balletqs

You can enter if your dance school falls in the boundary of the region. X

Have just had a bit of shock reading some of this thread then realised some posts are from 2012! Perhaps a new thread could be started when it is a new year? No offense meant in any way I just got very confused!

Outrageous! Poor you that doesn't sound very professional.

Well it depends who is teaching them and how much the teacher breaks the work down it is what I did as a student in the 80s and we have been doing it for 30 yrs at the dance school and it has only had positive outcomes. The new syllabus is v much harder at grade 4 and 5 and all the students have remarked on how they find it more difficult and alien than the new Inter Found so it is continuing to work for us. We do not invite every student to do Inter Found that early but certainly it is an option for any who want an extra class who haven't been picked out already. And we ask all our grade 6 and above to do an Inter class as lots of them do GCSE dance and the difference in a term in even a v weak student has been phenomenol. They feel more confident as they have achieved higher level steps. We have v high standards and our exam results and awards reflect this. It won't work for everyone but we are lucky to have the time to start slowly and build gradually. Madam always said while I was training "you don't form a pebble by taking a hammer to a stone you drip water on it slowly."

Incidentally we also find with the new work a wider range of students ARE able to do the inter found exam and of course they get to do pointe work !

We frequently start Students in Inter foundation at Grade 3 so most are about 9yrs old when they start, they do one class then build to doing two a week. The RAD recommend a two year course of study and they can take the exam from 11 yrs of age so this works well. Some just do it for strength or as an additional class and if ready do not do the exam but just move up, normally during Yr 8 to Inter. They love the challenges and this allows more time to break things down. As they progress through the vocational grades they enjoy the 'less serious' side of the grade work when they are doing the hard grind in the vocational grades and it gives them more time to mature in the grade work for the character work in particular. So for example some of my Advanced foundation students are also studying grade 6. It also gives them an edge with they're grade results which boosts confidence. So I would say trust your teacher. The new RAD work if yr DD does RAD is far more challenging from earlier on and there is more scope for confusion doing the grade above,so we have always found this the better option.

You need to be in full control and have good strength in of all your core muscles and glutes and 'turn out' muscles in the top of the legs before you aim for the 180. Otherwise u can damage the cruciate ligaments around the inside of the knee. You must def talk to the teacher about your knee pain and explain it gets worse when u increase the turnout in your feet.

Zags?! Age!

There is no rule that you have to be 18/19 to get into a ballet company though?! So it doesn't matter what age you start your training. My successful 18 yr old student is tiny and very young looking (age 14 max!) it is the level the directors of companies look at not zags

I think she asked for mail correspondence rather than email

Sorry yes was week before excuse date mistake I have just had a baby!! No email just a letter

Good news for my student, she received a yes letter yesterday! She's thrilled it's her number one choice though she has a Central final too which may sway her if she gets in. Her experience was that she auditioned last Monday 10th and did all aspects of the audition class, they kept 8 for solo and 6 for Physio and interview. In the past two other students one who received a place but went to ENB and one who got a reserve both went to interview stage in diff years of auditioning. The reserve student was told they have several bucket lists of def yes, def no and then top end waiting list, bottom end waiting list. She got offered a place in August but had decided to go to Performers with a DADA. They seem to rely heavily on the application form and they love students who are choreographically minded. It also seems, no offence, they heavily favour ex vocational school students who seem to sail in there. So we are pretty chuffed with our girl! Incidentally she is 18 and doing a levels.

I just wanted to add from a personal and teaching perspective, I did gym with an England coach until the age of 11 i had to work quite hard to retrain neck and upper back muscles more than worry about my lower back. I have since found this with a student who was selected for the Olympic rhythmic team a few yrs ago. She pulled out to concentrate on dance career but I found her arabesque line was the most affected problem, however her and other gymnast trained students approach and attitude to class, auditions, exams, festivals was and is exemplary and I feel they always 'get it' when I correct them.a lot of overseas vocational students tend to have done a lot of gym and it is still on the year 7 &8 curriculum at white lodge so I think the pros of doing some form of gym and having a few tricks up yr sleeve as a dancer outweigh the cons

How old is yr DD? Confidence issues are so common and I often find a more talented child can be harder on themselves resulting in frustration and lack of confidence. I try and encourage them to set themselves small personal goals. It is easy with festivals to get disheartened especially if close peers do well but if she has a bit of determination going for her go with that and maybe each festival tackle a different small goal rather than trying to get placed or get a better mark, for example 'telling a story' through her dance to aid expression (watch Tamara Rojos good swan bad swan) hope that helps don't give up!

Not as far as I am aware from my old students No. Just the Feb appraisal and results.

Because they are normally entered privately and independently from the vocational school and some of their vocational school peers do not get the same oportunity, or indeed their white lodge peers and other schools do not always get that opportunity. I have no problem them being there it is lovely for vocational and non vocational students to work/ compete alongside each other and learn from each other as often as they can like at a summer school

Having sat on the panel for various dance comps and auditions I can imagine that when watching a group of very talented dancers the decision must be a very difficult one. Therefore they will, I expect, pick out the ones that over the course of classes and solos stand out as having that extra magic, musicality and consistency in all areas within the realms of their age, experience and capabilities. And it really can be as simple as that. But just my observation

It is very much an open comp as far as I can see and what I meant to say in my last post is that it is not unusual for a school of any kind to dominate a competition and I think that all the students deserve the recognition in their own right, it is pleasing to note some of this years YBDY finalists are not necessarily the often exposed ones and perhaps they felt they would keep the finalists within the realms of each other rather than one outstanding one. Watch this space!!exciting

There we go I knew Kiely must have met the criteria somehow, good for her and as I've said she is lovely so well deserved. Thank you ribbons

Inaspin is DD looking for sept 2014 entry or sept 2015?

Yes most RAD competitions and awards for pre vocational age groups ie up to 16, are attended by non vocational students, though the odd Elmhurst and Tring child appears under a private entry which can be annoying! Very proud that out of 18 awards on offer at the RAD East of England awards yesterday our non vocational school received the overall Junior award and 9 others too so 10 in total. Very very proud of our team of teachers,students and parents. But I do think we could benefit from a classical ballet using repertoire solos 'grand Prix' style comp in the UK as in the US which is a once a year with heats as opposed to the All England. Obv not with pointe work until 14 unlike some of the US entrants.

I totally agree!

There is normally one ad in the DT mag in Dec. I entered a student this year and have done in previous years. The application form came in January direct from an email from the Royal Ballet School and we had about two weeks to get it in. We do work on various solos throughout the year, though time is limited in a private dance school setting, but until the form arrives we don't know which solos are on the list to choose from, so I do feel the vocational schools have a slightly unfair advantage in this area. I believe the students are expected to have achieved a certain standard to be selected, all students I have entered have been close to taking RAD Adv 2 and have gained Dist. in Adv 1 but I am aware another school entered a girl who has only done Intermediate and she was not selected on this occasion. My student this year did it purely for experience, she has chosen to do her a levels before going to vocational training so is 17 and unfortunately was put in with 17 year olds which was a shame as I hoped she would be in a lower group due to less experience than a second year US student as the form implied. She is very classical and has finals and offers at various places and she loved her class on Saturday but I felt for her that she wasn't put where she belonged and may have done very well. The form said student must be between 15-17 on the competition date ie 1st March, and must have trained in the UK for 3 years, hence my confusion with the Australian entrant. It is for non professionals.

I spoke to her after watching US classes and she said she was from Aus and also a very Aussie accent, plus tutoo2much's link suggests she has been training in Aus until now as she is at US on a Prix scholarship. But as I say maybe she has british parents so managed to enter that way,who knows, they won't have broken rules for her so she must have had some loop hole.