Parents with years of experience of the ballet world are saying that there is an all-pervasive culture of “keep quiet for fear of suffering the consequences” in ballet. Are you saying they’re lying? As far as “a balanced view” is concerned, the BBC offered RBS and Elmhurst interviews; both schools declined.

If I remember rightly, @LukeJennings wrote about this issue back in 2012 (?) and, 11 years later, not much seems to have changed in this regard.

I concur. We removed our daughter from a 16+ training establishment after she suffered a serious injury. While diagnosing her injury, the Consultant ordered bone scans and body fat tests. Daughter’s body fat was dangerously low, and her skin almost had a greyish tinge to it. Yet it was probably the first time she was really happy with her weight and how her legs looked. It was a hellishly long recovery for her, mentally and physically. Even now, she periodically struggles with body image issues. She said to me the other day “Ballet really screws you up.” To answer the question “Why do parents send their children to these schools?” My daughter started ballet at 3 and a half. Like the young people featured on Panorama, she was incredibly focused, a perfectionist, intelligent, self-disciplined, and loved ballet. I was led by her, and I never wanted her to say “Mum, why didn’t you let me try.” Do I wish I’d never let her go to that “school”? Absolutely. Do I wish I had complained when an Associates teacher yanked her head back by her hair? Likewise when the same teacher physically bent her back too far. Likewise when her local teacher crossed boundaries on more than one occasion. But the ballet world is small. Word gets round. And if we parents are not from the ballet world, we don’t know what we don’t know. Nobody wants to be labelled “difficult” for fear of being assessed out/ignored/shamed/punished/not cast/not given a contract/not given a teaching job. That’s undoubtedly one of the reasons why Panorama didn’t feature talking heads by current students or dancers. And who can blame them? From 11 or 16, probably right up until you reach Principal, the unseen axe is there, hanging over your head. Don’t rock the boat. With regards to what tonight’s programme focused on, what’s the solution? Why are schools so seemingly obsessed with thinness and weight, shaming children and teenagers for puberty-related changes to their body that they can do absolutely NOTHING about when at company level, the dancers all have different amounts of muscle, different measurements, different shapes? Is this yet another disconnect between Lower School, Upper School, and Company? Should we do away with lower school training altogether? Obviously things aren’t going to change overnight, but - rather depressingly - unless there are DRASTIC changes to how we treat dancing children and teenagers, I don’t hold out much hope that things will be all that different in five or ten years time.

I agree there are two sides to *many* stories, but not actually to *every* story. I’m not saying that’s the case here, of course, but sometimes there’s only one side - the victim’s side.

I am certain the schools will have been approached for comment. Whether they do, of course, is up to them.

Hi SW mum, I can’t help with ISTD, but my dd took Advanced 2 classes (and subsequently her exam) at RAD HQ. Back then (2018) there was a lovely Saturday non-syllabus ballet class followed by Advanced 2 with the same teacher. With the Northern Line extension to Battersea, your dd should be able to get from Finchley easily.

Hello Dancemum23, and welcome from me too. Your dd is absolutely not too old, but she probably has missed the auditions for September start associates. As you’re in the South East, have you looked at London Studio Centre associates? LSC is a very good school for Musical Theatre and Dance, so I would expect that their associates scheme is of a high standard. When my dd was younger, she used to love Tring Park School’s short courses for dance. They used to do a residential Easter course, a summer course and a Christmas weekend. They also have Tring Park Associates classes on Saturdays and during the week. Bird College also runs Musical Theatre Easter and Summer Courses, Laine Theatre Arts seems to have a Junior department. Ballet summer schools my dd did over the years and that she absolutely loved were London Children’s Ballet, Elmhurst, EYB summer performance, Central, and Rambert.

Would you for Grade 3 though, drdance? I probably would for a Vocational exam, say Intermediate/Adv 1/Adv 2, or for a fail/scraped pass by a student expected to get a Merit or Distinction, but personally, I wouldn’t for a high Merit at Grade 3.

Oh gosh, I sympathise, Theatrefan, because my dd is a perfectionist and tended to be incredibly hard on herself, really took exam results to heart, and so on. Grade 3 is not at all important when it comes to applying for ballet school. Some children don’t even do exams. When applying for full-time training, schools just like to know a rough idea of the level the student is studying. That’s it. The only exams that are in any way relevant later on are the Vocational Graded Exams (Intermediate Foundation and so on), because if a student wants to either go in for teaching or, in future, enter RAD competitions, or take their Solo Seal award, a pass at certain levels is necessary. I used to tell my daughter that an exam is just a snapshot of one performance on one day, with one particular examiner (and yes, some examiners are stricter than others, but that’s often the case in all types of exams, especially in the arts). It’s not a reflection on her talent, how hard she works, it doesn’t really mean anything in the great scheme of things. It simply means that she can move on to learning a new grade. Your dd won’t have to put this mark down on any application forms, it will just be a certificate and medal in a folder of certificates. Plus a high merit is still a really good mark! My dd got a merit in her Advanced 2, and for a while she couldn’t be proud of herself, which was so sad. She’d done the syllabus during Saturday classes, while taking her A’Levels, with a back injury and two chronic illnesses, one of which includes an inability to regulate her temperature. On the day of the exam, it was 37 degrees outside in the shade, and the exam was in what dd used to call “the Greenhouse” at the old RAD HQ. I can’t imagine how hot it was in the studio, and the only fan was pointing at the examiner. When dd came out, I have never seen her look so ill. She didn’t even know if she’d passed. Yet she was still disappointed in her Merit, for a while, until - with counselling while at uni - she realised that what we’d been saying to her all along was true. That we were proud of her for working hard and trying, that an exam is just a snapshot of one day, that not every exam has to be brilliant, and that it’s really not all that important in the long run. She’s now really proud of her Merit and is glad she did the exam. (It also helped her uni applications, but that’s another story). And professional dancers HAVE to accept disappointment and move on. I remember watching Matthew Ball’s debut as the Prince in Sleeping Beauty, before he was promoted to Principal. It was his big entrance; he ran on, slipped and went flying, ending up on the floor. The audience gasped, he got up, and carried on. The rest of his performance was beautiful, and while I’m sure he was embarrassed and disappointed, he had no choice but to - like the Taylor Swift song - shake it off. And that’s a good mantra for perfectionists.

Oh, that’s sad. I’m currently rewatching the marvellous BBC Pride and Prejudice from 1995, and part of what makes the series so perfect is Carl Davis’s wonderful score. RIP.

Still 5 row A SC tickets showing, so that’s encouraging.

Might they release more seats for General Booking, do you think? I never book boxes, so I don’t know. It doesn’t help that the only seat map I can select is for the matinée on 9th Dec. 😣

Shame, I don’t love the RAH for ballet (except for Swan Lake in the round) but that was a lovely production.

Yes, I’d second signing up for Paul Hamlyn matinees if registration is still open. When my daughter was little they were called “Welcome Performances” or something similar, but the premise is still the same. They’re matinée performances for families who have never been to a main stage performance before; all the tickets are a fraction of their usual price, during the intervals they used to leave the curtains open so the set changes and behind the scenes goings-on were visible, and you could even eat ice cream in the auditorium! Back then you could sign up and see one opera and one ballet, so we took dd to see Giselle (with Cojocaru and Kobborg, dream cast ❤️) and then La Bohème a few months later. If registration isn’t open, you don’t want to see Nutcracker at the cinema, and/or you have a specific date in mind, then I would definitely recommend row A of Stalls Circle, or row A of the Grand Tier. Row A of the Orchestra Stalls with a cushion might be ok if dd’s not absolutely tiny height-wise, although you are looking up slightly at the stage, but it’s fun to look down at the Orchestra (don’t sit right behind the Conductor though). Row A Balcony is good but I’d say it’s better for Swan Lake than Nutcracker, where you need to be able to see faces and what’s going on onstage, especially during Act 1. If you’re going for Stalls Circle, you can miss quite a bit of action if you are too far round either side, so I always try to avoid A4-18-ish and A97-111. And A43 is sometimes sold as Restricted View because an ROH Usher often sits in front of you, so I avoid that now. My favourite SC seats are A25-42 and 71-88. Your other option for a “first Nutcracker”, especially if you can sign up for Paul Hamlyn performances at the ROH, is ENB at the Coliseum or (if they’re doing it this year), BRB at the Royal Albert Hall. I prefer BRB’s Nut to ENB’s current one, but that’s just me. ☺️

Photography by ASH (one half of whom is ex-ENB dancer Amber Hunt) are superb photographers for audition shots.

Definitely. I think competitions have their place, but when dancers are older and their basic technique is already set in stone. Until then, for ballet, I would always choose a school where the focus is on technique and artistry, where they might do Vocational exams, and then maybe a show once every year or two. Competitions can wait.

Is moving dance schools an option? It sounds like she might need a less competitive environment, and one more like her Associates class. Your point about struggling to stay in the moment is interesting - sounds like she needs to practice bringing her focus to her breathing, and breathing through each exercise. Breathwork and ballet are a wonderful combination, and she could maybe start by doing beginner meditation and mindful breathing for children and teenagers. I can recommend both Headspace and the Calm app, but there’s probably lots on YouTube too.

Hi Newtothis, Does your dd dance for what I call “serious fun”/a serious hobby, or is she hoping to have a career as a dancer? If the former, I would remind her of that; that there’s literally no pressure, it’s not a competition, everyone is different, and that even at performances/watching class, the only person focusing on her is you, because you’re her mum. If she’s aiming at full-time training/preparing for auditions, then it might be that she’s putting so much pressure on herself to be perfect/look different/be more like someone else that she’s unwittingly self-sabotaging. Perfectionism in dance students is common, and managed well it can be useful, but left unchecked it can be horribly unconstructive. Regardless of your dds goals, the other thing I’d say is that at 12 she’s still concentrating on correct technique. One of my dds Associates teachers told her not to worry about “performing” at that age, because she was still committing technique to muscle memory. She said that once the correct technique was ingrained in the body, it would free up the headspace needed to “perform”, and that would come later. Twelve to fifteen is a tricky time for girls, even trickier for ballet girls, as they grow, lose their coordination, and often struggle with their own sense of self. Counselling is always a good idea because a trained counsellor can get to the root of the problem, especially with children who struggle to identify and articulate issues. Alternatively, see if she’d like to write her thoughts down on slips of paper, and “post” them in a box for you to read, then chat about later, at a quiet time. That can be good if she doesn’t like trying to articulate what’s in her head during a conversation.

Mine too! Yasmine Naghdi & Fumi Kaneko (and accordingly, Ball and Bracewell) are almost always my first choice of cast now, especially since Bonelli retired.

Oh, how terribly sad. 67 is no age. RIP. ❤️

I never said that. However, there’s a middle ground between all White Lodge students being guaranteed a spot at US, and (in some years), NO White Lodge students (especially girls) making it into US.

My daughter graduated from Oxbridge this year. To do so, she had to be accepted into 1st year, pass her 1st year exams which let her progress into Final Honours School, then, 2 years later, pass her Finals, and graduate alongside students from all over the world, but the majority were educated in the UK. She did not get assessed out 2/3rds of the way through the course, to be replaced by a prize-winner from Harvard or Yale who did one year. That’s the difference.

I don’t think that’s a fair comment, to be honest. Obviously we don’t know your experience/background - not that you are required to declare it here at all, but it’s your *opinion*, and as such, it is subjective (as of course are all our opinions). When giving our opinions, we should be mindful of who we’re actually speaking negatively about, and the “who” in this instance is 16 year old students. Then there are the schools you’re comparing White Lodge yr 11s to. ENBS doesn’t have a lower school, so you can only have seen Elmhurst, Tring Park, Hammond, and maybe YDA? Have I missed any? Leaving aside the fact that at Tring and Hammond, they don’t call themselves “Ballet Schools” because they offer a more general dance and/or theatre dance course, White Lodge gets more MDS funding than any other lower school, including Elmhurst. Therefore, especially as the “feeder school” for RBS Upper School, they SHOULD be providing the highest standard of classical ballet training in the UK. But all this is still missing the point. The real problem, as I see it, is twofold: 1. The tiny (and in some years, nonexistent) chance of completing 5 years at White Lodge AND being accepted into Upper School, and 2. The number of *British trained* (not British born) Upper School students to make it to graduation from RBS Upper School, without being replaced by prize-winning students trained elsewhere and taken into US for only one year, then being referred to as “trained at The Royal Ballet School”.

Rambert School in St Margarets? If memory serves, there should be parking onsite (it’s a very quiet area), although dd and I were staying nearby so she walked in every day. Personally I would not drive in every day; what is in theory 90 minutes on the M25 can easily end up being 2, 3, or more hours. Nothing more stressed than a dance student who might be late for class! I used to try to find the cheapest quiet Premier Inn within a short bus/tube journey of summer school.

I think the only other student whose full name was mentioned was Evie Ball. All I could deduce was that she did graduate from Upper School, but after that, I don’t know.