charlie153

I agree Ellie, when teaching young students technique is a lot more clearer cut but as you grow into a professional you've had that many teachers with that many views and backgrounds of dance and you are also encouraged to develop your own style, little tricks and cheats pop in, and to be honest if a choreographer asks you to do something, no matter how weird or wonderful it is..you do it ...if you want to keep the job! Teaching adult ballet/older students who arnt looking for a career in dance is harder because students are there for different reasons, but still want to be pushed and it's tough to gain a happy medium. If you are finding the classes unhelpful, the corrections/techniques taught confusing and you feel you can't ask for an explanation, maybe you arnt gelling with this teacher and it would be better to move on? As for the bit about her being and RAD teacher, what are the schools exam results like? That should give you an idea of the schools teaching standard

Throughout the ballet world there are always slightly different schools of thought regarding basic technique, this is why ballet (as all art forms) is constantly evolving and I think as an adult dancer/professional it is your job and up to you to take on board new ways of thinking that different teachers/choreographers present to you and decide yourself wether to apply them or not, if it doesn't work for you then it doesn't necessarily mean it is point blank wrong. In response to the original post, the best thing to do would be to ask your teacher about the corrections, maybe you have missunderstood her, sometimes when I am teaching, pupils can look lazy during grand battlement/adage etc, not because of the height of leg, just because of the way they are presenting the exercise, maybe your teacher thinks you have more strength than you think you do! It's hard to say without seeing you dance! But like I said your best bet is you ask her to explain what she meant and in sure she would be happy to help! As for "fishing" I think it's one of the many little accepted "cheats" that us dancers have developed as unfortunately we arnt all blessed with the perfect ballet aesthetics and in the competitive industry we work in dancers have found subtle ways to disguise our "faults" Hope this helped!

One of my pupils is in her last year at Pendleton, she went there to improve her musical theatre to prep her for auditions for vocational mt/dance training. The MT side of the course is very strong, and they really do prepare them well with material for auditions etc however the dance side I don't believe is enough to solely rely on, it varies in levels and most of the pupils remain taking class at their local dance schools, which in my opinion is necessary. I couldn't sing higher praises for their MT training though. Hope this helps!

Hi Aly, stretching can be tough for young dancers as it does involve some degree of pain, as a teacher I try and explain to my pupils the difference between "good pain" and "bad pain" in their stretch class, I also let them have the choice as to how far they push themselves as pain thresh holds vary! On the topic of stretching at home, I encourage it, as stretching once a week/a few times before class isn't really enough to improve flexibility greatly. For leg flexibility I normally suggest my dancers sit with their legs together in front of them and fold their chest over their legs to stretch the hamstrings and hold this stretch for minimum 30 seconds, then repeat the same with legs in a "frog" position in front of them (feet together,knees out to side) and then sit in splits, both legs and then in second (box) again for at least 30 seconds. If she does this every day, after a good warmup (very important) and under supervision whilst she's young, your DD should see a big improvement! If her splits comfortably flat then putting a folded towel/pillow under the front foot will increase the stretch! Hope this helps! X