ballerinaX

Hi Lilac, Two of the girls starting in September will be year 10, and the other is on waiting list and will be year 11 - really glad your daughter loves it there, I did too :-) Hope this helps :-)

Hi Spannerandpony, Three got into Prep 1, two got into pre-senior and one got waiting list for pre-senior and one hasn't had her letter yet. They've all done really well and really pleased for them - I did preps there and it was fab I did RBS SA's after that which I also loved :-) Fingers crossed for all of those waiting, I hope it's good news :-) BallerinaX

Well done to those from my local school who got places :-)

It must be really hard to judge these competitions, but hats off to the little one who won it :-)

I heard the junior section was won overall by a 7 year old who was judged amongst the older ones so they obviously realise that an older child may (or not) appear more accomplished :-)

Just wondered if anyone is auditioning in Hertford on the 21st April?

Hi Fiz, Don't know which of the directors you are talking about but I know that classes at one of their schools finish for Easter tomorrow - just thought that I would mention it

Just wanted to say well done to everyone who performed with TCYB this weekend We all had a fantastic time and Lemongirl I hope your DD enjoyed her time with the company

That's really excellent . Just thought I would add that my local school have just got 3 into White Lodge

Thats really great that your DD will be doing TCYB - she will have a great time and learn loads

Lemongirl, I'm really sorry I've just realized you had asked me a question and I didn't reply to your post! I went off to register for summer school on 22nd July and didn't really look at the forum whilst I was there so hadn't realized you had asked me something. Just looked at this now as it had obviously moved down a few pages. Theres no harm in asking if they can give your contact to anyone else from the same area and then maybe you will be able to work something out. Is your DD going to do this coming season? If she is then you will meet the other parents and then maybe find out who is coming from your direction

Swanprincess, there were lots of international students and they wouldnt have followed UK syllabus, grades and exams. The places are offered on photographs

Lemongirl, there are a couple of pubs in Watton, one is nearly opposite the hall, serves coffee and is really nice - really good food too There is a shop almost next to the pub and a post office (theres a hairdressers if you want some time out, hehehe) but its a really nice village and Hertford is only 10 minutes away which has lots of nice restaurants

I agree with you Drdance, there isn't anywhere to hide with vocationals. I got 77 for Intermediate and 95 for grade 7 - can I say that on here? Which I think shows the huge difference!

Julie 2 Milner, without a doubt the vocationals are way harder on the marking. I got 18 marks more for grade 7 than I did for Intermediate, which is a lot of marks. I felt much more stressed doing intermediate than grade 7, I think because we had to go to the RAD at Battersea for the exam and we also had to do the 5 weeks of Sundays up there - our teacher insisted

Taxi4ballet, we had to go to RBS on the Sunday to register and thats when they told us who we would have teaching us - the reaction from everyone was a very huge "wow" as I'm sure you can imagine We had her for class at the end of the 2nd week for class and she was so amazing, it was such a privilige to be taught by Darcey Bussell. She was there on the final day to see the performance too. I have a couple of photographs with her :)

At my school we do both vocational and graded exams. I did the higher grades whilst doing the vocationals and it was a lovely way to just dance as the vocationals were so technical. We do a lot of free work as well as having to learn syllabus, it keeps our brains very switched on and its great for making us develop our musicality!!! With pointe work, at inter foundation the students do at least a year of pointe preparation with bands and set exercises. We weren't put on pointe at a certain grade but individually when the teacher said we could - there are quite a few pointe classes available each week and for different levels. The prep work was well worth it - we also had to wear soft pointes in class to make our feet work. I didn't take inter foundation but moved on to intermediate and took that instead

It was amazing I am going into year 12 in september. I dont really know the difficulty for the year 10 group so i cant really comment (sorry!) I don't know whether they look at grade anyway, so can't really help on that one. I'm not sure how many applicants they have but there are probably quite a lot. I think that quite a few of the british girls were vocational, definitely not all, but I'm not sure how many. I'm not currently vocational but I will be vocational in September though. I was an SA this last year but I don't know if many of the other non-vocational girls were SA's or not. I'm not really much help but would say that I am so glad I applied because it was a brilliant summer school and if I was lucky enough to be selected again I would most definitely want to do it without a second thought. Sorry I'm not all that much help Swanprincess

Swanprincess i did the Royal Ballet Summer School in Covent Garden for the first time this year. I thouroughly enjoyed every day and every class. As girls, we were split into 3 groups and these were set by age i think. However, the difficulty ranged in the different age groups. It seemed like there was a year 10 group, a year 11 group and a group that had years 11,12 and 13. I'm year 11 and i am studying advanced 2 RAD and the class i was in (years 11,12 and 13) was deffinitely of that level. We needed to be there at 9.00 am to warm-up and our first class started at 9.30 am. We finished at 5.00 pm and the day was really full, so you were always busy. We were taught by amazing teachers from the school, and from the Royal Ballet Company, Zenaida Yanowsky, and we had a really big treat when we were taught by Darcey Bussel! Both the ballerinas were inspiring and amazing to watch and learn from. Its a very international summer school and i have made friends from all over the world. There's no harm in applying because you never know if youre going to be what they're looking for, regardless of your grade.

Hi again!! Just realized I didn't answer the question about travelling. Last year we had some students from North London but I'm not sure about this year yet - the people I know who are doing it are from all over the place. I'm sorry I can't be more help but I know that there are new members this time I just dont know where they are from, particularly juniors

Hi Lemongirl, the Sundays were all day, sort of 10-4/5. It seems a lot but it was only one each half of the term. It's these sundays when the whole company, the juniors and the seniors work together and thats always really fun. There were about 10 of us last year who were doing Tring CBA on the Sundays as well and 5 of us who did this were also RBS associates on Saturdays too!!! I dont know how I fitted it all in last year but somehow I did manage everything and I wouldn't change it one bit

I did the performances earlier this year, during my GCSE year (and I was doing a lot of GCSE'S)- its only for two terms - September through to March - which was really helpful. They have two Sunday rehearsals each term and then just tech/dress rehearsals the day before performances. TCYB let parents know what they were signing up to at the beginning and didn't put anything extra in either which was really good. I loved my experience with them and will be going back for my third Season starting in September. Well done to your DD lemongirl I hope if she does it she has as good a time as I did and if she does I'll see her in September :)

I started when I was 10 and I haven’t had any negative outcomes from starting at what is considerd quite young. I think it depends on the strength of dd's feet, if her teacher feels she is able to sustain a good standard of Pointe work then I would trust their opinion. however if she does not feel stable at any point, due to injury or just nervousness then band exercises will increase strength and mobility in her feet.

Loulabelle I feel the same way when I come out of my classes there There are 11 students from my school who do CBA, they all really enjoy it too. Two more are starting in September as well. So glad your dd enjoed the classes yesterday

Thank you Kat09