Ballet4Boyz

Thanks Piccolo , we've told him he's already achieved a lot, and whatever happens he'll carry on dancing, although going to a non-vocational school can still unfortunately lead to bullying for boys that dance - something which he's already had to deal with & worries him with regard to secondary school !!! What will be, will be - & like you say his drive will hopefully carry him through !!!

Good Luck to your DD

Thanks Jane & Dancing Pickles ...... He wore tights in his photos but like Jane said - if they prefer shorts I'm sure he'll be happy to wear them - he just prefers tights for some reason. Not sure it's our biggest problem as he's just shown me a cluster of verrucas on the ball of his foot !!! .....typical

Hi everyone - "Happy New Year " to you all !!

My DS has been lucky enough to be selected for funding auditions at Elmhurst, Tring & Hammond (yr 7) & he has his first audition for RBS on Jan 27th. I'm looking for some general advice on a few fronts really :

RBS states normal ballet uniform is ok for the audition but they prefer shorts !! My son normally wears tights & leotard & RBS mention wearing a waist belt if wearing tights ?? Can anyone tell me if DS will be at a large disadvantage if he wears tights ? and what waist belt should he wear .....is it in order to keep his tights up properly .....he's never been asked to wear a waist belt before & I'm therefore a little confused !!

A second issue, is that he is so driven and wants to attend a vocational school so badly - I'm not sure how to handle his expectations. He has attended his own dance school for 5 years but hasn't had any experience of associate schemes - so we're really unsure whether he has a serious chance of being offered a funded place as we have no idea re how many boys he's in competition with & their standard. He will be so disappointed if he's unsuccessful as ballet seems to mean such a lot to him. Has anyone any advice as to the best way to prepare him ..... at the moment, we are just playing everything down as we can tell he's starting to become more nervous as the auditions approach.

Many thanks

Hi Balletmum20 .......yes it is quite stressful !! We also feel lucky and proud of our DS whose got 3 finals ...... It's lovely for them to get this far - but it's a worry whether they'll be granted funding and how much we will have to finance ourselves if he is successful....not to mention if there are enough boarding places with respect to Tring. It would seem so cruel to not let them reach their potential purely because of financial reasons. Fingers crossed & well done to your DD.

Thanks very much Happymum ........that's a great help !!

We are very new to all of this so it's quite a steep learning curve and DS feels a bit more confident when he knows a little of what to expect !!

Hi everyone, my DS has been lucky enough to be asked to attend for second auditions at Elmhurst and Hammond and I was wondering if anyone can tell me what happens at the second auditions ??

Do they take the form of normal ballet classes again for Elmhurst and WL ? and/or do the children have to prepare new dance solos / vocal solos etc for Tring & Hammond funding auditions ? - also are the children interviewed at any time ?

Thankyou v much