esme

Hello Michelle

I had an undiagnosed fracture of my foot two years ago which I recently found out. I have been seeing a dance physiotherapist in Edinburgh and he dry needles it and then shockwaves it.  I've found this really helpful. Shockwaving is not particularly pleasant but has great results and might be worth considering - just a thought and quite a few physios use it. 

Absolutely fabulous! Many congratulations, wonderful result

Hi Michelle

I haven't been on the Forum for a wee while so am sorry to hear about your knee is still an issue but at least you now know what it is.  I had the same problem a while ago and saw a Dance Physio who was absolutely brilliant but I don't mean to be a harbinger of doom, but, I was advised not to load my knee in any way and so could only do barre with no grand plies, no fondu, and no centre work where I was working through my knee and absolutely no jumping.  I did what she said and did all the exercises religiously and eventually moved on from the foam roller/towel under my knee to squat and eventually being able to load the knee with the issue.  It took weeks though, but it paid off greatly.  She also put KT Tape on my knee and that also helped.  Unfortunately I have since all of that injured my knee through landing really badly from a jump and my patella was out of place and I have had anterior knee pain ever since.  So it is back to physio again but I am definitely on the mend and again have had to cut back on lots of different exercises in class.  I hope you will be ok in time for all your adventures to Ballet West and subsequent performances with your partner but just take care and look after that knee!

Best wishes

Esme

Hi Michelle

Your intensives at Ballet West do indeed sound intense! What a privilege to have one to one with Gillian coaching you on rep and how good to be able to share your passion with your boyfriend too. What are you performing in Saint Petersburg?

I've just spent the afternoon sewing several pairs of pointe shoes and while I know my feet will hurt again initially, I'm actually looking forward to getting back to pointe and full class. Grand plies are a no no for me at the moment until this knee is completely sorted, so it is barre with demi plies and only centre adage for me at the moment but it will be worth it in the end. Hopefully very, very soon.

That part of Scotland will be lovely in the summer and I'm sure you will have a wonderful time and learn lots.

That sounds impressive. Glad also to hear that your knee is better. I saw the Physio yesterday and finally my patella is back in place and KT taped and some more strengthening to do before I can do a full class and get back in the pointe shoes which she said should be in a couple of weeks - thank goodness! Foam rolling is great too. When you go to Ballet West do you do an individual intensive course of tuition or are you part of a group? It is such a beautiful setting. One final query are you doing pdd pirouettes on Demi and not pointe because of your knee?

Anyway, keep up the good work!

Hi Michelle

Yes the Health Studio at RB looks amazing.  I'm lucky enough to have access to a similar studio near me where I do one-to-one gyrotonic sessions and also do gyrokinesis as well and it certainly does lengthen and strengthen - if you know what I mean! Both of these are great for injuries.  Floor Barre is another good thing too, if you've got time.

It sounds as if you have your knee issues covered, ballet can be such a killer!  I've got hyperextended knees and suffer from time to time with injuries, and while sway backs look good, they can be a proverbial pain.  Anyway good luck with all your classes look after that knee!

In response to Michelle's post - Have you had either an X-ray or scan of our knee, that way your Physio would know what's going on? Have you considered gyrotonics? I've had knee issues in the past and once I'd had my knee X rayed and scanned I took the results to a dance Physio who gave me the correct exercises to do. Also I wasn't to use rotation or turnout for 6 weeks and rest which drove me up the wall at the time but was so worth it. Gyrotonics is absolutely brilliant and I would highly recommend it - it is used extensively by ballet companies both for injured dancers and in everyday use. It is tailored to your needs and is amazing and very addictive. Also have had thought about KT taping! Your Physio could do that? Anyway good luck and take good care of that knee!

Done! It'll be really interesting to know the outcome!

The author was a professional ballet dancer with a very prestigious UK ballet company.

Hi

I'd just like to thank everyone who has responded to my query, you have all been so helpful.

Esme

You can go online and look at her website 'the ballet blog' and perfect form physio. There is quite a bit of free information there without purchasing products which will be of interest to many.

That's great, thank you. I'll have a look now!

These comments from yourself and invisiblecircus are very interesting. I think I'll try and contact BATD again and see if I have any joy.  They previously said that the dance school would have the syllabus, however, the dance studio wouldn't let you see the syllabus unless you were actually doing the grade which I found very odd.  I'll try BATD again - fingers crossed!

I have since emailed BATD and received a response that you cannot purchase their ballet syllabi because they would not want any person using these to teach without being part of BATD.  I still find this very unusual, given that there is no such concern when accessing BBO syllabi.  I did try!

Oops! Obviously not complete!

I have worked how to PM!!

Esme, PM me next week (very busy up till Thurs!) & I'll type you an outline of the syllabus. As I only have up to Elementary then Associate it's

Thank you Fit and Float that is so kind of you. My next question is how do I PM you? I have emailed BATD but have not heard from them yet.

I have the ballet syllabus just now and it doesn't mention anything about grade order or going back to grade 2 etc (maybe there's a rule book somewhere!) I do remember ages & ages ago when I'd done BATD tap & modern medals & stage (tap & modern) grades that when my dance school started doing the seperate tap & modern grades we (Seniors so pretty experienced) had to do Grade 1 tap & modern, which seems pretty ridiculous now! They were easy & we all came put with top grades (we didn't do the exam with 7 year olds!) seems a bit of a money maker?!

These comments from yourself and invisiblecircus are very interesting. I think I'll try and contact BATD again and see if I have any joy.  They previously said that the dance school would have the syllabus, however, the dance studio wouldn't let you see the syllabus unless you were actually doing the grade which I found very odd.  I'll try BATD again - fingers crossed!

I don't know anything about BATD either, but it's possible the grades might work the other way round - i.e, Grade 1 is the highest grade. This is how it works for gymnastics levels, Or perhaps the junior grades are on a different grading system altogether, like Red, Blue, Yellow, etc, and only at a more advanced level do the actual Grades kick in. One of my children did ice skating for quite a long time, and that had a complicated system that I never quite got my head around which went from Level 1 to 10, then Bronze, Silver, Gold, then Level 1 to 10 again, but on a different system. And in the Russian ballet schools abroad, I believe they only start counting the levels from about age 11, so that would be a level 1 for an 11- or 12-year-old.

Unfortunately, I wish it was but it is just the opposite but thank you for your comments.

My dds both studied ballet and jazz BATD syllabus and then younger dd also joined an RAD school and although there were variations in style I would say they were very much on a par ability wise. I think BATD intermediate was more difficult than RAD as there was a lot more pointe work, however I think RAD Adv 1 is more difficult than BATD. Hope this helps.

Thank you for your comments

Just found an ad from the January 1981 Dancing Times,just the first one I have looked at here. There is an advertisement for their 89th Annual Conference in Blackpool. The President at the time was someone called Bobby Barr [Paisley]and enquiries are to be addressed to the General Secretary in Glasgow. It says "Founded 1892". Maybe it is or was a Scottish only syllabus ? Personally,I think there are too many different syllabuses out there. The same can be said for the different GCSE examination boards too. Surely it would be better for pupils if everyone was to take the one same method/style of exams as everyone else ? Just my opinion.

Hi - thank you for doing that.

Cousin of a friend of ours who was studying RAD grade 8 and Adv 1 moved house a couple of years ago and approached a couple of local schools, one of which was BATD, and they were told she would have to go back to grade 2 as well. 

 

edited for spelling

I just don't get it and in a way it is refreshing to know it's not just me!

Could someone please tell me what BATD stands for?!!

I was hoping someone would reveal somewhere in the above posts!

I honestly have never heard of them either in all these years.

 

I hope there has been some misunderstanding about being required to go back to grade 2 though if already achieved grade 8 at BBO as I know this is at an advanced intermediate type level and to go back to grade 2 (unless injured of course) is a tad insulting!

Otherwise I might think the first three letters are somewhat appropriate eg batty!

BATD is British Academy of Teachers of Dancing. I certainly did feel a tad insulted!  I've made a decision to give it a wide bearth and find an RAD school as there are no BBO schools nearby. As an adult, going into a Grade 2 class just does not cut it!

I know a fair bit about BATD & RAD...I didn't know you had to go back to Grade 2 with BATD! They are pretty strict on doing grades in order though.

 

In terms of content, there is quite a lot more technically at a young age e.g. Pre-primary is quite extensive and involves turnout, quite a lot of steps and a long exam, very different from RAD. Although, it (from my experience anyway) seems BATD is not so strictly marked as RAD, definitely not the same marking scheme (more old school - watch each section, hand written comments from examiner). I've seen lots of lovely BATD ballet dancers but the best ones all seemed to also do RAD/BBO too. The syllabus definitely has gaps that a good teacher needs to plug (but I guess any syllabus isn't really a complete system, something for a teacher to use as a guide & supplement?) I do prefer the slow build up & training of RAD, however maybe a syllabus like this is more for the commuted recreational student? More accessible for all types of body? Just an idea!

 

In terms of where/how, it's HQ are in Glasgow & there are lots of schools in Scotland that teach it (more than ISTD I'd imagine) but there are BATD schools in the rest of Britain, Canada & I'm not sure where else. They do have quite an extensive list of dance styles - ballet, modern, tap, stage, disco, baton twirling, jazz, national, ballroom, Latin, cheerleading etc....not all the subjects have grades (some are medal tests)& not all do the full pre primary - Advanced 2 (ballet for instance goes pre-primary to Elementary at the moment).

 

I've been out the BATD loop for a while & just revisiting lately, but when I contacted them a while ago (10+ years!) they happily sent me a selection of syllabi that you'd normally pay for! Seems strange as mentioned not to at least outline what's involved!

Wow - that's great thank you for that.  That is indeed the most I've ever found out about BATD ballet! I had thought about going to a grade 2 class out of curiosity but decided I didn't want, as an adult, to be in a class of young children doing things that I'd done as a child.  I still find it difficult to work out going back to grade 2, do BATD insist that you have to follow their grade system?  Is it more performance oriented? I'm kind of disappointed that it is almost like a guarded secret unlike BBO and RAD and I think I'll look for another dance school where I could, even do grade 8 again if need be.  I really appreciate your comments.

Hello Esme,

 

I've moved your topic into the Doing Dance forum where our members are more likely to chip in.

Hello Esme,

 

I've moved your topic into the Doing Dance forum where our members are more likely to chip in.

Thank you. As a newbie I wasn't sure where to post it!

Where can you buy Lisa Howell's products from?

I know this has been covered many times - but - what are the actual differences between BBO and BATD?  I have BBO ballet grades up to grade 8 from a couple of years ago. When I enquired at a local dance school who do graded ballet BATD I was told that I would have to go back to Grade 2. Why? Is BBO not considered equivalent or not as good as BATD? I'm totally baffled as to what this is all about. BATD do not seem to be very open in terms of their actual syllabus, or is it just me?

Help

Hi

That's great thank you all for your advice.

Thank you for your post.  I have thought of going back to ballet for a while.  I completed my BBO grades and as there are no BBO schools in my area, I thought that I might go along to an RAD Intermediate class with my dd, however, I just wanted to find out the experiences of others regarding different syllabi.

I was very surprised when a BATD dance school indicated that it did not matter that both my dd and had BBO grades from another area, that I would have to start at grade 2 or 3 at a push my dd would also have to start almost at the beginning too.

My dd is keen to pursue a career in ballet - either performing or teaching and she and I will now look for RAD classes in our area. 

So, after all that, thanks to everyone for their help.