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Nama

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Everything posted by Nama

  1. Isn’t the question - if entry is on merit alone to the RBS- how is the corporate sponsorship by a Japanese company specifically directed at students of a particular nationality fair. To maintain the theory that places are on merit - what happens when no Japanese students are above ( on merit) of say another nationality. What happens ? Are those students denied a place. Is there a certain amount of spots for students in a nationality? Or students on another basis identified by another donors preferred choice. Are spots open to individuals determining their preference for the donation and spot for a particular student. I was advised that all donor funds are now pooled for the whole year group to prevent the favouritism issues and pleasing donors et. Via sponsors evening dance selections and opportunities. Is this not now the case. I’m speaking from my dd being ex RBS for 5 years and these issues have been raised for years by parents. Sponsor and donations and lack of a conflict of interest register being available to parents - makes transparency impossible and opens RBS up to the position of being queried on their selection and promotion actions. Transparency should be rbs issue - not other people asking for information. As soon as a corporation or school even has questions raised about its motivation- regardless of being correct or not - there is a problem. Taking a corporate donation so openly and not disclosing how it’s regulated or controlled is unwise. Especially when it’s a school and kids are involved. !!! As another issue - if you take out the prix spots and Yagp spots and now the Japanese Corp spots. And then the donor spots of big name rb sponors who fund each year a few favoured kids. ( and turn up to sponsor events and watch class etc on a private basis ) How many actual spots are being funded by the uk govt? And when the kids audition - how many spots are actually available each year ? How many kids audition and pay to audition - leading to what number of spots in reality !
  2. Congratulations to your young person. We have also supported our daughter through years of ballet - she walked away 4 plus years ago. Went to university- studied finance and graduated in December. She’s now got a fabulous career ahead in investment banking and starts in February. The road has been very difficult. The ballet world left her broken and required significant counselling and psychological help. Her confidence was crushed. She felt worthless and a failure - despite graduating from rbs !!! She had to find her voice and see value in herself that wasn’t defined and expressed by the ballet world. She’s learnt to see value in her brain and her opinions- her intellect and expression of her point of view. Her voice is powerful and in the real world valued and heard. She is no longer valued only on her bendy feet and high jumps. She can speak out - and is valued for being smart and articulate- not assessed as being too forthright. Silent women standing in line doing as they are told without an opinion is no longer for her !!! The opinion and assessment by the ballet world needs to reflect the real world and be cognisant of the psychological impact on the kids they are teaching and dealing with. This is not new - endless parents have told the leaders of these schools that their methods are unacceptable! Good transparent governance of these institutions requires reviews. They know this. But refuse to act. The problems of conflict of interest and muddled favours and sponsorship events distorts true merit in selection. They all know this is a problem too - but it continues. The ballet world profits. Those involved know it works and no one wants to rock the boat. So best of luck to those involved. But congratulations and well done to the kids who have extracted themselves and achieved a new pathway. Well done !!!
  3. Totally agree. This has been discussed over and over on these forums by numerous parents - including me - in various threads. Nothing has changed over the years. The funding methods for these uk schools relies heavily on Yagp and prix money for scholarships and influential sponsors and donors allocated to students and year groups. Prizes and scholarships. These kids then get showcased etc and promoted to satisfy the personal motivation of the donors to encourage them to keep donating - access to the kids and reflected glory all an intricate part of the whole funding method of these schools. The more prestigious the prize winner, more insta followers, the more the school wants the kid - the more likely those kids are pushed for job allocation. These matters are not new. It’s raised over and over again. Nothing changes - despite how often complaints are made and conflicts of interest are identified. Parents complain every year. No one listens to them. We speak out and nothing changes. Various parents have spoken out on these forums - yet the same thing happen over and over. If the teachers taught the kids properly in WL to world standard. - then the kids would be world standard - so why seek a new batch to replace them in upper school. And why “assess” them out in year 2 and replace them with other kids taught by other schools. Surely the fact they are assessed out indicates a failure of the staff teaching the upper school kids. And what a joke that the kids been taught for as little as 12 months are then “graduated” into jobs at RB coy and BRB and other top companies in the world. Surely it’s a reflection of another teachers efforts - and just a quick polish up by the current. school. There are numerous examples of this happening over the last few years. And why is it the kids assessed out are not provided with assistance to find another place in another prestigious school - the teachers of the incoming kids are getting pushed and supported to gain a place. Surely the assessed out kids deserve to be supported and assisted too. I know they are not helped and receive little if any counselling and direction. This is not acceptable. Parents should complain and question what’s happening in uk schools and demand transparency through this whole system. Enough is enough. There are a large number of kids that have been treated poorly through this process in uk schools and it should be addressed and cease.
  4. Totally agree. My daughter - and we as parents spoke out about all this sort of stuff and the impact on our child. No other parents backed us up. We took it to the governors and board. No teachers backed our daughter up. They all stayed silent and stuck together. Even the house parents who are supposed to act as a safety net for the kids stuck to the staff. Everyone pretended they didn’t see her suffer. They didn’t see the other kids suffer too. Despite the fact that the counselling service was booked out all the time!!! What does that tell you!!! Those teachers all are aware and pretend it’s all fine. The kids in the company say how fabulous school is - but the real truth is told by the kids thrown out or have quit. The kids are hand picked to give feedback when the inspectors come to visit. And the sponsors etc see a facade. It’s all a facade that needs the light. The board is trying to change things but it’s the staff that need looking into and re-educated or replaced. The Scarlett investigation was just the edge of it all.
  5. Yes. This is true - my daughter danced a lot for rb whilst a rbs student. The money was given to school and apparently used for helping students attend auditions. Although this was means tested - so my daughter earned a large percentage of the funds and was prevented from accessing the help !! The girls were also lent to brb for Albert hall and nutcracker season. The reason was supposedly to showcase the students and help with resume - didn’t help get them jobs.
  6. From past experience and witnessed directly when daughter at RBS US - the Yagp pay for one year for the students. Then they used to be allocated to a uk sponsor who attended sponsor showcases and performances. They used to be noted in the programme at these events next to the sponsored students. The more prestigious the sponsor the more prestigious the student. It was always unclear how students were allocated to the most influential sponsors. Usually a board member or on the most significant internal committees. They are very present in the school and view the students more often than I did as a parent. This was advertised to potential sponsors as part of the package. They attend the graduation with the students. Also as students progressed into the coy the sponsor follows the student and again attend events and sponsorship and lobbying continues. After numerous complaints by the uk parents and fee paying parents - systems changed to be a sponsorship for the year group. Also awards and scholarships are allocated directly by the AD to students requiring funding - and at the AD discretion. It is a close relationship with the funding source and the students success. Take a look at the annual report it lists all the funding methods. Yagp officials are often visitors into the school and treated with great courtesy as you would imagine. The RBS board attempted to make it more translucent but in reality minor changes !!!!!
  7. Reading this is very upsetting- nothing has changed since my daughter graduated. Exactly the same experience - no recognition. Left off the list of published graduates. She’s still raising the issue with the school. Trying to make change. All just talk it seems. All the recent AD statements about mental health for students needs to include how they leave the school and transition too. They can’t say they are now focused on mental health when the students are being discarded at the end not helped or transitioned with respect. Nothing changed - and again all advertising to protect their own reputation and brands.
  8. The Australian Human rights commission completed and released a report on treatment of gymnastic students. Made press here and sad reading. Mirrors the issues in ballet
  9. My daughter had exactly the same identity crisis. It took a while but you have to keep pointing in a forward direction. Regroup and list their skills and qualities - try loads of different things. Be brave and look forward are the words we kept saying. They are so young and the world is ahead of them - loads of options if you open your mind to them. Ballet isn’t everything and for a very few it’s a career that satisfies and it’s fleeting. My daughter has found a new path at uni and now can see a career she feels will be fulfilling and she can succeed at. That’s all you want as a parent. Remain positive and keep going. !!!
  10. I wish I’d met you 9 years ago and listened to you and convinced my ballet mad daughter to listen !!! Please listen objectively to everyone’s past shared experiences in Ballet World. But - on a positive note my daughter is now starting to interview for interns and grad programs in her new world and that “ballet world “ experience is a stand out and gets her noticed every time. She’s combined that persistence and team work with a very good grade point average so stands a very good chance to be a success in her new chosen path. These kids are so determined and focused. A new direction with the equal application of those same skills will stand them in a great position going forward. As long as we keep telling them - you got to the the very top through hard work and determination. Just do it again. And again. Positive thoughts. !!!
  11. I think research the conditions of contracts or pre professional year spots for young ballet dancers. I know from friends of my dd that a Dutch junior coy was very low pay in the initial year with parents having to support rent and living expenses. Also a Central European coy that one young dancer was given a full contract was so poorly paid in the local currency that the dancer couldn’t afford to live without parents. The salary was so low. Also some coys don’t pay for holidays or outside the season. Only pay the dancers during the time they actually dance. The Aud Jebsen apprentice pay was £22k pa a couple of years ago - which was considered good money for a first year dancer. Ask around. Find out what your young dancer is likely to get and their future prospects. My daughter is at uni now headed to a career in finance. As you can imagine as parents we are relieved. I’m only speaking up to let people know the info I have managed to gain after her 5 years in a uk school and her friends experience after graduation the last 2.5 yrs
  12. Totally agree with the points made in this thread. I’ve been trying to raise these issues in uk and at the top uk school in particular for the last 2 .5 years since my dd graduated. She experienced all the stuff mentioned. I saw students get quasi contracts in junior coys or extra training at schools. All requiring the continued support of parents. The training continuing offers and placements is a bit of a joke. If you’ve satisfied the 3 yr training requirements to graduate and receive your diploma - why would you need more training. Yet scan the Instagram at various european schools and there are kids still undergoing more training and clearly paying for the spot. It would appear that it’s more a place to keep on audition fitness whilst getting another AD to promote your audition tour. The issue of lack of performance skills is covered off at the RBS. From my dd experience they get loads of exposure - even up to regular spots in the Corp all the way through graduAte year if they like you enough and your competent. The RBS kids even get the BRB exposure and regularly lent out to that coy too. I continue to argue that there needs to be more of a plan and strategy for the kids being pushed through in this system. If jobs are scarce - which they are - reduce the intake and help those in the system. I know my dd saw kids on the yearly audition tour that had been there from the year before and before that. The audition tour is a waste of money too. Thousands spent to travel and attend various auditions across Europe and USA with spies allocated already to a candidate in a private audition prior or no spots for girls but only said afterwards and various other excuses. The result being a shattered young student and thousands of parents money wasted.
  13. I guess if you look at the pathways into top schools lately has been very focused on international competitions. Uk kids aren’t a majority in these comps - the pathway from white lodge has been volatile. Then when they audition into the uk ballet companies at graduate time - a large portion of the graduates are overseas passport holders - they’ve also been show cased through the last 2 years at the school and hence go in with an advantage. Plus having gold medals etc on your resume and scholarship winners. You look better on paper to even get the advantage of an audition and p.r to get you noticed. If you come up through the uk rbs system you are discouraged from international competition and hence very reliant on the local system. If that system then focused on the overseas students where does that leave the uk kids. There is a problem with the funding model of the uk schools and the reliance on overseas students and attached scholarship money and donor sponsors.
  14. In my dd graduate year the uk opportunities primarily went to foreign passport holder students and visas were all required. I know in Australia the visas are very limited and company’s are very cautious in planning and allocation. The uk needs to think how many students are in each graduate year and actually plan how they are going to help them get uk jobs first. I was quite shocked to see how many students are in graduate year when the situation has tightened considerably in recent years for graduate jobs. Surely if there is less demand for ballet dancers - train less and reduce the inflow of overseas candidates for a while until the situation improves. Just like any employment market in any part of the world if there is an over supply you adjust. Especially given the reliance on the uk tax payer for supporting this industry
  15. The environment at upper school is focused on graduating to a company. As students audition around and fail to get a contract they start to feel the pressure and excluded from the other students who have gained a contract and are planning their lives and future. In my dd school the students who don’t gain a contract prior to graduation day are excluded from any published graduate lists and excluded from even The final year performance programme. There is no list that is public that states “graduates” even if they legally and officially are graduates and hold the diploma to prove it. Additionally the students who wish to change paths and chase another career aren’t listed either ( eg uni or college place). They are just wiped from history in the schools graduate records. That’s not fair. They are made to feel less accomplished.
  16. The issues raised by this young lady are from her experience and perspective. She’s not alone and others have voiced similar experiences. The integrity of the health team and nutritionists is not under question. I’m sure they are acting at the highest level of expertise. That’s not the issue. It’s in this students experience she felt she was unsupported and clearly needed more help. It’s also raising the issue of mental health services and recognition of mental health in all messaging to students inside the school in all circumstances. We can all do more to help and support young students in these schools and ask that more is done.
  17. In my experience, the issues she raised about the operation of the school and how it impacts on the students and makes the students feel is true and she’s not the only one. My daughter was at this school at the same time. The young lady is clearly honest, articulate and brave. Healing starts with openly stating how you feel and moving forward. I wish her all the best. Now it requires the Board of the school to listen and act. The ballet school industry needs to become more transparent and listen to the students and parents. If your not happy with how they treat your child/ young person now or in the past write to the school and complain. Then things can change.
  18. That simplified my message. It’s about respect and access and protection for your child. Support and advocating for you child when their voice is ignored. It’s equality of access and respect by the schools for the parents in this process. Simplification of the issue to an expected mark is not my point. Mental health and child protection is my point. Issues of teachers / professionals require oversight as well. - hence the need for school inspection etc.
  19. Surely if these schools had the best interests of the dancers involved they would want a co-op between the dancer and their support network (parents) These young people are often quite sheltered being focused on their ballet. Their families are very supportive and want to help. Not hinder. The schools have a barrier up. They generally don’t make you feel welcome. Once a term for watching day and only a meeting with the teacher for 5 quick minutes in a room full of other parents. Not ideal for a personal discussions. In my experience a meeting with the AD is confrontational and not helpful for your kid. They are thd hostage and you watch what you say. Just because they are private schools or they offer a degree course shouldn’t let them slip through responsibility. In my experience they made us as parents sign responsibility for our daughters fees and her behaviour etc. If you tie me in legally I’ll not be silenced and will expect open communication. These schools are quick to drag in.parents if there is a behavioural issue but don’t want to speak to you as a parent when you are enquiring about their responsibility towards you and the student. They can’t have it both ways. The sponsors of other students and board members saw my child dance in class more than I ever did as a parent. They also got more feedback and discussions about the students than I ever did. That’s not fair or right. If the door is shut - make it fair for all people involved. But - that access to the kids is money for these prestigious schools. Parents need to speak up and make the schools involve them as it should be. Imagine going to a normal school with 16 year olds and be told that the parents would get no feedback or discussion about a student. There would be a walk out. Change needs to happen. Write to the board of governors or the owners of the schools. Put them on notice - speak up. Watch them get nervous !!
  20. I completely agree with Anna C. Parents should always speak up and question what is happening to their child / young person. The constant it’s “ballet world” and “ your not from the ballet industry” so don’t understand - are not acceptable as responses from ballet staff / directors when parents question the situation in the schools. These institutions are schools. They are governed by child protection laws. As a parent you have the right to speak up. You should be treated with the same courtesy as the influential donors and the sponsors and the Prix de Lausanne organisation/ yagp etc. We struggled to protect our young person in a major school - constantly raised child protection and mental health issues. We sought to have things changed - for her and for the other kids. Our child spoke up for herself and others and felt the blowback from staff. Ballet is beautiful but the school / training system is ugly and needs a thorough investigation and light brought into the old systems and the structures around it. Tradition is well and good but modernisation is needed for the protection and equality of children. Especially mental health. It’s odd that you don’t hear this sought of stuff from company members. It’s the schools that need to change. Parents and ex students that need to speak up and tell the real truth. You are paying - you are the customer. You need to advocate for your child - the other “connected/ industry” parents / teachers are advocating for their favoured student. The treatment these favoured / connected kids receive is better than what your child is getting. The students know what is happening. I know my child kept a lot quiet but spoke up when she left the industry. Even now 3 years later she is finally speaking very openly and sees how wrong the treatment was. As a parent I feel terrible - but I know we tried to help her and fought legally for 2.5 years. Parents speak up - there are people and institutions/ company’s that want to hear you and will help. I’m so over hearing the constant story about young people hurt in this school/ training system.
  21. There are so many parents that have voiced exactly these issues. Especially those that have come through White Lodge. Makes the purpose of White Lodge under question and it’s government funding etc.
  22. I appreciate the point you make about the diversity of the company - however my point was the results of Elmhurst as evident in their placement of students in their own associated company BRB. And in particular I was pointing to the last 4 years or so as documented in the graduation destination announcements. It’s clear that in current history the numbers are pointing towards RBS grad intake. I appreciate that other dancers join the Company throughout the levels and from other places. But my issue was the Elmhurst students as graduates getting full contracts at BRB as compared to the total number of RBS kids getting full contracts at grad. Also it’s worth pointing out that the apprentice contracts have been allocated to Elmhurst kids. I can only speak to what my experience has been via my daughters years at RBS and looking at the documented press releases over those years comparing the two schools. I acknowledge that companies are full of various dancers from many schools. That wasn’t my point in this post.
  23. Totally agree - it has also been the case that the Elmhurst students don’t get into the BRB at graduation- even though supposedly attached to the company via the school. The RBS kids get the opportunities. Also the A levels as a back up plan - much needed in this current climate and probably the future as well - are not enough for uni and especially more popular degrees in business and tech. My daughter had to go and do a transition diploma to boost her 2 A levels from RBS grad as a B-Tech not considered acceptable in Australia. Cost her another year of student academic fees and slowed her down getting her degree. So I think students need to get all the information about the ballet course and employment path and their plan B going into any school. Don’t believe all they tell you and don’t believe the advertising. It’s good that Elmhurst are trying to operate a school with diversity etc. But to be frank that’s what’s required at any institution around the world A normal school wouldn’t be praised for saying they are operating an institution within the acceptable social norms.
  24. It does need to be transparent. It’s not right. And just because that’s the tradition - and people accept it and work the system - doesn’t make it acceptable. Nor should it continue and not should people be paying into a corrupt system and the government shouldn’t be funding it either. Time for change is here and transparency will make it happen.
  25. Firstly even the RAD prohibits a teacher assessing their own students as blatant conflict of interest. All schools in academic schools prohibit staff coaching for cash their own students. Even at ballet comps there would be outrage if a competitor was a student of the judge. The point is not you taking advantage of a bias system where others can’t. It’s the system that needs to be recognised as biased and able to be distorted- by money - needs to changed. It’s ok to practice hard and get your kid every facility you can - they can be the best possible dancer. But the “who you know “ Aspect distorts the level playing field and destroys the students belief in working hard and striving for improvement- which they are told constantly at these top schools - that it’s their fault they don’t get the role or a job etc - not that another student has a “who you know “ contact to get ahead or be showcased. The system needs to be brought into the light for all to see !
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