TJleaps

That's fab information everyone, thank you. Do EYB say before the auditions what the rehearsal dates are so that you know whether you can make them all?

I was going to say exactly the same thing, Pictures. SP - I've only been on here a short while but I'm super impressed by you and your attitude. I don't think you should give up dancing ever - but from the sounds of it if you could combine that with your drama skills you would be a force to be reckoned with. I'd look into the Musical Theatre side of things and vocational schools like Hammond for sure.

Wow, that must have been amazing to watch, how fantastic. And many congrats on his Tring place - it certainly didn't put him off!!

Thanks everyone for your thoughts so far, really helpful. I've got the name of the person I need to email at Northern Ballet so I'll see about the boys class, thankyou Balletchick, or perhaps one on a Sat morning. JulieW, I think sadly Tring is too far for now, you're right - a shame because I understand they're really good. That's really interesting feedback Harwel - was that Northern Ballet associates class on a Friday or an RBS one? I'm really sorry to hear it put your son off. Has he carried on dancing? Snape, that sounds fantastic, I can hardly wait!!!! Thank you everyone, this is all great advice

That's very reassuring, thank you. Jaunts to London, you say? Will there be some of those? I'd sort of assumed that Leeds JAs did performances or whatever up here but do they get a chance to go down to London too?? That would be fab!

Thanks for your reply Tulip. I think that the junior associates at Northern start from 10yo and is on a Friday, or that would have been ideal. When somebody suggested the Sat morning classes in that other thread I looked at their timetable and they do a "Ballet 1" class which is for 8+. Perhaps that was what was being referred to? I'm just not sure what to do for the best!!

Thanks v much for the welcome! I've just tried to pm you Tutugirl but it says you can't receive new messages - would love to hear your advice. I imagine I'm not allowed to put my email address on here? Happy to - but seem to remember it may be against the rules

Hi all, as I've learnt so much from you all by scouring threads I wondered if you may be able to help me please with my own query. My son (8) started ballet in Sept in a class with 5-7yr old girls, lots of skipping and the like, but he quite enjoyed it. His teacher suggested he audition for RBS and also moved him into a new class they were creating with 3 other boys and about 3 girls - a non-syllabus class which the school thought would give the boys a chance to learn more turns and leaps (I'm sure I'm showing myself to be woefully ignorant of technical terms here). That's been fantastic and he's really enjoyed that. This class won't do exams and is the only class he's been doing. He did audition for RBS and got into the JA programme for Leeds and starts that in Sept. My question now is what else do we need to be doing? Should he be doing more classes than that now? He will have JAs for 2.5 hours on a Sat and the non-exam class for an hour in the week. His local teacher suggested he should also do an exam-based class in which case she said that would be grade 1. Does that sound right? Somebody on here on one of the (many, many!) threads I've read whilst trying to get clued up did suggest that some Leeds-based JAs go to Northern Ballet for a class in the morning before the JA class in the afternoon. Then that's 3 different schools he'd be going to.... Is that confusing, in terms of different methods, or brilliant in terms of broadness of learning?? How many classes should be doing a week in any case? Sorry for all the questions - just trying to find my feet in this whole new world and I want to make sure I do right by him. I have a feeling others in his JA class will be a whole lot more experienced than him! Would love to hear your thoughts.

Not sure where people are that are hoping for something more local but I called EYB a couple of weeks ago to find out plans / how it worked. Janet Lewis told me they are doing Bradford next year, so that's pretty close for us and I suspect a few others on here, hurray!!! She just said to look out for audition dates on the website.

Gosh, this is a really useful thread - thanks Lema for starting it and for everyone's comments. Like you Lema we are totally green behind the ears on all this. My 8yo DS started classes in Sept, it was suggested he audition for JA in May and he got in which totally floored us. Now I'm obsessive-compulsive lurking on here to work out what the heck might be in store for us!!! There's lots of talk about festivals and summer schools and vocational schools, and it feels like a whole new world. The advice on this forum is invaluable - you're all helping a fish out of water see where the water is, even if I've got a lot to learn about what's in it!!! Thanks all.