TabbyCool

I have slight hyper extension in my knees and it definitely makes ballet more challenging! My teacher is constantly telling me to straighten my legs so my heels can touch in first position, when I do a ronde de jambe a terre I feel like there isn't enough space for my working leg to pass through first position without having to adjust my supporting leg as it feels most stable when locked in a hyperextended position, which makes it slightly shorter than when it's straight!

Lucky, I wish mine did! My teacher asked us to darn our first pair, but I'm definitely tempted to stick suede caps on the next pair!

Oh, and on the topic of girth, mine is 66"! Stupid big butt and boobs make buying ballet wear a bit tricky at times!

A lady from my ballet class has a lot of experience with tutus, she's made a lot of them herself. I have a Revolution practise tutu from Dance Direct that sticks up just a bit too much, she recommended wearing it around the house with a heavy skirt on top to push it down. She also suggested putting a towel over it and ironing it. I haven't tried either yet since I don't actually need a tutu, I just bought it on a whim, because I wanted a tutu! Just thought I'd pass on her advice in case it helps

That's fair enough, sounds like she's very busy! Sewing ribbons, elastics, darning the ends... It isn't exactly a quick job!

If they're old enough to do pointe, they're old enough to learn basic sewing skills! You can't do it for her forever, can you imagine a pro ballerina sending her shoes home to her mother for sewing? The sooner they learn to do it themselves the better, plus it saves you the time and the stabbed fingers!

I replied in the other thread, but I'll put it in here too in case you didn't see it! Dance City are based in the city centre, they run a beginner's ballet class on Monday evenings, then beginner, intermediate and advanced on Thursdays. The classes are fun, it's a really informal environment and everyone is really friendly so your friend's daughter should have no problem settling in. I also take classes at St Hilda's Ballet School, they teach the Cecchetti method rather than RAD, they have classes on Thursdays and Saturdays. The Thursday classes are in West Jesmond, right next to the metro station, while the Saturday classes are in High Heaton, which is about 15 minutes by bus from the city centre. They teach pointework and also encourage students to take graded exams (though it's purely optional). Dance City don't do either of those things.

Dance City have a beginners' class on Monday nights, plus beginner, intermediate and advanced classes on Thursdays. I used to do the advanced class but switched to a smaller dance school as Dance City don't teach pointe. The advanced class is really fun though and the teacher and students are all really nice, it's a very informal environment. The other classes I'm taking are with St Hilda's Ballet School, which is just a minute's walk from West Jesmond metro station (less than a 5 minute metro journey from town). They teach the Cecchetti method, as well as the opportunity to learn pointe work and be entered for graded exams. Those classes are on Thursday evenings. They also run classes on Saturdays in High Heaton, which is about 15 minutes from town on the bus, though lots of students live in Heaton so it might be quite handy for a student, depending on where they're based.

Oh, I didn't put the pins in when they were on my feet, I pinned them, tried them on, then unpinned to adjust them before putting the shoe back on again! I'd squeal if I got stabbed too, it's bad enough stabbing myself in the fingers and thumbs, I'm not risking stabbing my feet, that would hurt! As for the pins not being strong enough, there's a bit of a knack to it, you need to push them through so that each pin goes through the shoe in the middle as well as at the edges of the ribbon, kind of like sewing little stitches with the pin, if that makes sense! It's hard to explain without being able to post a picture. It does work though, and holds pretty securely, certainly enough to be able to test out the ribbon tension, though I wouldn't try springing up en pointe with them pinned, but that shouldn't really be necessary. Hopefully next time your daughter will be brave enough to sew her own shoes, basic sewing is an important life skill, especially for a dancer! (Plus it saves you the job!)

I usually pin mine in place before I sew them, just to try them on and make sure they're in the right place, it saves the pain of having to do it again if it's not quite right! ????

Its not just ribbon, it has elasticated sections to maintain the right tension and reduce strain on the Achilles' tendon. I found that with regular ribbon, if you tie it nice and snug when your feet are flat it becomes too tight when you go up en pointe, whereas if it's the right tension en pointe it gapes a bit when you come down.

Reading through these posts has really surprised me, do your teachers / kids' teachers not give advice on how to look after and prepare your pointe shoes? After our fitting the teacher showed everyone how to sew on their ribbons, gave advice about fitting the elastic and told us how to darn the platform on the shoes. She also told us to keep them in a mesh bag so they can get some air, to take out the pouches and let them air too. We were also told not to bash, bend, stomp on, freeze, cook, blow dry or do anything else crazy to the shoes as they'll break in the way our feet need them to and doing anything to try to speed up the process could risk destroying them completely. After the first class wearing them some girls were shown how to soften the wings a little by gently massaging the shoe, some were told to bend the demipoint position a bit on the sole to allow more movement, but this was after walking around in the shoes and doing some basic exercises to see how they felt and what was needed to make them that bit more comfortable.

One of the classes I attend has a pianist, the other 2 have recorded music. One teacher uses piano versions of pop music, which can be quite nice, though it does make me laugh when I realise we're doing ballet to Smells Like Teen Spirit or Lady Gaga! The other teacher uses Cecchetti syllabus music in the beginner class since we're doing grades, but in the advanced class she uses instrumental versions of songs from various different films and musicals. I have another teacher who I don't see a lot these days since her class clashes with another one that I take, but she plays all kinds of pop music, we've danced to Lionel Richie, Coldplay, The Time Warp... All kinds!

Last week I was in a hurry to catch my bus after ballet class, so I put my boots and coat on top of my ballet wear and rushed out to the bus stop. Turns out I needn't have bothered rushing so much because the bus came early and I missed it, I then realised it just wasn't cold enough for my coat, but all I had underneath was a black leotard, black tights and a chiffon wrap skirt. Me being me, I took my coat off and put my dress on top of my leotard at the bus stop, then once I was on the bus I removed the wrap skirt. I was too hot to bother with decorum!

I recently managed to get my hands on a pretty Bloch leotard (not one of the boring basic ones) in a size XL! It fits! It's comfortable! It makes me happy! Turns out that Dance Direct can actually pre-order styles from Bloch in an XL, despite the fact that Bloch usually only go up to an L. The more of us that buy them and request them, the more likely they are to get more styles in, so if you want pretty things in an XL I'd suggest emailing Dance Direct, if enough of us show interest they might start ordering more things to fit us!

I find that the best way to keep the hair pins in securely is to make sure that when they're pushed in, they actually push into the hair band holding my ponytail, that way they're gripped by the hairband and don't fall out. My hair really likes to misbehave, but this does the trick! My hair is really thick, and when it was also really long (down to my bum), I would put it into a ponytail, then split the ponytail into 3 sections, or 2 if I was in a hurry, then plait each section. Then I'd just wrap the plaits around in a spiral and pin them in place, I found that the plaits kept the bun a lot more secure than just twisting and pinning the hair, and it was much more manageable to actually do the bun in the first place as there weren't loose hairs escaping. A couple of times when I had time to kill, I actually split my hair into 6 plaits, when they were wrapped around in a spiral my bun was really wide and flat and looked pretty impressive, though doing 6 plaits is a bit too time-consuming for me, my standard bun only takes a minute or 2! Now that my hair is a fair bit shorter it's not long enough to do a plaited bun because of how thick it is, so I just split the ponytail in 2, twist each section and pin them around in a spiral. I use the long hair grips rather than Bobby pins, and never use bun nets.

I wear black or dark coloured leotards most often, usually with pink tights but sometimes I go for black, just depends how I feel. I rarely wear shorts over my leotard as I have big hips so they just make me look wider, I tend to wear a chiffon wrap skirt, I have a plain black one and 2 patterned ones from Capezio that look nice with a range of different coloured leotards. I do have some bright leotards too though, Bloch have done some lovely ones in turquoise, raspberry, purple... I do like red too, my teacher told me I suit red, although some reds do feel just a little too bright! As for fabrics not showing sweat, I recently bought a navy blue leotard from Roch Valley that is nylon lycra (a fabric I usually avoid!) with a velvet section across the bust and sleeves. The velvet comes a bit below the bottom of my bra where I usually get sweat marks and hides all of my sweaty sins! I love it so much I'm going to order the black version as soon as I get paid. This is the one... http://www.danceandleisurewear.co.uk/roch-valley-teresa-leotard.html I seem to be a bit of a rarity in my classes, the studio I go to is really informal so a lot of people turn up to class in leggings and t-shirts, leotards with leggings on top, socks rather than ballet shoes etc, only a few of us actually dress for ballet! I always wear my hair in a bun, usually on the back of my head, I have a lot of hair so a low bun gets in the way if I want to put my head back and is more difficult to hold in place with hair pins.

I just found a load of leotards I want on discountdance.com, they have heaps of styles in size XL, unfortunately many of them are only available to US customers. Still, I found a few that were available for international orders, added them to my cart and then saw the shipping price of £25 (for 2 leotards and a pair of legwarmers!!!) and abandoned the website! £25 shipping is just ridiculous!

As for swimming costumes, I got a couple of nice Mantaray ones in the Debenham's sale a couple of years ago, they have a decent range every year though so it's worth keeping an eye out towards the end of summer when they start selling them all off half price!

Loubylou, I'm not sure how they'd fit someone shorter, it's kind of hard to say when they fit me nicely, but they do come in smaller sizes too so it might work to go down a size if your usual size turned out to be too long. Dance Direct accept returns on leotards if they don't fit though, unlike some stores!

I recently bought a couple of Revolution ones in the sale at Dance Direct, both L and XL fit fine. I got an L in the tank style and an XL in a short sleeved style, just because they were the only sizes they had in each, I got them for £8 or £9 each too so that was a bargain! They're nice for winter as they're quite a thick fabric, although I'd like something in the same kind of fit in microfibre for when it's warmer, black microfibre is great for not showing the unsightly under-boob sweat, haha!

At least swimming costumes are available in bigger sizes, I've never had a problem finding swimming costumes in a 14, they fit nicely too, but if they were tight I could get a 16 easily. Leotards tend to only go up to a 12, it's just ridiculous! I tend not to pay attention to the waist measurement on leotards, there's always enough stretch in the fabric across the waist, it's the leg holes cutting into the crotch, bust cut too low and straps being too short that I have problems with. I don't have broad shoulders, my waist tends to fluctuate but is usually around the 32" / 33" kind of region. It's my hips and chest that are the main problem, I have a 38" bust but it's all boob rather than being broad and fairly flat-chested, which is what they seem to expect if you have a 38" bust, then my hips are 40" at the narrowest part, ballooning out to around 45" at the widest part around my bum. Basically, I'm a pear!

A lot of brands list girth as a measurement on their size chart along with bust, hip, height etc, that's probably more useful for most of us. Unfortunately the average size L leotard is made for up to around a 62-63" girth and my girth is 66". If you're not familiar with girth measurement, it's the measurement you get if you wrap a tape measure under your crotch, over one shoulder, then back down to the crotch, so it takes into account your height as well as the fact that you have boobs and a bum!

I don't wear camisole ones, only tank leotards and sleeved ones if it's not so warm. I'm not really overly fussed about my bra showing at the back too much if it's a sports bra, but I to try my best to get ones that at least attempt to cover most of it!

It's a combination of height and overall size for me, leotards are like tights, sometimes a taller slim person might wear the same size as a shorter but fuller figured person as what they gain in stretch one way, they sacrifice for the other direction, if that makes sense! But when you're 5'7" and a size 14, size L leotards are usually too small. If I were the same dress size but a bit shorter, or the same height but slimmer, they'd likely be fine.