Kate_N

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.

Tabby, I think I must just be unfussed by my tights digging in - I was thinking about this thread in my lunchtime class today - I've had a forced hiatus & so a carrying more weight around my middle than I like - and yes, the Plume black footless tights I put on over my leotard cut into my middle, but I used this to remind me to pull in my abs.

Have you thought about a unitard? That would give you a long smooth line, all-in-one, and no problems about separate leotard & tights? 

I'm a dress size somewhere between a large 12 and a 14, and I wear Plume footless tights,XL, which are plenty big enough width wise. OTOH, I'm only 5'6" if you're taller, then is it the length that's an issue, rather than breadth? They're not really long enough, but I don't mind the mid-calf finish.  If I need something on my feet, I wear cotton socks. Could you just get some of those flesh coloured ballet socks when you need a covering for your feet? 

Wonderful news, and thank you for sharing it with us. I've got such a big smile on my face as I read this thread - congratulations!

Ignore the Dance Mums (Annaliesey has some great advice on her thread!)

But ... at 7 you really can't tell what potential - good flexibility, musicality, enjoyment, athleticism, well-proportioned body - will turn into at 11 or 14 or 16. Best just to enjoy learning the wonderful art of dance, for its own sake. I'm nearer 60 than 50 and still do 2-3 ballet classes a week, for the sheer challenge & love of it. However good she is, however talented, she needs to love the work of ballet & then she'll have it for the rest of her life.

Many congratulations to your DC.

Can I also say - you say it's luck, but it's not - it's hard work from your DC and their teachers. It's great for young people to learn that hard work, as well as smart work, can get them where they want to go. Even better than luck!!

We seem to get hung up on doing things by a certain age and it is a real struggle to get people to understand different rates of development and that it does not mean someone is not good or not progressing well. 

But sometimes it's parents wanting bragging rights "Oh my daughter's only 9 but she's already on pointe" - I'm sure there are Dance Mums who've said that!

I remember doing the old Intermediate and what used to be Elementary together (when I was a teenager), which are now Inter Foundation & Intermediate I think? Lovely syllabus back then. You could look on YouTube to see the kinds of combinations - lots of young people post short videos of them doing their syllabus work. Some better than others - don't use the vids as tutorials, but you'll see the kinds of level of work.

But it's neither directly one nor t'other - your palm will not face directly downwards, not directly open to the audience. I always establish my second by establishing my first - then simply moving the arm out. Although I do turn the wrists occasionally - anything such as tendu or grand battement derriere, I tend to adjust the palm a bit downward, and in grand battement a la seconde, I know my palm opens. BUT - that is more to do with the arm turning from the shoulder/back, than the palm in isolation. I know that sometimes, for some combinations I prefer a wider higher second, and other times a lower more rounded lower second seems to suit the movements or style or music more.

But I'm not a teacher & I don't do exams, so you probably need to take advice about the style preferred for the exam.

Birmingham is a really good centre for ballet. Annette Nicholson is a wonderful teacher, so the advanced classes mentioned upthread would be worth thinking about. Her studio is maybe 10-15 mins walk from New Street Station. 

http://www.nicholsonschoolofdance.com/

The School  is also on Facebook. The extra classes are called "Progressing Ballet Technique"

Also, have a look at DanceXchange in the Birmingham Hippo - they run all sorts of classes, including some CAT schemes I think, and during the school holidays, there are a couple of outside hirers who organise classes. I think that's where the RAD Associates are held. And BRB do a fair bit of outreach work. 

http://www.dancexchange.org.uk/programmes/classes/

I think once you start attending some of these more professionally oriented schools (Ms Nicholson was a Soloist with the BRB) you'll get more guidance about ways forward for your daughter.

What everyone else says - some great suggestions there (esp. keeping the website up to date!).

Also, as an adult dancer, I'd like to see a timetable and a timetable for adult students. Also, if "serious" adult students are welcome to attend graded lessons - or even just the invitation to ask about that. A sense of welcome to all sorts of dancers of all sorts of ages, and not the assumption that "Ladies" just want to do Jazzercise (yuk) and have fun or lose weight. For some of us, ballet is a serious hobby, just as for others it's tennis or golf - and amateur middle-aged players of tennis or golf are never regarded with raised eyebrows the way adult ballet students are.

But almost as important! I see so so so many dance school websites which are just painful to the eyes to look at - all whirly glittery junk. A clean, easy to read site, with intuitive navigation, and the ability to jump from section to section really stands out for me. Also - I know websites are always works in progress, but I do get disappointed when the top menu promises all sorts of things "Blog" "Testimonials" Videos" etc etc, and you go to those pages and there's -- nothing!

This thread is making me think of the show, Chorus Line, and the number "I Can Do That"

"One day my sis won't go to dance school"

I think Pups_mum's comment is more a lighthearted groan than a serious moan about her son taking ballet!

oops, sorry! My sense of humour fail   I hope he gets to do something he really loves, be that cycling or ballet. Or both!

Sorry, but why on earth are you against him trying ballet? Just because you want to lose your ballet mum persona? Why not allow your son to experience all the stuff he sees your daughter doing?

And experiment with not being a ballet mum. It's quite possible, and there's even a club on here of "undance mums"

I can't fathom why anyone would stop a child doing something they've shown an interest in, and which an older sibling is doing.

Pirouette, I think your point about how we could enhance and encourage the education of young dancers in the UK is really important. And even more so with the rapid changes in our pre- and post-16 education system.

For example, the adoption of the EBacc poses a specific threat to the presence of the creative arts in the GCSE curriculum. The concern amongst those of us in the business of creative arts education is that it will become the preserve of the rich (Eton has an amazingly staffed and resourced theatre programme, for example). There's an electronic petition doing the rounds (you can find it on FaceBook) if you share this concern.

I think almost every country has its protests against so-called foreigners "coming here and taking our jobs"** particularly when some job areas are fiercely competitive (such as professional dance). So sometimes, UK nationals are the "foreigners"!

** I have no truck with this attitude - just using this phrase as an extreme stereotype.

Are you questioning the quality of your relatives UK training? Or are you saying that although he/she trained in the UK was able to gain employment internationally?

The latter, of course. And at the time, there were more jobs in Europe than here. European companies are still offering more opportunities for dancers from all over the world. The couple of European companies I know very well (from the inside as it were) have an exciting mix of nationalities. The audiences love it, and the level of creativity is vey high.

"I see your daughter wears grishko, my daughters teacher said they weren't strong enough for her advanced ankles"

 

Annaliesey, your post cracks me up! What, in the name of whoever, are "advanced ankles"? Does this mean that other people's ankles are only "intermediate" or, heaven forfend "remedial"?

Honestly, you just have to feel sorry for these rather small-minded people don't you? Although it takes a tough skin for the jibes not hurt a little bit.

The urgent text is a great excuse. Good luck with surviving.

Harwel, I'm glad my view as merely an audience member and looker-on of careers in ballet is chiming with your far more hands on experience. One of the professional performers in my family has made a very good career outside of the UK, in spite of training here. 

And you only have to go to our US parallel ballet site: Ballet Talk for Dancers - to see a similar concern about US-born & trained dancers being "pushed" aside by "foreign" talent. Including British dancers!

I do think that thinking internationally is the necessary next step in that series of steps from the suburban ballet school as a hobby, to discovering the passion & talent, to dipping a toe in the bigger waters of Associate programmes; then auditions for vocational programmes; then international ballet competitions; then auditions for companies.

Each step takes one away from the comfort zone of the known & the familiar. But that discomfort might well be the thing that is the making of an artist. 

Ballet is an international art & business. It always has been. The earliest "sensations" on the London stage in ballets such as Giselle were Italian and French. UK dancers work all over the world. If you start to close the doors in British ballet companies to non-UK born dancers, are you prepared for the rest of the world to close their doors to us? The thread started here yesterday about going to vocational school out of Britain would be impossible. And so on ...

It's a rather problematic and potentially xenophobic approach. And bad for ballet audiences!

As for schools - I know from working in a university that non-EU students pay what it actually costs - £9k per year tuition fee doesn't cover the actual cost of a university education. So those pesky foreigners actually subsidise our own domestic & EU students' costs. In universities, international students do not displace home/EU students - they are a different set of numbers. And we have a world-class education system - we should be proud that our schools and universities attract the best of the youth from all over the world. Lots of UK-born (if that's your criterion) teaching the talent from all over the world. 

Thing is, that while mild dyslexia is generally something pupils and students can find ways to deal with coping strategies, there are some versions of dyslexia as a learning disability which are part of a syndrome which can include dyspraxia, and difficulties with visual and spatial processing. So this more pronounced form would, I think, make vocational training & professional employment difficult.

It's just very difficult to advise you in the way you want to be advised. You seem to be seeking a particular answer. We can't give it to you.