annaliesey

Just wanted to pop by this thread to say that my daughter talked me round and I ended up giving in and taking her to Nottingham auditions last night. Amazingly, she got through. So if anyone is wondering (like I was a few weeks ago) whether it is worth going for auditions so soon after doing a previous EYB then the answer is yes! Miss Lewis did say at her opening talk though that just because you have done it before it doesn't guarantee a place.

I honestly would think there would be a very good chance of at least 2 people dropping out for whatever reasons. The rehearsal schedule is not known until after auditions, and quite a few days are likely to be in the half term holidays or summer holidays, some families may have holidays booked other commitments. This is only what I have heard from other parents after we attended Norwich auditions. Also, some people seem to not be aware of the financial contribution needed either so that can sway things with people dropping out too. Fingers and toes crossed for you

Thanks for comments everyone. I have heard RAD described as "less performancey" too but I don't really understand that comment. Her dance teacher is strongly in favour of RAD and my daughter is enjoying it well enough so no reason to change but I was curious to hear of differences

My daughter was a little tsar's niece and loved her whole time there. She says she would have liked to have got a "taller part" or more challenging choreography but I think it suited her just right I think I remember burgundy leotard from parents show (will message you) but then I ended up watching all 3 performances (not original plan) and can probably remember people better from their costumes and stage performances now. My daughter mad keen to do it again and wants to audition with her friend for Nottingham Nutcracker on Monday but I'm thinking it would be better to wait until next year to have a gap between auditioning again... Don't know. How did your daughter get on Liquorice? There were certainly lots of tears when it was over but all the performances were fantastic! Will your girls go for EYB again?

I really enjoyed good swan bad swan and the way she broke down bits of choreography with interpretation and explanation. My daughter was surprised to look at the ballerina who first did 32 fouettes (sorry can't remember name) and commented that she didn't look that skinny!

Has anyone mentioned doughnuts yet? I don't mean the food sort but the hair do sort that add an extra 10" of height or even more if they are the scruffy sort. I mean ... Why would anyone do that knowing they are going to a theatre? Surely that's like going to the cinema and wearing a blooming cowboy hat! Are these women crazy? I swear if I sit behind one more I shall sit there and quietly and carefully unpin it .. A bit like a game of kerplunk. Discreetly whispering the plot to a child struggling with story I can cope with. I can even cope with men who slip off their shoes to reveal a sweaty aroma. I can forgive kids that kneel up on booster cushions but only sometimes. But if I see anyone in the foyer wearing a foot tall doughnut in their hair I'm going to have to ask them where they are sitting and change seats in future. Wouldn't it be great if there was a foot lever under each seat that had a short/medium/tall setting for the person's height if they were too tall (with their hair do for example) you could just press the lever with your foot to push their seat down a tad

Dancing10, you must be so proud I watched the 'parents show' on Sunday at the high school and the Big Mariinsky's were absolutely stunning to watch and there's still a lot of practise for them to do yet so it shows how well they must have picked things up and been so talented. There was one dancer who was out through injury and hope that wasn't your granddaughter. (I can't remember if she was a Mariinsky)... poor girl must be gutted

Thanks, I did use the search bar but it mostly pointed me in the direction of threads that had the word "syllabus" in (and there are a lot of them) rather than discussions on the different types of syllabus. Yes Pictures I did mean BTDA and I knew there was another similar set of letters BATD (How confusing!) I've also come across BBO too (British Ballet Organisation) My daughter is doing RAD but some friends that she has made recently are following different syllabus or even doing two different syllabus (RAD + other) and this is how I've started to be aware of differences. I'm curious about whether some have more of a theatrical bias than classical or whether people have changed from one syllabus to another for whatever reasons, or whether they are guided by teachers, or how anyone makes a decision on the syllabus to follow. I wondered if anyone had followed a particular syllabus and then later wished they had followed a different one instead. I'll readily admit that when my daughter started ballet I had zero awareness of syllabus types and purely picked a dance class that had a nice teacher and was convenient and have stuck with this completely ignorant of syllabus thoughts.

I couldn't find any threads discussing the differences between syllabus such as RAD, ISTD, BTDA, etc and wondered if there were any thoughts on this from members of the forum based on own experiences

The thing that springs to mind for me was the word "attitude" as it took me a little while to figure out my daughter was learning a dance move not just changing her behaviour in class

My dd aged 9 gets "pushed" but as far as I can tell its only to check they can feel resistance rather than pushing excessively into a stretch, and not to cause any pain. This is in a stretch class. Certainly none of them are upset or distressed as they love it. Mostly they do things they can control themselves up against walls and it looks safe and I've questioned things a few times and always got thoughtful answers. Any stretches she does in ballet or other classes appear less extreme and they aren't man-handled for those such as frogs, splits, etc

I found that sooo funny

Thank you so much for really useful comments and whether right or wrong perception is important Up until now my dd has just wanted to do everything dance including hip hop and belly dancing if I would let her and she just gravitates towards anything with an opportunity to perform! She has boundless energy and even dances in her sleep However getting through EYB audition has been a turning point recently (and that's without even doing anything yet) and she now wants to drop a few other non ballet classes if it made room for more ballet. I'm lucky that I don't have another sibling to worry about and I can drive her about to things and give up quite a bit of time but I just want to choose wisely for something that will be a good use of time and money (if she's lucky enough to get things) for the stage that she's at with ballet as she's still pretty new to this side of things and doing anything outside of local dance school. At 9 it would be great to have some good role models, boosting confidence, and developing technique would just be awesome regardless of any parts as she would be happy with anything. We'll certainly do some homework re watching production if I can find it. She'd be scared stiff of improvisation though so she'll have to have a good think about that so thanks v much for that tip Thanks so much again

fingers crossed

Hi everyone (me again with another question... ) Can anyone advise on what freework ballet classes are, what grades / age range they usually are applicable for and what the benefits of them are. The one at our dance school is just for adults I think and I don't want to look daft by asking if it's usually always for adults or advanced range Thanks

Thats good to hear swanprincess but why was it fab?

oops .. my typo! my dd is doing grade 2 in March not g3!

She's 9 doing rad grade 3 in march so not particularly advanced for her age compared to some others but I know she would love a day out for audition at the least

Hi Just thinking of DD going for this and thought I would ask for thoughts, experiences, comments etc http://www.midlandtheatreballet.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=71&Itemid=435 Thanks

One of mine this year is to label and check absolutely everything! (where's the roll eyes smiley ... ) We lost so much stuff last year even though I am sure it was labelled it just either got left behind or other people must have packed it and walked off with it and not realised later on. DD lost leotards, countless tights, practice dress, modern shoes, tangle hair brushes, and lots of water bottles!

Great, thanks for grouping all these threads.... I'm off to have a read through now My daughter is doing EYB in March, Swan Lake in Norwich and v excited.

I agree .. lovely story and such a shame that there is nowhere to place her for new grade 3. I don't know what to suggest apart from moving dance schools or doing another style of dance. My daughter age 9 really enjoys lyrical and her ballet teachers says that she can see this has been really good for her as she dances for fun in lyrical but using ballet steps and sequences and then after using them for fun she uses them in earnest in the syllabus classes. But, I guess that all depends on the classes that are on offer. Another alternative is to share a private lesson maybe. We have done that before as a boost where say 3 or 4 share a private lesson on a regular basis. Good luck whatever you choose and lovely to hear your daughter is enjoying ballet so much. As for other parents and the divide issue .. unfortunately for me the divide has just got bigger and bigger and I've had to grow a thick skin