invisiblecircus

Did you audition in person at both schools and is it the three year course you're going for in both places? Most importantly, what are your professional aspirations after you graduate? Also, is funding an issue? Have you checked out the funding situation in both places?

I think guardians are only required for lower schools aren't they?

Me too! I totally understand why people don't want to post publicly about which schools they're going to. It feels too nosy to PM them and ask though, which to be fair, it is! LOL I agree with Nana Lily on the "I got a place but I'm not saying where!" type posts but I also agree with others that it's useful and encouraging to hear that there is still movement on the waiting lists. We also see a lot of posts from people who are on reserve lists who are wondering whether they still have any chance of being offered places so it's good to hear from someone who can say for sure that offers are still being made, Good luck to everyone still waiting to hear if they have a place!

Oooh which school? Only kidding Congratulations to your DD on her success. Congratulations to your DD afab! Nice to hear of a LSC offer, I recently commented on here that we don't hear much about this school these days and I was surprised. Is it the ballet stream your DD has been accepted for? I've always liked the look of this school as from the prospectus it seems that they really schedule timetables according to the needs of each individual student.

Has anyone suggested Camilla?

Hi Krishell I received a PM from you which I replied to. I did not hear back from you (which is fine as you may not have needed further info) but I did have a problem with PM notifications on this site a while ago. It seems OK now but I don't know if I missed any messages in the meantime! Just letting you know in case I was one on the ones you didn't get a reply from.

At my school a few of the girls wore tan tights. I don't think it was to do with skin tone particularly, for performances we all wore pink. As Ellie said, Capezio do a few different colours in tights.

Even taking from age 11, the percentage of those who make it to professional level is quite low, largely due to the unpredictable nature or the way children's bodies and talent develop as well as the fact that some of them simply change their minds about dancing! By starting as young as 6 or 7, that percentage would be even lower. I do prefer the more flexible nature of training in the US (and other countries) though. I wish it was more like that in the UK but I don't think we'll be seeing a shift away from the grade/ syllabus system any time soon.

I always wore Capezio too, not only for the colour but also for the quality and fit (I'm tall.)

Where will the article be published and who will it be aimed at? I'm asking partly because from the spelling you seem to be base in the U.S. while most posters here are UK based. Also, sorry if I'm stating the obvious but several vocational schools in the UK offer degree courses. The training offered by these schools is very different from that offered by university based dance degree courses, as are the graduate destinations.

There's no such thing as over qualified, you have to take whatever work you can get, especially in the beginning, there are so few contracts out there.

Where's the other thread people are referring to?

I'm glad to read she's signed a contract and with such a great company. I was starting to get concerned after all the reports that she had already turned down several contracts, the offers won't keep on coming forever so good to read that she'll be heading to Birmingham!

It's been published that Harrison Lee will attend RBS but does anyone know when the other prize winners' destinations are announced? Also, on the website it is written that all won scholarships, which can't be right as some were from the older group and at least one has been announced with a contract.

Sorry, yes, you're right. Even so, it does seem that it is not that 3 out of about 12 girls got in. Of the ones that did not get a place, not all were going for one. That makes a difference.

So 5 or 6 have chosen an academic route, 3 actually did get places in US, there can't be more than about 4 girls left to account for, some of whom wanted to furter their training elsewhere. That seems to mean that only only a very small number who wanted an upper school place, didn't get one. To graduate from Y11 at WL indicates that those students must be phenominally talented and will surely be snapped up by other top schools. I wish everyone the very best of luck!

I think what was meant by the comment was that maybe the new director is focussing on slightly different qualities than the previous one was and the current year 11's, having trained predominantly under the previous director have been trained with THAT director's goalposts in mind. As to what the new director is looking for, as taxi said, you'd have to ask him! The differences at this level are minute.

I for one am curious to know the how many from other lower schools achieve US places at the same school (even if they turn them down) and how many ultimately go on to gain contracts in ballet companies.

Regarding getting a place in different upper schools, how does that work? I assume that everyone who wishes to continue down the ballet route would have had to apply to other upper schools before they heard about whether they got an US place, just in case they didn't. I am also interested to know whether WL students audition alongside external candidates or whether there is a separate audition/ assessment class for them. We'll never know the answer to this, but it would be interesting to know how many from WL applied to US and did not get a place. With the possibility of some choosing not to continue with ballet, wanting to go to a different school for US, injuries etc, it might not be as many as we think. Still difficult for those affected though, I hope they will all gain places at other great schools. This is not the end of the road!

It is disappointing and I'm sorry to all those who were hoping for an upper school place and didn't get one but wasn't there a very high number of WL students accepted into upper school last year? This is surely something that varies year after year and if, as Ribbons said, not everyone was even going for an upper school place then the result might not be as disappointing as it sounds. I don't think we should start worrying unless this situation starts happening year after year. Remember also that no year 10s are assessed out, so some students might already have not met the standard by the end of year 10.

Tutus can cost from a couple of hundred pounds for a very basic plain one up to a few thousand! I know of a few people in the UK who make them.

I totally understand than in the situations described above, it is unfair to a teacher to coach a student for an exam under the premise of having their result credited to them if the student then enters the exam with a different school. That makes total sense. My question relates to situations where school A offers RAD ballet, school B offers ISTD ballet, tap and modern and a student who wishes to take ballet at school A and tap and modern at school B is told by school B that she can't do so. (This, in a situation where there is no conflict of interest regarding timetabling/ exam dates/ school shows etc.) There have been several posts about similar situations on this forum alone, and I know of other cases too. The daughter of a former neighbour was taking ballet, tap and modern at a local dance school and was told she couldn't take part in a local amateur pantomime because it was being choreographed by the principal of a different school. Am I wrong that while clearly not all teachers are like this, it is fairly common? (I hope I'm wrong!) Regarding my enquiries about IDTA teacher training, perhaps that was not a good example to illustrate my question. It seems I was just unlucky with the schools I approached at that time.

I agree that everyone should be mindful of timetable clashes, but I'm writing specifically about cases where there are no clashes other than perhaps one missed lesson on the night of a performance (e.g. pupil attends am dram rehearsal Monday nights, ballet and tap Thursday nights and misses one night of ballet and tap on the evening of the am dram performance.) Regarding whether it's respectful to find out from another teacher that their student attends classes elsewhere, I'm not sure I agree. It probably depends on the circumstances ( would be different if it was ballet at one school and tap at another rather than ballet at both) but as long as a student fulfils her commitment to the original school, I don't see why it she can't do whatever she wants outside of that or why it should be a taboo subject if she wants to mention other classes. Thank you for the advice :-) It happened a while ago now and I was just using it as an example to illustrate my question. I don't live in the UK anymore and have got married and had 2 babies since this happened but I'm still considering what to do workwise in the future and although I haven't ruled out going the exam teaching route (if I move back to the UK) I think I am coming to the conclusion that maybe it's not for me, partly because of these kind of politics! I do understand that there may be times that schools can't accept more people for teacher training but I definitely felt I had commited a faux pas by asking! One of the schools I approached had some students who auditioned and participated in a youth dance company I choreographed for. In the course of conversation I felt that the teacher was afraid I was going to set up in competition to her school, so that's when I explained that that was not my intention. It was also suggested to me afterwards that "teacher B" wouldn't want to work with me because of her fierce rivalry with "teacher A" whose students I had taught. Your suggestion of writing a letter rather than calling if I do decide to persue this route in the furture is a good one :-)

I'm a former professional dancer, graduated from both a vocational ballet school and a contemporary based university dance degree course. At the time I was making enquiries to these schools (5 of them) I was still performing professionally on a freelance basis.

I'm sure not all teachers are like this, but it does seem very common rather than just one or two isolated cases. There was a post last summer about a vocational student who attended a summer school at a different vocational school and was offered a place at that school. There were suggestions on this forum that this was a breach of etiquette by the second school, but surely if a student submits themself for consideration at a different school they are then free to attend that school if offered a place. Schools are providing a service and people are free to buy that service from whoever they prefer, although I do understand the emotional involvement in teaching a promising student and the inevitable disappointment if they chose to train elsewhere. I was thinking about this recently while watching the Prix de Lausanne. The younger competitors have all reached an incredible level with their current teachers, yet those teachers have obviously let them compete knowing that if they win a prize, they will go and train elsewhere. Most application forms for vocational schools require a signature from the applicant's current teacher. Why is this?