Flit and float

Yes it's the Dansez bra I have, worn them for years & they last really well. Super comfy as they're just like cotton crop tops, and they fit under most normal tank leotards. Also good as I've got a long body so leotards quite often end up on the low cut side, bra means I don't show so much cleavage! Also they come in lots of colours & you could wear with leggings or jazz pants for jazz as they just look like tops as opposed to too bra like.

Yes to minimal bounce bras! I couldn't do without mine! I'm not especially big but the thought of doing a petit allegro without a bra - ouch!! Dance Direct always have a suggestion box when you order - products you would like them to get, I always suggest leotards you can wear a bra with, their catalogue is full of lovely fancy ones but the majority are all low backed/fancy backed/camisoles!

All the pages are lovely!! Will be nice to follow them after all the audition news!

I know some of the musical theatre degree are 18+, not sure of entry requirements but not so 16+ as ballet. There's a masters in musical theatre (1 year) so quite a range of ages there, I guess at least 20?

Something a teacher told me years ago, doesn't work for everyone but worth a try, for pirouettes, spot slightly above eye line & breathe in on each turn (they did an actual sniff with their nose!). Not ground breaking but something to consider if you're having trouble!

Update on the soft blocks....washed them in washing machine, let them dry a bit folded up then put them on and wore to bed last night. Wore to class today - wow! What a difference! I highly recommend machine washing your Grishkos! Just make sure to put them on a bit damp as they do shrink a bit but seem to have stretched out ok.

Don't think I could take them back now having sewn the ribbons & elastic & bashed them about! Plus I didn't notice much difference in hardness between all the pairs I tried on. I know it's weird, I never had issues before but maybe they've upped the hardness! Anyway, I've washed an ancient Gamba soft pointe (that I only wore a few times as I didn't like how they fit, so still hard) in the washing machine, and they appear to have softened nicely while still keeping the shape of the box ok. Shank seems just the same. I've got it on slightly damp and it might actually shape to my foot better, so I think full steam ahead for bashing & washing the Grishkos!

Yeah they are supposed to be an "inbetween" soft shoes & pointe shoes, hard box but not as fully blocked as a pointe shoe, they have a sort of shank but again, not a full pointe shoe one. They make it harder to balance & work your feet work harder to pointe eg in tendus, so strengthen them. I've had Bloch, Gamba (I wish they still made them, they were perfect!) and Grishko before, none seemed to be quite as hard as these...I think I've actually broken in pointe shoes easier! Maybe they make them harder now, it's been at least 5 years since I bought a pair (& eek how much more expensive they are now!)

Wow thanks for all the suggestions, I'll bash them to death and try washing an old pair to see how they go. Dancer sugar plum, yeah it's the digging in that bothers me the most. I had thought about lowering the vamp but just seemed so complicated! My ancient pair were hard but I could break them in with minimal softening, maybe my feet were much stronger then. If all else fails I might try & get Bloch/Sansha/Freed ones when I'm in London next month, the shop here only has Grishko as they said nobody wanted any other makes anymore, & other dance shops don't sell soft blocks. So I'm imagining all the dancers in Glasgow spending hours bashing up their Grishkos!

I did think about washing them in the washing machine...I might just try it on an old pair first! Done the folding them in half, I did that when I wet the box, that's when I thought I'd cracked it! I think I'll just have to keep at it...they're too tight/hard to sleep in yet though. My old Grishkos, although they softened up & I could actually dance in them, did reharden in the boxes between wearings, really properly reharden! I wonder what glue they use to make them so hard?

Thanks Skydancer, I've tried that (& I can go en pointe in them, that's how hard the boxes are!) the front of the box digs in when I try to Demi pointe, but I guess I'll just need to go with it. Haven't tried therabands for breaking shoes in but I'll give it a try. I think whoever made these just made them super hard!

I've got a pair of Grishko soft blocks after quite a few years of just using canvas shoes...I've had the same ones before and don't remember them being quite so hard to break in! In fact the ones I had have holes in them & completely worn out. I just cannot get these to soften, I can't bend at Demi pointe at as they slip off the heels (despite elastic) and dig in at the front...I tried on lots of pairs in the shop (length & width sizes around the ones I got) & they seemed fine, just new & stiff. I've been bending & massaging, bashing in the floor, steaming, warming in radiators & wearing, wearing inside thick warm socks, carefully putting water across the front where they'd bend on demi. In desperation I completely wet the left block, it got nice & soft & bendy - "yes!" I thought, squished it about, let it dry a bit & wore while still damp....that's my slightly smaller foot anyway but now it seems to have shrunk a lot and harder than ever! The right one that was all softened is harder than ever too! I can't even wear them to dance in yet! Any ideas before I give up & put them down to an expensive mistake?! I know Grishko shoes are hard but I've had a few pairs of soft blocks/pointes & never as bad as this! On the other hand if you keep wearing out shoes too quickly then give Grishkos a try as they just keep rehardening themselves!

Just remembered, on the topic of appraisals, did anyone see the programme Ballet School about Welsh children at Elmhurst? (Think it's on YouTube it's only a few years old). It showed one girl on her first year at upper school doing her appraisal & getting the results in a letter Feb half term. She had been worried about pointe especially as she'd had an injury & hadn't done proper pointe work for a whole. She passed with concerns, obviously about her pointe work. She ended up leaving & going somewhere else for rehab at the end of the year (Rambert I think, not sure exactly what a rehab place was) but she didn't do the show or anything due to being injured. I thought it was a bit harsh to give her that result as they must've known she wasn't full strength & even having everything depend on that appraisal class (like an exam) when she was injured wasn't really fair! I suppose there must've been more to it than was shown though.

Oh and quite a few girls in the oldest choreographed their own dances for modern or ballet eventually, especially ones who been doing festivals their whole lives! I never did as I hadn't been dancing that long, but I did contribute a few bits for my modern & tap!

There's no set steps as such for festivals, I think just that the age groups would be roughly the same sort of standard and so you would see similar steps, plus certain things are technically more difficult so if you can pull off e.g. double pirouette en pointe then that'd get you points! Not like highland, Irish, ballroom etc where it's more strict on what steps you can do. I think for National it's maybe a bit more exacting - you need to have steps authentic to the country & done the right way. Your son could maybe enter a festival that has improvisation and/or choreography sections? I don't know if many do it, I know when I did festivals one of them had those sections although I never entered (impro would have been my worst nightmare!)

For amateur shows I've been involved with (8 or 9 performances in the week plus tech & dress) the children were double cast & did alternate performances. They had to have licences from their local council but more recently I think (laws changed) just permission from school if they had to miss any (matinees & leaving early). Most schools very supportive (as it was only a week) & valued the whole experience. A few children managed to take a bit more time off than they needed to! All of them coped fine with it, had a great experience even in Oliver where there were one or two 5 year olds once! Chaperoning & child protection was very strictly adhered to though.

I live in Glasgow - loads to do! Kelvingrove as mentioned, lots of shopping in city centre if you want to stay close to RCS (although are the auditions at the main building or Spiers Lock studios?)lots of cafés, restaurants etc (& one in RCS) You could get the underground from Buchanan Street to Hillhead for West End shopping, cafés etc, to Kelvinhall for Kelvingrove. (Parking busy for West End shopping) There's the Riverside museum (transport related too), Science Centre, IMAX, Cathedral, Religious Life museum, The Lighthouse (very near RCS)...loads of stuff! The city centre streets are in a grid so you're unlikely to get lost too good luck to your daughter!

I would definitely mention it - maybe the teacher thinks she's doing ok & isn't giving her as many corrections at the moment as there are other children requiring a bit more, or maybe your daughter was getting more corrections before & the teacher is letting her consolidate/not wanting to overload with corrections? If she never gets any corrections then that's a problem. I had a time in classes (not ballet & I was quite a bit older than your daughter) when I felt I was getting ignored & must be not worth bothering about - I had a chat with my teacher & he said that he thought I was doing fine & was able to self correct to some extent for the moment - I knew what I was doing, but that he would definitely start paying me more attention & giving more corrections. Which he did, so it's worth a chat!

Oops....dance is part of the curriculum in Scotland too, under expressive arts (with drama, art, music) for the last few years, rather than being lumped in with PE as it was in the previous curriculum. Experiences in dance vary very much from school to school, but in my council anyway, there seems to be much more dance coaches going in & doing blocks of dance (quite often hip hop or similar). I always did after school jazz classes but that was an extra thing, & funding cut drastically with that a few years ago (but I and other teachers did after school clubs for free).

Dance is part of the curriculum in Scotland too (under expeeas

Just to add, dance teaching does indeed count as real teaching, any such experience is good & when I was applying for teaching they liked it. Plus my schools for placement & jobs were only too keen to use my dance background! Never mind the school, some people just never get it sadly.

Katymac, did you see there are Italia Conti scholarships you can apply for advertised in the Stage today? I just saw it on Twitter, not sure if it's something for you but thought I'd mention it just in case!

I think all the schools I've worked in would acknowledge & celebrate achievements like that - assemblies & displays & so on (I once got a certificate at an assembly and a show photo on the achievement wall - as a teacher!) Definitely now (in Scotland) it's part of the curriculum almost to "celebrate wider achievements" & big things children achieve out of school rated equal to achievements in school, all part of their learning. I really hope it's just that schools don't quite realise what they're dismissing. And I'd probably be completely the other way, & want to hear every little detail, get the child to show what they can do at any opportunity!

Hi I asked my friend about DADAs & she said what happens is they score you at your initial audition, then once they've finished all their auditions they send you a letter inviting you to DADA audition. So it might be a while till you know about that :-/ Not sure if that helps you of not!

Katymac...not sure about all that, will message her & ask!