amum/Cathy

Thanks Janet. Yes. It's not just ballet class stuff. Ds would come to see ballets with me as well, as you know. In mourning for that as well!

Ds is off to uni shortly, and dd is giving up ballet. So after 11 years I don't have a ballet run to do, or new kit to source, or a performance to look forward to, or....or... Anyone else out there want to join me in howling quietly on this thread? I feel so strange. I hope Ds will continue to dance - he passed his Adv 2 not long ago, and Intermediate in Tap and Modern Jazz. He can do it all in societies at uni - but I'm out of the loop!

Thanks Dance*is*life. I might check out our local hobbycraft shop for it. The little tap shoe key rings arrived this morning. They are 3 1/2 cm long and the metal chain will easily come off. They will be perfect as decorations. If anyone else is interested/for future reference; they were from Katz dancewear (available from Amazon). Hope I'm allowed to post that!

Thanks Liveforballet and 2dancersmum. I've googled and searched but I don't want it too girly as 18 year old ds is her longest standing pupil, and anyway I'm paying/or cooking (haven't decided which yet)! I think I'm going to order 2 little tap shoe key rings for the tap shoes - and hopefully take the metal rings off and a cute pointe shoe keyring, both on Amazon.

Looking for suggestions/advice. Ds's dance teacher is retiring and I want to organise a big retirement cake for the little do she's holding for the pupils. I thought of putting tiny tap and ballet shoes as decorations - plastic and approx 2-3" long...ish. Maybe just a pair of each. Has anyone come across such things? Any ideas where I could find them. Or alternative suggestions welcome! The pupils there will be mostly ballet pupils. Possibly some balloons would be fun, for the younger ones, so a website that sells themed balloons would be great.

I wouldn't class shite as swearing. It's such a useful word. I was a student in Liverpool where it was used ALOT. My Ds (year 13) did a ballet street fusion dance he'd choreographed himself at a school (regular state school) dance evening last week. It worked fantastically well and the kids loved it. He was definitely the cool guy of the evening. But it has only taken 6 years for him to get the courage to show anyone at school some ballet. If you can Happymum, I would try to find another street class because it is a very useful way for ballet boys to link up with other male dancers and influence each other to try new things. Having said that his ballet teacher has never been that keen on the idea. When ds did the dance associates scheme at Hammond they were given street classes as well as ballet and contemporary or whatever the other classes were, which I can't remember now!

Of course the classic example of where this is already done in dance is with the search for would be Billy Elliot's. I remember taking my ds along to an audition 9 years ago when he had just turned 8, the minimum age you could audition. Every boy who got a recall was a good 5 inches shorter. They have to find talented boys they can train intensively (for up to 2 years) to then perform the part for up to 2 years all the while looking like a child and not a gangly teenager. I'm sure the Billy Elliot casting team spends lots of time looking at height and physical development of their potential Billys Cue lots of moaning about being tall in this household of course. Ds didn't bother trying again. Pictures I believe (from another forum) that your ds has found his feet performing now, where his height is a definite advantage. I'm sorry about the football side though, and the same to Pups_mum's youngest ds.

I'm fascinated by the idea of bio-banding. This article in the Observer today http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/dec/19/biobanding-scientists-skinny-kids-sporting-superstarsmentions a study of it for late developers in ballet and I wondered if anyone knew more about it? Googling only brings me the same article. It's a great concept. Matthew Syed's book Bounce first brought to my attention the predominance of older age youngsters in sports teams, so I'm pleased sports academies are addressing it. Is the ballet world?

So sorry to hear this. I'll be digging out some very old programmes to remind myself what I saw her in. I had a great fascination for her - you could always spot her on the stage and would be drawn to watching her performance over others. A beautiful interesting dancer!

Thanks for the lowdown on RHUL mimi'smum, especially the musical theatre society. Ds will be very happy to hear that (currently choerographing West Side Story for school, and playing Bernado). I see they are starting a dance degree in 2016 so there may be more dancers around from next year to bolster the ballet classes. What productions are the musical theatre society putting on this year? triphazard thank you for the lowdown on Bristol. Will pass it all on. If he has the luxury of more than one offer he can start a spreadsheet (acknowledgements to Katymac) including ballet classes on the plus points for each uni.

That's useful to hear your perspective Kate_N. I think ds would probably prefer to be in full scale productions so maybe he's better concentrating on musical theatre societies and finding his dance classes in local schools/classes that can teach to Adv 2 standard.

That's useful to know for ds as well, dramascientist. Royal Holloway on his UCAS form. Thanks.

Durham University have a ballet company. Don't know more than that but when ds and I went to an open day and saw a dance studio in the students union there appeared to be a good selection of classes on a timetable. The Bristol uni dance society appear to have 2 adv 1 classes a week on their timetable and mention adv 2 (although we couldn't see it on the timetable). They also have a good range of other advanced classes in tap, contemporary and jazz etc. Really hoping ds gets an offer from them (my favourite!) Birmingham uni's dance society website has a reasonable range of classes, taught by members. The uni is currently ds's fav choice and he could go to the dance eXchange for classes as well. We have googled other university dance societies but haven't really got much of an idea about them so more information would be welcome, Exeter, Warwick and Royal Holloway London in particular. We don't really understand the competition scene ( ds has never done festivals)- is that what uni dance societies are about? Is it like sports and you compete with other unis?

My ds did Coppelia. Some great (and fun) dances for the boys in it!

Thewinelake is right about it being easier for boys. They choreograph the pieces around the boys' abilities and I think grade 2 will be fine. It's more about being quick to pick things up as the audition involves being shown short enchainements - series of steps - and having to dance them in rows: they are all lined up in rows and shown it as a group and then asked to perform it, then the front row is sent to the back and the second row moves forward and they do it again, then that row is moved to the back and the next comes forward and they will be shown another, and so on. Thus all the rows will have their turn at being at the front. There may be some steps he isn't familiar with but he should just smile and do his best with them and carry on with the whole enchainement. Hope that makes sense. Good Luck

Best place to ask is the notapushymum forum, as mentioned above. You have to register for the forum, which sometimes takes a few days. The (new, as of this week) Charlie thread is in the members only musical theatre auditions section. There have been long Charlie threads in the past and there are plenty of members who can answer your questions. Good luck.

Those prices are really very reasonable. Thaks for posting Janet. My normal ballet companion is ds but he will be off to uni about then so I am grieving somewhat while I plan my solitary trip!

Sorry typo- that should say deserve it more.

Of course Sim. I didn't mean they don't deserve it, but that they deserve it may (could get an increase?) on the grounds I've stated.

Purists may shoot me down but I think we are long overdue a merging/fusion, call it what you will, of asian dance and ballet that will appeal to the UK's diverse population and bring in a new audience to ballet and classical dance companies. My husband is Sri Lankan and I have been lucky enough to see a small scale fusion in that country on the part of an individual ballet/dance school. Whether this will deliver what I hope, we wait to see, but it is a step in the right direction and should justify their Arts Council money if it does.

This is the BBC link by the way http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-34785633

I missed the announcement last year but this looks exciting. It's going in my diary - next September in Manchester!

I'm so so sorry. What an awfully sudden and sad way for the teacher pupil relationship to end. Dance teachers must be the only teachers who can have seen our dcs grow and develop over such a long period. So sorry. Good Luck with finding new classes....

IBD23 I am completely in awe of anyone who can shepherd their child through GCSEs AND the audition process. Well done and I hope you recover soon. I was like Aileen; coaching my ds (who wasn't auditioning anywhere) through his Science GCSEs in particular. I take all the credit for his respectable results, but he didn't deserve them! I'm just thankful that he hasn't decided to apply for Drama school, with A2s next summer the audition process and extra singing lessons on top of all his dance lessons would just about kill me off.

Thanks again Katharina janice and ellen thank you. Wonderful. I'm so pleased to have that confirmed. Looking forward to seeing it, fingers crossed.