hellogoodbye

Hello all, I was hoping to get some feedback from any parents who do competitions. This is something we're considering but what are the costs you encounter? For example what are your average competition fee entry costs, or costs per costume? I'm sure it varies, but an approximation/average would be much appreciated!

Can anybody recommend some good summer ballet courses for age 9 in London? DD's booked out for a few weeks so looking for something that falls on the right dates for us that will be fun as well as work on her technique. And of course something that's not £700!!!

Hi there, I wondered whether anybody could recommend any stores (online ideally) that sell great dance costumes for festivals? Affordable ones with a bit of luck!

The casting doesn't specifically say ballet but it does say kids need to be Grade 4, so we've opted for ballet. I think the Grade 4 is there to be a guideline rather than because the kids need the vocabulary. The dancing in Matilda is hard so they use the 'Grade 4' requirement to avoid seeing time-wasters who doesn't have enough dance experience. We know several girls who've been cast in Matilda ensemble who were in fact not grade 4, but they were very very small in height and got cast as the tiny ensemble member. DD is not one of the lucky small ones so I think if she really wants to give it her best shot, she'll have to meet the technical requirements to stand a chance.

Not at all. Spoke to DD and she's happy to do privates - after the comments here I'm quite pleased actually, seems like a great idea. I will post back later on to let everyone know how she's getting on. Her ballet school is one of those like you're talking about... they only enter kids for examinations if they think they're going to get distinction, otherwise they don't enter them. So maybe not the best reflection. Personally I would rather they enter DD earlier and her pass with merit so that she can at least move on and learn new things. But maybe that's me not really understanding ballet - I appreciate that the technique is so important and should be perfect. At her musical theatre school she's constantly getting nagged at for her arched back and (lack of) turn-out. The teachers always tell me to put her in ballet classes and I have to explain that she already is!! Trouble is she's more of a performer - not one to pay attention to detail!! Hopefully with privates those things can all be drilled.

You speak much sense, thank you, and this is how I will propose it to DD! She's a good performer but it's her technique that needs work. Hopefully a private will be the perfect way to sort that out as she won't be able to get away with it one-to-one! Thank you all for the prompt advice.

Thank you. It does seem like a no-brainer, I suppose my concern was whether she should be doing ballet twice a week as opposed to once a week? I don't know whether there's something to gain from re-visiting the training more often, or whether one private trumps that. It's a choice of two hours a week normal classes or 45 mins a week private. We wouldn't be able to afford to send her to a normal ballet class as well. Though she could keep doing her modern/tap once a week and musical theatre.

Hello all, just want to get some advice from the more experienced here... DD(9) is now moving onto Grade3 ballet so will be doing two classes a week. Trouble is the timings of these classes are really difficult as all her family work full-time and the classes are before 5pm on weekdays (grade 2 class was on a weekend). We might be able to make it work but the head of her ballet school has offered an alternative which is one private class each week at a more convenient time. Naturally I would imagine one private class would be more beneficial to her in terms of progress than two classes of 12-15 kids... would you agree? DD does ballet to support her musical theatre training... ballet is her least favourite style of dance. I don't think she would have the time of her life in a private class but she knows ballet is what she's got to do if she wants to do well in musical theatre. She wants to get to Grade4 so she can audition for Matilda the Musical. Do you think a private class would increase the chances of this happening sooner? If so that might convince her. It's certainly easier for me logistically.

Hi there, hopefully this is the right place to post this... I wonder if anyone knows the reason or has any suggestions for this.... I am taking dance classes at Pineapple which are great fun. Only trouble is whenever we have to do sit-ups in warmups. It doesn't hurt my stomach muscles (mainly because I don't get far enough for this to happen) but causes great pain and strain to my neck, so much so that I have to stop. Does anyone know why this might be or how to fix it?

Thanks for the advice! I think we'll leave associates for now then as DD is not a massive ballet fan - she really does it to support other styles of dance and her musical theatre, which is her real passion. Maybe when she's older.

Sorry to drag this old thread up again but I have been looking more seriously into the Ballet Associate programmes you kindly recommended to me back when this thread was active. Forgive me for my ignorance, but what is it about the associate schemes that justifies taking these on top of regular ballet classes, and the extra cost that comes with it? What is it that they do on these associate schemes that is so different? DD is 9 so I'm just wondering whether it's worth it for her now or whether it's something that has more value when she's a little older. ETA: May as well update on my original post... we are now pretty happy with the school we have found for DD (the modern/tap teacher of the chatty children was a cover teacher while the other was on maternity. The 'real' teacher is much better). DD is now moving onto Grade 3 so she's very pleased with that. Think we're finally happy to stay put!

Hello there, another question for more in-the-know dance mums! DD has been told by her dance teacher that she should be taking conditioning classes. DD is keen, but then she'd be keen to do literally anything if her dance teacher asked it of her! At 9, she doesn't much think about how far my wages will stretch! What kind of things happen in a conditioning class? If it's sit-ups etc for strengthening, I feel DD could do that at home. If someone could enlighten me that would be wonderful! Many thanks.

Thank you all for the advice! I will get reading! I would really like to know the terminology most of all so think I'll watch some videos to best help with that!

Funny question, I know. But I'm really keen to know more about dance. DD is getting so into it now and I would like to be able to have at least a little knowledge to help her along... to help point out mistake she's making (like "sickled feet" after I looked that one up!) etc. So it's not that I want to learn how to dance so much, but I would like to learn what makes a good dancer - the technique, the terminology. Partly to help DD and partly because I find it incredibly interesting. How might one go about this? I started to take classes at Pineapple with a view to that helping, but of course it's more about learning routines there then it is about learning about dance. I hope I'm making sense and would appreciate some advice!

Thanks all. DD and I will go to check some out - she'll be very excited.

Thank you - we are based in Berkshire so ideally looking for London/South East festivals.

I see - that explains a lot! From all my online research it does seem like a hugely big deal over there. Thank you all for the info on festivals - I'll do a bit of research and see if we might let DD enter something.

I haven't done ballet so can't speak with much expertise. All I would say is that I never make plans directly after I've been to Pineapple; they make it VERY HOT in there so you get sweaty! Having said that, I usually do jazz/hiphop/commercial so ballet might be different. They have showers there too obviously, if you have time.

Ah brilliant, thank you all - I will do a bit of searching for festivals. Is there a site that has a list of festivals or how might I find some local ones?

I go to classes at Pineapple and the standard is high. I went in thinking I would be general/intermediate due to previous training in my youth and quickly discovered I should be in beginner classes!! Even in some of the beginner classes there are very good dancers. It depends on the reputation of the class I think - a "Beginner/All" class I went to recently was packed and many were what I would call advanced.

Hi all, Just wanted to get your thoughts on this. I've become quite fascinated lately by the dance competition scene that they have over in the USA. It seems like a very big deal over there. DD follows a lot of young American dancers on Instagram who have huge followings, seemingly from dance competitions alone. And it seems to take a lot of work and thought from the studios who run comeptition teams etc, with parents also seeming to revolve their lives around these competitions (I have been reading some forums!!). After a bit of online research, we don't appear to have many dance competitions in the UK - or am I missing something? DD would love to compete in one (of course I think her obsession with 'Dance Moms' has something to do with this) but there don't seem to be many about and certainly not anything similar to in USA. Am I missing a secret competition scene over here? Or is it not a big deal here? If not - does anyone think it should be and would people here get onboard with their kids becoming regular competitors? It seems like something that would be fun to do once in a while but over there it's a big industry, not just a 'fun occasional thing'.

How brilliant! It's a great idea she's got there. I would just reiterate what others have said... perhaps make it a bit more simplified and maybe add pictures? As a ballet novice myself - but someone who would like to get some understanding - the blog is a bit alienating. I'm always looking to learn ballet terms etc, but often find ballet terms come partnered with descriptions rather than pictures, when I would like to see a picture/short video to get a clear understanding. If she's aiming for youngsters or beginners, that's my advice. But if she's aiming for people more clued up, she's doing a great job! EDIT: Perhaps once the blog is more developed she could have a section for those ballet lovers and a section for the beginners?

Thank you Frogsmum, I'll check it out. We're Berkshire way - could possibly go to Bucks/Surrey area. We're looking for ballet, tap, modern, maybe street dance - she loves lyrical the most and does it all the time at home, though I don't know if there are classes for this at her age? She loves all the streghtening work they do at MT school as well, so maybe these kind of sessions.

Thanks for your responses. Word of mouth would be great, but none of her local friends are interested in that sort of thing. The kids at her musical theatre school come from all over the country, so we can't go to their dance schools either. Her musical theatre school is great - they train them hard and all the kids are so focussed and hard-working. So it's hard to go from that to the dance schools in the area where none of the kids seem to be as interested as DD is. We've seen about 4 dance schools in the area. We'd be looking for Saturday or one/two weekday evenings. If it were London it would have to be West London and would have to be a Saturday for me to even stand a chance of persuading DH. DD could do dance with her musical theatre school on Saturday and desperately wants to, but it's Camden area and would monopolise our entire weekend for her to go there both days. It's a similar situation with the associate classes I've looked at.

Hello all, I'm tearing my hair out trying to find the right dancing school for DD. She's a really keen dancer (age 8) and pretty good I think (I know I would say that!!) but we've tried several dance schools in the area and they all seem a bit... amateur. Does anybody else have this problem? I would like to take her to one in London where I assume there's more choice, but we already go to London for her musical theatre once a week and DH stands firm that one trip in is enough. The latest dance school we tried I got to sit in and watch the modern and tap class. It seemed just... fine. But the kids were quite chatty and ultimately I felt DD wouldn't get much done there. She's eager to dance and even on the first day she looked bored as we waited for the kids to stop talking every 10 minutes. Pretty much the same situation as the other dance schools we've tried. Am I being too picky/hopeful? I just want to find somewhere that take the kids a bit more seriously but there seems to be nowhere like that in town. Could anybody recommend anywhere in London that provides good training... maybe I can tempt DH if I show him something!