invisiblecircus

There are just different ways of doing it. Obviously if you're on pointe you're going to have to relevé. I don't know anything about the exam boards you mention but it might be that some teach the relevé in preparation for pointe work. Personally, I was orginally taught to relevé but when a different teacher told us to do it from a rise my pirouettes improved incredibly! If you do a search on this forum for "pirouette" there is a thread from 1st Feb 2015 which discusses this topic. I tried to copy and paste the link but either the forum or my PC wouldn't let me!

Is anyone going to this or has attended in previous years? Closing date is 6th May.

Wonderful news! I'm so glad things worked out after what happened at the start of the year. Does he graduate this year?

I applied for the full time course and went on to train there. When I was there, there was no separate audition class. Those who wanted to be considered for the full time programme were continually assessed over the course of a month and given feedback at the end when they were told whether or not they had been accepted. This is not terribly relevant as it was a while ago and a lot has changed, but I believe that candidates are still continually assessed and given feedback at the end of the week. Are you UK based and if so, is your daughter going into year 11 or 12 in September? Academic courses are studied by correspondence so you would need to figure out what you would do with that if you're coming from the UK. The set up is very good for French and Italian students. The school has many successful alumni and I think the new director has made a lot of positive changes.

I did it but it was some years ago now when it was under the previous directorship. How old is your daughter?

It's not normal. Is this a professional or an amateur venture?

This is a vast generalisation, but I think that tall female dancers are more accepted in the US than they are in Europe, which is not to say that shorter dancers are any less accepted. In terms of proportions, the US is just as strict, if not more so in some companies.

Some schools do this and other don't. I'm not sure about Paris Opera SS because it's fairly new. You could ask them.

It is not as simple as that. I don't think we should measure success as who gets into US but rather who makes it as a professional dancer, which is why students are undertaking training in the first place. My understanding is that RBS currently assess out in year 9 and year 10, but you will only be assessed out if you fail to make the expected progress or otherwise become unsuitable for further training. If you meet the school's criteria, you will keep your place even if they audition an external candidate who they like better. They will not assess out a current student who otherwise makes the grade just to make room for a promising new student. At upper school it is not like that. Making the grade is not enough. You are competing with candidates from all over the world and won't be prioritised just because you went to WL. Some students who don't get an US place might have got one if they had been in a different year with different external candidates auditioning. My point is that very many students who graduate WL but don't get into upper school go on to attend other good upper schools, and from there are recruited into companies and have successful careers, so we can't say that there was a problem in the initial selection process in these cases. Royal Ballet Upper School has had an outstanding graduate success rate in recent years, but lets not forget the number of WL graduates who take a different path at upper school but go on to have successful careers anyway.

Before applying to any school, have a look at their graduate destinations and see how they line up with your professional aspirations. Be wary of schools which issue a list of companies former students have joined without mentioning the name of the student of the year of graduation, because some schools don't update their information and the list might be made up of students who graduated 10 years ago or they might only be placing one or two students per year in companies. I think too many people look at which dance styles a course focusses on without investigating whether the graduates of that course have success in that field afterwards.

The only situation where it makes sense to do that would be if they are offered a place from their alternative choice first and are still waiting to hear if they've got into their first choice. Otherwise, why would they bother accepting a place or even auditioning at a different school if they're sure where they want to go and have been offered a place there?

Can I be nosy and ask why you prefer leather? I've only worn leather ballet shoes once. I've no idea why I bought them but I wore them on the first day of a summer school and not only was I the only one in leather shoes but they left a distinct half circle on the floor when we did ronds de jambe a terre. I was horrified, and conviced I'd ruined my chance of getting into this school after this double gaffe!

I agree with others who have said that it seems as if there are going to be fewer and fewer opportunities for specialist dance teachers in secondary schools. You may find that you will need to offer another subject as well as dance and that you spend more time teaching that other subject. Have you got any experience in contemporary dance or have you studied GCSE or A level dance yourself? If you decide to go down that route you'd need a degree in dance plus a PGCE. I'd recommend spending some days in a secondary school observing a dance teacher and getting a better idea of what the job is about. Most schools are open to this kind of thing. Think about how you would feel about dealing with the behaviour management side of the job and teaching lower school students who don't want to be in dance lessons. If you're still in the Northants area, I can advise you on which schools to approach to arrange this if it's something you'd be interested in. Can I ask what has attracted you to teaching dance in secondary school and also if you have experience in teaching syllabus work as you have previously mentioned working towards IDTA teaching awards? Regarding nursing, I think you need to do some work experience in that area before you apply for courses. That will give you a better feel for whether it's something you'd like to do as well as strengthening your application if you do decide to go down that path. You could find out whether your local hospital offers work experience placements of even if they have any vacancies for healthcare assistants on the children's ward which would not only give you a feel for the job but also allow you to earn some money as well.

I've heard mixed reviews (second and third hand) about Rosella Hightower. Does anyone have any inside info? It 's one of the Prix de Lausanne partnership schools and does have a strong history.

I agree. I did a university dance course and there were some students on the course who were there because they hadn't got into vocational/ conservatoire schools but came to university with still the same goals of performing full time with a professional dance company. Having said that, there were some students who set up their own companies after graduation and performed in small scale tours alongside teaching workshops in schools and communities. If you're interested in examining, you'd need to remain involved with a school that teaches the syllabus you're currently studying alongside university. I also echo Kate_N's suggestion that you speak to one of your current teachers who has had previous success in getting students into high level training and ask their advice.

Congratulations to everyone who has been awarded a place already or made it to finals! I'm happy to hear LSC mentioned again as it used to be one of THE schools to go to but I haven't heard much about it in recent years, especially for ballet, although I know they've always had an amazing graduate success rate for musical theatre. I'm not sure how many overseas students train there these days, they used to do quite an extensive overseas audition tour I think. If that hasn't changed it could account for the number of 16 and 17 year olds there.

I think that they currently have a common first year for everyone with students streamed into the appropriate level classes for each dance style (streamed according to ability rather than year of study) then students get to specialise in either classical ballet, MT, jazz dance or contemporary. When I was looking at vocational schools for myself, they did have a 3 year course that focussed on classical ballet from the beginning but as far as I know, this is no longer running and they have reverted back to the system they had before. I am quite curious about this course as it used to be considered one of the best places to train (in the UK) but for several years they have not published a list of graduate destinations from the classical stream. They have a list of companies where graduates have secured contracts but not with the year of graduation specified and that list has not changed much in the last 10 years.

I agree with Kat09. Focus on good quality non syllabus classes rather than grades.

Is it? I thought it was the first level of their teaching qualifications. has that changed or has it never been that way? As for teaching in vocational schools, you can look on the websites of most schools and see a list of staff that teach there and their professional backgrounds. It's extremely competitive and I think you'd have to also be very well connected to get that kind of job. I was a professional dancer, trained at vocational school and have a degree in dance and have been considering applying for the teachers course at Accademia la Scala, but I am not convinced I would be able to get a teaching job in a vocational school because I didn't have a high profile career. I'm still thinking about which direction to take...

The final is now up on youtube. Might be a bit easier to navigate! Sorry, I can't seem to post the link.

Yes that's right about Chinese names. I think that sometimes, the organisers don't know whether to keep it consistent and list everyone in the same way, either family name first or given name first, or whether to list people as their name would actually be said, depending on culture.

It's not up yet. It might be available on Arte Concert later.

I was referring to his performance in the preliminary round. The coverage of the boys from the live streaming earlier in the week wasn't very good. As you said, can't really tell anything from barre warm up and we saw them twice in contemporary class doing (the same) improvisation. Not the most interesting. I think it was just a matter of what's going on at the time they were showing the live streaming and trying to show a bit of each group, but maybe they could have arranged it better so we didn't see boys doing improv twice for example.

8 of the 20 finalists are from the junior girls' category reflecting the very high standard in that group. Leroy Mokgatle was definitely a stand out, I'll be amazed if he doesn't get a prize! I loved Dingkai Bai too. I didn't think the judges would go for him but I'm glad he's in the final. Happy to see Laura Fernandez made the final despite 2 mistakes in her classical variation, she was so good in the practices we saw.

I thought he was outstanding in the classical variation. So joyful! The first boy who did the Les Sylphides variation was also excellent, I hope both of them will make the final. ​I was very impressed with the girls' classical variations too. Such a high standard this year and lovely to see such a variety of solos! I agree with Lin, the girls are stronger than the boys this year. Let's see if that's reflected in the prizes! Seniors still to come though and aside from a couple of standouts I've been more impressed with the boys from what I've seen so far, but looking forward to seeing the performances!