balletla

Let's also remember the hard-working talented dancers in our top schools who haven't had any exposure as they are prevented from entering competitions because (to quote Christopher Powney) they are too busy and already at a top school, so what would be the point? Well the point is, these students may be 'busy' but are not getting seen in the way that these competition dancers are!

Yes it's many people's goal to join Royal Ballet but I'm sure if they were interested they would have made her an offer. BRB is an excellent company in its own right, not a 'training' company for RB.

She is a superb dancer from what I have seen on social media.

This has to be a bit of a game changer though for BRB as Miko has, if instagram figures real, 168 k followers, so that must be unusual for an artist to come in with such a following.

She has taken part in numerous competitions and been incredibly successful at promoting herself on social media. She is very well known within the ballet world and almost a celebrity before she starts. I wonder if this is a good thing or a bad thing? I am also aware of a couple of other students who are building their social media profiles and wonder whether we should be encouraging our own children to do similar? As you say Chaperone, coming with a ready-made following wont do BRB any harm.

Yes Lin I saw the news about Miko. I think you are the only person I know of who is a fan - everyone else seems fairly lukewarm about her to be honest. Given that her family lives in America I am surprised an English company is a first choice. Good luck to her though. I'm sure Bintley will be pleased if she brings some her Facebook and Instagram fans with her.

David Bintly seemed a bit grumpy in his Dancing Times interview, so much so that somebody felt they needed to write in about it and it became star letter. He seems to criticise RBS quite heavily as well.

You'll be in good company, Frank; I suspect that Osipova's fouettés alone may have converted a fair few people - myself included. I will be putting the blu-ray of her Swan Lake on my birthday list. :-)

Spanner as a moderator I do not understand how you can let political and offensive comments go by with no comment, even apparently endorsing them with your cheery response to the poster.

Frank H your comments on my post are shocking. Even for someone new to ballet, it is unbelievable that you have linked my comments to UKIP, something I find utterly offensive.

My post clearly talks about schools and systems of training and company style and I do not know how on earth you could have interpreted it the way you did.

Edited to say that I would be grateful if moderators could remove both of Frank H's posts and this one.

I have seen several SL's this run and what really strikes me is that the dancers who do stand out dancing in Neapolitan, Spanish, Czardas and the Mazurka are the ones who have the RBS background.

 

I have seen Paul Kay and Yasmine Naghdi / James Hay and Francesca Hayward/ and Emma Maguire in "Neapolitan" and they were all a tremendous joy to watch, in "Spanish" I liked Claire Calvert the most. From a young age they learn character dances at the RBS something I think dancers who have trained abroad have not learned, and it often shows.

 

Isn't this precisely why we have a national school? Not for this thread but isn't this what gives the company its style and makes dancers coming from elsewhere look slightly out of kilter? This is the reason I am not a fan of Osipova - she is a superb dancer but her style jars with the rest of the company.

Well as the parent of teenage girls I'm afraid he is wrong. There is a real resurgence in interest in all things ballet amongst teenage girls and it has become cool. Even girls who have never taken a ballet class are into it and all things associated with it. And they are hugely impressed with ballet and those who can do ballet and this is CLASSICAL ballet, not contemporary. They are not interested in contemporary ballet at all, so I would love to know where DB is getting his views from.

I firmly believe that the teacher is more important than the school and the school is only as good as its teachers.

interestn also that many of yr11 boys not taking dance any further - WL must really have inspired them

I'm not sure that is fair. I know boys really struggle around this age with who they are and what they want out of life and start to test the water elsewhere. It's not necessarily a reflection of the school. Also, when one or two do it, it makes it easier for others to follow.

I find it unfair that Whiite Lodge gets this level of scrutiny when no-one seems to comment on student destinations in other schools or whether their students are continuing with ballet.

I think the girls group was quite small to start with (maybe 10?) and some had already decided to focus on academics and not to pursue a ballet route, so maybe not as bad as it sounds. Sympathy to those who didn't get a place though but take comfort from the many before you who have gone on to have successful careers through other schools.

Tulip - the point is that nothing referenced in these forum comments identifies any specific student apart from yours in which you clearly identify that your dd is in the photos but that was your choice.

Well done Katymac. Just shows what can be achieved with determination and perseverance! X

Anybody know anymore about this - happening a week on Satuday (March 7th)? Anyone going or have DCs in it?

I really wouldn't worry about pointe at auditions. Nobody is going to be selected on the basis of their pointework and fouettés are not a good indicator of ability, they are really just a trick. My advice would be to concentrate on the rest of the audition and really show what you're about. Give the pointe your best shot but don't worry about it as pointe can be taught easily once the technique is in place and is a small part of the audition. They have probably made up their mind well before you get to the pointe section at the end.

Really hope it's not Scarlett as I just can't see him doing justice to Swan Lake. Has he actually choreographed any full length ballets? Oh yes..... Hansel and Gretel...... I say no more.

Whoever it is, I hope they leave out the baby swans played by school children as they don't add anything for me, especially as the baby swans' dance i.e. Dance of the Cygnets is actually done by adults!?

Wow CeliB that is amazing! Well done to your son! He has obviously had great training where he is - will be a tough decision to move I guess.

The other issue which people seem to talk about with RBS is sponsorship. A lot of the overseas students are funded by school sponsors who may understandably want to see their students doing well and expect to see them in performances etc. Not sure if this is the case at other schools.

I would echo Tulip - it is incredibly hard for parents to raise issues with the school as there is always the fear that it will make things worse for your child. Also, a lot of these issues are part of the culture and often can be easily explained away using choreographer casting decisions as an excuse (even though it is the school's recommendation in the first place!).

Also, parents don't see each other very often at 6th form and unless you know people from before, it can feel very isolated and as gottokeepworking says, it may feel like you're the only one, until you find out too late that you're not.

Oh dear gottokeepworking, really hope your DS got a contract and is happily working now!

Tulip - not sure you are right about discussing the good points - there don't seem to be many people lining up to put them forward or put forward different views to the people who have first hand negative experiences.

Sadielou your comments are very sad. It reminded me of a paragraph from the Luke Jennings article:

"the British White Lodgers have to compete for their places with increasing numbers of students brought in from abroad, a process many find stressful and demoralising. For Claire Calvert, a talented young Royal Ballet dancer who went through White Lodge and the Upper School, it was "very difficult" when, each year, yet another cadre of overseas students arrived. Some of her friends were worn down by the ceaseless competition. "It's so mentally draining. There are girls who say: 'I just don't want to go on.'" And many didn't. Of the 19 girls who joined White Lodge with Calvert, she was the only one to make it into the company"

Link to full article is here: http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2012/mar/25/will-they-make-royal-ballet

The upside is that everyone who applies gets an audition. You might be more upset if you were ruled out of auditioning before they even saw you, perhaps on a photo?

When my DD auditioned they definitely lined up in birth order.

I hope she wasn't too upset by the last thread she was commenting on in 'not dance'. The 'black Friday' thread could have been interpreted as quite anti-American but I think it sounds worse than it was intended to.

Yes good point about loneliness. Your social life is probably restricted to just a handful of your peers within the ballet company with no real opportunity to meet people outside that as you are working all day in rehearsals and performing all night. No wonder ballet dancers are all just married to each other. It's also not a great career for any woman that wants a family. Beginning to wonder why anyone would want to do at this rate.......