Confuddled

This is a bit off topic, but does anyone know of summer schools that run in early July. I’m thinking for next year, as dd’s new secondary school finishes term very early, and I would like to find her something dancey to do for those weeks. Ideally in London, but residential elsewhere in England might be do-able. Ideally it would be a mixture of styles, not just ballet - she particularly loves contemporary. She’s keen, but not on the vocational track and not on pointe yet (though she may be by then, I don’t know).

Dd uses both the Silky and the Katz ones for exams and shows - she’s never had any complaints, so I assume they’re fine! She’s too small for adult sizes, so she has the kids ones. She does find they aren’t that comfy under normal clothes, which is a bit of a pain in terms of having to change right before class.

The three simultaneous rehearsals (might have been four, at the one my dd did) were just split roughly by age group / grade. So an hour of ballet class as a sort of warm up, before then going in to different groups depending on their parts, and rehearsing those dances. Most days dd had one free class which gave her a gap in which to eat lunch (though it wasn’t always at lunch time). Wimbledon was intensive as it was summer holidays two weeks of full days (might have been 10-4, I can’t remember precisely) then a third week with Thursday, Friday and Saturday dress rehearsal and performances. I don’t know how it works in term time - presumably there are after-school and weekend rehearsals. It would be a long day for a 7yo - do-able, but tiring. Dd was just 10, and had done local youth ballet before, but still had no energy at all in the evenings. She loved it, though!

Yes, summer 2018 they did Swan Lake in Wimbledon.

I’ve been keeping an eye on them, hoping for Wimbledon again, or somewhere nearby (Woking, Guildford), but nothing within commuting distance of South London yet. Dd is very keen to do EYB again, she loved it!

Thanks for all the replies - I showed this to dd and she’s going to do the calf rises and she’s keen to have the PBT DVD as a birthday present.

What height child would the Sansha Gaby Fleece Unitard fit?

Thanks! What does PBT stand for? I will have a google. I have no idea what dd does in her strength and flexibility classes, so if there’s something I can show her about PBT and perfect pointe on the web, I can ask her whether it fits with the sort of thing she’s been doing. She’s 10, does about (counts on fingers...)3.5 hours of ballet a week, an hour of strength / flexibility / conditioning and an hour of contemporary. Plus 3.5 hours of Associates (which is mostly ballet, but is also sometimes conditioning, contemporary, jazz etc). Would most of these things be aimed at older students doing many more hours a week? I don’t want to point her at anything inappropriate.

My dd is keen to work on her strength and flexibility outside class - she’s got an blue stretchy band that I had left over from physio on my shoulder, which she uses in her conditioning class, but is there anything else that would be good? I got her a wobble board, as I saw one very cheap in Tiger a few weeks ago and I thought it looked like fun. She’s mentioned rollers, and I know that anything that’s designed to strengthen feet in preparation for pointe work would be good (she’s really keen to go on pointe, so she’ll do anything that she thinks will help her with being ready). I’m happy to get her things that will help her be stronger and less likely to get injured, but we don’t have much storage space, so smaller is better!

Thanks for the link - I just watched it, very interesting. I think dd will enjoy it, too.

I think phoning Mary Goodhew would work - her ballet school site gives her contact details: http://www.dancegems.co.uk/?&p=contact Alternatively, I’m sure Ibstock Place School would be able to point you in the right direction, as the office there does some of the MDP admin: https://www.ibstockplaceschool.co.uk/senior-school/contact-us/

Hope it’s not too late, but the Master Dance Programme at Ibstock Place School sounds like it might be just right. It’s Saturday afternoons, in Roehampton. Run by Mary Goodhew, who is amazing, and takes children from 7 right up to older teenagers (they split into Juniors, Mids and Seniors).

It’s what I did - just chose the closest ballet school because it was easy to walk to. I think most mums wouldn’t even consider that any harm could come from an unqualified ballet teacher at such a young age. A few years ago, I would just have assumed it was music, movement and a lot of herding cats.

If you carry a baby or toddler in a sling (the fabric sort that holds them close to your body, not the backpacksort) you can often tell when they’ve fallen asleep (even if they’re on your back) as they feel heavier. And babies before they can walk definitely feel heavier than the same child a few months older (and bigger) once they’ve learned to walk - they hold themselves very differently. I think it must be all about the muscle tone.

DD thought it would be a no, and it was. Oh well, maybe next year (though maybe not if it clashes with SYB performances again). Congratulations to those who got a yes!

Yes, I wondered that. Maybe they want to meet and discuss again, maybe watch the videos? I can imagine they’re all busy people and have to wait until the next weekend to do that.

That’s all interesting, thanks! Dd was saying that Cecchetti grade 3 was a lot harder than ISTD grade 3, and that she was learning stuff she’d seen in much higher ISTD classes. So it made me wonder.

I’ve been googling but can’t seem to find the answer - how do the Cecchetti ballet grades compare to the better known ones like ISTD and RAD. I know they cover different things, but I just wanted to know roughly which grades were equivalent to each other.

Another mum told me that she heard the ladies at LCB say Wednesday or Thursday by email. So I’m going to be checking my email (and junk folder) quite a lot today!

Dd thinks it didn’t go well - she’s had a very busy week and thinks she wasn’t at her best. Oh well. Did anyone else find the audition result email went into their junk folder? Weirdly, all the other audition emails come straight through to my inbox without a problem, but I didn’t find that one until a day after it was sent.

There was a flyer about a masterclass handed out at the first audition - maybe that was it? It was just before Christmas on a weekend that’s really busy for us, so I’m afraid I recycled it and don’t have the details any more. Does anyone know how many are invited to the final audition and how many places there are (main cast and touring)?

Did anyone else’s DC get an invitation to Finals? DD is absolutely over the moon. I’m having to rearrange my weekend, as I had booked something for Sunday 18th assuming she wouldn’t get through...

Is anyone else waiting for an e-mail this Friday? Dd loved the experience and said it was a really friendly atmosphere, and she was most impressed to meet the original ‘Pauline’.

I’ll have a look, thanks! Thanks!

I’ve just been thinking Christmas presents! Looking for a hoody (with a zip) for dd, to avoid the ‘ruining the bun while trying to take off the hoody’ issue.