drdance

So much love for your response Peony! 

Gosh it does sound as though life is still very hard in the dance world. I truly believe that the only way that this will change is if people speak out. Gymnasts across the world are starting to talk about body shaming, emotional abuse etc and change is happening as a result.

It can be done completely anonymously and if anyone is interested in doing so please PM me in the strictest of confidence. No identities need to be mentioned at all but a group of people (including myself) are working to lobby government to make reporting this kind of abuse easier for students. The problem we face is that government does not recognize the extent of the issue because no one speaks out about it..... 
Please do contact me or follow us on Twitter @law4dance 

So she’s not *actually* teaching online per se - she’s coaching a dancer on a repertoire variation which will be streamed on the internet. I’m sure it will be fascinating to watch but not something that people can join in with sadly. 

7 hours ago, Anna C said:

Might be an idea for a new range, @Sheila Beelam? 

There's definitely a gap in the market for someone enterprising and knowledgeable!

1 hour ago, Dance*is*life said:

I know this thread is about upper schools, which are very expensive, but it's also really problematic for the afternoon ballet schools to make it work financially.  We started the term and then were put back into lockdown.  Very few classes agreed to learn via zoom, so the parents aren't paying anything and the ones who did agree are paying a reduced rate.   Teachers need to be paid though, so it's  a real struggle for the management to balance the payments.  Many of my colleagues, who are teachers with their own schools, are not prepared or able to teach via zoom and may end up losing their schools.I think our school is being very considerate of the parents - the question is at what cost?  Teachers need to survive too...........?

Exactly!

And the government self-employment support scheme is of no use to anyone if most of your day-to-day expenses relate also to the running of the business (because they count against profits in 'normal time') as the SEISS only pays you 80% of your average 3 years profits! My colleagues who registered as limited companies get nothing....

A query for those of you who are avid adult ballet dancers and/or lovers of dancewear! I'm sure this has been asked many times but I did a quick search and couldn't find the answer...

My adult ballet class only ever seem to be able to get black dancewear and the class looks like a funeral gathering! They're all sick of it and would love to be able to get leotards and skirts that fit the average womanly figure (size 12/ 14/ 16/ 18) with bust support or that can be worn with a bra. I'd also be interested in a long-ish wrap skirt that actually wraps around my post-lockdown tummy! All the 'one size' skirts are designed for size 12 or smaller except a black one I found on Amazon which actually comes in XL.

Any ideas?! Thanks

The RAD app only works on iphones/ipads not laptops sadly!

How long is a piece of string?!?!?!?!?! I find Grade 1 so hard! Firstly - the warm up ARMS! OMG most kids really struggle with this! I've tried so many things to get them to keep the right shape. In lockdown at home I ended up sitting them on the floor cross legged with cushions piled up in their laps! It worked great for a week...... 

Other things I do with this age group is spend a lot of time trying to get them to tendu with straight knees without taking their weight onto the pointed foot. (This happens in legs and arms, and in demi plies and to a certain extent, in walks). I also do a lot working on maintaining turnout as if it's not understood on a basic level here things like walks and sautes are icky! 

With demi plies I talk about being in a toaster and going down and up like a piece of bread which is nice for keeping bodies straight. In legs and arms I find they can't keep their bodies still in the fondu action, a lot of them sit in the hip too so I try balancing things on their heads! Bean bags used to work great pre-covid. 

I do transfer of weight exercise without the closing into 3rd for AGES! And make sure that the transfer technique (turnout, stretched leg and foot at the side, actual weight tranfer, posture, arm and head co-ordination etc etc etc) is really secure before even thinking about adding in that dimension!

I practice sautes sitting on the floor with feet against the wall and have lots of 'pushing off the wall' competitions especially in turnout. 

I use small hurdles or rubber spots for kids to jump over in springs.  

Feel free to drop me a PM if you're stuck at any point! I've been teaching it for 5 years straight now 😄

I think we need to be careful speculating about what has and hasn't been done by individual institutions. Unless someone has a son or daughter at that university or college we cannot know all of the details. Newspapers and television media are looking for shock stories, and will (mostly) spin facts to support their agenda. So while there is most likely some truth in the media reports regarding university lockdowns, the true situation might not be as shocking as it's being reported. 

It sounds like you have a good relationship with your teacher. Times are hard for teachers and we're all feeling the pinch financially, and emotionally as it has been incredibly stressful trying to keep going. I'd steer well clear of a competition school without syllabus classes. A lack of syllabus classes alone isn't an indicator of a poor teacher, but the combination of no syllabus classes plus emphasis on competition makes me concerned. 

Instead of looking further afield, talk to your current teacher. If she knows what she's talking about, she'll agree that a keen child would benefit from a second weekly class and she'll either suggest an option within her school, or if she can't she'll recommend associates or another colleague who could help. 

Tulip, all I can say is - if you feel able - share the information you have. It can be anonymous but I believe that all the institutions where abuse has happened need to be held to account and enough noise made so that the collective voice is finally heard. 
 

I also say this to any other parents or adults who experienced bad practice during their dance training, to become part of this movement. I understand that it is hard and traumatic and many people do not want to go over the past and that is completely ok too. But if you’re still angry and you want to be heard, there is now finally somewhere willing to listen. 

I wrote this a while ago and this is a good place to start, I feel.

Sorry to hear your DD has been affected by all of this. I don’t know anything about the college itself but I would always be interested in the destinations of their graduates, and the percentage of each year group who get jobs (or who go into further training). 
 

To me it looks like a very commercial course preparing dancers for work in cruises, entertainment industry etc so that might be a consideration ( and a potential change in focus from her previous course?). 
 

I also always encourage any parent or prospective student to find out about student wellbeing, healthcare, physio/sports therapist, counsellor/psych support and to check out all

policies and procedures thoroughly. 

The trouble is - no one will put their head above the parapet and shout loudly enough that things are not ok. While there are lots of wonderful dance teachers out there, there are also some poor students who have been bullied, mistreated and worse. Where do these people go to report this when it’s not technically illegal? Bad practice needs to be a thing of the past but unless people can report it, it will keep going. 

Hi everyone,

ITV news are now looking into the historic culture of abuse (of all kinds) in dance - bullying, physical abuse, inappropriate conduct etc etc and are taking anonymous reports from parents and dancers at ballet@itv.com. While I understand some people may not wish to go over things that have happened, I would urge anyone with anything they no longer want to keep silent to go forward. 
 

They have assured me that anonymity will be preserved. 
 

Please forward this message to anyone you know who has a story to tell. 
Thanks

Emily

2 hours ago, taxi4ballet said:

 

I can't imagine why any school would want to put anything like that in their policy documents. 

With such a small age gap between students and teaching staff, one can only assume that they anticipated such a situation arising (albeit innocently perhaps) and could then defend themselves if it went awry..... 😡

I may be wrong - and happy to be corrected - but I believe the immediate withdrawal of backing from Bath Spa affects the status of the qualification that the graduating cohort have worked for 3 years for ie 3 years working for a degree that will not be awarded. 
 

Plus funding etc withdrawn for all current students. Very sad and not fair to punish the students like this. 

3 minutes ago, Jan McNulty said:

As we've got so many experts contributing to this thread can I ask about ballon.

 

Can that hanging in the air moment be taught or do you have to have a natural facility to achieve it?  Ashley Dixon of Northern Ballet always looks as though he isn't going to come down from jumps and I notice a lot of male Danish dancers have the same facility which is why I wondered about the training.

Definitely trained or 'trainable'! 

The Danish teacher and choreographer Bournonville was well-known for his love of ballon and trained dancers specifically to achieve this, focusing on reducing the amount of contact time with the floor and using a speedy plie in between jumps. The allegro in RAD Grade 7 was inspired by his style. Interestingly this is a technique used in plyometric training too! (It is known as making the most of a muscle's stretch-shortening cycle).

13 hours ago, Kate_N said:

I was thinking about this thread in the gym yesterday. I work out with a personal trainer (have learned to lift quite heavy weights - it’s a revelation!) and he was getting me to do box jumps onto a plyo box. I’d guess it was about 50 cm. The aim is to jump up to the top from standing and to try to land on top of the box as silently as possible. So that means i have to  really lift up my knees and control my landing. I land in a fairly deep squat to do this, so it’s not pretty! But my trainer was saying that box jumps are one of best core exercises around, as well as good for glutes. 
 

I was definitely jumping higher than 25cm! (and in a set of exercises over about 25 minutes I probably did around 200 jumps).
 

But the main thing that I struggle with on the first few is not the height, but the fear - of falling, of tripping up. Weird ...

 

but it certainly trains my jumping - I notice in ballet class that I can access much more push - not that Zoom classes contain much jumping at the moment. 

 

 

Box jumps are scary. Fact! 
 

Interestingly though, you feel like you “jumped” that distance, and it’s true that your feet moved that distance. But in order to move your feet that distance, as you said, you had to really lift up your knees and land with very bent legs. Therefore it’s unlikely (unless you started the jump in the same position that you landed in) that you jumped the whole distance - sorry! 
 

As you’ve discovered though, box jumps are a great way to improve your jump for dance - it’s to do with the number of landings and take-offs as much as anything. 

10 hours ago, Anna C said:

Plyometrics fascinates me; I first came across it on Matthew Ball’s Instagram page during lockdown.  Is it quite new, or only new to me? 

New to you! I first learned about it being recommended for dancers in 2004, but it has been used in sport for much longer. 

59 minutes ago, Aurora3 said:

If you compare ballet to basketball: I have never heard anyone complaining about small people being excluded from a career, so why the complaints about ballet favouring a certain body type?

Because

1) in basketball the better players are taller, because they score more points, which is the aim of the game. In ballet the aim is more subjective, so it’s not as easy to say what is and isn’t desirable. Is the aim to dance beautifully and move audiences? In which case does body type matter? 
2) People cannot change their height.  So anyone who struggles to get selected for a career in basketball for this reason accepts this reality and seeks a different career, and plays for fun. Many dancers are told to change their body shape (which isn’t actually easy) so end up having issues with this which may be dangerous. 

It is possible that they are monitoring weight to make sure it’s not going down. 
 

Artistic staff see the students in a leotard and tights, but they aren’t always “switched on” enough to identify if someone has an issue. 

Here's an interesting piece featuring students at Elmhurst - listening to them talk shows they have an awareness of a strong healthy body but that they're still worried about look. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/entertainment-arts-53385004

I too hope artistic staff have been educated as it is often those comments that lead to issues. There's some crossover here between the thread about 'how to change the shape of thighs' and I hope that people will hear those students talking on the video, repeatedly about being strong athletes. Great work from @Nico Kolokythas and the health team.

3 minutes ago, Aurora3 said:

Maybe! But ballet is an art form, not a sport, so if the jump is beautiful, everything is fine!

For the type 1 and 2 fibers: Do type 2 fibers look more bulky then?

If the jump is beautiful and everyone agrees then that’s fine - but do they?! I don’t know. Plus there’s the durability/injury risk element to consider. 
 

Regarding muscle fibres, it’s not really a look thing, it’s to do with how fast they contract and force production. A good resource is https://blog.nasm.org/fitness/fast-twitch-vs-slow-twitch