Kate_N

If you're "future proofing" your DD's CV, then English and Maths are essential. She may not need them for vocational dance, but a dancer's career is short, and she'll need them later. Although if she's not a natural in Maths, then she could pick up a Maths GCSE as an adult later, but it might limit her options. I'd add in a foreign language as well. If she dances professionally, it may not be in the UK, so facility and practice in learning a language would be a good preparation for this. She may not end up dancing in the language she learns, but it will give her confidence and experience in learning another language. Then, if you're training an artist and a theatre practitioner, maybe some subjects that will help this? English is the obvious subject, but then what about Art, or Drama, or Photography? All subjects which will give her skills and experience in composition, experimentation with genres and styles, a visual/literary sense of creating and appreciating art. We forget that dancers are training to be artists, and we should equip them with a working knowledge of aesthetics.

Ha ha ha! I think Meadowblythe meant that men generally (always?) wear something on top of the dancebelt! Not just only dancebelt & shoes ... Some of the men I've taken class with also use braces to keep their leggings/tights up.

What a wonderful story, and thank you so much for sharing this with us. Toi toi toi to your son!

This sounds great! Thanks for posting it here.

Michelle, you could look at the Danceworks timetable - 4pm there's a class with Adam Pudney. He is excellent - precise, musical, demanding but very funny & open & generous as a teacher. It's labelled "Beginner/Improver" but I'd put it at a level like the New York style Advanced Beginner where I've done class at Steps with retired professionals at that level. It's a standard class basically. I wouldn't recommend the Danceworks Advanced/Pro classes - they really are for professionals, or students in vocational training. I watch the last bit of them, thinking "Oh I used to be able to do that" .... <sigh> "Central Nights" is the name for the Central School of Ballet adult drop-in programme. On Monday Lorien Slaughter teaches and Inter/Advanced class at 7pm, so depending on your trains to & fro, you could do the Danceworks class 4-5:30 (don't be put off by the "Beginner" label) and then get bus/Tube across to Clerkenwell from Bond Street (Central line to Holborn and walk would be ny recommendation) to get to Central for a 7pm class there.

It's the Daily Mail. Enough said - it is not a newspaper in any sensible definition of the word ... However, the parent concerned was wrong on several points. a) A four year old child in pre-ballet is not necessarily going to make discernible "progress" in the eye of a lay-person, and it's clear the parent concerned knows little about dance for children. b ) Studio rules are studio rules. Having a day at the end of each term is sensible, and stops the pushy parents (unless they go to the police). c) contacting the school proprietor's parents at their home address is moving into stalking/harassment territory. On the face of it, the parent sounds very controlling. I'd have asked him to take his daughter elsewhere.

Good luck and have fun! Going to a new studio is always a bit scary.

Wonderful! Thank you for taking the time to share this with us.

I see the young dancers at the Danceworks International Ballet course as they're leaving & I'm going in. They seem to have very high-powered, experienced & qualified teachers as well: http://www.danceworks-academy.net/

Ah yes, dance shorts - sorry, I assumed the shorts suggestion was for normal sports shorts! And yes, on 2nd thoughts, sweatpants probably aren't great most of the year. And I was also taught "boy's" steps - I love turns from second! Tour en la'air not so much - it's difficult. I like having a man to race in allegro - teaches me to cover ground.

Sorry you're getting what TYR calls the "OMG it's a man" response. My very basic local regular class down here often has a man or two in it, and there's very little giggling that I can see. Apart from our regular laughing over teacher's jokes & generally enjoying ourselves. (Although we had a regular who was probably a man at some time in her life, and never a dancer, even in class, but that's a whole other story). Some things to check: that your clothing is appropriate. For this reason, I'd say no to shorts - maybe thick sweatpants? Because I'm afraid if there's anything I do notice about a man in class - I'm used to men in class all the time - it's when they don't have the appropriate male ballet under-dancewear. I also notice if they don't use a deodorant. Other than that, though it may just take time. As you say, a group of people working together will form friendships that may seem excluding. If you turn up and just do class often enough, and maintain your polite pleasant demeanour, then I hope it eases up. Would it help to think that you're there just to learn, and let everything roll off your back? It sounds as though you've got a great attitude and are very pleasant & considerate. This will win out in the end!

There are some great threads in here with other bits of wonderful advice. It sounds as though you've got the basics: a class, the leotards & shoes. My main advice is: don't get sucked into studio wars, bragging, or claiming status through your children's dancing. There's a wonderful thread in here about "Not being a Dance Mum" - lots of wisdom & it's hilarious as well!

I'd second (or third?) The Place. The dancing child of a colleague is in the 3 year degree programme there, and it seems excellent.

There are press articles along the lines of journalists writing "I took a ballet class and it was lovely" about once a year, but I don't think they realise just how many adults dance regularly all the time. But any publicity - particularly that which makes women over 30 visible in a postiive way - is good publicity!

Yes - a lovely article. A friend just sent it to me on Twitter as she knows I dance. Brava!!

Sherbert, the assumption is: woman, behind a desk, must be a Secretary. I'll grunt at her to get her to do what I want. Particularly as I usually dress quite casually at work (I'm often teaching in the studio, so then it's jogging bottoms & socks, hair in a ponytail!) If they see "Professor" on my door, they speak to me quite differently. They ask if I can help them, rather than tell me what to do. I know this, because it happens to me relatively frequently. And I think the initial assumption is "female = secretary'. I've had people express surprise when I'm introduced by my job title - I even had someone say "You're a woman! How can you be a professor?"

It's a pretty common experience of many women. I'm very senior in my field, and usually run things - but the number of times I've been accosted in my office as if I'm someone else's secretary is surprising. It's usually quite rude demands from delivery men or students, because I'm a female, working at a computer with the office door open, and my office is the first in the corridor where my unit is located. It's interesting how differently people talk to me when they know my title.

When I'm working in London (I live way down in the West Country) I generally go to Danceworks for Hannah Frost's classes - even her Beginners is a thoroughly good work out & chance to work on the basics - the choreography of combinations is very simple, but some of the things she asks us to do are very difficult! I've also just done a class with Adam Pudney - he's terrific! His Beginner's class at Danceworks is more like a USA Advanced Beginners - somewhere between Beginners & Intermediate. He has a very interesting way of working with the music - at the barre, his combinations are always on the count so they are very clear, and precise. It gives you a chance to really work on transitions, and the clean finish of each combination. In the centre, there was more working through the music, and a variation of emphasis. Again at Danceworks, Christine Mittelmaier's Intermediate class on a Sunday morning is lovely - she gives such flowing danceable combinations at the barre & in the centre. Her Thursday Elementary/Intermediate class is lovely too, but in a much smaller studio. Mr Pudney's and Ms Mittelmaier's classes have live pianists - gosh, it makes such a difference having a live accompanist. I used to make a habit of Renato Paroni's Sunday afternoon class at Central School - he is an extraordinary teacher - I've never been so turned out so easily after his barre! But he's often not teaching there & his regular substitute teacher is lovely, but not an active teacher in the way he is (he watches like a hawk & does very good hands on corrections), and sometimes in his class one doesn't get the chance to really MOVE a lot - he sets fairly static combinations, and we spend a lot of time at the barre - he'll repeat exercises until everyone gets them. I get very good teaching where I live, but the level is very very basic, so a palette of London teachers is helping me keep the body remembering!

Sorry, this post was in answer to Dormouse asking whether 250,000 Facebook hits was extraordinary. Not an apparently callous response to the car crash. Brava, brave, brava to Dormouse!

Er, yes, I should think so!

Wow! Dormouse, I just found your interview on Facebook. Great stuff - you look great - nice lines and nice feet.

And I assume that the Spanish language makes a similar distinction between adult women and children. It is infantilising, and is generally applied to adult women in ways that it's not so widely used for adult men (although there are the BalletBoyz ).

The Mark Morris Group used to have dancers with a range of body types. I remember someone calling his company 'democratic.' But the last time I saw them the body range was more limited. This isn't something we can make generalisations about, it seems to me ...

And PS LinMM, where is it you do class with former ABT dancers?! Wow!

This is really interesting. I think this is a reflection/mirroring of the general sexism of our culture, where girls & women have shown themselves equally as capable as boys/men in very many - all - areas of our society, but are still in the minority as higher earners, leaders of business, politics, and industry. This is an ongoing & live issue in the creative industries, where there are regular enquiries - sponsored by a number of industry & private bodies - into the position of women. There is still a problem: women are very much still in the minority of leadership positions throughout the performing arts. There are fewer women artistic directors, theatre directors, choreographers, playwrights ... and so on. Girls & women are socialised into particular behaviors & mentalities, as a boys & men. We ascribe qualities we call 'feminine' and 'masculine' to women and men - but guess which qualities are seen to be most advantageous in terms of position, income, and influence ... Women who lead are often seen as 'unfeminine' or bossy or aggressive. And so on. The training in ballet emphasises a kind of 'performance' of an idealised femininity. Smile, look beautiful, look fragile, look pleasing to the spectator's eye - even though we all know the strength that is required to perform this ideal is anything but fragile!