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Mrs Brown

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  1. Would anyone mind sharing make up recommendations/tips for under 10s ballet festivals please. My daughter has done one festival and her teacher wanted blue eye shadow but wasn't there on the day so I went with more neutral colours which I think worked well given she is very young but this year the teacher will be there. She is in a mid pink tutu and is naturally pale with dark hair. I would quite like to use purples/pinks but I am still unsure what is "normal" makeup for a ballet festival. Do they need foundation too? I didn't use it on her last year but I keep reading about people using it so am not sure. Any help gratefully received. thanks
  2. thank you - I was just really surprised at that age. I think your thoughts are probably right she is probably starting to learn the preparation for doing one which makes sense. my daughter is a bit put out because she wants to keep up with her friend but luckily she trusts her teacher and knows that her teacher is extremely experienced and will do everything in good time.
  3. my 7 year old just did her first ballet festival and she absolutely loved it and beamed on stage. another girl from her school did the same one and says she enjoyed it but frankly she looked petrified poor child.
  4. I am just curious. My daughters both dance and the 7 year old came home from school today and said her friend has started learning pirouettes now she is in grade 1. Really? at 7? I thought they didn't learn them until they were higher up grades. certainly not grade 1 in ISTD which is what my girls do. Do people really start learning them so young?
  5. I am trying to find some nude pants for my daughter but she is only 7. to go under a tutu, she has to wear pants as I can't wash the tutu after she has worn it. what do people do with children in festivals? I can't see pants for her age anywhere. white would do I suppose if I cut them to be the right leg line shape as long as they don't unravel leaving a long thread....
  6. my daughter has fluffy curly hair and a lot of it although it isn't particularly long but has a lot of volume.... I took her to a local afro hair shop/hair dressers and asked for advice. She is only young and they suggested some children's afro hair products which have been great for her, they don't dry her hair out, they slick it back pretty well, smell nice and she is happy with them. Worth googling to see if there is a shop near you that you can go and ask for advice.
  7. we have these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/261830563563?ru=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fsch%2Fi.html%3F_from%3DR40%26_sacat%3D0%26_nkw%3D261830563563%26_rdc%3D1 and I am impressed with them - good quality and the lady who does them has been very helpful with my daughters' requests. she has other designs of bag too, different sizes and styles - worth a look. I just hope noone else at their dance school gets the same ones because I like the fact they are different and less likely to get mixed up.
  8. Loopy - no it was just our local town dance festival. Can't remember her wording but she commented a few times about the amount of floor work, gymnastics moves taking over routines. she said an odd trick was fine if it fitted with the style or characterisation. she commented about the amount of floor work in lyrical as well as "thudding down on knees", using exercises like "shouldering legs" in routines. she addressed the comments to the "teachers" (ie audience) and made it clear it wasn't directed at the dancers.
  9. going by some of what we saw on stage this week at a festival (our first experience and only watching not taking part) I was amazed. not at the brilliance but at the fact that some of the poor children had been entered at all. SOME were amazingly talented and I really mean that, especially 2 boys we saw, I hope they go far. there were some beautiful dancers who possibly just had not as much experience on the choreography front but were captivating to watch, some who were what you would expect for their age and some who were better, some who looked bored stupid, others looked terrified, others looked like they had a stuck on smile and a few who you could tell loved what they were doing and were "performers" but those performers weren't necessarily the best dancers although their overall package came across as better. We had an interesting adjudicator who I think in many cases tried very hard to go with technique and potential rather than showiness. depends on the class obviously but she seemed very traditional, she complained about acrobatics taking over modern, about the older lyrical being just based on the same songs now and why don't they try other pieces of music, she didn't like the obsession with floor work in everything and what she called ugly moves, she didn't like inappropriate pieces for age and marked them down. I think she was very good and all the things she said I could imagine my girls' dance teachers saying and I was thinking myself too so perhaps she just agreed with my thoughts which was why I liked her. But from what she was saying festivals now are quite different to how they used to be. I think there are plenty of children who literally just perform now at festivals and competitions, I know of a few schools who don't do exams and just do shows and festivals/competitions. so of course those children spend their entire time learning set dances but are not so hot on technique or genuine strength and ability to do things properly. Your DD is obviously gifted as well as hard working and she plainly deserves her place or they wouldn't have offered it to her. Would be interesting to do a survey of top dancers and find out how many went through the traditional slog of exams, technique and so on and how many won lots of festivals. I think we can probably guess that they didn't necessarily win things.
  10. we went to watch a dance festival for the first time this week. It was most definitely an experience. We were the only ones there just watching because we actually wanted to watch I think. otherwise the audience was just parents and other competitors from what I could work out. We enjoyed watching all the dancing, the adjudicator was great and the feedback given at the end of each class was interesting and I think my young girls have picked up some useful bits of information and advice. We didn't get to see back stage obviously because they weren't taking part but it was interesting to see the reactions in the audience. The absolute horror on the faces of some parents when feedback was that the music/song/dance/outfit was inappropriate for the age (some of them were really inappropriate, not just a picky adjudicator) or when it was commented that gymnastics was taking over the modern sections. I didn't hear anyone being rude about any of the performances though except perhaps my girls whispering shock with a couple of entries in song and dance who really genuinely couldn't sing and they were shocked that they had been allowed to enter by their dance schools or parents. I did explain to them they shouldn't say things like that as it was disrespectful but as the 6 year old pointed out it was true and noone was sat near us. It made for an interesting outing, I can imagine some of the parents we saw being extremely competitive backstage, some were unfriendly and pushy, we could see that but others were lovely, chatty, happy to be there enjoying the experience with their young dancers. Hopefully those parents outweigh nasty ones.
  11. ooh great thank you - will do that. See I know nothing about it at all, ballet, tap and modern I can get by on with my knowledge but other than speaking basic Spanish this is beyond me! thanks
  12. Sorry this is about Spanish dancing not ballet so I am not sure if anyone can help. Both my daughters do Spanish Dancing (Spanish Dance Society grades) and they are keen for me to get a DVD of dancing for them to watch so I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations please. I will ask their teacher next time I get a chance too but they are very keen to see more. They are both young, 7 and 9 so I am wary of just picking something in case it isn't appropriate. Thanks
  13. we get to watch when they have done an exam or with the younger ones once or twice a year. I don't think any of us would DARE use phones - the teacher scares us all.
  14. sorry if I have missed it but how old is she? there is a huge difference in level I personally would think between the gold jazz award and grade 3 modern theatre. In our dance school the children would be taking grade 3 around age 9 but I thought the jazz awards were aimed at older, more alongside grade 5 or something. I could be wrong but looking at those two dances/exercises there it would look like that. Have you seen the grade 5 or 6 modern to see what that is like? perhaps that is more in line with the gold jazz whilst being a different style.
  15. I suppose though 2dancersmum that people wouldn't generally JUST go and do the ISTD Jazz medals, they would have already done all the gentle and structured build up with isolations, rhythm etc in the Modern Theatre grades and then go on to do the jazz as an extra alongside it where as in IDTA it would be either following Modern Jazz or Theatre Craft or both? I hadn't heard of theatre craft until a few weeks ago - to me the name would imply doing general theatre stuff including singing, acting and behind the scenes stuff, certainly doesn't imply dancing to me at all but I suppose they all want to pick names that are specific to their board and obviously wanted something which would cover a range of theatre dancing (I would have thought 'theatre dance' would have been a more accurate name mind jazz implies just dancing to jazz music to me too and modern would sound like current pop songs so I obviously have no idea what I am talking about!!!)
  16. sorry to butt in but could I ask what the difference is then between Modern Jazz which some boards do like IDTA and Modern Theatre (and then the jazz awards) that ISTD do? I was assuming that jazz was a sort of off shoot/associated style of modern but that modern jazz and modern theatre were just different names by different boards? I have a feeling I have already asked this question at some point but I do get confused.
  17. I have read this too, not in relation to dancers but in relation to people in general especially children. I am really concious about not overapplying suncream unless we need to (but I have 1 quite pale child and 1 extremely pale child so equally have to avoid burning risk). I have recently put them on multivitamins because I do worry about them getting the recommended amount of things. It isn't just because of lack of exposure to sun it is also thought to be that the vegetables etc we buy are less rich in vitamins and minerals than they used to be and microwaving can apparently deplete it more. So it is a combination of things I think. Definitely something we should all be aware of.
  18. depends on what the performance is but a nice edition of a book of the story could work well if applicable or if there is a book about a top production of ay Swan Lake if that is what she is doing then that could be nice too. or a nice photo frame to put a picture of herself in the performance in. photo album/memory book/memory box as already suggested.
  19. could it be ankle tenosynovitis? I don't even know if that exists but I read your description as you having the same problem with your ankle that I get in my hands - called trigger finger which is a form of tenosynovitis where the joints literally lock up. I have no medical knowledge at all and know next to nothing about ballet so might not be helping you in the slightest but worth looking up.
  20. near us we have 10-4 in some shops, 10:30- 4:30 in others and 11-5 in others. no chance of keeping track of who does what and a surprising number don't have their opening hours up on the window either so I always aim for between 11 and 4.
  21. one of my daughters has motor planning issues so seeing her dance is a success in itself. She is actually really very good because she works so hard.
  22. ahh that is lovely. yes money isn't everything. I am sure your love of your job shows through enthusiasm in your teaching.
  23. oh I doubt either will even contemplate it being a career (one wants to be an author and illustrate her own books and the other wants to run a flower shop at the moment!!!) but I can see the younger one keeping it going as a hobby for longer. It is funny that when we do a job we aren't that keen on we always imagine it would be wonderful to have a job that was also our most loved hobby but perhaps it is better to keep those most loved hobbies as just that so that they are an outlet, a joy to do and an escape from everything else.
  24. ours do ballet initially but then start very basic tap at around 5ish and then they can start modern theatre around 5-6ish. They seem to tend to be about 6-7 when they do primary modern, and about 7-8 when they do preprimary ballet followed by preprimary tap. the school is very particular that whatever dance they do they must do ballet as like you say it is the basis for all styles of dance. I think the eldest much prefers modern to ballet and tap (she finds it much easier and it suits her more) whilst the youngest is definitely ballet obsessed. she likes the others but she seems to be a natural ballerina so I can see that will be her preference. It will be quite interesting to see how long the eldest perseveres with dancing to be honest, I can see the younger one continuing for many years but I have a feeling at some point it will become too difficult for her less coordinated sister. How I will deal with the inevitable fallout from one being noticeably better than the other I am not too sure. Perhaps I will be proved wrong though and the eldest will grow into her body a bit better at some point. I do hope so.
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