ballerinaX

I would like to say that Tring was not my only choice for 6th form i was also offered another one of the top post 16 vocational schools. I recieved a dada for Tring in the first round of offers after final audition. I have very much chosen to go to Tring and will work my absolute hardest. For those of you who have had dd's in the 2011-2012 audition season you will know just how hard it has been to just get an offer. I will see where this all takes me and keep you posted

Lildancer96 I agree that everyone is entitled to their own views and responses and very much respect that people have different experiences. However I feel so positively about tring that I want to make sure that people don’t only see negative comments but also positive ones I too will grab this opportunity with both hands and will not let go. thank you very much for your kind wishes primrose i really appreciate it

The dancers who train a tring come out with a rounded education in dance. They learn, jazz, contemporary, tap and of course ballet. This then makes them very employable and the end game is to be employed. It makes me sad that there so many negative comments about a school that can offer so much. I am very excited to be able to say I am attending tring in September and truly believe that given the facilities and the teaching its over to us as students to take from it what we will and become the dancers we choose to be. You get out what you put in. For those of us who have not yet had the OPPORTUNITY to train vocationally we have not lost sight of what a privilege it is. To get to this place I have had to do long academic school days, 13 GCSE's and then train in classes finishing at 10 pm, plus associate courses on the weekends. Maybe I have such optimism because I have been brought up to believe that my cup is half full and not half empty.

BalletBloch i have also tried many pairs of pointe shoes, grishko, gaynor minden, bloch, capezio , freed and gamba. all have had positive and negatives to them , however at this moment in time i'm wearing bloch, although i must say that capezio's have been very good to me over the last 6 years whenever i have worn them. i think maybe if she has a longer vamp this may help in the shoes not breaking as quickly. i have very short toes so having a longer vamp seemed a really odd thing to do but it did infact help!

Being a student i look for a teacher who understands the ins and outs of being a dancer and in most cases these teachers are ex-professionals or have had advanced training in physio therapy, pilates etc or both! so they can understand the anatomy of a dancers body. as Anjuli_Bai said earlier i also think its important that the atmoshphere in the classroom is good as you dont want to be tense etc you want to feel comfortable.

I think it really depends on the dancer. Royal is probably the most competitive and desired school in the UK however all the other schools are purely, I think, taken on someone’s own opinion. I have had my audition year for upper schools throughout 2011-2012 and it’s not to be taken lightly. Each individual school looks for a different dancer and you have to fit that mould, and sometimes you may not fit it but, what can you do? I didn’t get into Elmhurst, but I got finals for all the other schools I auditioned for such as, Royal, ENB, Central and tring and in the end I got into Central and Tring- on a DADA. if your daughter/son is non-vocational it will be hard (I am too!) as they go up against all the people who have been training for maybe five years or more vocationally. BUT! Don’t let the fact that they are non-vocational lead them to believe they are not good enough. I was ecstatic when I got finals for 4 of the 5 schools I auditioned for and the fact that I was a non-vocational student and was being noticed in amongst my peers who were vocational was a real confidence boost. Sorry went a bit off subject. But I hope it helps To all those auditioning this coming season (2012-2013) I really hope you achieve what you want GOOD LUCK! ballerinaX

i did central prep 2 and prep 3. i found all the classes i attended there to be challenging but also very enjoyable. i do not regret being there for two years as i learnt so much! its a really great experience and i think it could really benefit anyone

hey BalletBloch i have strong feet when i'm on pointe and my pointe shoes don't last long at all (maybe 1-2 weeks) so once they are broken i my feet no longer need to work hard to get over the bloch and so the shoes look as if i'm 'clawing' . what type of pointe shoe does your daughter wear? as she may find that a different type of pointe shoe may prevent this.

tring do many Alevels roaming from advanced maths to theatre studies

i've been attending the Tring Classical Ballet Academy since september, and i must say that its been amazing, the teachers are lovely and the classes are inspiring , i would really urge people to audition as it's really worth it

hello everyone, i have two in growing toe nails and i haven’t been able to sort them out permanantly yet, but when I’m wearing pointe shoes or soft pointes i wear spacers and this really relieves the pressure

hi Lemongirl. there are dancers from all over the place such as Cambridge, Harlow, Waltham Abbey, North london New barnet, Dunmow, Hitchin and other places but not sure on all of them. if you want to see a short snippit of what they do, my friend had to put together a compilation for an audition over seas, so she used bits from the show, obviously the focus is on her and not the whole company (which it normally is) but hopefully you will be able to see costumes, set etc. if you want to know where to look on youtube let me know

This is my first post so hello everyone I have been part of Three Counties Youth Ballet for the last two years and have loved it. The company is small which means we get to dance absolutely loads. I would tell anyone who wants performance experience to give the auditions a go