annaliesey

We are another vote for V05 gel spray and nit comb (she will dampen hair first if she can just to not use as much product)

Brilliant its better than hers of “smell the fart” which a teacher gave her to act out someone being elaborate and dramatic with a hint of a smile! A different teacher used to say “show me your necklace” which was much nicer for me but didn’t produce the same drama! Haha I’m sure they were both inter variations (going to look it up now)!

Yes. If there’s any doubt then it’s not really a relationship imo. weve ended up travelling an hour away 4 times a week to get out of a rut. My my view is a good teacher will be recommending things to you before you have even asked. if they don’t want you to do things with a credible teacher and programme then I’d be asking why. Sometimes its just a policy as if every student did a whole load of other stuff willy nilly then it becomes difficult for the teacher to be a proper mentor on that persons journey and picking up the pieces as someone else mentioned. Theres so many “master classes” and “workshops” out there which are not great tbh as more focused on being selected for an Instagram feature or showing off the choreographer and we’ve taken the view to avoid these in preference for training ie; good breakdown, good corrections etc. asking a 13yo to do 16 fouettes en pointe is ludicrous to me when it’s the first time that teacher has seen and worked with the child. At first glance this seems highly irresponsible. If they didn’t notice she didn’t do them I think there’s a clue there! the other thing I’ve learned unfortunately too is to do some proper research on guest teachers if you can as it’ll help any discussion with dance teachers and selecting appropriate things. I’m sure in your case the RBS teacher was real but, in other cases they haven’t been what I would interpret as real claims.

You’ll be missed ❤️ Good luck with everything

Aw I miss sewing dd’s shoes. I used to darn them and sewing ribbons was always straightforward but I did experiment with different darning techniques and preferred using curved needle. Unfortunately even at age 10 she was very stubborn and insisted on spending two days sewing her own ribbons on rather than let me do it in 15 min! Haha and talking of guys en pointe have you seen the Connor Mckenzie video ... wow! It was done in response to Lizzo asking for someone to do a ballet to her song as a #boysdancetoo celebration

I felt that you guys would be the only people I know that can share in this humour. I tried to tell the story to my husband but he just looked at me a bit blank! 🤣 so my dd has this habit when we are driving back from ballet in the car of speaking out loud some of the sequences in a sing song voice of the steps in a freework routine. She marks these out with what we call t-rex arms Three times now over the space of a month she’s just substituted a word for something French without meaning to. I don’t know if she actually says these words in her head whilst she’s actially dancing which I find quite amusing if it’s a visual learning or memory thing but it went like this .. first time it was something something bonjour something something. I piped up with “did you just say bonjour?” Yes she said, giggling away. then it was “something something baguette” I can’t remember what this was a substitute for and lastly it was something something sissone duvet instead of doublee I was like “did you just say duvet?” Haha please tell me she’s not the only fruitcake out there

Offering condolences to family and friends xxxx

She chose to act the way she did so she is responsible for her behaviour. Everyone has responsibility for their own behaviour. She got called out for bullying for belittling a young boy. lets home the bullying dance teachers out there now recognise their actions as “bullying” too because the whole dance community has made their voice heard very loudly. Hopefully they’ll reflect before they use the words “it’s the dance world”. Hmmm

We’ve only used dettol warm water to clean and lots of air for dancing with blisters we’ve used compeed plasters which are big and gel like and don’t move might save myself some money if I just give her surgical spirit next time and tell her to toughen up! Haha

Just to say EYB isn’t normally short of applicants and they are passionate about bringing their performance and training opportunity to more rural areas where quite a lot will not be associates

Peanut68, crazy isn’t it but maybe that’s more “poor service” than “unsafe” or “bullying”. You would hope parents would remove their children if it wasn’t what they wanted to pay for

I don’t think it does. Either the festival or comp is operating under BOPA (Body of persons approval) or might even have an exemption granted by local council. In some case the local authority just won’t even know

That’s interesting but at the moment competitions, summer schools, masterclasses, intensives, workshops are all excluded from Children in entertainment laws

Unfortunately this is where it all falls down .. qualifications, clean DBS, insurance, safeguarding policies aren’t worth anything at all in fact they mask a problem and lure parents into false pretences. ofsted, CDET, LADO ... nobody is interested to the extent they will change or take on the responsibility. the other unfortunate thing is that in UK law, physical abuse has to be reported in 6 months. Emotional abuse is not time bound but has only ever been prosecuted where it has been alongside sexual or physical violence. Where a dance teacher/professional is self employed they fall outside LADO’s remit for DBS referral or barring notice because no action would be taken by an employer on the basis of a grievance complaint. the RAD, ISTD et all have grievance policies that rely only on criminal prosecution or within complaints made in a very short timescale. Essentially they are useless in a lot of cases hence why we have tried to ask for whistle blowing. The police, Local Area Designated Officers all have the view “you can remove yourself from the (privileged) situation” as they are generally only concerned with avoiding immediate future harm but it’s important to nobody that bullies and abusers are punished. It lands on no specific desk. Until it does we are sitting in a time bomb until a Larry Nassar or similar happens in this country. As Dr Dance says, some of us did make an effort to lobby and improve things. Ironically I’ve been too busy dealing with helping my child recover to devote the time needed but it needs some attention or articles like this will continue and nothing will change. Now that she’s finished counselling courtesy of victim support, and has gone back to full time school, I might pick up the baton again if anyone wants to join me. Our story is only one and unfortunately we’ve come across an ENORMOUS amount of stories. One of the things we DO have on our side is social media and the ability to speak out, irrespective of Acceptable User Policies, it’s important to find a way. I’m always happy to offer support by PM or phone to anyone that needs a confidential ear

Actually to be fair I got called into her bedroom tonight to “feel her toe joints” to see if they felt squishy... like what the heck? I actually felt them too! Not that they felt squishy. Then I had to see if her toenails looked bent and to praise the disappearance of a verruca. And this was after 3 hours of dance tonight. Why do we do this? I’m sure this isn’t in the mum manual haha but thank you for the advice. Dd started adding to her folder tonight looking at things to do and revising/tweaking her plans. Her last plan simply said .. 1. Vocational course 2. Perform 3. Create 4. Teach 5. Die so I’m glad she’s starting to fill in some gaps haha

oh my good god! you obviously love your child more than I love mine ... haha... I draw the line at massaging feet! just no way! spreadsheets - yes, wall planner - yes, doing some trivial school tasks on their behalf - yes, cooking favourite meals - all yes... but feet being massaged .... absolutely NO! hahaha

Hi they are for everyone who needs one upon successful audition

Sorry to hear that xx

I’m curious about when others would say their dc have felt the most pressure my dd is usually quite easy going but starting to make noises about feeling pressure. It’s going to be gcse time next year along with auditions for whatever she plans for 16+ but she’s starting to get stressed already just making plans! I have another non dancing child that displayed little stress until it came to A levels and planning 18+ further education DD has done dance exams, shows, comps, auditions (like most dc’s on here I suspect) but only now starting to describe feelings of pressure and stress when was the most stressy time for your DC’s, what did you do to help? TIA

Hi, if it helps, we’ve heard several times during talks with CAT schemes, their benchmark is number of hours more or less equivalent to their age so 11hrs a week at age 11, 13 at age 13 etc totally agree with Anna C about quality over quantity

Absolutely. Go for it! I think it's all about setting your expectations. Expect that there will mostly be ballet in the character sections but I guarantee that doing something enjoyable and good will come across to the audience and the adjudicator. They will mostly adjudicate based on what they see that the genre it is in anyway ... good luck

honestly, this is what I mean about being selective about the festivals you attend and what you want to get out of it. It's all very well people saying "it's a performance opportunity" and "as long as they enjoy it" and "as long as they did their best" but if the adjudication is ropey, it can impact negatively on confidence and performance rather than build it up and this is something that's difficult to get back. I think we forget how much courage it takes for performers to go out and compete. They have to overcome nerves and in some cases they can feel like they have the weight of the world on their shoulders with pushy parents, pushy dance teachers and they might be trying really hard to do their best then come away feeling their best was no where good enough when actually if they competed on a different day at a different event they would likely have a different outcome. If National is your thing then I'd recommend being prepared to travel further afield and go to events where you can trust the adjudication. Even if you email the organisers beforehand and ask specifically about adjudication in that genre. They might bring someone in especially for that section (I've known that to happen for tap or hip hop before). And don't be afraid to give your feedback to organisers afterwards, drop them an email. The good ones will listen and try to improve for future events and the arrogant ones will carry on doing what they've always done, take your money and not give two hoots about the impact of poor adjudication You can then choose whether to go back or not

I'll try and answer just based on personal experience of attending festivals for the last 6 years ... Character is usually ballet based but doesn't have to be. I have seen routines that are more lyrical, contemporary or jazz in character sections (barefoot or with jazz shoes) but it usually attracts entries which are ballet but in the style of characterisation and playing a role. That may include a costume as a character relevant to story telling or it might include an element of mime which is something that some dance teachers like to teach their ballet students. National - I just think it's one of those categories that isn't very well understood. I think this is when organisers are choosing adjudicators it's really difficult to find someone who a) they didnt have before because some have rules about that with not having the same adjudicator for two events back to back and b) who is an expert on all styles of dance. I would say that a lot of festival organisers select adjudicators who are great with ballet, modern/jazz, tap and even singing, but then styles such as lyrical, contemporary, hip hop, character, all become a bit subjective based on what the adjudicator likes. You are then completely at their mercy which I think is why people would like to see AED have a different scoring system. The corrections and comments can vary massively and be extremely confusing. People who want to win therefore end up putting a routine out that they think will please the adjudicator. This might be contemporary that is full of lyrical/theatrical/performance related air grabs or acro (!) or it might be hip hop that has a la second turns, pirouettes and step ball change leaps in (!!) or it might be lyrical that was really ballet but in a mint green dress with hair half up and half down with no movement inspired by lyrics or might even have music with no lyrics (!!!) .. I could go on haha ... but essentially it's just very subjective and preference based (with allegations of bias) rather than consistent or useful. I personally think the key thing is to decide why you want to do festivals and then decide from that which ones to attend.

Mumofdancegirls maybe you ought to read your reaction and comments back because Mrs Brown was perfectly entitled in my view to say "there are numerous bored dads at festivals". It's a fact, there are a lot. Not everyone. But a lot. There's more "bored dads" than "bored mums" purely because the mums get the job for a lot of the time helping to get dancers changed and help with hair and make up. There are usually a lot more girls than boys at festivals and different festivals have different rules in terms of Safeguarding and Children in Entertainment which essentially separates the dads out of the changing room areas for a lot of the time. Notice that I say "a lot of the time" or "usually". I'm not saying "always". You reacted by calling this a generalisation and calling her rude. yes you are entitled to your opinion but maybe you can see that you jumped on a perfectly innocent comment. She clearly has experience of festivals to offer her comments on, in the best interest of the forum

Thank you Crystaltips she had a great time and totally in love with the place based on the few hours she had there its so quiet and calm around there. You’d never guess from their building there was all the rugby going on until it was time to get on the trains Vauxhall was rammed