Mrs Brown

absolutely this!

yes maybe we need to consider going further afield if they wanted to push their national but I think we are far far too lazy!!! we aren't the most dedicated. It does take a lot to go out and compete you are right. I do feel for the children we see backstage who are so nervous that you wonder why they put themselves through it. my eldest didn't enjoy doing a solo, used to get worried about it so we stopped it. the younger one would do everything and anything and thrives on it. both together in a duet works well, the elder one likes the duet because she isn't on her own. sweet really. that alone makes it all worthwhile.

thank you Annaliesey, now just to persuade her teacher her idea is a good one!!

ha - thank you! interesting that character isn't always ballet. I think she would rather just do a dance she enjoys whether the adjudicator likes it or not if that makes sense. Especially if she is getting to play a character she likes as you have to enjoy what you are doing to perform it well I think. Yeah I think with National there aren't many schools that do it round here so we tend to see specific styles. one school did an Indonesian dance recently which I wish we had been able to see as it would have been lovely to see something so different. We missed a Korean fan dance because we were getting ready too. My girls love their dance and they know they do it well, it is disheartening when adjudicators don't really know what to do with it but the audience usually seem to enjoy it, the girls say they can see people's faces during the footwork section of it so they know it looks impressive which I think makes them feel quite special that they can do it! haha. I just love that they have the opportunity to do a dance together and work with each other on something. I think they will probably carry on doing it but just need to accept they will usually be bottom for no real reason. thank you

I have one daughter who would happily sit for hours watching festivals (except teenage lyrical sections apparently) and one who won't even go to watch her sister compete as it is "boring unless you are doing" like you say.

I actually think saying "well well" in your reply is far more rude than me saying I have seen bored dads at festivals. I actually think your reply sounds extremely pompous and condescending towards me. We are all entitled to express an opinion or make an observation. Just because I can enjoy watching festivals, indeed when we first started going to watch them our dance school only had 1 older student who did them and I just took my daughters along in the holidays because it was cheap to go, the weather was bad and I thought it would give them a chance to see live performances from children their age or a bit older. They got to see dance styles they had never seen before, they go to hear comments from the adjudicator, the first one we went to gave quite a nice explanation of some of the classes and what they were such as Greek and what she was looking for. I actually think it is a pity people don't just go along to watch. SOME schools are competition and festival factories but if that is what those children are happy with then is that really wrong? There are some who want to hot house to go to grammar school or get up at 5am to swim for 3 hours before school every day etc but that is up to them. It doesn't make it wrong. There are also children who just enjoy going along and doing their 1 dance or maybe 2 dances twice a year. I think it is great that the opportunity is there for those who want it.

our teacher doesn't like festivals either but she will support any children who approach her and request to do them

I don't understand why it is rude. I didn't say all dads are bored, I said there were numerous bored dads, it is merely an observation that pretty much all the men I see at festivals are sat looking as if they would rather be somewhere else other than when their child is actually dancing. I have seen men sitting clapping with their eyes shut! I am not being rude, just observing. I actually find the whole festival atmosphere fascinating because I like people watching. Sometimes it is more interesting to watch fellow audience members than some of the dancers. no disrespect to the dancers but it is so interesting to see how people react. Festivals and competitions have a place in the dance world, they provide competition that is now lacking in many schools but which is important for learning how to deal with real life. They provide a performance opportunity for those at dance schools which only do shows every few years. They give children a personal challenge. As long as the child wants to do them and finds them rewarding then they serve a good purpose. My only bug bear with festivals is that sometimes you get a nasty atmosphere (not something we generally experience in our local festivals but I have definitely seen it with my youngest daughter shoved physically by bigger girls) and that sometimes adjudicators could do with more education in certain areas.

We did think it was ballet based, will stick to that then if she does it. thank you.

oh and thank you - sorry, didn't mean to be rude

yes I agree Parent Taxi. I know some schools make a big thing about having qualifying scores and being desperate to get them whilst we (and our teachers) didn't even realise my daughter HAD got a qualifying score because we didn't know what they were! Can I ask a couple of festival related questions whilst you are all here please? saves starting a new post. 2 things Character - is this usually ballet based? I am assuming so but the description of it seems to imply that technically it doesn't have to be. my daughter has come up with an idea she wants to run past her teacher to see if they could work with it but whilst a lot of it would be ballet based steps there is a bit of the music she likes that could include a bit more jazzy dance and she wasn't sure if that would be allowed. National - why do so many (and nearly all the ones that do well) have a story made up to go with them? sometimes they seem more like character dances with a few national steps in rather than an actual national dance so I am intrigued if we are missing something here.

ah ok Loopy. I have seen fairly generous marking before compared to "usual" scores but this seemed extreme so I assumed it was just the adjudicator's style but you are probably right, if they know it isn't a qualifier then maybe they are more relaxed.

if our local festival this year had been a qualifier year then I think almost every group entered would have qualifed for regionals, as well as large number of duets and probably a good half of solo entries as the marks were so high. Perhaps this has been the case at some of the regional finals where so many groups have got through to them because of overgenerous marking at qualifiers. If they want to maintain standards at the National finals then I suppose they have to control it at regionals.

I have to admit to half wishing I was a fly on the wall in the adjudicators area in one regional. I saw the lists of adjudicators and in one they had one we found was a very very low marker across the board, one who was a very very high marker and one we didn't know. I would be fascinated to see if their actual choices are the same peope still. I think in general it is often the same people place (this is in local qualifiers not regionals) regardless of the adjudicator present and the actual mark given. I think national is the area that is very inconsistent in terms of adjudicator knowledge. I don't know with Greek, certainly they sound knowledgeable at all the festivals we have been to. but then until we started doing national I thought they knew that as well but have been proved wrong... Festivals can be such a lovely experience if they are taken with a pinch of salt.

I always think it is a little insulting for so many to leave just before someone dances, I do understand why as there are numerous bored dads at festivals usually but it must be hard if you are the next dancer. Our local festival seemed to have pretty good behaviour from the audience, lots of good applause even from random people who didn't know the children which I thought was nice although I will never understand why people can't take their rubbish away with them. I was horrified how many things were just left on the floor under the chairs. Especially given it is nearly always staffed purely by volunteers.

don't some of the sessions go on for hours though? perhaps there could be a scheduled "moving point" in longer sections? I agree it must be very distracting for the dancers

we didn't go to our regionals (child qualified one dance) for a few reasons. 1 it was hours away, 2 it clashed with out local festival and 3 our teacher isn't paid up with the £60 so it would have cost us £69 to enter not just £9 as with only 1 child qualified I couldn't expect the teacher to pay that themselves. I would have liked her to have the experience of doing it but it just didn't really make sense for us. I think lots of schools enter but the vast majority are there for one or two styles whilst certain schools supply virtually all competitors for National or Greek for example because so few schools teach them. Don't get me started on dodgy adjudication though - being very careful here not to say something I shouldn't but when there is a national entry that during adjudication the adjudicator announces is from a different place to where it is (!!!!!!!! it was a bit like them watching a Russian dance and then saying "dances from Italy...") and then proceeds to give completely incorrect corrections you wonder why you bothered. Sadly we are now wondering whether to do it again as it is quite insulting to the children when it is clearly obvious their dance was performed exceptionally well but they receive a low mark and irrelevant comments. The dance is extremely technical, 100% accurate and was performed with perfect timing (duet). It is a national dance style that they study weekly and take exams in rather than just learn a national dance for a festival but it doesn't have some random storyline which appears to be what is required although when you look at the All England definition of National it doesn't say it needs to be a character dance so I really can't fathom it out. I would far rather an adjudicator said "I am sorry but I am not familiar with this style and therefore have just gone with the performance I enjoyed the most". Interestingly they have done this dance at some of the more American style competitions and it has gone down quite well. festivals seem to be rather different. 2 out of 3 have involved incorrect corrections being given! The other one plainly wasn't familiar with it either but at least was careful about what they said and commented how difficult it was. Unfortunately I had really liked the adjudicator until this. It is plainly purely a a demonstration that adjudicators need to be made more familiar with some areas. At the end of the day as others have said it is entirely down to personal opinion unfortunately. I agree there could perhaps be some slightly more obvious marking criteria but then I think festivals would last weeks just for adjudication but really there could do with being technique, performance, idea (character), authenticity (national) etc but with the number of entries that wouldn't be possible in practice. At least at our festival I felt there was a nice atmosphere behind the scenes which for me is probably the important thing but it was only our local one not All England regionals and I would imagine they are far more competitive.

hehe - good tip there. yes the girls have liked wearing the primark fleece lined leggings and the one in tights has noticed this.

thank you. it would certainly be easier to buy one but I do quite like a challenge so might give it a go. At least if I start thinking about it now I have quite a few months before it gets cold so don't have to rush! (and still time to buy one if it all goes horribly wrong!) thank you

not seen any like that - will investigate. thank you

I think I will give it a try then. She won't be allowed to wear them in class but it would be great to have something like that to wear in the car and walk to and from lessons, that goes on over ballet tights or modern leggings and comes up high to keep warm with her hoodie over the top. Might start with a lightweight fleece then as that is easy to stitch. thank you

thank you both - the prices of them aren't too bad really but when she is still growing I don't think it would get used enough to be worth it so thought making one might be better. Thanks DancingShoes will PM you now.

Has anyone tried making their own warm up jumpsuit things? my daughter likes them but they are so expensive and I am relatively capable with sewing even without patterns but I wondered if anyone had tried doing them themselves and had any tips to share, type of fabric to use etc. Thanks

non syllabus might be the way to go, too much repetition of syllabus must surely get boring ? - I am not a dancer but I would think it would. A wider range of combinations and musical interpretation would probably be very good for her development

not associate material here but both my girls were grade 2 ISTD at the start of year 5, I believe this is generally seen as roughly RAD grade 3 but from what I read online the associate classes aren't looking at what grade they are currently on but what potential they have and how they audition. My girls won't be dancers so just do 1hr of each of their dance styles but if she is serious about ballet then I would definitely try to get her up to 2hours a week.