Mrs Brown

Please could anyone help point me in the direction of something useful online about how stretching can actually be bad for some people? I remember reading something a few months ago and am now struggling to find it but I need to speak to a dance teacher about how I don't want a child forced in stretches as I really don't think it is going to help her and I actually have concerns about it. She doesn't dream of being a dancer in the future so I can't see it is necessary anyway. thank you

I too have a very tall very slim daughter (age 10) and we found the teen leotards weren't great on her. She has a mix of bloch petite (starting to get a bit short) and small. they fit her well. Capezio ladies ones can tend to be a bit too shaped for her as she still has a childlike figure but on the whole the petite ones have been great. this one in particular has been a really good fit on her as it seems to come up very slim http://www.dancerunway.com/dancewear#!/Bloch-Tape-bust-cami-leo/p/74307322/category=21037164

a lot of children fear what if something goes wrong and mummy/daddy aren't there to sort it out and keep me safe. Who would I go to, what could they do etc

slightly different approach but could you get a grandparent to stay overnight in your house and you go away for the night ( great idea for a treat for you!!!) and then he will feel safe and secure as he is in his comfort zone but he will have that break from you for the first time which might well be part of his concern. Being in his own safe place will make that less of a big deal.

give her a little water spray to use on it, slicks it back, makes it easier. Teach her how to put in the hair pins to make it secure by doing it yourself a couple of times using her hands so she feels what she has to do if that makes sense. It is a bit like trying to do things in a mirror, you overthink it and your fingers push the pins the wrong way so if you guide her hands she will realise which way she is doing it. She is more than old enough to learn to do it herself with a bit of practice. She will probably surprise herself(and you) with how well she can do it after a few weeks.

Thank you, will look that up

I had it as a teenager - not a dancer though - and Dr told me to just carry on as best I could. I suffered for years. Other friends who had it had Drs who told them to stay off school and rest for a few weeks and they seemed to bounce back so I agree with others to have a complete rest now in the hope it might avoid it being too drawn out. I did discover when i was still suffering terribly with tiredness years later that my magnesium levels were very low (had to pay for blood tests) and taking a supplement got me pretty much back to normal quite quickly. So if tiredness does drag out it would be worth having some blood tests done to see if any specific deficiences.

love those pictures, like going back in time.

thank you - ok will avoid A Circling Star then.

Fabulous, thank you. I will investigate second hand

Ooh thanks, not heard of them, I will investigate

sorry if I have missed a post on this but looking back I could only find older books. I have just bought a few new dance books for my daughters (age 8 and 9) and thought others might be interested in checking them out. They haven't read them yet so i can't comment on how good they are. The Tsar's Ballet Slippers by Angela A. Riley Born to Dance by Jean Ure which is apparently the first of three The Secret of the Ballet Book by Navita Dello Any other recommendations for this sort of age? We have Lorna Hill, Noel Streatfeild and Drina. Thanks

oh, round here I don't know anyone who does standards. All the ISTD schools do grades based on just 1hr a week until they are grade 3/4 when they seem to go up to 2hrs a week. Perhaps this is why they take longer on the grades but mine have always had very high marks. Just wondering if your daughter might be better with a private lesson at grade 3 rather than pushing her in with people in the class above. might help build her confidence?

Sorry to be a bit slow on the uptake here and forgive me if i missed this. So she is doing standard 3 and grade 3. Are the standards where they do a slightly reduced syllabus?

it does sound like she is pushing herself rather than you pushing her. We have similar things with not being able to go on pointe with one daughter - joint condition will really limit her ballet wise and she is having to deal with this at the age of 9 but she is being very mature about it. She likes her other dance styles more in some ways anyway and there won't be a problem with them so I suppose that makes it less of a concern for her plus she knows she won't be a professional dancer in the future. she has dyspraxia issues which cause her some problems in life but in dancing somehow they don't seem to affect her too much. She has terrible spelling problems and can't pick up language well due to a language disorder but again somehow she seems to manage to remember things so we have been lucky with that so far. The teacher should have a list of all the vocab needed for the grade so ask for a copy of that and then you can practice it at home. doing ISTD might be more daunting because of the free work but it will probably do lots of "therapy" type work for her working memory as it will help develop the skills she will need. I could never sight read in music and had to learn everything and play from memory, I gave up exams at grade 3 because of the sight reading so I sympathise with her on that one. yes the Drina books are lovely. We have a few Noel Streatfield and Lorna Hill ones still from my childhood too but Drina was the best in my opinion. Also there are the Louisa the ballerina books by Adele Geras which she might enjoy. they are small chapter books, still in print so she will be able to read them herself I expect even with dyslexia and my daughters enjoyed those too. I got them on Amazon a year or two ago.

crikey - she is 7 and they have her doing grade 3/4 ISTD classes? my yr3 child consistently gets in the 90s and up to 98 in ISTD exams but is only in grade 1 ballet and grade 2 for other things. The poor girl is quite probably a bit overloaded to be honest and even with good natural turn out etc it sounds a bit too pushy to me. Is she by far the youngest in that class? I would think that has a large part to play in it all too. Although it is nice to be good enough to be asked to do harder stuff it is also very daunting and socially if they don't fit in the class that can be very off putting. Obviously you are happy with the school and trust the teachers but if she is already in grade 3/4 then what is she going to be learning once she is a teenager? I would love mind to move a bit quicker with their exams, their school is very slow with them, but I don't think I would want them moving that quickly. So much of dancing includes maturity, both physically and mentally so whilst it might seem like this is all because of boys at school being nasty, it could be that SHE just wants to slow down a bit and be a bit more of the regular 7 year old ballet dancer if that makes sense. I hope this doesn't come across as critical as I don't mean it to be, I am just another dance mum and as I have said mine won't be going on to be dancers in the future, but I am just genuinely shocked at so much so young (and very impressed) but also if she was one of my daughters then I would be worried about burn out. Is she very focused on just ballet or does she do other dance styles? I just wonder whether perhaps a bit of breadth in her training might be a bit more relaxing for her at this age. Some children only like ballet which is fair enough but most of the girls we know do a mix of styles until they are about 10 or 11 and then some might just focus on ballet. oh and if you don't already have them, see if you can get hold of the Drina books by Jean Estoril. I LOVED them when I was younger, I was older than her when they republished them but I really enjoyed them and luckily still have some of them for my girls. lovely stories.. perfectly suitable for her to enjoy. not in print now but normally available second hand through amazon.

South West here and limited experience but our festivals are All England format I gather. Enter into classes where all are individual or duet or trio/quartet or group in different styles. All get a number and compete individually in order, then all in class go on for results.

that is shocking, poor girl. Both my daughters dance and the other children in their classes are generally either not bothered or very supportive of them and in some cases very proud of them and their achievements. Some of the boys genuinely are impressed and have been to watch them in shows. they are in yr 3 and 4. We have had some problems with one girl in the younger daughter's year who is plainly extremely jealous and thinks she is wonderful and better than everyone else (there are ongoing issues there, not only related to dancing) but DD luckily is quite open about it and talks to me so we can discuss how it is obviously jealousy or insecurity and she can realise it doesn't affect her or her dancing and that she needs to rise above it. It is so hard when they are young. Luckily for me neither of mine will ever be dancers. they recognise that it won't happen (perhaps I am too blunt and squash their dreams - oops) but they love it and would do it all day if they could.

My girls aren't auditioning, it is too far for our nearest and would clash with another specialised dance class that can only be done at their dance school and only on Saturday mornings. Good luck to all your children, please make sure you update us on how they enjoy it etc as I love reading about things like this.

Thank you. I have found a very lightweight foundation to try with the girls. Will have a make up session to try it out. Thanks for all the tips and advice.

will check out the seventeen range then if their foundations are quite light. I don't really want to cover all the younger ones freckles or she won't look like her so yes just something very light, or powder as a couple of people have mentioned will be better for her. I can see I am going to have fun trying to put mascara on someone else. we have had a play around now with eyeliner and that seemed to go ok so perhaps it won't be as bad as I am anticipating.. thanks

oh yes turquoise would be too much on the little one with the turquoisey coloured eyes, the one wearing teal/blue/turquoisey colours doesn't have the same colouring. sorry I was a bit misleading.

Love that story meadow. Thanks everyone, some great tips there. Yes we are talking redhead type skin tone but with black hair and turquoise eyes. Striking but difficult

My 8 and 9 year old do 1hr ballet and 30 minutes tap on one day and an hour of modern and 30 minutes tap another day, they also do an hour of Spanish dance on another day. 90 minutes is the most expected at their age in our school. they seem to go up to 2hrs (but still split with different dance styles so two individual one hour classes on one evening) when they are about 12ish/grade4 ISTD. occasionally an individual might double up grades so take more clsses a week but still wouldn't do it all in one evening.

brilliant, thank you so much everyone. I too feel blue isn't quite right for ballet in a pink tutu. Both my girls have done professional panto a couple of years so we have had bright blue eye shadow and bright red lipstick (something not right about putting a bright red lipstick called scarlett siren on a 7 year old to me) but it seems wrong for ballet. My eldest (9) is also doing ballet at the festival but her tutu is teal and greeny blue mermaid type colour eye shadow seems to look right on her with the tutu so I am not worried with that but the younger one being in pink seems to lend itself more to purples and pinks like you say. I have seen some baked eyeshadows in a set which include a purple and pink sparkley ones which seem quite high pigment so I might look at that properly. eyeliner I will get for both then. Do you think black mascara then? one has black eyelashes anyway, the other has quite dark eyelashes but is fairer haired and more olive skinned. hmm black for her too then I suppose. Not wearing makeup much myself any more since having kids any suggested sorts? there seem so many, do I just want a "defining" one? rather than lash building/thickening/lengthening and so on? I have a sort of rose pink blusher from panto which I am sure will be ok. Will look at foundations too. just tried the elder one with some of mine and whilst it didn't look like it ought to make much difference it did look much more finished. thank you.