annaliesey

She's 10 and in grade 4

Dd is RAD grade 4 and needs new character shoes. I went online and noticed there are two heel heights in her size (maybe it's always been like this but I've only just noticed). I asked ballet teacher but got a bit of a wishy washy answer and it was up to me what heel my dd decided to wear. Has anyone got any advice? Thanks

I would say that it's more typical/normal for teachers to be territorial over their students and over recent years I've heard a fair bit of guff! "RAD stipulate you can only register with one teacher" ... "Schools who offer modern, tap and jazz are not proper ballet schools"... "You must be versatile and only go to schools that offer other dance apart from ballet"... "Xyz school are rogues/break rules and don't care about safety of pupils"... "People always see the grass seems greener so I don't like pupils to go anywhere else" I've heard all of these over the years and don't trust any teacher 100%. I've become a lot more cynical about the guff that is spoken that I switch off to a lot of it now. The best explanation(?) I was given recently for a girl that went directly into a grade higher than girls of similar age that had been doing ballet for 7 years was that the girl was taller! There are teachers out there who want to attract and retain pupils at all odds. Sorry if this isn't a very nice view to have but I think it influences the attitudes to dancing with multiple teachers.

That's so lovely and fingers crossed for her too. I would like to think my daughter would do the same if the situation arose. Fees can really add up and some children seem to take for granted sometimes (skipping classes for birthday parties, minor illness, to go shopping etc) so it's nice to hear this story

Good luck for tomorrow

Thank you Harwel that's a really good view and helped me loads if it's for technique and safety aswell as strength then that'll keep me happy to support her

My dd started inter foundation two terms after grade 2 exam as teacher wanted her to get to grips with a lot of G3 first and said terminology confusing between start of G3 and IF. Alongside that she also started a pointe prep class. She explained IF really a two year syllabus or at least at our dance school and I think there is minimum age with IF of 11 years Our teacher said she preferred doing this than either skipping grades or rushing through them or learning two grades at same time as she felt other schools sometimes did Hope that helps

She is enjoying the classes (not as much as ballet and others but enough to stick with it) and it's just me that's questionning it really in terms of usefulness She's doing her gold jazz and there isn't any more levels after that so will just revert to doing just modern syllabus. Although she is in a commercial jazz competition team which she hugely enjoys. Her teacher thinks she should definitely carry on with modern as says she needs it for college courses lately or will be made to do it anyway. She says that the ballet students she danced with all had to do modern and vice versa. It just looks quite boring compared to do many other exciting dance styles but that's me talking and not my daughter I've just found myself questionning why she's doing it for the first time. I can't decide whether it's worth her time and my money if it could be better spent elsewhere but at an hour a week it's no big deal to stick with it all the while she enjoys it and just in case it's useful later We went to a festival this weekend and watching the older girls sections just made me think a bit about the whole style and whether it genuinely is of benefit

There is a difference .. There's is ISTD graded syllabus in Modern theatre and some of these dances can be either lyrical amalgamation or jazz amalgamation (teachers choice). Then there is ISTD Jazz which is bronze, silver and gold rather than several numbered grades. The other classes she does in lyrical or contemporary are all non syllabus and freework if that makes sense I suppose I just see the modern theatre syllabus as quite old fashioned and not sure if it's worth the time and money getting through the grades if it's not particularly useful

We went to a few open evenings prior to secondary school applications. At one of them my daughter asked if GCSE dance was available and was told no, it comes under PE or alternatively she could do GCSE Trampolining!!!! Haha

ISTD modern theatre

That's what her dance teacher has said but I don't really understand what technique they get in modern syllabus that they don't get anywhere else

I'm questioning how worthwhile it is for my dd to carry on with modern dance syllabus. It just seems so old fashioned I can't understand the benefits of her carrying on with these exams when she seems to cover so much else with lyrical, contemporary, jazz and tap. Is it really important to have these grades for anything in the future?

Thanks everyone I got a reply today .,. Rest assured that the problem is not on your side or with your internet, rather our server has not been coping with the huge load of traffic that occurred recently with the upcoming exam period. Our developer team are currently working to fix the issue as soon as possible, and I will return to you once I can advise you to try downloading again. Have to say really disappointed if this has been going on for a year

I'm having real problems downloading the video as keeps saying wifi connection not good enough anyone got any advice? Exam on Saturday

I'll be the first to admit I don't really get it. I don't know anyone in our family or friends in dance careers or performing arts so I have no idea what to expect. most of our family have all been military and I certainly didn't grow up with dance classes or any talk of anything fancy or arty. But so what? Whether you get it or not doesn't matter - it's about supporting someone to persue their dreams no matter what that might be One thing as far as schools go is this "exceptional circumstances" rule that seems to translate into time off for ballet exam or performance license or audition being perceived as bad parent that deserves a fine for taking a child out of school on the odd occasion! Drives me nuts!

Thank you all I tend to agree but as katymac says they start at 10 with CAT or can do so I was a bit confused and also there is the 12 and under category and the ages of the performers are submitted beforehand. Maybe it's just not to be encouraged too early. I was also looking at a syllabus and this gives minimum ages for exams from age 9 http://www.cdancea.com/examinations_7.html

So pleased to read the comments about contemporary versus lyrical Juliew and loulabelle as that was exactly the impression of our dance teachers and some of our mums! The ones that qualified and placed out of the dances we saw were very much on the lyrical or theatrical/lyrical side. And just for fun .. I thought I'd share this video for anyone that hasn't stumbled across "contemporary eric" yet my dd finds this hillarious and was nudging me every time she spotted a move

We had a dance at a festival today in the 12 years and under contemporary duet category and it was danced to Chandelier by Sia with a 12 year old girl and a 9 year old. They were the only entry in their category. The adjudicator remarked that the younger girl was far too young to be dancing a contemporary style. Would you agree that contemporary is a more mature style for older dancers only?

Yay she got her first medal today .. 3rd place but extremely happy ... Just thought I'd share that with you all haha

We are just doing our first festival now and so far none of our dances have placed or even qualified! It's been a bit tough for some people. The numbers in categories seems pretty big at around 25-27 and I read somewhere that a festival at tunbridge wells had 47 in a category. With all that in mind it must be tough for adjudicators. I've tried to get time for my dd to watch as much of other categories as possible so she can see how difficult and close some of the dances are. Hopefully the comments on the adjudicators sheets help to understand decisions a bit more?

Thanks Busymum .. She won't be doing theatre as can't afford it without some funding but it's a nice feeling for her to be offered bit of a surprise though as I honestly didn't think she would be considered for that (she's now telling me she NEEDS singing lessons!) But her heart is set on dance and I have to keep reminding us that our plan was first and foremost to use as the experience but it's easy to get carried away with the what if I think it's started to sink in that she doesn't have that kind of body shape too which is hard. So now we are concentrating on graded work, having fun with competitions and non syllabus and looking around for associate classes and CAT stuff. She's happy

We got a no for dance course but a yes for theatre course without funding

Thank you I think the scenario currently is that she's purely waiting to get older. She's been doing 5 classes of ballet a week now including pointe prep, inter foundation, graded work, and freework plus a ball class and a strength and technique class plus other classes in modern, tap, jazz, lyrical etc so I'd be surprised in it was anything to do with that side of things. Teacher has been watching her feet like a hawk. Rolled/balanced a pencil over her feet, looking for redness after classes, and I think my dd has been spurred on by this renewed interest in her feet and grabbed the opportunity for xray! (Mind you my dd is a little bit persuasive .. She did actually suck chocolate off a piece of nougat in a toblerone and pretend her tooth came out for money for tooth fairy so I can't honestly rule out this engineered opportunity for xray!) She's got at least 3 friends all her age and all recently on pointe and is just fixated on it being her turn next. The last girl at her dance school to be allowed on pointe is 14 and my dd is adamant she is not waiting until then! Haha

Just read this thread, hope you all don't mind me bumping it My daughter (10 1/2) is about 6 months into inter foundation syllabus - she is desperate for pointe shoes (aren't they all?) and teacher has said everything is ready but you can't hurry a skeleton!! Personally I don't see the rush as it doesn't seem like she's missing out or being slowed down in any way She hurt her foot recently at a birthday party and insisted I take her to a&e for X-ray. We thought something was broken. As she was being wheeled into X-ray she was calling over her shoulder to me to get a copy for her ballet teacher! (The whole thing might have been a ruse on her part to obtain X-ray or at least make the most of the opportunity) So now we actually have a current X-ray .. I don't know what I'm looking at lol ... Can anyone share some light on this as it would be nice to explain to her why she is waiting for bones in her feet to change