Zacharovitti

So sorry for the little dancers who received a no letter...must be hard for them and their parents too, but as many of you already told, there are many other ways to become a dancer and you are very lucky to live in a country full of possibilities. Congratulations to the yes! How many girls were at y7 final? How many are usually accepted?

Thanks Ribbons for sharing your experience!

Many congratulation to your DS Suzyszoo, and good luck to abitwornout and Pirouette26 DDs for tomorrow!

Yes JulieW and dramascientist, I agree with you: just being at White Lodge is exciting and worthwhile for my DD, as it'll be (in case of a yes, of course) her first experience abroad too. In that case, she could have the chance of testing herself in many different ways: ballet level, knowledge of English language, suitability to life as a full time student in a foreign country. I actually hope she gets in, also to understand better her readiness to all this (and mine too!!!)

Hi Kat09, I'm looking for a residential one

What about french summer schools eg cannes or princess grace in monaco? I read they are very expensive....do you have any suggestion for SS in France? As RBS SS wasn't as you expected, what you think, instead, of WL full time training? Sorry for asking all these information, but it's quite hard to have a true insight of UK voc school living abroad.

Thanks afab. Maybe I should have asked before....which other SS did your DD attend? And which was the best for her? Maybe it's too late to apply now, but it could be helpful for next time. Thanks

Thank you Plie and Afab for your kind replies.....The groups are enormous!!! I didn't imagine that! Did your DDs find the course useful? Apart from having fun (that it is NOT what we are looking for) , do they (and you) really think is worthwhile?

Hello friends! As somebody of you already knows, my DD applied for RBS SS. She is 11 years old, and I'm wondering, as I couldn't find it on RBS website, how children are divided: are there different classes for 10, 11 and 12 or are they all together? How many children per class? Does any of you (much more experienced than me) know about it? Thank you for any information

Thanks celb......at least my DD can go on dreaming for a while...

No......unlikely when my DD expressed so strongly her desire to apply for fulltime and my husband and me decided to consider it seriously, it was too late for auditioning (it was january). So I sent an email to the audition office at WL asking for a private audition. They said it was far too late even for that and suggested to apply for summer school: in case she will be invited to attend they will arrange to audition her while in class.....we applied for SS...so now our countdown for results is going to start.....do you know of anyone who has been accepted for full time while attending SS?

Good luck to all the DC auditioning for RBS lower school finals next friday! My DD and me hug all of them!

Wonderful news pastel! I am so happy for your DD, as I perfectly understand your effort and the sacrifice you are going to make to give her the opportunity to study beyond the possibilities your own country can offer. Good luck to her and a big hug to her brave parents!

Thank you very much for your kind replies and welcomes......I feel less alone now. Since my DD started to train seriously, I looked for Italian forums on web, to share my doubts with other parents, but I didn't find any.....till I met you! It's so nice the feeling of being part of a community that understands you and your child, supports you, helps you and is truly happy for your progress...! I appreciate very much the comments about my English.....my self-esteem is growing up quickly!

Hy everybody! This is my first post, even though I have been following this forum since last year. I find it very helpful and I appreciate all of you for being so generous in sharing your stories, your lives, your anxiety, with other dancing parents! Firstly I apologise for my bad English and hope that what I'm going to write makes sense and doesn't sound rude in any way: if so,it is not my intention, it's only a question of my very poor vocabulary!! We live in Rome, Italy, and even though I perfectly know that our country ballet companies and schools are not to be considered in an international scenary, I wish to share with you our personal experience, as I believe it can help to understand why many overseas students, including Italians, want so strongly apply for a place in UK vocational schools. In Italy we only have 2, maybe 3 schools that can be considered vocational and have their own ballet companies; none of them is a boarding school, and none provides for academics. No funding at all, no scholarship offered by the schools or anyone else. If you want to get in, you have to pay the full rate. Unless you live in Rome or Milan, where these schools are located, you have also to find (and pay) an accomodation on your own, as well as an academic school. For us, the Accademia alla Scala di Milano wasn't a possible choice: my DD is just 11 and of course she couldn't live on her own in Milan. The only chance for us was the Teatro delll'Opera di Roma, whose training system has not a very good reputation.......I can't find even one of their graduated in the best international companies. All the Italian dancers who are or have been international stars, trained or at least finished their training abroad (with the only exception of Roberto Bolle,I think); some of the best students graduated at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma or at the Accademia alla Scala di Milano join the companies of those theatres, all the others struggle to find a job as dancers if they remain in Italy, many of them finish to teach in private schools (in Italy very few private schools have teachers with a diploma/certificate that allows them to teach). Even in the best case of joining the company......the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma has 3-5 ballet productions per year.....POB something like 150 productions per year!!!!! In Italy, ballet companies are going to die..... We have been lucky enough to find a very good private school, whose director is a former etoile of POB, but my DD has to attend 3 different courses of classical ballet to reach a decent number of hours of training. The most of the students are recreational dancers, so their level can be very different, and even if the teacher gives more attention to the serious ones, I don't think my DD could have any chance remaining there. Add to this, she (and me) struggles every day with the huge traffic problem of Rome and the big amount of homework she has to do (in Italy academic schools are very demanding and the serious practice of dance, sport, music or art is not considered at all; the school is just in the morning and a lot is done at home). Luckly, my DD is very bright at school as well as determinated and focused in dance, so she manages, but I know what big effort it is for her: she wakes up at 6.30, then school from 8 to 2 pm, then a quick lunch in the car and one hour drive to ballet studio (while she does part of her homework), she finishes at 8 pm, another hour of traffic (and another part of homework done in the car), she is at home at 9, then dinner and homework again till 10.30, sometimes 11pm. In the weekend she never goes out, never meets friends, as she tries to do the most of her homework in advance......and she is only an 11 years old child! Having said all this, I think you can understand that for many overseas students, trying to go abroad is not only due to the excellent training other countries provide...sometimes it is just the ONLY choice they have: few (or none) vocational school, no funding, no boarding, few (or none) job chances, impossible everyday life.... I think many of you know very well how hard it is to let a child go away from home at such an early age....For foreign students and their parents can be even worst: the children have to deal with a foreign country, have to study in a foreign language, have to start a totally new life with nobody known to support them; the parents have to worry about all that, with no chance to help them, meet them, hug them for many months and have to make huge sacrifice to pay the full rate of the school....I think that if they could have the same possibilities (of good training and good job offer) in their own country, they would prefer much more to stay at home. Why so many choose UK? In France, POB is the only boarding school and it's very hard to get in, not only for the ballet requirements, but also because they pretend a very good knowledge of French language to attend their school; they also are closed on weekend, so it's mandatory for children to have a guardian in Paris that collect them on friday evening. In Germany, Austria, Russia, the language barrier is often scaring for very young students. UK offers a variety of good vocational school, some excellent or at least with that reputation worldwide, with boarding, good academics, and the English language is the only every child studies at school: even if their English is sometimes very basic, it allows them to feel more confident. For all these reasons, we applied last year for RBS summer school (my DD was shortlisted) and for all these reasons my DD asked us to apply again this year for both RBS SS and full-time training. I hope you understand we don't want to "steal" places to any British student, we are not enemy, we just want for our DD what all of you want for your DC. Really sorry for the long post, hope nobody get bored!