lisadebs

Woohooo!!!!!!! (not sure if that's a word) Fantastic news!! Wishing her many happy lessons as an NB SA - you must be so pleased

Keeping everything crossed for you and your DD. Very best wishes to you both

Yup! DD was horrified at the idea at first, but seemed to get used to them quite quickly. They are a nightmare to name label though!!

At White Lodge the girls have to wear thongs under their leotards after year 7. Smallest DD and I had a very educational shopping trip trying to source those! we ended up getting the smallest size in Primark and shrinking them with a hot wash/ tumble dry - the things we do for the sake of ballet

Good luck to all waiting - I think we heard around the end of June, but that was a few years ago now. Try not to stalk the postman - although they do seem quite tolerant of wild eyed ballet mothers (or grandmothers) accosting them on the doorstep!

Spanner - has she read the Cat Royal books by Julia Goulding? Cat is an orphan girl who grows up in Drury Lane theatre in the 1790's. There are at least 6 books in the series, all brilliantly researched following Cat's adventures with some interesting performance details thrown in. We've all really enjoyed them (yes that's including me, I'm a sucker for a good children's book)

For my eldest DD – dancing round the room to the soundtrack from the ‘Muppet Movie’ and endless improvised performances of ‘Peter and the Wolf' Middle DD – fell in love with a gold tutu when she was two and a half and rarely wore anything thing else until she went to school (tutu, wellies and leggings being a classic combination) Youngest DD – tolerated ballet initially because sometimes she ‘got to be a giraffe’, hated pink, and looked horrified when they were told in their first RBS JA class that they would be getting 'homework' – strangely enough, she’s the one who’s ended up at vocational ballet school

Very well done to your DD for getting through such an intensive audition. Not many young dancers are able to improvise with such confidence - what a wonderful gift to have. Very best of luck with the results and thanks again for sharing your experiences

...when you wake up humming a tune that you can't quite place, then realise it's the intermediate foundation tendu exercise....

Afab - just wanted to wish you and your DD's best of luck with the forthcoming auditions and to thank you for posting - it is really fascinating to hear about how the process works in other countries. Hope the rest of the audition process is slightly less stressfull!

R - is also for RBS which for ballet co'ers stands for the Royal Ballet School and for normal people stands for the Royal Bank of Scotland. You need to take out a lot of money from one in order to attend the other... S is for skipping around the room - the innocent way in which the ballet habit kicks in V is for vaucuum cleaner - the final resting place for most hairpins.... W is for Waiting List - abbreviated to WL which can also stand for White Lodge, the lower school of the Royal Ballet. If at any point you find yourself on the WL for WL you need to resort to that other very importnat W - Wine

Anjuli - thanks so much for posting this (and everything else you have written!) I love your phrase 'dance on top of your own breathing' Youngest DD is really struggling with breathing in class at the moment. From what I can gather she is focusing so hard on 'pulling up' that she is becoming too tense to breathe properly. During a recent (fairly stressful) class she forgot to breathe completely and ended up hyperventilating. Any additional advice on how to maintain relaxed breathing whilst still 'pulling up' (her phrase) would be greatly appreciated

Sorry - just another quick question re. scholarship auditions. Just wondering when and how the results arrive. In people's experience do they usually email/phone or send letters?

I am hoping for her own sake that my daughter is a genetic mutant! Seriously though, I do wish there were more companies around like the Mark Morris Dance Group. Dancers of all shapes and sizes who move beautifully and are all the more interesting to watch because of their individuality. No it's not a ballet company - but perhaps we need to educate our kids that there's a big wide dance world out there.

Thanks Gingerbread - that's really useful to know. Well done to your DD!

Does anybody know if pointe work is required for the scholarship audition in the 10 - 13 age group? Good luck to everybody auditioning on Sunday

tomuchtalent - tell your dd not to worry. My dd had a 'pop belly' at this age too despite being small boned and tiny. We have a wonderful picture of her in a tutu where she is mainly tummy! She was still this shape when she was was offered an RBS JA place. She is now at White Lodge. As glowlight says it is about muscular strength - something that time and ballet training will sort out.

Just wanted to say that this has not been our experience of WL so far. Maybe we have been lucky or maybe we are being naive but the girl's in DD's year do seem genuinely supportive of each other. For us so far the experience of WL has been a positive one - just wanted to add this for the sake of balance.

Fran - so sorry to hear this news. Thinking of both you and your lovely and talented DD.

Well done to all those with a yes, fantastic news! Fingers crossed for anybody on the waiting list - very frustrating when it means yet more waiting... Mumtobeth - I know what you mean about wanting to protect them from the knocks, it's hard being a ballet parent

Hi Spanner - we have no direct experience, but I have just been on the website and it says all applicants will be informed by mid April as to whether or not they've been successful. I emailed them last week as youngest DD is interested in going this year and they advised applying asap. Hope this is of some help - York is a beautiful place and people speak very highly of the Summer School

Hooray kiwimum, fantastic news! Fingers crossed for everybody else waiting

Hi Evie - she chose White Lodge simply because that is where she said she felt most 'at home'. If she had felt more at home at Elmhurst then we would have sent her there. She was very lucky to have a choice.

We were in this situation a couple of years back. Much to our suprise DD was offered a White Lodge place, After some consideration we went ahead with the Elmhurst finals because it felt like we needed to look fully at both options before we made a final decision. For us Elmhurst would have been a more practical choice especially regards distance. A second opinion from another school also helped confirm for us as parents that she had some level of potential - had we got a no from Elmhurst we might have made a different decision re White Lodge. For all the prestige of White Lodge - If given a choice I would always go with the school where my child felt most 'at home' - sometimes in order to judge this, you need a second visit. wildflowers - this must be such a difficult situation, really feel for you - the audtion process is such an intense one, sometimes its very hard to pick up the pieces afterwards, I do hope any disappointed DDs and DS's are smiling again soon and most importantly enjoying their dancing.

Very best of luck to your DD C4D! And to everybody auditioning this week - have a really enjoyable day