FlexyNexy

Various leotards, some are new with tags, some new, some used but have still plenty life in them.
Prices as pictured, postage not included. 
All size S, but the cloud custom leo is more like M

Black size 9- 10 years
White size M

Like new, little worn.
£ 15 Plus postage.

New Flexistretcher 2 in blue
New hardly used
£25 Plus postage

Chameleon Activewear leotard
Size S
Worn 2x and sadly my DD has grown out of it! What a shame.
Would pass it on for £45 plus postage (it costed £65 + postage and clearing from customs so I believe great price)

P.S. Same as Yumiko, Lucky Leo and similar, Chameleon Activewear holds their price so if you look after it, you can re-sell.

Dance Floor for sale in original storage roll. 
Size approx 2x2m
Dance Floor Roll, 0.06in thick PVC Vinyl Dance Floor, Dark Grey Portable Dance Floor, Non-Slip Dance Flooring, Ballet Dance Floor for Jazz, Pop, Lyrical Style.

Pick up due to size (Central London, SE1) - 10mins drive from Covent Garden or London Bridge

I have dance floor advertised that my DD used to use when practicing at home we can pass on...
 

Dance Floor for sale in original storage roll. 
Size approx 2x2m
Dance Floor Roll, 0.06in thick PVC Vinyl Dance Floor, Dark Grey Portable Dance Floor, Non-Slip Dance Flooring, Ballet Dance Floor for Jazz, Pop, Lyrical Style.

Pick up due to size (Central London, SE1) - 10mins drive from Covent Garden or London Bridge

Can submit photos if of interest

My advice would be speak to your teachers what they think.

If this would be question my daughter is asking me, I would say that rather than focusing on all of the mentioned styles, choose the ones you stand out and paying more attention to the dance choice. Depending on where your strength is i.e.. are you a natural turner? are you good at leaps (jetes)…etc.

And of course, choreography is very important. You might be fantastic contemporary dancer, but if the choreography is poor or bad choice of music it will not show you well no matter what you do on stage. My daughter once worked with very great choreographer and by end of her performance whole row of people I have been sitting next to was crying how moved they were by the story she portrayed.
If you are thinking competitions, also think what others are doing...is everyone choosing Paquita? Be different to others, often judges get bored seeing the same dance over and over.

Finally, performance skill is also good to master. You can be technically perfect dancer, but if you do not perform your selected character in the dance, it’s like dancing robot.

My DD was doing Covent Garden SI back in her senior days and found it boring and not challenging at all. Second round she walked out after 1 day and did not want to go back. I think my DD must be the only child who disliked RBS coaching and did not feel it gave her anything to progress on.
Yet she had SI with both Daria and Acosta overseas and the coaching was incomparable in intensity and quality. I find is bizarre that teacher known to RBS will adapt intensity depending where is teaching for the summer?
There are many other SI around that are far better in coaching and worth your money. 
But if you are after Instagram post that the DC got place and expensive T-shirts...it's the perfect place.

2nd page of his poster

My DC used to follow Jiri Bubenicek choreographer as he does masterclasses of very high quality. His last master class was in July 2023 in Cesky Krumlov (1 hr drive from Prague)
https://jiribubenicek.com
 

Hello from the other side.

I am a mother of prestigious ballet school graduate, who danced professionally for 1 year before we decided to burn ballet shoes in a big campfire. And what a relief and blessing!

Getting offers from ballet companies in USA in the middle of Covid was like dangling carrot in front of a rabbit. Embassies closed and not processing work visas meant that all the offers expired.

Borders re-opened and she danced in a European company for a year only to find other seasonal offers she received were unpaid for exchange of exposure or salary of EUR 800 per month where simply not acceptable and unaffordable for us.

With heavy heart my DC hanged the pointe shoes for good. Having degree in her hand allowing her to teach, she never wanted that. She said she would only teach if she had a solid career behind her. Cruise work was never her choice.

We went through a devastating time where she had to repair her mental health damaged by ballet and she has found escape in her second love and that was the sea or ocean. She always had love for the water, she was natural surfer (the balance helped) so she retrained and got into yachting. She qualified as an offshore licenced captain and is working on a superyacht in the Caribbean. Don’t get me wrong, she works hard, long hours but she travels and no expenses on her side. She lives onboard of a luxurious superyacht, all meals cooked by chef and her salary and tips is clean money for her saving (perhaps deposit for new house). She earns double my city job salary! 3 months in Caribbean, one month at home in UK as holiday.

Once she is ready to come back to the dry land, she would perhaps have a strong CV and experience to go into yacht broking or insurance….only the future tells. One thing she knows for sure. If one day she has her own daughter, she makes sure she will not do ballet, even for a fun. Only if I knew! 

Prague and would add Portugal: Annarella Sanchez Conservatory (only summer intensive, their full time program - No!) 

12 hours ago, Anniedancemum said:

Hi everyone, 

I’m really torn at the moment and need a bit of advice. There have been a few thing’s recently with my daughter’s dance school that I’m not 100% happy with and wondering whether to just get on with it or whether to look to change schools. My daughter is only young and does a lot of dance. She’s in the comp team and competes with solos too. She’s reasonably good, but not a protege. My issues are that:

1 - the dance teacher changes class times and adds in extra at very short notice (eg day before), but also cancels at short notice too (sometimes on the day). We aren’t charged for extra lessons, but we are expected to drop everything and attend. This is very stressful because we have busy jobs. 
2 - another pupil my daughters age has been given a very similar solo. Same theme and almost identical costume. There are definitely favourites and this girl is one of them. 
3 - class uniforms are changing. The new ones are very expensive. Sometimes very little consideration is given to cost. 
4 - some classes and solos are taught by seniors. Maybe this is standard? But I feel like sometimes technique is missed. It’s just a case of ‘do this’ rather than proper teaching iyswim. 

5 - it is very heavily focused on comps and winning. My daughter loves the comps and loves winning.  But I do wonder about this element sometimes. If they can’t do something straight away they’re not in the section. They’re not really taught how. 
6 - one of my daughters ‘friends’ is actually quite mean to her. Says really upsetting and belittling things. The teacher is aware. She took it seriously, it was better for a while, but has carried on. Maybe this is just the dance world and my daughter needs to toughen up? 
The teacher is very busy so I can’t really talk to her about it. 
 

There are loads of good things too of course. My daughter has loads of friends, she has been given opportunities older than her years. The teacher is very committed and gives extra time. My daughter would hate to leave. It’s probably the best school locally and the parents are nice. Also, the girls that want to go on to professional training seem to manage to. 
 

Thanks everyone. 

hah, sounds like the school my DD attended when in her primary years. I have followed my gut feeling and left the school. 
Looking back at the time, I am glad I did it, my DD had great social cycle outside of ballet so no tears on that side, competitions are not important to have on CV (for us) and I refused to buy my DD uniforms every new term. I am one of the parents who look at the quality of training not fancy uniforms. 
Soon after we have realised that end of the term show and how much your child danced depended on costs you have invested and how you are pleasing the teacher i.e. how many privates you are booking.

Being taught by senior kids – big no for me. I no need and do not pay for babysitting.

On 27/06/2023 at 10:55, DianeN said:

It appears that - at least in Germany - the "minimum wage" for theatre people with full contracts is at present €2700 /month; set to rise. (Both of my DDs were until recently full-time ballet dancers in German companies.) Even those dancers who are not members of the unions get the same amount as union-members. 

 

However, there are quite a few ballet companies where dancers just out of school are hired as  "apprentices" or something similar, and then the pay is - I think - considerably less. (This practice is akin to exploitation, in my opinion, but I do understand that many dancers just want to dance!) 

 

 

Munich offered my DD €900, I can only think they saw her as junior (although 2 years from graduation and 1 year as Artist under her belt).

14 hours ago, Peanut68 said:

At least there was a contract to read! Am appalled at how we almost let DC ‘join’ a ‘company’ overseas on a one way ticket we’d have had to pay for…. But when it became clear that there was indeed no contract, no clear info on t&c’s or work conditions or salary or expenses, just very ambiguous WhatsApp messages, DC realised that it wasn’t a job but exploitation & thankfully saw sense & declined…

 

In our case, terrible mixed fonts, bright red underlined paragraphs, and clauses and unclear instructions. Even join date had to be questioned via sms! 
Sad to see how some companies treat juniors and apprentices. My DD is not a prodigy to fly straight to soloist, but proud to keep her values and decline miserable offers. Sadly, we are not in a position to continue financially support her dream and expected her to be more independent with this dance. Love for ballet will not put food on her plate.

35 minutes ago, tutugirl said:

Well I’d better post something positive!

My DS has worked in Czech for 6 years . He earns a comfortable salary and the cost of living is low .

His salary affords him a lovely flat , driving lessons , and enough left over from living costs to save some money every month .

It is a lovely company where everyone is treated fairly . Spoken language for class etc is English .Extra money may be earned by taking part in operas or musicals ( if so wished )

It appears he is very fortunate . It is very cheap to fly out to see him dance, which I do frequently .

I hope some people may feel encouraged by this . 

We got offer from Czech which would be lovely to take since it is my home country, but we have not been very fortunate with salary offer being €900 

It would not be practical to commute if she is to stay with the family to safe cost on room. 

5 minutes ago, Kerfuffle said:

Flexy where in Europe was this, that is terrible! Why are British students considered fat? My DD had some disparaging comments made to her because she was British (not to do with her size), they were about RAD training. Ironically my DD is vaganova trained but it was an assumption because she’s English. 

Portugal...very openly speaking about Brits (often mentioning ENB studets). Not very nice or healthy environment. They also had a strange health check when the physio came to see the girls individualy and checked them completely undressed (top not even bra allowed) and was charged €20 for this. To date we do not know what it was!

1 hour ago, Topaz said:

My dd has just returned from doing a pre professional year in Europe and I am appalled by the way some companies are treating young dancers the whole industry needs total reform. My dd has come away with loving dance but hating the industry. I find the practice of paying young dancers for shows not giving any certainty of how many just not liveable yet expecting them there all day for long hours rehearsing just in case a company member gets injured. They also make empty promises about helping them audition for other companies and deliver nothing leaving them high and dry. Many are just using pre professional programs to make money then hiring dancers from outside which leads to the question is this training inferior if they prefer dancers outside so what is the point. And don’t even get me started about the body shaming !!

I hear you. Those pre-professional programs just prolong the pain in my opinion. 
Europe same as the school my DD graduated is famed for body shaming...we heard many times how British are fat, my DD called bipolar as she did not understand the choreographer what expression he is requesting her to do. Oh and we had Company Director sitting in the car by the dorm where the girls in my DD group stayed as someone said they are going out for party that weekend. 
Director visiting girls during breaks to see what they are eating and naming and shaming them for their food. I could go on, but my post was abut wage.

21 hours ago, Kerfuffle said:

Are you talking about vocational training ? I don’t think we’ve spent anything near that but maybe we have been lucky ! 

I am talking Upper school without qualification for extra support was definetly more than 800 Euros for us. For un-named company she worked for a year as junior artist after graduation I HAD TO PAY THEM so she can have a little exposure €200 single room €150 monthly utilities €500 costumes rental and God forbit she had a good casting which came with guest choreographer who charged €800 only for couple of hours of one to one work, not mentioning flights which for some reason to Paris I was charged over €650. She got nothing €€ from them.
The cost simply does not add up if my DD would stay in Europe. 
I am European and can tell you the cost of food and rent is very high, unless you live in a small village.
 

8 hours ago, Peanut68 said:

Trying hard NOT to tally it up….😳

Easy for a deposit on a house or flat.

Last year my DD has reluctantly hanged her pointe shoes for good since all employment offered was impossible to support her independent life and she would continuously have to rely on my financial support.

Since then, retrained and now fully independent, out of fun she has applied for some auditions just to see if anything has changed and sadly only been offered employment in EU companies for 800 Euros per month? Even Munich only offered 900? The highest salary she has seen was in Lisbon where she got 1200 Euros offer.

How are the dancers living from these salaries? I have paid more per month on her training when she was in full time dance school.

I guess, they do what they love, but isn’t this effort and strain on the body too much of a sacrifice for this “money”? Maybe we were really living in some sort of bubble remote from real world?
 

On a positive note, this time they offered something, and it was not dance for free in exchange for exposure as last year!

My DD had a second hand Capezio practically new that we have found on ballet or costumes FB sites for sale. We sold it on for £20 not long ago again like new.

I would not want to spend money for practice tutu for summer intensives since they rarely use it despite showing it on a list of required items. And she did the tour of SI. Maybe used it once.

19 hours ago, PMum said:

The ENB associates started in September 2021 

The ENBS had junior associates program that my DD attended back in 2011 and parents have been sold this as a somehow feeder to their full time school. We have been also told that the program would move to their new facily where it would merge under ENB with opportunities to come.
Nothing of it was true and they closed the program abruptly when during the last day of the school show the Artistic Director (samira) got up the chair and said there are not re-opening the course after summer and only focusing on primary school children. I guess it emerged back in September 2021 when they need some financial injection with focus on senior students.

Many parents feel like they would have to put their children through Associate programs under impression that it stands out on CV or add chance to get to the main school. Well, it does not, and I would bare extra attention whether the program is worth the money and time.
From our experience back in the day with ENBS Juniors where my DD started same as their BBO program in her senior years …it was just too slow that she asked not to continue with it.

My DD had her's as hand luggage at start, but after while she did not want to carry it to the plane and added it under cargo. Always arrived well to the destination and with 2 exchanging flights 🙂 
I have seen many tutu bags on carousel in States too 🙂