Huddsballetmum

On 05/11/2018 at 16:01, Canary said:

I was always told a male child will always be taller than the biological mother 

yet to meet the exception 

There is always the exception though.  My mum's best friend is 3 or 4  inches  taller than her eldest son, though her younger one was much taller than her.  

11 hours ago, HopelessMummy said:

Wow. It's out of a fire and into another. I'm a barrister and new to this ballet mum business. And quite frankly I prefer 15 days in court getting battered by the judge, client, opponents rather than having to make sure daughter is in the right colour leotard or the right way round or have enough pins with her or watching her compete in festivals.

 

It's a long arduous process getting to the Bar and the rejections will come thick and fast. But persist and your daughter will find a rewarding career and profession (not necessarily well paid if in legal aid criminal or family work).

 

Anyways, best of luck.

Thanks HopelessMummy.  I knew the dance world would set her up for her new career - all dancers have to be used to rejections and be resilient.  She know's the area that she's interested in isn't going to make her millions, but it is better paid than a short lived dance career.  I'll pop in from time to time and keep everyone updated on the Non Dancing children thread.

On 08/06/2018 at 19:35, Terpsichore said:

 

Many thanks to Nicola H for alerting me to this thread. I had not been following it.

 

I wish your daughter every success with her studies. I hope she will still manage to enjoy the occasional class or performance as I have for the last 41 years.  She may well find that the bar and barre have a lot in common even though they do not have much to do with each other.

Long before I subscribed to this website I wrote this little article which may amuse you,

If your daughter wants any recommendations, warnings, introductions or a second opinion, you know where to get me.

Loved the article and have to say I have always thought that the performance element would stand dd in good stead in the court room.  She was told by a barrister she was shadowing last year - it's all about the performance.  

Thank you for your kind offer  of assistance.  I'm sure you will hear from my dd in the future.

Thanks for all the lovely messages and good wishes.  I will log in from time to time to see how everyone is doing.  I hope that all your dancing children will achieve wonderful things, but that most importantly they love dance.  Take care all

32 minutes ago, Nicola H said:

Jane, the person behind, @Terpsichore  is a barrister !    worth remembering ! 

That's good to know, thanks.  She is only down the road from me and we have mutual friends.

The dancing journey has finally come to an end after 16 years and my DD is off to uni to study law not dance.  Her dreams have changed and she wants to be a Barrister rather than a dancer (think the wages had something to do with it), though her love affair with dance will always continue.

The last 16 years have been a rollercoaster and as a single full time working mum. a challenge, but I wouldn't have missed it for the world.  I will probably cry buckets at her last performance on 23rd June (her 18th birthday by the way) but her life is her choice and she has enjoyed every minute of her relationship with dance.

I just want to say thank you for all the support, encouragement and advice that you wonderful people have given over the last few years.  This is a fabulous forum particularly for those mum's who have no idea when they start the journey (I still don't do hair!!) 

To new mums who are starting the journey and need some help I give the following advice

1. There is no such thing as a silly question - at some point we have all asked them

2. Buy hair pins in bulk and maybe a spare hoover

3. Ignore the pushy mums and look for the nice ones - there are lots about and you will make some of the best friends you can have through dance

4. Accept that you will spend your life in the car

5. Accept that you will never have any money

6. Learn to do hair - or befriend a ballet mum who can ( I failed miserably on both counts)

7. Enjoy the ride! 

Au Revoir   😊

My DD is a UK size 6 and is 5ft 4 inches  tall.  I always buy her an Adult XS in every make but Plume where she needs a small.  Waist is actually a size 4 but rest of her is a 6 so adult is a necessity for the tapered waist - can still look a little baggy sometimes.  Nightmare buying jeans, skirts etc.  She is 18 this month and still fits into River Islands age 11-12.  Bonus for prices though

14 hours ago, Picturesinthefirelight said:

At dd’s Old dance school one of the dads was far, far better at doing buns than me (& probably several of the mums). He had a son & a daughter who danced there & I was always in awe of his bun ability. 

 

Some people, like me just don’t do hair. 

When my dd's dance teacher asked her to be in the competition team my first comment was "you know I can't do hair don't you?"  

On 4/14/2018 at 23:51, Nicola H said:

Westfield ( and Sovereign and LHF )  are not  Health insurance  though  they are  the  successors to the pre 1948 hospital funds .... 

Thank you for your comment, but at what point in my comment did I state that Westfield was health insurance? 

6 hours ago, Mummy twinkle toes said:

Urdang are now offering a level 3 dance course. It is free for everyone studying at level 3 (A level/ BTEC ) for first time. 

I think you will find it's only free for 16-23 year olds and the 19-23 year olds will only be funded if they haven't got a full level 3 already.  Otherwise they will have to take out an advanced learning loan which has to be paid back when the learner earns more than £21k.  Level 3 course costs are generally around £3k per year dependant on the qualification.

19 hours ago, Pointetoes said:

NonDD was originally applying for something else, long story for another day, in that UCAS application she didn’t put in her music grade 8s because they were irrelevant to the subject, she did include other relevant information in her personal statement. That application was stopped and you know the rest of the story. 

So I totally agree they need to be relevant to the subject they are applying for - Advanced 1 Ballet isn’t much use or of interest if the individual is applying for Law etc 

Got to say I disagree with the statement that Advanced Ballet isn't much use when applying for Law.  My DD has danced for 15 years and has applied to do Law at a number of Russell Group universities.  As part of her personal statement she referenced dance and drama as it shows the following skills, teamwork, dedication and commitment, penchant for hard work ( difficult to keep up three A levels and 15 hours of dance per week), creativity and performance.  All of which are skills required for a competent solicitor or barrister.  She has offers at all 5 universities.  The courses might not be directly relevant but the skills most definitely are and as a 17 year old it is often hard for them to demonstrate life skills in other ways.

I can't help you with the National as we have always avoided them like the plague - a personal choice by my DD!

Character however we have lots of experience in and I would suggest the following

1. Costume needs to be fairly authentic to the character, but modern materials and charity shops are a godsend in this area.  Ballet shoes with back socks and gilt buttons sewn on the sides make excellent victorian ladies boots for example.

2. Props - the whole point of character is the acting out of the role and ensuring that it held from start to finish.  Props can be an aid, but the more props you have then the bigger car you need, the more you have to carry and the more that can go wrong, plus the more chance you have of forgetting them.  I'll never forget the time one of our dance schools older dancers had a number of props and was so busy counting all her props into the car that she forgot the costume.   Nightmare!

Props that you need to assemble at the festival are always a trauma.  I have managed to get away with chairs, lamps, netting and small hand props wherever possible. 

Having sat through many a greek section in festivals for years I can still resolutely say that I have no idea what's going on and that I find it comparable to watching paint dry.  I'm sure there are merits and someone will point them out to me but I just can't relate. 

On 9/25/2017 at 15:48, Fiz said:

Creeps who private message you on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. I've had more than enough of it just recently.

Me too - Why do they do that?  Do they trawl facebook profiles looking for someone to send a rude or creepy message to?  I have been proposed to several times just this week 

On 9/16/2017 at 22:51, 2dancersmum said:

No personal experience and no idea whereabouts in the country you are but places I have heard of that are free  include:

 

Birmingham Ormiston Academy - btec plus a levels

CAPA Wakefield

Bodens Performing Arts - n London

Old School Danceworks (part of the Dance Mill) - btec - Halifax

 

 

CAPA do a full level 3 qualification which is equivalent to 3 A levels and the school is pretty good.  All young people aged 16-18 are entitled to free education, those between 19-23 are entitled to a first full level three qualification for free.  My DD has a number of friends at CAPA who enjoy the course and are getting a good level of training, they also add in either Northern Contemporary or Phoenix dance company (both Leeds based) to supplement their training

I asked my DD to wait until after 6th form to apply for anything and, as she wanted to go down the MT/contemporary route, she agreed and went off to 6th Form to study A levels, even though her heart was set on being a dancer.  Two years later on we are trawling round universities that have a great law course and her focus is now solely on becoming a criminal lawyer.  Universities with a great extracurricular dance programme are coming up top of the shop but it's still law first and dance second which I never thought I would see happen.  

What changed her mind?  I have no idea, but something triggered a passion greater than dance.  I will support her in whatever decision she makes, even if it means walking round 15 campus accommodation buildings at every university and ranking them out of 10!!

I think children are exactly that, children, and sometimes they need the time to grow up and make adult decisions.  

A national treasure who will be sadly missed and has been part of my tv viewing my entire life.  RIP Bruce

fantastic news.  Congratulations

I have noticed a number of posts recommending that you drop the tap.  This is understandable as this is the balletcoforum and the interest is in ballet, but I would recommend that your DD retain all styles until she has completed at lease grade 4/5 which will give her greater options should she ever decide that she does want a career in dance, particularly if she wants to go the musical theatre route.  Age 9 my dd did one hour of tap, ballet, modern jazz, 1.5 hours drama and singing and  1hour of festival and competition work, plus a 1 hour street dance class as a fun thing.

I too work full time, and am a single mum, though I don't have other children or a social life!  I was lucky that the dance school was in the same village as DD's school and our home and I did have a group of friendly dance mum's who helped me out for after school classes.

On 8/3/2017 at 15:00, Legseleven said:

I agree Colman. Actually it irritates me that I too would plead ignorance - if you aren't actually there on the seat/lounger then your towel/bag, whatever, is not in need of its own seat/lounger whereas I am - but sadly it's best not to antagonise strangers, as we know...

One day I took the umbrella from a pair of sunloungers which had been empty from 10am to 1pm (when the sun it at it's highest and I needed the shade)  The couple finally made an appearance at 2pm and the male (I cannot call him a gentleman) proceeded to scream at me that he had got up at 6am to get a lounger with an umbrella.  My response was " The you should have sat on your lounger"  It wasn't pleasant - I avoided him for the rest of the holiday.

The obsession for getting up at the crack of dawn to "bag" a sunlounger by carefully arranging your beach towel whilst on holiday abroad.  What is wrong with these people who feel the need to get up at 6am to make sure they get the sunlounger they want in the position they prefer.  Sun was out all day (33 degrees by 11.00am) and there were plenty of sunloungers left for those lazy people (i.e. Me!!) who wished to get up at the civilised time of 8am.  What made me more annoyed was to hear people complaining that they had to get up at 6am to bag the best lounger!  No you don't!!  Get a life!!!!

Being made redundant on the same day that you get offered a better and financially more lucrative position.  What a financial bonus all round 

I would say go with the associates for all the reasons mentioned above, plus the fact that it get's your DS face known by the vocational school and also may be more helpful for further vocational school auditions in the future.  My DD has done a number of associate programmes and only really had private lessons for competition solo's.  Got to say the travelling and cost of associates are well worth the experience for your child.

I was also advised to put spray starch lightly on tutu net before Ironing so the net didn't go floppy

Such wonderful news and huge congratulations to your DS.  Definitely worth all the cost, worry and hard work.  You must be so proud.