Peanut68

It was not sustainable to carry on with high level classes as nine at local school & the 3 months travelling 25 miles between school runs twice a week did cause much family conflict….but, I did my RAD Inter aged 50 & am proud of that. But deeply sad to say since I’ve sunk back down to a very recreational once a week dancer & have had some injury/falling to pieces issues making a grande plié a thing if the past…. I do muse on to think had I not just pretty much stopped (with Covid exacerbating this) but gone on to a regular Adv F class (has I been able to find one anywhere) then I might now be on Adv 1 or 2!!! A girl can but dream…. Good luck to all those still pursuing the feeling of achievement working towards & then taking an exam does give you! Enjoy! (I’m sorry if I sound a bit self pitying….I am as I miss it all so much 😢) Guess what I’m really trying to say to any dancer of any age, is don’t let others put you off & if one option says no, you will find another so GO FOR IT!

Are there photos of the previous ‘G’ curtains?

I should’ve clarified that this is their Sadler’s Wells performance in London as opposed to a NY show!!

Row C Seat 10 cost £38 + £3.50 fees Show is sold out

I seem to recall ENBS had even asked for a more detailed Dr form for a Spring/Autumn intensive….& we certainly had to pay for them to complete a form for a USA SI

Is there a link anyone can share to see venues/dates (if still time to see!) Thanks

Very well put Jamiel!

Certainly I cannot provide documented info! But do hear that students I know get tickets very regularly. Again, these will most often be last minute opportunities for unsold tickets. I have no real problem with this except that it is not money generated & as it is clear shows can sell out I feel RIH needs to address their marketing/sales/programming/pricing so all shows sell out!

I agree wholeheartedly with your first paragraph TSR101 but also am mindful that moderators may well have to be rather restrictive where businesses/charities are concerned hence suggest not sharing on forum.

I. I stately fill out ROH surveys but they ask no useful questions nor less anywhere that I can see! I actually had deleted the email as knew I wouldn’t be able to attend the 2 dates that the discounts were for so couldn’t help anyhow…. But still feel it’s crazy to offer some discounts & not to all & how they must target these too. But am mostly disappointed that there should ever be a need to offer such discounts or gift so many as they seem to do to RBS students & ROH staff to fill seats. I say again, if programming was what audiences wanted to see & prices at what audiences are prepared & can afford to pay then there would be no need. To add, I am not saying the MacMillan wrong choice / just I think in general there should be more lower priced seats available for all productions. So tickets may sell out super quick & tgat may make the powers that be think ‘wait, we could’ve charged more’… well surely that’s way better than finding poor sales mean they say ‘help, we need to reduce prices’ Why do they not ‘read the room’??

It’s the very first time I’ve ever received an offer for discounted tickets!! It does seem bizarre that the first time I get any offer is only after the very first time I’d paid for top tier seats (£140 tickets to Manon - gulp) So if that’s their marketing decision it seems bonkers & unfair. Why market discounts to people who have clearly shown they can afford expensive seats…. (Though I stress my expensive sears were a one off Xmas gift… back to way up to top of amphi for me next time!)

I guess there will always be tiers of pay as in many industries… but I would be interested to know the pay/working conditions for VFB & how they compared with that gold standard 52 weeks a year PAYE with benefits contract I imagine dancers with companies that have arts council funding are on….

Yep

Quite! I want fair pricing for all! For me that means fair & affordable at outset of selling. Then there would be no need to offer mid-season sales!

Real shame as they were a worthy company touring traditional ballet to suburban theatres. Our local theatre would sell well when they visited & it was a joy to watch many very young children getting their first experience of seeing live ballet alongside groups of elders from care homes enjoying a night out. What I didn’t like was the snobby attitude of some ‘serious ballet audience goers’ who were sniffy & sometimes downright rude about lack of live music/sets & costume quality or standard of dancers….they complete missed the point…. VFB were a niche provider with a relevant offering. I think they were a UK based company? So presumably paying a living wage to its company dancers & crew? And who are now offering traditional classical ballets to provincial theatres up & down the UK? Well, mostly it seems to be companies operating out of Eastern European admin bases who I have in good authority do not pay any decent wage level to their dancers recruited from all over. I expect they pay to book the theatres & take the box office sales. And quite rightly audiences pay reasonable price for seats…. But perhaps far too little of this money is making its way to employ dancers & much of the ticket sales are profits for the company owners…. I’m not against money being made - I’m all for ballet being a commercial success! But I am also a believer in fair pay & think that ‘overseas touring’ companies should honour the pay structures & working condition laws of host countries. I am happy to be corrected but have heard of ‘wages’ to dancers being along the lines of £40 per show with no money on days with no performances. Yes, travel & accommodation may well also be included but it is still by no means a living wage for any person. I am very happy to be proved wrong & also I do not imply this is the case for ALL touring companies.

ROH seem to have the most crazy pricing policies…. It really puts me off from booking other than for something I consider an absolute must for me (like recent chance to see Bolle/Nunez in Manon). I also think my recent email offering me 40% off is insulting to those already booked. And how odd how they choose to make these offers… I normally have ‘cheap seat’ tickets to ballets…& go pretty regularly. But never get the emails with discounts I hear of for upcoming events. Yet the one time I book & pay top dollar prices for seats, I then get the email offering big discounts for next shows (MacMillan). Isn’t this a big nuts? I’d prefer to see discounts offered to all - nit just to people who have clearly got funds to buy top price seats. Yes, for me it was a one off so discounts great. But I suspect that mostly people sat in top price seats for one ballet can likely afford to price for the next. So if you are discounting - offer it to all regulars. But frankly, programme selection/casting choices/sensible pricing structures from the get-go should negate any need to discount. Get your act together KOH & ROH!

So he’s leaving sooner???

I am horrified to be offered via email tickets at 40% off…. I’d be completely angry had I already purchased at full price & then hear there are these discounts direct marketed to former audience goers. I too agree there is not enough hype or marketing info on this triple bill of MacMillan ballets…maybe they need to have the odd guest turn? I confess Bolle with Nunez in Manon got me pulling out every stop to get there - at whatever the cost (gulp - thank you Hubbie for great Xmas present!). I despair at how rubbish ROH frankly is at marketing/PR/pricing & it’s terrible use of surveys…. These plentiful online surveys ask pointless questions & really do not get any relevant or useful customer feedback from me….or many others I suspect too

Agree completely with all this. There is definitely a (misplaced?) defined expected route & activities that are ‘rights of passage’ acts young dancers feel they ‘must do’. Funny how these things are all paid experiences that mostly only can be funded by supportive family finances…. Cynicism overload

Got 2 Barclays dance pass for offspring plus one full price sat alongside for the Saturday night - but did book literally the second they’d gone in sale months back! Not sure I’m going to be able to take up my full price seat (working on the idea of asking for chance to go as a Mothers Day ‘gift’ of time off!!) So, if I can’t make it will of course offer up ticket for sale in relevant forum here!

Apologies for typos in last post… checked too late to edit & improve- oops!

Is it just me who is wondering if this is a worrying newish trend? More & more of these type of hybrid training/work internship/apprenticeship ‘opportunities’ all over…ate they actually enabling dancers to be financially self sufficient or is it still generally requiring extra support with family funding needed? Just how long does this go on for & at which point do people decide it’s not a job if it’s not enough to actually live on 12 months of the year? I keep coming back to thinking just imagine if you trained to be an electrician & you then had to pay to go to a get together to then demonstrate your skills alongside 200 other electricians in front of 5 or 6 HR personal from big electrical firms with perhaps 19-15 jobs to offer? And then to find the pay is not exactly standard industry or living wage but it’s a stipend or work experience? I thought the Dickensian era of families buying an opportunity to gain a job ended decades ago…. Not in dance it sadly seems.

Well didn't see this coming! Hadn't even known the RAD were recruiting for the Top Job......it seems to me there is currently very many institutions & dance bodies recruiting at the AD & similar level.....certainly in UK & Europe. I thought Campball/Calvert recently opened/took over a regular dance school too? It does sound a fabulous opportunity to him & glad he's remained in UK!

There are homestay options - am sure there must be agencies for these?

I think they may have in effect booked you in for a ‘Medical’ like could be requested to assess ‘fitness to work’/ insurance claims etc. I’d call your surgery & ask for price for signing the form that is to confirm ‘fitness for student training’. much of these forms are tick boxes about vaccinations etc so they will be able to complete from records without actually seeing individual & often surgeries have scales etc in reception area so you could pop in & prove this with receptionist perhaps to add to records? Even if just booking a regular appointment for cough etc you could request they check bmi so they’d then need to add height/weight to info. When we had to have form for a USA SI, we got charged I think £25 (most would’ve been £40 as that figure is also springing to mind) & it was just a case of emailing form to surgery who then printed it, completed & had GP sign & we collected, scanned & emailed to the school.