Primaballerina1

Thanks taxi4ballet for your input. We don't have many dance schools round our area that are any better and our current teacher does do so much for us eg. Free lessons! So we may look at joining another school in addition to the current classes or audition for more associate classes as I know YDA have a school in addition to their JAs.

Thank you taxi4ballet! Your comment has helped a lot!

Thanks Hfbrew, yes I agree on what you said about the examiners view and surely it must be harder to get distinction in G3 compared to G4??

Yes taxi4ballet I guess they would be checking that at the audition! DD would like to be prepared though - as in she doesn't want to get left behind for pointe work and decrease her chances even more for getting into a vocational school in Y9 or even Y10

Taxi4ballet

I also forgot to say that after Xmas DD will probably be doing a class to learn things for a ballet competition.

Taxi4ballet

They don't offer contemporary at her school and sometimes she does acro but this only happens once a month. The only problem on starting another ballet class instead of tap is DDs school only really offers the classes for DDs standard which she does. G4, G5, "scholarship" ballet and occaisonaly a G3 class. Do you have any suggestions??

Thank you Anna C - and yes I did feel like I was repeating myself a bit!

Thanks tulip

DD was 10 when she last did a ballet exam (grade 2) she got 82 out of 100 which means she got a distinction. Is this "easy" to get or is this something that not many dancers achieve?? He is taking her G3 in Christmas as she was ill last year when she was meant to take it and DDs teacher says she will probs get distinction with a higher mark out of 100 compared to g2.

I think three to four hours of quality ballet training is enough. That coupled with an associate scheme would be plenty.

Thanks for the reply! If DD was to not get into LJB this year should we try again next year or is that a waste of time and money??

My DD is doing LCBs junior summer course which is for girls aged 9-12, she is twelve and they categorize the groups into ability A- being the easier work and B- the harder work. They do ballet/technique, LCB repertoire, jazz, musical focus, makeup skills and body conditioning (I think that's it). At the end of the five day the girls do a performance to their parents to show them what they've learnt. They also have demonstrations and Q&A sessions with well-known Royal Ballet and ENB principal dancers!

this is DD's first time doing it but she is really looking foward to it.

It is held at the end of July and sometimes the beggining of August from mon-fri and they days are usually 7 or so hours long! It cost £270 ( don't quote me) for the full week.

Hope this helped!!

My DD is twelve and is taking her grade 3 ballet ISTD exam in Christmas as she was supposed to take it last year but she was unfortunately ill.????

She does grade 3 every other week, grade 4, grade five and an extra non-syllabus class. (All ISTD) - she also does modern tap and jazz!

To me only 3-4 hours of ballet each week doesn't sound like much for. 12 year old girl who aspires to be a ballerina!

 

Her teacher isn't too keen on private classes (not sure why) to help DD progress more. She is auditioning for LJB and if she does not get a yes she will audition for LCB but if she gets rejected for both I am worried about lack of classes.

Is 3-4 hours of ballet enough for a 12 year old?? Does anyone have any ideas on what else we could do to help her progress more??

Thank you for a the relpies- Before these posts I seemed to think that as most vocational girls start pointe in y7 others who would wish to go there later on would have to be! But now that I know that this is not true I feel better that my dd isn't on pointe yet!

Irishballetmom yes my dd does work hard but I suppose most 12 y/o girls do some of it in class where as my dd doesn't

Irishballetmom yes my dd does work hard but I suppose most 12 y/o girls do some of it in class where as my dd doesn't

Ballet sister Glad to hear she made lots of friends and everyone was nice!! DD likes to be stretched- but not TOO far!! It's a shame DD couldn't do senior one as she will probs be oldest in Juniors but she is in the most advanced group so this will help hopefully!! Thanks for your help!

Invisiblecircus- yes v v slim chance of DD getting in. We are also thinking about Elmhurst, YDA and Tring though she may not get into any its all experience and will make her work even harder!!

As I said Royal ballet is her big ambition though she would also like ENB and Dutch royal ballet or places in America but this is a long time away, so as long as she gets the correct training, we can think about different companies later on I guess! Thanks for your help!!

I was wondering the same though my DD is twelve and she has not yet auditioned (just wondering hopefully for the future) as the repertoire may be a bit too expensive for us we were wondering whether to do it or not. Should we??

Thanks Lisa O'Brien

Anna C- yes hopefully, as the senior one sound v v good! My DD is quite nervous as she doesn't know anyone there and she is v shy!

What I do know is that LCB senior summer school does a short performance in elderly home (this may only be a recent change) and juniors do not. But I am hoping DD makes friends and has a lovely time as she is looking forward to the summer school week a lot- in fact she keeps on saying to me '35 hours of dance in one week mum!! I'm so excited!!'

Anna C thank you very much! I had been searching without the speech marks so maybe that's why it wasn't working! Thank you

Anna C. DD's teacher says she has strong feet and she can tell she works for them as they were very weak and have improved a lot recently. She says she should be getting them in 6-9 months so hopefully DD is ready and will benefit from having her pointe shoes soon!!

Chloe123 yes my daughters teacher says she will most likely get pointe shoes after her next exam- which should b in about 6 months (9 at the most). I am glad to hear that 13-14 is not late, thanks

I think that you need to talk to her teachers - they can tell you whats what, expectations etc - as they see your daughter and her range.

 

Take your guidance from them. Is your daughter doing her stretches regularly - are the stretches sufficient, being done correctly?

Yes she does half an our (on average) everyday of foot exercises for strengthening and then around ten minutes in total of stretching her feet. She also does around 3/4 of an hour or an hour of hamstring, splits stretching and strengthening.

To be fair LCB and JA's are extremely competitive so I wouldn't worry too much that she hasn't been successful with those yet!

 

I agree that the key is that you both feel that she is developing and being pushed by her current teacher and that she keeps pushing herself.

 

But don't lose heart over "no"s from such sought-after schemes! It's all character building and will make her stronger in the long run!

Yes I have told her all the no's make you stronger though she still feels like she is not progressing as she works so hard everyday(though I know she is progressing). She has definitely gotten better since her last audition so I have hopes that she may get a yes soon!!