drdance

I know there is a school of thought that says that split sole shoes don't provide enough resistance to work the feet, and supposedly make dancers' feet 'lazy'. I guess that's why RBS prefer leather too - it's a bit harder to make the feet fully stretch in leather, and they last. There is also the thought process that full sole allows a better transition to soft blocks and pointe. Satin shoes also tend not to 'give' or mould with the shape of the foot like leather or canvas and can be tight in some places and baggy in others, and for some reason children tend to scrunch their toes more in satin shoes! (in my opinion). Canvas split soles look lovely and in older children who already have strong feet there's very little argument for not wearing them but I agree that in younger children I like full sole leather for the added resistance when the feet are pointing. Incidentally - RBS always used to have an arrangement with Freeds (not sure if they do now), and Freeds were the only maker who fitted the pupils at WL so it stands to reason that they may recommend Freeds for all of the school's classes.

To me it looks more like a youth DANCE company rather than pure ballet - although the webpage did say that dancers need ballet training. NB it might be a good idea to change the title of this thread to 'ENB's Youth Dance Company' or something similar as I thought it was originally someone getting confused between National Youth Ballet and English Youth Ballet!

Best of luck to all of your DD's and DS's - you must all be very proud :-)

That makes much more sense! We sometimes take video auditions but I have a very clear idea of the sort of things we look for in students and it is clear on a video if these things are evident, in my opinion. For monthly classes it's not quite the same as vocational school either. I have noticed a lot of places have an auditions/admissions policy and so if you want feedback from any auditions it might be worth looking at that policy first.

Do any of the the vocational schools do video auditions? I didn't think they did.... I'd also be a bit worried about accepting or not accepting someone onto a full time programme based solely on a video!

When auditioning pupils for MIDAS we as a panel always identify something that each auditionee can work on, so that if they are unsuccessful we can put this in the letter. I appreciate that we are a small-ish programme and that it is hard to give really personalised feedback to each and every auditionee, but it's also not hard to prepare a few generic letters based around areas that students commonly need to work on eg hip flexibility, back flexibility, strength and control of turnout, performance quality.

What's feudge?!

I'd love to have a wedding reception there! I'm sure that it would all be extremely carefully thought through and RBS would never dream of letting anything affect lessons of all types, or the wellbeing of the pupils there.

Yes of course it works both ways with the grades - some children are 'too classical' as it were, for the weight, suspension and relaxation needed in free movement technique, so do better in purely classical exams!

My old teacher has done an adult ballet class for years, and has some ladies there who've been doing it for 15 years at least! She does a free class and tends to stick to about grade 5 level, but occasionally does some more complicated steps as a bit of a challenge. I second the request not to make them wear leotards or tights! Tracksuits, t-shirts, some people wear leggings - its worth also suggesting to new attendees to NOT spend money on ballet shoes etc until they think they like it. This is sensible advice, but also shows them that you're sensible and thoughtful! As a new teacher - teaching adults is quite different to teaching children. Adult beginners find it very hard to use both arms and legs, so with total beginners its advisable to tell them not to worry about doing the arms unless they want to have a go. You have to fight the urge to correct everything in terms of technique, unless it's dangerous. Reminders of 'standing tall' and stretching knees, and turning out legs to 'ten to two on a clock' when standing, and turning out lifted legs will be as far as you need to go with beginners, although if you have more advanced students in the class you can give them individual feedback - it's about knowing your students (as it always is!) Adult ballet dancers tend not to want to be ballerinas, but they want to keep/get fit and dance! FYI - in my experience, Adult dancers who are beginners or who've not done ballet since they were a child also find transfering weight from two feet to one, and from one to one quite difficult, so bear that in mind!

I disagree that the RAD are only concerned with money - obviously they need to make ends meet, but the depth of thought behind their syllabi and how they train their teachers shows that they have a mission regarding the training of ballet. Obviously not all teachers are as good as each other but I do know from colleagues who are examiners, that they are rigorously trained and all exam results (and feedback on work seen in presentation classes) are carefully scrutinised. I have heard of one teacher alledgedly being 'stripped' of her RAD qualification because of her exam/presentation class entries.

Yes grade 2 was a rareity, even for that school, and it's a school that really pushes young dancers that show talent. Having said that, they do produce some amazing ballet dancers! Most places it seems to be grade 4 or 5... The reason why the marking seems to be tougher is that in VG's all marks out of 100 are for classical technique, music and performance whereas in the grades, the 100 is split between classical technique, free movement, character, music and performance. In the grades if you're a bit weak in one area of classical technique you can often bump up the mark by excelling in free movement and/or character but in the VG's there's less places to hide, as it were!

If you don't mind travelling for a fitting it's worth a trip to Earl Shilton (between Hinckley and Leicester) to Suffolk Pointe. Mark Suffolk used to work for Freeds many moons ago and as a teacher I strongly recommend his shoes (in fact as a dancer they ended up being my shoe of choice!) http://www.suffolkpointe.com/ThePointeShop.html?preview=158

Taxi4ballet if you really are concerned about this girl beginning pointe at this particular school, you could perhaps mention how much 'injury prevention' work (ie more than one class a week, vocational graded classes) and perhaps make her mum aware of the dangers of pointe work if a dancer hasn't done any of that - you could suggest that in order to be safe it's important that young dancers have a certain level of technique and a good way of knowing this is their latest exam result, particularly the scores they got for technique... I would hope that if the teacher is registered with the RAD then they have at least passed the RAD teaching certificate - having said that, I have colleagues who are examiners who do see a WIDE variety of work! Something else to consider is this: I went to a very mediocre 'once a week' school for most of my childhood. I got a merit at grade 5 and then automatically began pointe work at grade 6. I was oblivious to the dangers, and my lack of technique, as were my non-dance parents. I even failed pre-elementary as it was then, and my teacher told us it was luck, quotas, they decide if you pass as you walk in etc etc It wasn't until I went to secondary school, made friends with girls who went to a very large and successful festival school and went along to a festival to watch them that I discovered a whole other world... Without giving you all the gory details, eventually I moved to a school where I had brilliant teachers & got to a level where I was technically strong enough to pass Intermediate, get Honours for Advanced 1 modern, get ISTD modern associate (1st teaching exam) pass A-level dance with a top 5 mark and got a scholarship to London Contemporary Dance School. Maybe showing this girl or this girls mum what she's been missing might be enough?

Incidentally, teachers can now apply for Inter Foundation and Inter to be taken at the same time as graded exams at the school but only if the studio/hall is suitable. Graded examiners have had extra training and now examine IF and I. So much of dealing with grades/vocational grades is down to the individual teacher and their philosphy (and I think it's a good thing). I've heard of all children being offered VG classes but told that it doesn't necessarily mean they'll do the exam, I've also heard of schools who invite pupils, or audition pupils for VG classes. Some do pointe only if pupils are doing VG's - other schools will let any pupil train for pointe once they get to a certain grade (I would hope that this is after some pre-pointe training!). Some schools start IF classes alongside grade 4, I've seen some doing it with selected pupils as young as grade 2, some it's grade 5. If I owned a school that did syllabus work and exams (which I don't, yet!) I would insist on every student doing the grades, all the way to grade 8, as I agree that the free movement and character is good for all-round training, and the higher grades have a bit more context to them in that grade 7 is stylised to ballets such as La Sylphide, and you can see the character steps in ballets such as Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty. If pupils had the desire to progress further with their ballet, I would then insist on a minimum of 2 additional classes per week, one based on the syllabus, and another non-syllabus, as well as pre-pointe/pointe classes. The RAD recommend that students preparing for VG exams should be taking at least 2 classes a week at IF level, increasing as they progress through to higher levels.

With the advent of the new RAD grades syllabi I believe that the 'presentation class' is being phased out and as the new work begins to be taught and examined, students will take an examination or a class award, the latter being assessed on elements such as control & co-ordination, timing, musical response, expression and each element is marked as being seen "never, occasionally, generally and frequently" - so it's basic but gives some feedback. NB At the moment this only applies to the new Pre-Primary up to grade 3. The presentation classes that your DD's friend may have done follows the remit set out by the RAD below.... (The RAD document 'Handbook for teachers: examinations and presentation classes' c2004 states:) "What is the nature and purpose of Presentation Classes? Presentation Classes, with the exception of Grade 8, differ from examinations in that the class is conducted by the teacher, and the students are not assessed; the Examiner acts as an ‘invited audience’, before whom the students present their work. At the discretion of the teacher, a limited number of guests (eg parents) may also be invited to form part of the audience and observe the proceedings. All students are rewarded by the presentation of a certificate of participation. Presentation Classes are appropriate for: • Students attending schools where Classical Ballet tuition is included in the curriculum and where the time allocated is generally less than in a specialist ballet school • Students whose attendance has been irregular due to a variety of circumstances • Late starters • Schools where, for a variety of reasons, the teacher has not been able to devote the usual amount of time required for examination preparation • Use as a preparation for the equivalent examination. Study for Presentation Classes aims to: • Encourage students to appreciate dance as an art form • Promote the study of Classical Ballet and related dance disciplines primarily as a leisure or recreational activity • Promote and encourage enjoyment of dance movement as a form of physical exercise • Develop a general appreciation of music" Edited formatting

71 is a great mark - and only 4 off that distinction so use your report to guide you, and ask your teacher for advice to improve your 'weaker' areas and you'll be there! Besides, grade 6 is such a beautiful syllabus, it's so much more like dancing, the music is gorgeous and when I was a student it was grade 6 that really helped me to develop my musicality and performance and it still is my favourite of the RAD grades! Enjoy it!

I love centre stage, and the company is supposed to be good although I haven't watched it myself. I can't wait for First Position to come out on DVD and I'm currently loving US tv series' such as Dance Moms, Bunheads, Breaking Pointe and Dance Academy!

Well said hfbrew! The idea of exams is that they give you someone elses eye on how you're performing those exercises,at that time. They don't get to see how far you've come, or how hard you've worked. All I can say is use the report to help you identify the areas that you feel you want to improve, and target them in your training.

Well done Swanprincess - what exam did you take?

I think that doing exercises that children are familiar with from class is definitely needed to improve strength or flexibility, at any time (holidays or not) these sorts of things need to be done pretty much daily to get enough of a stimulus for the body to adapt to. But it's important that the kids know the correct technique for these exercises, and that they should be warmed up before doing them. I make sure that kids use a journal to write down important things about the exercises that they want to do, to meet their goals. And involving the parents in the process is always helpful - parents want to know how to help their children to improve so I often explain to them that it would help if they could keep an eye on certain things (pointing them out as the child is doing the exercise). If anyone wants to gain strength, flexibility, power etc it needs to be done frequently. If the dancer is merely wanting to 'keep in shape' - it comes back pretty quickly after a break so no-one should ever panic about having a break.

Dancerbabe - I had forgotten about that! AAAARRRRGGHH so frustrating when you (or like you say, your pupils) spend so much energy, time, focus etc working really hard on something and then they come back after a break and they're right back to square one. It feels like you've lost all that time, and now have to keep reminding the dancer again when they'd got it totally sorted before the holidays. It really does get quite frustrating when you see that - sort of regression!

So perhaps before the holiday students could make a list of common corrections that they get personally, and that their teacher gives to a class - and when they're practicing at home they too can check themselves?

Good luck to all those still waiting... Hope it's not too long now!

Rest is VITAL, and I am always the first person to remind people to rest - after all it's during the rest after training that the muscles get stronger, not during the activity. Rest is also important to prevent emotional burnout as a couple of people have already mentioned above. I'm also a huge advocate of reducing the 'religion' of daily ballet class in favour of better cross training - the theory behind this is that variety is the spice of life and reduces the monotony that can lead to stress, staleness and burnout, as well as physically giving some muscles a rest, and training the body in a different way. BUT... in answer to the debate about home practicing I stick by my the belief that a dedicated and well trained dancer should not be totally discouraged for practicing some basic barre at home (under the watchful eye of someone to make sure that the dancer isn't doing too much of course!). I'm not saying "OK go ahead and teach yourself Esmeralda off of Youtube" - I'm merely suggesting that it isn't as clear cut as saying "You can't do ANYTHING" - apart from anything, saying this to dedicated driven young dancers might cause some serious arguments! I agree that home practice can lead to bad habits etc but I also agree that....