drdance

Of course a teacher with professional performance experience offers more than just stories - I hope you don't think that's all I feel they offer!

Thank you for posting this. Firstly, I know that your experience may have been a one off, but I know that as someone who struggled physically with technique, I learnt many different ways of explaining or understanding placement, line and technique so I feel well equipped to teach and I believe I am a better teacher because things were harder for me as a student. Secondly, I think that the ability or knowledge to see what correct or incorrect work looks like is fundamental in a good teacher. Often a student will ask me "how can you tell .....?" And it's because my 'eye' is very well tuned to correct technique, placing etc through research, study, observing other teachers etc. I know my lack of professional experience leaves some to consider that I am a lesser teacher than an ex-professional dancer, and I know I can't offer students the 'when I was dancing with so-and-so' stories, but when I employ staff I would rather have someone that has never danced professionally but who the pupils connect with well, who has a wealth of knowledge, a good eye to see correct technique, who is able to give helpful feedback that pupils improve from, and who can teach classes with good pace where every pupil feels valued and has something to take away from every lesson!

During my final performance with my dance school (aged 18) my trousers started coming undone on stage. I tried desperately to do them / hold them up whilst carrying on until an appropriate bit in the piece when I ran off stage, did them up again and then sneakily came back on stage by doing a rather long backwards hop into line! All caught on video, of course!

Hip flexor niggles are some of the worst chronic problems in any walk of life - I have occasional pain in my right since a teaching injury about 5 years ago!

Aha! The poor psoas - it's so misunderstood by dance teachers, in my experience. I had a teacher at dance college who constantly referred to the psoas - it was his holy grail! The iliopsoas muscle is a muscle of two parts. One part is a deep abdominal muscle, and the other part goes from the deep abdomen, crosses the hip joint and attaches on the thigh. It is a hip flexor but runs deeper to the major hip flexors. It will play a part in lifting the leg but it's not the only 'player'. It's not really a turnout muscle though. The exact turnout muscles will vary depending on the action and position of the leg. There are deep external rotators in the hip, then the gluteals above them. Then the adductors, sartorius and gracilis in the thigh will also act. And if the leg is to the back, piriformis kicks in!

I agree with Aurora - I also see student wiggling the thigh all over the place to make a big circle, when it should be half a teardrop shape. Personally I don't think there is much chance of the rotation of the knee joint during a rond de jambe en l'air being hugely dangerous. If done correctly the actual rotation is very minimal so it's hardly enough to irritate. Rotation or twisting of the knee joint becomes much more dangerous when weight bearing. I think it's an exercise that is useful for practicing precise movement as well as working to train/maintain stability in the turnout and hips of both standing and gesture leg, especially when done on DemiPointe or pointe.

Just as long as she is careful about building it up gradually, and more importantly, easing off again if her ankle gets a bit sore or inflamed - it's perfectly normal in the recovery process, it's how strength is built up again, but it's also a warning sign to go easy for a couple of days to allow that healing and strengthening to take place. Good luck!

Glad he's in a company with a good physio overseeing everything. That's so crucial. Wishing him all the best in his return to what he loves!

Update sounds good. Just be aware that pointe requires a lot of extra strength and stability that might not be there instantly. She'll almost need to go back to basics for a few weeks - is there a lower grade pointe class that she can join in? I know they are reluctant to do this but it would be great preparation instead of just going fully onto pointe from nothing.

Glad to hear recovery is going well so far. This next part is the crucial bit. Does he have a physio overseeing his rehab?

Oh dear Julie that's not good. I'd hoped schools would use their systems positively in cases like that.

It might also be worth remembering that schools such as these are extremely selective as well as supportive in cases of bullying between students. Even if a bully isn't excluded for bullying per se, appraisals/assessments are never far away and schools that value a supportive community may well remember which kids cause problems (ie the bullies) when decisions are being made.

No. Adding weight won't change the muscle that moves a limb. My legs have got heavier over time (but not by adding ankle weights!) but the muscles that move them in class are still the same ones that moved them in class 15 years ago. It's also not entirely true that adding weights increases muscle bulk. Adding a lot of weight is likely to, but light ankle weights might not, especially if the movements done are quite quick and work through full range of motion. As for resistance band work - there are hundreds of exercises you can do, depending on what you want to strengthen. Secure the band so that the exercise you do works in the opposite direction to the direction that the band is pulling - ie if you want to strengthen an arabesque, attach the theraband to something static in front and around your ankle, and work against the resistance. If you want to work your extension to second with the right leg, attach one end to something secure near the ground on your left and slightly behind you. Wrap the other end around your right ankle/foot and do your developpe.

Working with weights may increase your strength which in turn will improve endurance & power but won't necessarily increase the height of your extensions. I'd personally recommend working with a resistance band (theraband/ cliniband/ dynaband etc) rather than weights.

Goodness! So many differences!

Another couple of terms for you - The RAD have two types of 'temps lie', one of which could be easily called a pose en avant into 5th position on demi pointe! Having only studied RAD and Imperial (ISTD) but spent time teaching in the USA I think that this is unique to the RAD but I may be wrong. Interestingly, the debate between battement glisse/degage rages on; the RAD term a 'degage' to be a battement tendu devant without closing back to the starting position (hence disengaged). The Royal Ballet School system of training call the battement glisse/degage movement a battement jete (!) which the RAD describe as higher than the glisse, at 45 degrees, with the accent 'out', and a very slight feeling of holding the leg out before closing again. What the RAD call a 'battement lent' (slow beat), the RBS call a 'releve lent' (slow lift). And the final one that crept into the ISTD syllabus in the last few years is the term 'Failli'.... The easiest way of explaining that is like a demi contretemps but taking off two feet. So essentially a soubresaut or sissonne ordinaire (derriere) take-off followed by a chasse passe en avant!

Goodness S&P that is a lot. Summer schools aren't that much though are they? How long did it last? (Looking at costings for 2014 summer at the moment so it's all helpful!)

Lildancer how long does it take to prepare for each show? I know there's a lot of Elmhurst students go to MTB so it must be very nice to have lots of talented boys there!

There isn't one, as such. Our level 3 work at advanced level in ballet so anyone who is at that level is welcome to audition, we've just accepted at lovely dancer who is 20, she wanted to increase her training whilst auditioning.

Hi BankruptMum - we cater for ages 9 upwards, usually year 5 are our youngest but in exceptional circumstances we will take year 4.

It depends what you're looking for as the different schemes do offer different elements of training. For pure ballet technique and training, RBS and Elmhurst are both great. To be in a production, EYB and MTB offer brilliant performance experience but are both pricey. RAD Associates are non-auditioned so it's first come first served, and offered in blocks of 4, not always regularly so can clash with regular commitments. I run MIDAS and to my knowledge we are the only scheme that offers classes in ballet technique, artistry and body conditioning with elements of jazz and contemporary technique/skills too. Tring CBA I think is pure ballet too.

My dance teacher at school used to be quite scathing of ballet too - and lots of local dance teachers used to get irritated by her, and the teacher at sixth form. Where I lived there was one school where you could do gcse dance and one college where you could do a-level, hence only 2 teachers in the whole city. The issue they had with ballet I think stems from their view of it: the narrow-minded, or shallow nature of a lot of the choreography that we as kids had been exposed to, The major focus on the aesthetic, the somewhat old fashioned stories, the roles portrayed and the strange mime in ballet that is a language all of its own. And the elitist nature of ballet - either as a participant above the age of about 14, and as an audience member. Ballet training sometimes leads to quite a closed mind in terms of using dance as a way of expressing something and I do think that some school teachers get frustrated by kids that come with a lot of ballet training who struggle to 'let go" and who might move very beautifully but struggle to improvise or really snow 'true' emotion through their movement, rather than surface emotion in facial expressions and hand gestures. And there was a reverse with the ballet teachers being very scathing about "all that chucking yourself about, lack of technique, making noises when you move, flexed feet" etc. These teachers would often mock contemporary dance, or the school dance teachers and make it seem inferior. It was as if neither could appreciate the benefits of the other. I loved both, eventually. Contemporary dance is so much more than another technique class to take. There's things like understanding choreographic structure, intentions to movement, being creative, pushing boundaries, collaborating with other art forms, being truly expressive. But a lot of that requires a good solid technical basis which a lot of kids in school would lack. It seems as if this snobbery or inverse snobbery between 'both sides' still exists, sadly!

Something I just read in another thread has led me to bring up this topic again, partly because I like to discuss it, but it's also timely with the current focus on Mr Gove and his hair-brained ideas for 'driving up standards' in education... This is mostly a question for parents, really, as I suspect that teachers may have different views (although it would be a good discussion!). What, for you, does the term 'qualified' mean? Is it someone who has trained as a dancer for many years? Does this person have to have had a professional (ie earning a wage) career as a performer? Should they have graduated from a recognised or accredited teaching course such as those offered by the ISTD, RAD, IDTA etc, ( all of which vary greatly in their demands, at the time of examination and in CPD requirements). Should they have completed a teacher training course such as a B.Ed or PGCE?

This is always an interesting topic - I took GCSE dance at school and it is a whole different world! At first I hated dance in school as I was a 'technically' training dancer, ie taking ballet, modern, jazz, doing shows and festivals etc. But eventually I discovered whole new ways of moving which I grew to love (eventually!) Learning dance outside of school, what we would perhaps call 'vocationally', ie in the studio, tends to be almost exclusively technical, and motivated by aesthetics. Dance on the national curriculum (and therefore on the exam board specifications) is very different and can be accessed by someone who has never taken a technique class in their life as long as they know the motivation for the movement, and in choreography can discuss/debate why they or a choreographer may have chosen for the dancer to move in that way. Having said that, in order to get the B / A/ A* grades good technique, strength, muscle tone etc is needed. So schools do find themselves being under pressure to offer technical training as well as covering the examination syllabus. Sometimes this has to be after school as there is no other time to do it. The main teacher probably knows that your DD doesn't necessarily need to attend it - but if she is very ballet-trained it is good to be exposed to the more release-based styles of dance that aren't always taught at ballet based programmes. I imagine (but please correct me if I'm wrong) that most associate programmes or courses offered by a ballet school will teach contemporary for ballet dancers and centres around the neo-classical styles of Cunningham, Graham and Horton techniques, which are still fairly upright in their postures, although using more floor work, they still need a classical upper back, 'held' arms etc. GCSE tends to use more Release-based techniques (Limon etc) which if you look up some videos on youtube, you will see they sometimes look 'ugly' to the eye that is used to seeing pulled up bodies, stretched legs and feet. It's often hard for the more classically trained dancer to adapt to these techniques, which is why your DD's teacher may have suggested she did this class. It may also be that she has been advised by her head of dpt/faculty to not make any exceptions in case of favouritism etc? The ridiculousness of pressures from management in secondary schools at the moment means often teachers are having to cover their own backs against possible repercussions against one's professionalism, ability to teach, exam results etc etc as a result of constant accountability measures, performance related pay etc It could be that last years cohort all had lower marks in the technical aspects of the course so in order to 'drive up standards' this area of weakness has been identified, and the school or teacher has put in place something that can show they are attempting to address this area. Most exam boards have the specifications of the GCSE freely available on their websites - for those parents unsure about the requirements of the course they are worth looking at. To a parent of a child doing 10-15 hours of dance technique training a week it probably seems like a GCSE for free, but they are worlds apart - and I can now appreciate why my dance teacher at school had such a tough time 'breaking' all of us ballerinas of our airs and graces!

Hi there. It could be many, many different problems. Ways of relieving the pain - well other than seeing a healthcare professional like a physiotherapist,or sports therapist etc using ice massage in the affected area will help relieve the symptoms. However - It sounds like you've got a chronic inflammatory condition and once you rest the inflammation disappears, but once you start stressing the lower leg the inflammation comes back. It is very important that you find the root cause of this problem. The usual causes will be technical or biomechanical - you might be rolling at your ankle, or you might have one leg longer than the other, It might be that you've got some muscle imbalances somewhere in the kinetic chain between the foot and knee (or even hip) which has altered your alignment, putting strain on the outside muscles of your calf. (as an example, I know I have a leg length difference which doesn't usually cause me issues but combined with standing all day in a new job I developed back/hip pain. I saw a physio who worked to reduce the tightness and helped me strengthen my gluteals and problem solved. Early in the spring of this year I started wearing heels a bit more at work, and lo and behold I now have a really stubborn case of plantar fasciitis on the same leg. I'm trying to self-treat it as I know what I'm doing but I imagine that in a few weeks if its still grumbling I'll see a podiatrist). Find yourself a good dance or sports physiotherapist, asap. In the mean time, ask your teacher to keep a close eye on the alignment of your foot and ankle.