Kate_N

You really must tell her current school. Explain your reasons: that you can't make the times that her current studio offers. Ask her current teacher's advice about other schools where the styles will be complementary. By asking for advice, you will be showing you trust her current teacher's professional opinion, and see her as important in your daughter's development.

Sometimes having to squeeze something nerve-wracking in between celebratory events, such as your son's communion, can help. There's something about examiners in ballet, isn't there? One of the CDs my teacher uses for class has the announcement of each exercise, in very composed & serious tones!

Wow! How did it go?

You probably need to refer the Norwegian authorities to the University of Northumbria, who validate the Ballet West degree. This is a perfectly normal arrangement, and not done for money - I'd venture that Northumbria loses money over the arrangement, actually. Not all BAs are equal, but that's a matter of relative standing of the university. Northumbria is an ex-polytechnic. Most polys were converted into universities in 1992 so we call them post-92 universities. They are generally less established, have staff who are not research leaders, and are easier to get in to. Generally - there are exceptions (and I've always worked in the Russell Group of universities). HOWEVER, all English & Welsh universities are subject to HEFCE regulation for quality, via the QAA. You can find reports about any university on the QAA website. There is a national system for assuring quality of teaching via the QAA, ahd for quality of research, via the Research Excellence Framework (the REF). All of this is public information. Universities in the UK are highly regulated, and the quality is overall excellent. As far as I know, the only 'for-profit' university is the University of Buckingham. So I'm afraid the Norwegian authorities sound quite uninformed and prejudiced.

Well, that's the original Boston, certainly!

The Boston Ballet SI is designed around working adults, and has classes in the evening. It's a great idea, and the BBS is a very good company & school. Their focus is on developing dancers' technique, perhaps more than learning repertoire. If you do to the parallel site to this one, Ballet Talk for Dancers, you can read some of the reports of adult dancers from this SI, which has been running for a few years now. There are some wonderful SIs for adults in the US - Sun King Dance Camps being the trail blazer in this respect. I'm glad to see that various companies here in the UK are following suit. What I always notice when I'm working in the US, and going to daily class wherever I am (I always travel with tights, leotard and ballet shoes!) is just what good classes there are for adults in the US, and how lovely and well-trained (and often quite advanced) a lot of US adult dancers are. I do get a bit envious sometimes after a couple of weeks in New York or Washington DC about the amazing facilities, in comparison with the much more limited possibilities in small towns and cities outside of London ... <sigh>

Or - get to the point where you don't need pants under tights. But I agree, if it's just a leotard, and no tights, then pants are needed. But really in leotard & tights, pants are just extra bulk & unnecessary.

I've splurged on long sleeved leotards with lace & mesh arms & back. Very elegant, and mean they convert my fattish arms into something with a reasonably elegant line. I have this one: https://www.dancedirect.com/uk/women/leotards/plume-34-lace-sleeved-leotard-48436 and this one https://www.dancedirect.com/uk/women/leotards/plume-mesh-high-neck-leotard-48455 (both purchased in a DanceDirect sale) I just wish that the fashion for low cut legs wasn't so extreme; I remember when the really high cut legs were all you could get. Now the leg line I think is unflatteringly low - I wish there were a happy medium!

I've been asked by a member of the parallel ballet board in the US, Ballet Talk for Dancers, to let UK people know about a Summer Programme in Prague which she & her husband are organising. The link to the information is here: http://southmsballet.org/summer_program/prague_2016 The organisers tell me that: "it is a top notch program. The dancers that attended last year loved it. Excellent teachers, lots of classes per day, evening programs, a tour of both the Prague castle and another castle outside Prague. Cost of the program is $2,400 USD and includes tuition, housing, two meals per day, excursions on the weekend, and a dinner cruise after the final performance. It also includes transport to and from the airport or train stations, cards for the public transportation within Prague (amazingly efficient!). The rooms are like a suite. Two separate bedrooms, a small sitting room with closets and bathroom and shower. This intensive is for dancers that have studied ballet for a few years, Pointe would be great as we do a lot of pointe, partnering, and variations, but the may be taken in soft shoe. Classes are limited in size with an amazing pianist who plays all ballet technique classes." I think they only take about 15 students in each of the two classes, so there really would be individual tuition. I have no commercial connection to this programme. The main Administrator and Moderator of Ballet Talk for Dancers, Ms Victoria Leigh, suggested that I might put this information on Balletco (and the Mods here have OK'd). Ms Leigh is very supportive of the organisers of this programme, and she is a highly respected teacher and knows quality when she sees it. If you're interested, best to click through the link and contact the US organisers directly.

Any open class at a professional studio is made up all the time of free enchainements (I think we have to create the enchantment for ourselves <grin>). so if your DD is old enough, she could do class at a studio like Pineapple or Danceworks, or Dancexchange, or KNT Dance - any open studio, really. She'll get lots of practice in picking up choreography. Good guides to steps areGail Grant, Technical Manual, and Gretchen Warren, Classical Ballet Technique (the latter has gorgeous photos of ABT dancers demonstrating).

From the outside, this is such a sad thread to read. I think it's really sad that a child who has been VERY successful is seen as a failure. NO wonder she's "stiff" in her dancing. She's obviously talented, but not been funded. Is funding the only indicator of "success"? There is no guarantee that she will become a professional dancer. Even if she were to be funded at 13. Maybe doing some other styles of dance will help her loosen up. But maybe her mother needs to stop overthinking this, and stop looking for "success" in specific terms, and take what successes her daughter has had. Maybe her daughter feels second-best in her mother's eyes? Gosh, being accepted into two Associate programmes and at two vocational schools at 13/14 is success! Why is the mother naysaying this?

I'm not sure, but maybe you could stop assessing your DD or comparing her with others, and focus on what jumps out from your post: your DD loves dancing. To me, that's the main thing when a child is 8. The formal technical training in any kind of dance will give her specific skills & expertise in that form of dance, and also a set of what we now call "transferable skills." But those are nothing in comparison with enjoying doing something you love.

Bare feet, or maybe socks to wear in the warm up. Not jazz shoes or tights over feet.

Yes, it's a philistine government we have, for sure. They don't want to pay for the expert teachers for what they see as "extras." Fee-paying schools of course, can do what they like ...

The Science Museum at Millenium Point is great - lots of hands on stuff. But on a Saturday may be quite noisy and a bit difficult if your son is super-sensitive to sensory overload - ear defenders might be needed! But there is a lot of interesting stuff to do which is quite absorbing for children. I've taken youngish boys (10 & 12) to the Ikon Gallery to look at weird art (that's how I sold it to them) and they loved it, but I'm not sure what's on at the Ikon at the moment. The Tower Room in that gallery is often a nice quiet exhibition space with bean bags to loll on while you look at very weird contemporary video art. The Ikon is just off the Broad Street/canal entertainment area. Also Saturday is good for strolling through the Rag Market and bargain-hunting and people watching - but again if you've a 'fight or fight' child, it may be too chaotic and noisy.

I hope you all joined the various protests against the philistine aspects of the eBacc. There were various petitions, pressure groups and so on, and a suggested letter to your MP. It's almost worse for Drama - Government policy now is that it's considered that studying plays in English Literature is sufficient study of Drama. No understanding of creating and making drama as a way of understanding it: imagine if the study of Music or Art was done only by listening to music or looking at paintings, rather than including making music or art works. And now it's no longer deemed necessary that the study of drama includes seeing live performances.

It's extremely accessible by public transport. And if you need to drop children & then entertain non-dancing siblings, there is lots to do in the area within a 15 minute walking radius. Also Chinatown for lunch ... (getting a bit homesick for Birmingham & those lovely studios!)

Depends what sort of university a pupil is aiming for. The Russell Group has this idea of "facilitating subjects" but you need to take it with a pinch of salt. If you offered two standard academic subjects such as English, History, a Modern Language _ French or German say, or Latin, Maths, Physics & the other sciences, Geography alongside a Dance A level, and if your results were high (A or A*) then I think you'd be fine for Humanities area degrees. It's Dance + Media Studies + Photography (to offer a very clichéd set of apparently "Mickey Mouse" subjects) that wouldn't wash for anything other than an Art Foundation or the like at a post-92 university where you only need BBB/C or so to get in. Having taught in 3 different national systems, I think it's a pity that the English/Welsh system requires specialisation so early. It means that you need a wide spread of GCSEs including science & humanities subjects, so that you have a wide choice of AS and A levels. Then I think you need to choose A Levels as a mix of what you enjoy (as you'll learn more long term if you enjoy it) and what you need to get you where you want to do. If you're lucky, what you enjoy and what you need completely overlap.

Yes I was thinking out loud for if/when the OP's DC comes back from vocational school. But these are all things which can be done in the holidays home from boarding school as well. But I also think my mother's dictum "Never let your schooling get in the way of your education" is a good one - it means you can think about a child's education as much more than just GCSEs.

I was a very bright child at what would be called now a "sink" primary school (most of my primary school classmates left school as soon as it was legally possible - 14 in those days), and then a "bog standard" comprehensive in an working-class area (my parents were both public school boarding school educated & lived extremely privileged lives & rebelled in bringing us up!) I wasn't a full-time training dancer, but we had a very rich childhood & teenage years and we did a lot of extra-curricular stuff because that's just what we did. The trick with below-average or averagely-performing academic schools is the family - do you have lots of books - (I mean hundreds/thousands) to which your children have access. Do they see you reading as a pleasurable activity & an activity through which you learn? Do they get taken to art galleries, museums, theatre, music regularly - as a matter of normal family activity, not "special"? We were taken to the local city art gallery about once a fortnight, just to wander & look, after school. We went weekly to the local lending library, and were given a new book (bought, rather than library borrowed) each school holiday. Christmas & birthday presents always included books, paints, stuff that was to do with making & doing creatively & academically. And so on. The richness (in culture not money) of a family's activities will instil lifelong learning & knowledge without effort or making a fuss and can shore up mediocre or failing school education.

However, Joffrey is a very good organisation. You might have a search of the US site, Ballet Talk for Dancers - it's very similar to this one, but based in the US.

I was about to say something similar to Lisa. Intensive training of the the brain will wait - the body won't. And ballet training is brain training also - "kinesic intelligence" as opposed to say,verbal intelligence or numerical intelligence. But if you can't afford it, you can't afford it. To build on what others have said: could you use some of the funds you're currently spending on vocational school to supplement good local training? Say, travel to London once a week for advanced intensive coaching, or the like?

The other thing to remember when working the foot off the floor is not to crunch or curl the toes to try to make the arch pop. It's important to lengthen the toes out, not curl them under. You can work on lengthening toes by standing barefoot, and really deliberately splaying your toes out. Ditto working through demi-pointe in barefeet, deliberately stretching the toes out across the floor, length and breadthwise.

Oh wow! That is impressive. I do 10 on each leg, repeated 3 times (so 60 overall I suppose), hanging off a step, so I'm pushing down & then having to rise a lot. It REALLY works all of the back of your leg & ankles. But not every day ... only about 4 times a week.

I'm learning that it's about stretching the ankle first & foremost, and articulating the metatarsals, and using the floor. Tendus. Slow and steady. And alternated with battement glissé. I think one of the best exercises is simply facing the barre, and working in first (so that helps you really feel the turn out working) doing a series of slow tendu, and closing them each time in a demi-plie. Working not to demi-plie & straighten but to use the demi to push the foot out, so both legs straighten together through the tendui. And then faster glissés, just off the floor. Again from first, facing the barre, 8 each side, thinking of stretching the ankle. The Australian Ballet also finishes the barre each day with simple rises, in parallel facing barre, 10 on each leg, repeated 2 or 3 times, working through the foot & ankle. David MacAllister reports that there are far fewer tendon & ankle injuries with this daily practice. There are also exercises such as using your toes to pick things up - like a towel or a handkerchief.