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Direction_of_your_dreams

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Posts posted by Direction_of_your_dreams

  1. 4 hours ago, Jan McNulty said:

    That's not good CDR but I think the companies have all been in a very precarious position and, indeed, they still are.

     

    I saw both BRB and NB in June and I think they used students in a lot of corps roles so that they could maintain cast bubbles.  

     

    If the world was normal would they usually have expected some sort of payment?  I remember seeing Xander Parish, Alex Campbell, Joe Caley and James Barton with BRB during midscale when they were all still students - would they have been performing for the experience or would they have had short term contracts do you know?

     

    I know NB have recently held auditions because I saw the notice on the website but I do not know how many dancers they were looking to contract.

    Royal Ballet used to pay the upper school students they used to boost their corps, approx £60/show plus expenses and pointe shoes for the girls. This changed around 2015/16, their pay’ went to the school instead. Not hearsay, witnessed as had DC at school.  ENB cover stipend/travel/accommodation and pointe shoes for ‘My First’ productions and the graduate yr students used in company performances. Again, not hearsay.  This is common practice and nothing to do with Covid, yes it is great to put on CV but sadly rarely comes to anything 

    • Like 1
  2. After my hopeful prediction that we might hear soon after the flurry of activity on lower school results, no news here! Given the discussions above about the absence of the AD, could it be he wants to review the candidates chosen before the emails are sent to prevent anyone being 'missed' - I know how anxious my dd is for the result and we have only had to wait since Sunday, some of the prelims were a few weeks ago so surely the results of them must be available so wondered what the hold up is...hence my theory?

     

    Anyway, whatever the reason, hope we all hear soon and good luck to all ☺️

  3. Rightly or wrongly, i guess the school director trusts the judgement of head of outreach enough to delegate the prelim adjudication to him and and another member of staff. I would expect he will be at the finals for both schools and the ultimate decisions will be with him.

    within the audition itself, my dd had similar comments about not being watched but she also said that the two panelists marked half of the class each, so even when she was being watched, it was only by one of them. This could be common in all auditions, it is just she has never mentioned it before. Just shows how subjective it all is and the phrase 'if your face fits' springs to mind but then I am just an old cynic!

     

    My dd never mentioned shapes or sizes, I thought they all looked beautiful my only observation was a range of heights, I didn't look at physiques.

     

    Anyway by looks of it the lower school results are flying out so we may be put out of our misery sooner rather than later. Good luck to all

    • Like 2
  4. Great thanks for that information. Was your dd working for Adv1 or Adv 2? I hope your daughter had a good outcome from her auditions.

    It was Adv 1, don't mean to imply she found the auditions easier per se....think she found the exam 'harder' as she wasn't in the mindset of exams, only auditions, and it was just something else to worry about. Anyway, moot point as Celb has just confirmed each yr and school has different requirements as fouettés were required last yr!

     

    I have often wondered who sets the audition class, is it the teacher taking it or does the AD specify in advance, can they tell from the standard in the room that it needs to be taken up a notch so ok, let's try them on Fouettés - don't really expect an answer, just pondering!

  5. Hello, as the person who started this thread, just though I would update that my dd coped with all the pointe work/auditions...she was working for her RAD Avanced at the same time and found the exam harder than any of her finals, so guess that was/is the level to aim for. And she was pleased to report, she was never asked to do fouettés Hope that helps!

    • Like 5
  6. I don’t think chances are any better this year than last for the 2 week course at White Lodge. Yes, there are now 2 x two week courses, but they now cover ages 14 and 15 as opposed to just 14. So surely twice the places but twice the number of eligible applicants too? Would love to be wrong though!

    So, here we go again …………. You’ve got to try, haven’t you?! We have a couple of back-up plans that dd would also be happy with, so nothing to lose I suppose ……….except another £20! Really looking forward to taking that developpe photo :)

    Ah, well spotted BlueLou, I should have read all the details more carefully! so all the 15 yr olds that previously applied to CG, will now be in the mix with 14 yr olds At WL, so maybe even less chance! Hey ho, we will still give it a go ☺️

  7. I've just heard of someone winning a 'direct entry award' for Summer School 2017. It was an email acknowledging the hard work from last year and granting then pre-selection for next year. Acceptance to be given by December.

    Wow, that's amazing, was it for Whitelodge or Covent Garden? These places are so coveted, it is lovely to see hard work rewarded.

     

    I think it's great that they are now offering more weeks and given the number of applicants they have each year, it certainly makes sense for the dancers and good business sense for the school!

  8. some schools are still interested in parents height....at prelim audition my dd attended for an US last year, a smaller girl was asked at the end how tall she was and what height her parents were! As this was done in front of some of the other girls, my dd included, it is not hearsay, sadly true!

  9. Friend doesn't work for NHS or public sector company so pay slips just say pension contribution £xx or does that not matter given they are still putting away for the future as you say CDR?

     

     

    Really appreciate everyone's input and patience with me!! Have passed all info onto my friend, she is very grateful and may join the forum!

    • Like 1
  10. Sherbet thank you, we posted at same time, will try and get my head around that, I feel I have been taking a very simplistic view on it all so have not been much help to my friend ????

  11. Sorry don't know how to quote! I am feeling particularly stupid at the moment! ???? CDR, does that mean you add your pension back onto your P60 taxable salary so as example above £10,000 becomes £11,000? My friend has looked at their payslips and P60, if they have to add their pension contributions back in then all of a sudden their MdS contribution goes up considerably although their net pay reflects having paid out £x amount on pensions. Sorry to labour the point, but using the example again, have I understood this to be correct ...gross pay is £10,000, you contribute £1000 to your pension, so net pay is £9000. However you have to add the pension contribution back in so your gross becomes £10,000 plus £1000 pension so mds is assessed.on £11,000 even tho net pay is only £9000??

     

    Many thanks, I normally have a good head for figures but we have got ourselves in a right pickle with this today and am very concerned for my friend

  12. If you send off both your March wage slip and your P60 they can see your pension contributions. Both my husband and I have NHS pensions. They are included in the gross income figure. ☹️

  13. Thank you, to use the 10,000 analogy, i understand that if your pension contribution is £1000, then you are still assessed on £10,000, not £9000...but someone else has told my friend that their pension contribution was added back onto their P60 figure, So in our example, they would then be assessed on £11,000! Hence we are confused and my friend anxious as she had done the sums based upon their P60 figures. I hope i am explaining this correctly as we are really confused! ????

  14. Hello you knowledgeable forum members, not been on for a while so look forward to a good read later but for now, I have a question!!

     

    Friends ds is off to vocational school and mum is worrying over finances. We met for coffee and looked at the fee calculator in the RBS website which is a useful tool and noticed it says, household income includes 'amounts paid to superannuated pension scheme's....can anyone clarify what exactly that means? Does it mean that the amount of money they pay out in pension contributions is added back into the pot so to speak? So even tho it is deducted from their salary, it has to be declared as income? Does that make sense? We have been trying to understand it so there are no surprises when the MDs calculation is done but we didn't get very far so I told my friend, I knew just who to ask! You guys! ????

     

     

    Thanks in advance and apologies not been on for a while.

  15. Gosh when I first asked the question, I did not mean it to lead to such a debate over who deserves what more, respecting my dd's privacy, I will not say which camp she is in, but what I can say, knowing both vocational and non vocational students, is that they all work so hard but to the limits of their teachers, some can afford master classes, summer schools etc etc where they may be exposed to new work and opportunities to stretch themselves and some quite frankly can't. If they have earned their place at finals then they should all be applauded wherever they have come from and I wish them all well.

    • Like 10
  16. Thank you everyone. I've told her to be prepared for them and to just give them a good try with a smile on her face! I guess we won't know until it actually happens so not point in worrying and definitely not to spend the audition stressing about it! As you say, they will all have different strengths and weaknesses, so good luck to all our dc's, may they all shine like the stars they are! Thank you so much for taking the time to respond, it is very much appreciated.

    • Like 3
  17. Hello,

     

    First proper post, so if in the wrong place, please do move me!

     

    Does anyone know how much pointe work will be done in final auditions for ballet upper schools, in particular, what level they need to be working at? My dd has heard rumours of 16 fouettés on pointe but her dance teacher has said she doesn't think that will be the case. Given other posts that I have read especially re foreign students and their amazing abilities, I am wondering if it is more truth than myth?

     

    In general, we have also been told to expect the final to be a much harder class than the preliminary, any tips or sharing of your DD's experiences would be gratefully appreciated.

     

    Thank you!

  18. Sorry to hear of No's. My dd has got 'Priority Waiting List' for Covent Garden, a very nicely worded let down, apparently 1600 applicants and only 350 places so big congratulations to those with a yes. Hopefully she won't be too upset, or read too much into it given she is auditioning for upper school next week. Knew it was a gamble applying but was worth a try! Best of luck to everyone else, fab forum, lots of great info and support to us poor parents

    • Like 6
  19. I read it as we will hear after 30 Jan....that's the funny thing about emails, we can all interpret them different ways!

    j

     

    Just read email again "by 30 jan" so I guess anytime in next 2 weeks!! Apologies, I have not added anything useful to this thread at all! Lol!

    • Like 2
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