Dancer Sugar Plum

I am not a natural jumper - I have seen other people who have a natural spring and I am so envious! Several teachers I've had in the past have told me to just 'jump higher' as advice on what to do to improve my jumps. Personally, I found this very unhelpful. The best advice I have had about improving my jumps is about body posture. In most people, the back muscles are (naturally) stronger than the stomach muscles, so it's easy to find yourself relaxing the stomach muscles in a series of jumps. If the centre muscles relax during these jumps, you will hollow your lower back, and this will stop you getting elevation in the air, or being able to pointe your feet in the air. It can tricky to maintain this in a series of jumps. Another thing, if you've not got a natural spring in the air, it can be easy to find yourself lifting your shoulders trying to get more height, which is not helpful either. What I've found helpful is not to focus on 'jumping higher', but watch when you land on each jump that you've kept your body position the same by keep your stomach muscles strong. Then if you can think about getting energy to the ends of your toes on each jump, this would improve your jumps as well. Hope this is helpful. If your daughter is spending time practicing her jumps over the summer, I would like to suggest you encourage her not to jump on concrete because that would be hard on her bones and joints.

I've noticed some new people join my class in recent months and they've stayed. It's great that more people are doing ballet, they might be inspired to see it live every now and again and then that's good for the arts. Apart from the fitness benefit, it's nice for more and more people to be aware that ballet is not girly, you don't need to be younger than 7 to start, and you don't need to be dressed in pink to attend classes, etc. However, I've also noticed that some adults are going for the wrong level of class. This may have been discussed on this forum before? Maybe not an issue in somewhere like Pineapple in London because of the sheer numbers and levels of people going to classes. But in places smaller than London, I've seen adults who would be classed as beginners join advanced classes but no-one has pointed out to them that it's not suited to their level. I feel it's a shame because they would benefit from a lower-level class. I've heard of adults dropping out of ballet because they say it is harder than they expected it to be and say something like, "I learnt loads at the beginning but then I just stopped learning any thing new and getting better". I think the repetitiveness of ballet surprises some people - you don't learn tendus today and never do them again because you've moved on/become more advanced. I think programmes like Strictly Come Dancing and Diversity winning Britain's Got Talent must have helped make dancing more popular. Just some of my thoughts.

I don't have any experience of the upper school, but I have been to their adult class. Same as Swanprincess, I got told that 'RAD is not ballet'. The woman also said, 'There is no such thing as Vaganova ballet, in Russia ballet is just ballet!' Also personally, I wasn't too keen on the actual class. I found it difficult to understand what the teacher was saying and he spend the entire class focusing on one girl, who I assumed was a vocational student. He raised her legs to way above her ears for each extension but it appeared she did not have the strength to hold it there yet but she got her thighs slapped and got yelled at for these 'faults' anyway. So same as Swanprincess, my experience of the school has been negative. As it has been mentioned already, there are people who love the school and these are just my observations.

Hi Anondancer_15, The brand Freya does a good sports bra in nude colour with underwiring. This is the best I've found so far for eliminating 'bounce'. I've worn this bra before for a performance where the costume (not my choice!) had thin straps and I just cannot go without a bra! Fortunately, this bra didn't show up in the DVD recording so I hope this would work for you too. I've never tried tape, so I would be curious to hear how that would work too!

The RAD can give you a list of their registered teachers near you, if you want to look at RAD schools. I think people will have different ideas of what they look for in a teacher. But in my opinion, I would avoid any teacher who does the following: Takes a very casual approach to their students starting pointe work Only gives attention to the 'star' students and ignores everyone else There is an emphasis on getting the leg as high as possible, with no teaching/explanation on placement. A good teacher would do the following: Not ignore certain students - he/she tries to correct everyone He/she is knowledgable about correcting placement in individual bodies, for example, he/she will tell a student not to raise their leg so high if it's distorting their hips at the moment He/she creates a positive atmosphere in class to work, everyone is encouraged to do their best and no-one is picked on for being 'the worse'. If you go to a RAD school, a lot of students from Grade 4 or 5-ish onwards will also be working towards one of the vocational exams. At Grade 4 or 5, the students are probably doing Intermediate Foundation as well as their grade class. There are usually 2 classes per week of a vocational exam class, so this means students do at least 3 classes a week minimum. If there are free-work classes available, that's even better. It sounds like your DD has done enough ballet to pick the schools/teachers she would like to try out classes with, so I would go with her opinions and take it from there.

I would go for number 3 or 4. It's also worth asking your DD how she would feel if she left her current school and joined a school that did no festivals. Would she miss them a lot? Does she want to continue doing them? If you decide to change schools, this might be a big factor in what school you choose to join. A lot of schools have a school show, usually yearly, for their students to perform in. So your DD would still have a chance to perform, if this was what she would miss about not doing festivals. It's been mentioned on this forum before, but I would just like to mention that vocational schools also don't take festival results/sucesses into account when they offer places at vocational school. So if your DD is aiming to go down this route, it's worth baring this in mind when you pick a school. If you and your DD are open to looking at schools that don't do festivals, you may have a bigger choice of schools to choose from. For these schools, since you don't see their students at festivals, it might be a good idea for you and your DD to ask about watching a class and/or do some trial lessons at these schools before choosing which school you want to join. You also mentioned an example where your DD felt unhappy with the ballet teaching she received at her current school. It can be quite difficult to find a teacher that suits your DD best, just because dancers (of all ages) can be looking for different things in a teacher. Therefore, the idea of asking schools to watch their classes and do trial lessons is a good idea when looking for a new school. The other advantage of doing this, is that you're not committing yourself to a school, or have to leave your current school, before looking at all your choices. Good luck.

I don't have any advice to give but I thought you might be interested to read about the story of Deanna McBrearty of NYC Ballet, who had scoliosis. Maybe other forum members would know where to go for help. Good luck.

I have heard that they are easier to work in and break in than other brands. However, I think this might vary with different pairs because I bought a pair a while back, which were hard. I like how they hug the foot, the elastic drawstring stops the shoes from coming off when you go on demi-pointe. However, the heel area is less flattering than other shoes because it sticks out when you point your foot to second. It's hard work sewing on ribbons because of the elastic drawstring. I hope this is helpful.

Hi Loulabelle, I know of someone who wears Grishkos 2007s in their hardest shank (or extra shank added - I don't know which one) with a piece of steel added to the shoes! She has very arched feet and was going through pointe shoes very quickly but these shoes seem to be the answer for her feet and her parents' pockets. I have heard one pair survived a couple of well-known UK summer schools this year. I think these shoes are a special order so maybe it's worth asking about these next time your DD goes for new pointe shoes?

I don't have narrow feet so I can't personally recommend whether Amelie is any good for your DD's feet. But if your DD would like to try different brands, I know of a girl having narrow feet who found Grishkos Vaganovas suited her very well. Maybe they are worth a try later on? Unfortunately with pointe shoes, you might find you're having to try/buy several brands before your find the shoes that suit you, so you could end up rejecting shoes when they're still pretty new. Personally, pointe shoes are never what I would call 'comfortable' but if you try different brands, you get to compare which shoes are more comfortable than others for your feet. Generally, the shoes are at their most uncomfortable when they are new because they haven't moulded to your feet yet. You mentioned in your post that your DD thought the shoes 'felt a bit tight around the foot'. Your DD might be right that it was because she wasn't used to them, however, it's worth checking that her foot is not spilling out over the tops of the shoes when she is standing flat. You also mentioned that your DD liked her recent Bloch European Balance, but the half size bigger was too big. If you are - or need to - go back to the shop, it might be worth trying several pairs of the Bloch European Balance in the same size as her current ones. Each pointe shoe has slight variations, and your DD may find she would still need her current size, rather than go up a half size if she was to go for the Bloch European Balance again. I hope this helps.

I agree JulieW, it's something that has never crossed my mind either, I'm too busy admiring the technical prowess of the dancers. This is interesting Anjuli. I'm sure I've seen a documentary about Nureyev where it said that it was his 'fault' that we now have male dancers in tights on stage. Aparently, if I remember correctly from the documentary, before Nureyev came along, males dancers did not usually wear tights on stage. It was considered odd and strange when Nureyev first appeared in tights. The trend obviously caught on, but if he didn't start this trend, I wonder what male dancers would be wearing today?

I agree with this. For most (non-ballet) people, the only time they come into contact with ballet is if they happen to catch a performance on TV or go along to a performance. The professionals make it look so effortless, so people think it is easy. Everyone on stage makes it look so effortless, the women might be wearing floaty costumes, the tutus are so beautiful, somethimes they are sparkly, so it has a reputation for being 'pink and fluffy'. I get frustrated when I hear people making comments to show they don't understand how much work is involved in doing ballet. If people were to understand how much work it takes to do ballet properly, would that encourage more people to go to ballet performances and do class themselves, including men and boys, or would that remove the illusion created by professional dancers on stage? I can imagine it must be so hard as a young person still at 'normal' school, trying to make your peers and teachers understand your love of ballet and having to put up with comments about ballet being easy, girly, etc, whether you're a boy or girl. Reading the last few posts reminded of a programme broadcasted some years ago about students at the Royal Ballet School. There were several boys who talked about having to hide their passion for ballet from their school before getting into White Lodge. One boy said he made up a story about where he was going, and his old school still did not know he was at ballet school, presumably until they saw the programme on TV and saw his 'confession'. He can't be the only one placed in this situation and I think it's really sad, having to hide what he loved doing most in the world. But on the plus side, it was great to see him happy at White Lodge, that he no longer needed to hide his love for ballet now that he was at vocational school.

There was a programme last week about whether you can have a 'male mind' or 'female mind' (or something along those lines). I didn't see it but a ballet friend did. She said that when they talked about typical female activities they showed a ballet class with very young girls. When they talked about typical male activities they showed a football match. Talk about gender stereotyping! And we wonder why not more boys are taking up ballet! Surely these stereotypes broadcasted on TV undermine any programmes run by ballet schools to encourage boys to dance? Oh dear.

That's a brilliant idea. Can someone persuade Baryshnikov to take part please?!

I liked your reply Stitch In this situation, I think ballet's reputation for being pink and the association with pointe shoes, which are usually pink, is not helpful. It's bad enough that people think ballet is easy because of it's 'pinkness' but it makes people think it's a feminine activity. When I have mentioned that men do different steps from females in class, that they have slower music to jump higher, and they dance differently from females, etc, non-ballet people are always very surprised. I also have never heard of, or seen a school being restrictive of what new students wear for class, be they children or adults, unless it's a safety issue.