VBee

Yes they are. Sorry for not replying sooner I didn't get a notification to say there'd been a reply. Please let me know if you would like them and I can arrange posting them to you.

Now Sold

For sale. Gamba 93 pointe shoes size 5x. £10 Only worn about twice Gamba 93 pointe shoes in size 5 (38) x. Ribbons and elastic sewn on, box is solid and not broken in, just a bit of dirt on the sole and end of the box. I can send photos if you're interested

For Sale. RAD Grade 6 DVD. £5 Ono. Send me a message if you're interested.

Thanks so much for all the information Kate! That's really really helpful. The teachers sound fantastic. It does sound a little bit beyond my ability, but maybe it would be a good challenge. I'll see if I'm feeling brave on the day and maybe give it a go.

Thanks for your replies. Kate_N I know what you mean about the beautiful extensions, a couple of the girls in the video are beautiful to watch. Do you know if they work the same exercises and combinations each week, or do they change? i.e. will everyone know what they're doing without having a mark through? Can you give me some examples of the allegro that you would do? Also do people wear leotard and tights? Or a combination of things? As you can probably tell I'm a bit nervous about it but I think i'll give it a go and see what happens. I'll just get out of the way if I don't know what I'm doing.

Not sure if this is the right thread to use, mods feel free to move it. Has anyone been to the adult advanced ballet class at danceXchange in Birmingham on a Wednesday? I'm going to be in Birmingham occasionally for work and would like to do a drop in class. Ideally I'd try the improvers class, but it isn't on on Wednesdays. The description on the website says "An advanced learning of classical ballet. Ideal for dance students and professional dancers looking to maintain a high standard of technique, this class provides challenging barre and centre work." However the video shows a mix of abilities in the class and doesn't look to be quite that challenging. I don't want to be the idiot that can't do anything and gets in everyone's way, does anyone know what level the class is? I've just done my RAD intermediate and do open classes too, do you think I'd keep up?

To follow up from Terpsichore's comment. Hype Dance in Sheffield are currently looking for a new ballet teacher, since our brilliant teacher has emigrated. There's an advert on their facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/hype.dance.7/?fref=nf ** Ballet Teacher ** Due to our current ballet teacher emigrating to Australia, from January we are looking for a new ballet teacher to join our team as follows. Monday's, 18:30 - 21:30 (approx) Adult Beginner / Improver & Intermediate / Advanced classes Saturday's, 09:00 - 15:00 (approx) Teaching the RAD syllabus to children from Preparatory to Intermediate level. Wednesday's, 19:00 - 20:30 Adult RAD Grade 7 Please email anna@hypedance.org.uk with CV and cover letter if you are interested. ** Does anyone know anyone who they think might be interested in the job? Do you think it's worth starting a new post? There are a lot of dancers in Sheffield who are interested in lessons. Before our old teacher went on maternity leave Hype had 4 different levels of adult ballet and an additional 2 levels of pointe work as well as RAD syllabus classes and all the classes pulled in large numbers. So there is definitely an appetite for dance in Sheffield.

Can anyone recommend any good shops for pointe shoe fitting in South Yorkshire? I'm not looking for a particular brand, my current shoes are Gambas but they seem to be breaking down too quickly for me at the moment. I'm not keen on Grishko and Freed, but I'd have a look at any other brands. I work all week and I haven't got the time (or money) to travel to London for fittings unfortunately and I need a new pair before my intermediate exam in about 6 weeks. I wondered if anyone knew of anywhere local to me (Sheffield)? I would consider travelling to Leeds if that's the best place to go.

I purchased the Intermediate syllabus in July and I have the same issue. Regardless of what exercise you select it always goes to 'Pliés' and then you have to hit forward then back again to view the exercise you wanted to watch. I reported it to RAD when I purchased the video, as I also had the same issues with download as described above, but they simply said they'd let their app developers know. So they've obviously not fixed it in at least 2 months.

Thanks CeliB and to your DS for replying so quickly. And thanks everyone else for your well wishes, I think I'll call the fracture clinic in the morning just to make sure. Porthesia I am so, so sorry to hear about your DD, that's so sad to hear. Thank you for the advice about getting the X-ray at the end of the 6 weeks, I will make sure I do. Dance is life, thank you for your advice on moving the ankle, I'm keen not to loose muscle in my legs, and I'd love to be able to continue on pointe in time.

So on Monday night whilst performing a simple turning jump in my contemporary class I managed to break my foot! I landed on the side of my left foot and have broken my 5th metatarsal in a few places. The X-ray didn't look good and A&E thought that they might have needed to operate. Thankfully when I went to the fracture clinic the following day, they said I wouldn't need an operation and have given me crutches and a walking cast, which I can take off at night and to shower. They booked me an appointment to come back in 6 weeks and sent me on my way. I was so relieved ( and slightly hazy on codeine) at the time that I wasn't having an operation that I forgot to ask a lot of questions and feel like I could have done with some more advice. I had the rest of the week off but I'm going back to work tomorrow. I've been trying to keep my foot up as much as possible at home and I'm not sure it's going to cope being under a desk all day. I'm also not sure how much to weight bear on my injured foot. One of the doctors said it was good to start weight bearing early on to help the healing process ????? But I've ( stupidly) read a lot of things online that say not to weight bear at all. I don't want to be doing anything to make it worse or that will make the healing process take longer. I've also not sure how much I'm allowed to move my foot and ankle. I take the cast off at night and so my ankle does move around and my foot does twinge sometimes. But I don't want my foot and ankle to seize up and take longer to get mobile again. Has anyone else had a similar injury and do you have any advice on what I should do? I'm not sure how I'm going to cope not dancing for so long, even though it's just a hobby. Sorry for the long message. I hope some of you lovely people can help me. x

Flit and float that sounds exactly like what I need to do! Is 'Pointe Shoes, Tips & Tricks' a website or a book? Would you need to unpick the drawstring casing along the top too? Or double it back on itself above the waist seam, or cut the drawstring casing and stitch that back together to fit to the new size?

Talking about messing around with pointe shoes, I wondered whether anyone has ever tried modifying their pointe shoes to make them fit better? I only ask because I'm pretty sure that my feet fall somewhere in between regular sizes. In the past I had an old pair of Gamba shoes and wanted to try them again, so I found what I thought was the right size online and ordered (I know this was a silly risk, but I couldn't find any Gamba stockists locally). However after breaking them in a little they turned out to be a bit too big . I've since had a pair half a size smaller, which seem to do the job, but I do feel that they would be better if they were a little longer. I still have the slightly too big shoes, and it seems such a waste that they're just sat in a cupboard not being used. Does anyone have any tips on adjusting pointe shoes? I don't mind if I ruin them experimenting as they're of no use at the moment anyway, i'm just not quite sure where to start.

In my old dance school we used squares of white felt and the number was either drawn on with a black fabric pen or marker, or stitched on in embroidery thread. Then just safety pinned to the leotard. I don't know if the transfer paper Pas de Quatre mentioned would work on felt, but at least the felt won't fray.

Positive thinking can work, I think I had a pirouette breakthrough last night! Last week I had some disastrous attempts at double pirouettes en dehors which resulted in me falling on my bum (not my best moment)! I allowed myself to get frustrated and tensed up and that obviously made things worse. After class last week I decided that I wasn't going to let myself get worked up about pirouettes any more, and that I needed to take a new approach so that I didn't feel so terrified of them. So I went to my grade class last night and did the pirouette exercises and really struggled , I was starting to get cross with myself again but my teacher gave me a few pointers. I've been making my preparatory 4th position too large in en dehors turns (which I have been told in the past but with long legs I find it hard to make it small) and too small for en dedans. We had a half hour break in between the grade class and the intermediate/advanced class, so I kept on practising pirouettes without the pressure of timing or anyone watching. I tried thinking confidently and rather than getting frustrated to really focus on all the separate elements, especially using my core. When it came to pirouettes in the next class I did a few sturdy singles and felt happy so I went for a double, and..... I didn't fall over! In fact I think I actually managed to land a few with half decent placement. Who know's what'll happen in class on Wednesday, but for now I'm definitely happy with the effects of positive thinking! Try it, it might work for you too!

Good luck for the Northern Ballet show at the weekend Terpsichore and Michelle. I'm sure it'll be a wonderful experience. And Terpsichore I've seen you dance too on a few Mondays now (I was the one in the bright-ish blue leotard this week) and you don't need to worry! Performing is such a buzz and your passion and commitment will definitely show. As the others have mentioned we can all be our worst critics and it's something that I struggle with all the time. After a bit of a tearful moment at the end of the advanced class one week, when I felt like I couldn't keep up with the others and was making a fool of myself, my teacher told me to stop being a perfectionist and getting upset when I couldn't do something first time. She said that I was better than I thought I was and if she didn't think I could cope she wouldn't have let me do the class. Her best bit of advice was to think about why I was doing the classes, and that it didn't matter what level anyone else was at because what mattered was that I was there for me not anyone else. As long as I was enjoying myself, learning and improving then in didn't matter what anyone else could do.

I found needle grabbers very useful, they're round little bits of rubber that help you grip the needle, which was particularly useful for forcing the needle throught the satin. I bought some from John Lewis. Stopped me from sticking the needle through my finger tips and they are more flexible than thimbles.

Hi Hambleton is this Grade 6 RAD?

Hi HappyGirl I've been reading the thread but just thought I'd comment on my experience. About 20 ish years ago (gosh that makes me feel old) I auditioned as a 7/8 year old for the JAs (it might have been called something different back then though). My teacher suggested it to my mum and like you we knew nothing about it at the time. I was adamant that I did not want to be a ballerina and really didn't want to do the audition (especially as the process of taking a photo for the application form was a lot more difficult without a digital camera, I think we developed about 4 films before we found the right photo) but my mum just said I had nothing to lose and that even if they offered me a place I didn't have to take it. So I had the day off school to go to the audition and we treated it like a fun day out and went swimming afterwards and out for lunch. I went along to the audition and actually really enjoyed it and despite my threats that I wasn't going to try I actually tried my hardest on the day. In the end I didn't get offered a place, and I was a bit upset, but things moved on and I continued dancing at my local dance school until I was 18. I recently returned to dancing as an adult and I really love it. I didn't audition again and who knows what would have happened if I did, and in a way I'm glad that I didn't get in, I don't think I'd have had the passion and determination to be a professional dancer and I'm probably too tall and shapely too and maybe the RBS could tell that when I was 7) I also didn't have to go through the heartache that lots of young dancers do when they audition and get a no, but I still love dancing and I don't regret taking the opportunity. I'd suggest go for it and see what happens and don't put too much pressure on your DD, like Julie said going to JAs doesn't mean that she will go on to being a ballerina. And if she doesn't get in then there are plenty more opportunities in the future to try again if she would like to persue dance.

Slightly off topic sorry, I've never owned a pair of soft blocks so I can't give any tips for softening them, but why are they all so hard? I though that the point of soft blocks was that they were softer than a normal pointe shoe, but worn to train the dancer to get used to dancing in pointe shoes (but on demi pointe) and working the feet harder etc. but by the sounds of it that's not the case. Can anyone help explain this?

Not sure about the wobble boards sorry, but I bought my therabands on eBay, I have a green and a blue one. Green is a lower resistance than the blue, but the blue is quite strong. The green ones are used quite alot in pilates, might be a good one to start with. Do you know what dd needs to use it for? Is it for stretching or strengthening feet and ankles?

My first thoughts is that it would be the width of the shoe and not the suede patch, although the studios sticky floor doesn't sound great. If the shoe is too wide I think it wouldn't give you the support that you need. I wonder why they fitted you in the wider width? I have quite compressible feet and I find it makes fitting pointe shoes quite hard so that they are supportive enough en pointe yet aren't too tight when flat. Do you think this could be an issue? I've recently got some gaynors with the sewn in suede patch but I don't find them too sticky and they're really lovely to echappe in because they are so flexible. I had a pair of pointes that were too wide once and I really struggled to dance in them, I ended up putting on 2 pairs of ouch pouches for a bit, but it wasn't a great idea, I couldn't feel the floor enough with them. Do you use any padding in your gaynors? As for making the sticky ones less sticky, is there some sort of way of making the suede more worn in so that it becomes a little smoother?

drdance I was in Dancia on Friday afternoon too! I wonder if we were there at the same time!? I was wearing an orangey/brown dress. Unfortunately Capezio was closed due to “stock take” which was a shame because I quite fancied a new leotard from there. We went to Bloch next but the fitter there was pretty rubbish, she seemed very disinterested and didn’t manage to find any shoes that fitted me. I’m glad that I knew a bit about what I was looking for as I’m sure I would have ended up with some very ill fitting pointe shoes otherwise. I don’t know whether they have better fitters in on other days, but I really wouldn’t recommend them especially if looking for your first or second pair of pointes. Just my experience on the day though. So we went to Dancia next and I got fitted by a really nice girl (forgot to ask her name sorry)she seemed pretty knowledgeable and I felt happy with the shoes she was selecting for me. I also ended up with some gaynors, I thought I wouldn’t go for them, but they feel so lovely and seemed to fit far better than any of the other shoes I tried, especially as I was able to get the sleek heel ones. I’m also really intrigued as to whether they’ll live up to all the claims they make. p.s. porthesia thanks for the tip about the custom made grishkos, I may look into that in the future.

Anjuli, a really useful bit of advice. I've tried doing this and I can barely balance for more than a second or two. My weight is off, but not consistently off either forward or backwards. This may explain why I always feel out of control in pirouettes, so I guess I need to go back to basics until I can balance in releve confidently before I attempt turning again. Other than repeating this over and over do you have any other tips to help with this balance? Or is repetition the best option?