Ruby Foo

I would also recommend The Dance Shop in Edinburgh. Worth the extra miles. Very experienced fitters with professional dance training and a good selection of shoes. Buying pointe shoes is an ever evolving process. Feet change dramatically over the years of training and manufacturers are always producing new and higher profile shoes. Let the professionals do all the hard work for you at this stage.

The final (2nd) audition for White Lodge - lower school RBS

Hi. My Dc has done a couple of Summer intensives as a non- resident. The day is well structured and organised as you would expect. There are 4 classes throughout the day. 2 before lunch and 2 in the afternoon. It is an exhausting schedule and my Dc was too tired to do anything in the evening apart from a bath! There are some small events that take place in the evenings such as a film or disco which you can stay for if you wish ( just let them know at morning registration) but check park closing times at night for pick up. There is very little time that the students are not supervised and it’s all about the dancing.

Have you been in contact with Penny Withers? She used to be involved with Scottish Ballet Associates and now runs the Gyrotonic studio in Glasgow. It’s definitely not an Associate programme but she teaches ballet intensives at Easter/ Summer and may be able to help.

It won’t matter one scrap that you’re Dd was not looking well that day. They are looking at the photos for physical purposes only. Leg length versus body length, feet, neck length etc. Experts can also tell a fair bit about hip rotation from a photo too, although I’m not sure that’s applicable for JA photos. It also won’t matter what quality the photos are providing they can see what they need to see! Photos in your living room are fine. Your photos will be kept on file for future reference and so they can begin to build a profile of potential students.

Just remembered the ‘ Tendu gel toe cap’ available from Move Dancewear. Provides protection while the toe heals. Works best on the longer toes but can be cut down to size.

Surgical spirit on open blisters is agony but worth it. The blister drys up much quicker.

This gives a vague indication of hip rotation but the only way to get a correct measurement is from a physiotherapist.

Firstly, congratulations on your gaining your place, with finance, at vocational school. Fabulous achievement. Do you have space in your home to work out? Can you move things around? Do you have a ballet barre or can you make something that will do? David Plumpton does music for ballet class you could download and give yourself a basic class 3 times a week focusing on technique and corrections you have had recently. I wouldn’t try allegro though, unless you are lucky enough to have sprung floors! Instead you could go for a gentle 20 mins jog providing you have supporting trainers. There are also some great Pilates videos online you could try and strength and conditioning exercises to compliment your class. Sometimes Pilates and yoga classes often offer a free taster sessions if you fancy some variety. And don’t forget to rest!! So important to for your body and mind. Best of Luck for September 😀

It’s a very basic ballet class. To start, it’s the standing looking at physique. A few straightforward exercises on the barre, some grand battlement and simple pirouettes in the center, jumps and bigger jumps from the diagonal. There was some stretching. As Scottishballetmum says, the JAs are dominant and will have prepared in their lessons what they are about to do. But don’t let that put you off ( especially in the warm up room, which is cramped at Manchester) Being a JA doesn’t mean you become a MA and quite a few JAs will be applying for vocational school anyway!

Incredible support and organisation FlexyNexy. I am already dreading yr 11, ( especially those auditions overseas) but your post has helped. I only hope I can nail it as well as you!

Black tights - it’s always over. It’s the professional way to do it. Pink ballet, always under.

The sugars in pure fruit juice and smoothies can cause the liver to become grossly oversized. Remember being quite shocked at seeing a healthy liver against one whose owner had drunk a great deal of pure fruit juice all their life.

Good Luck Shellym. The ballet world is not at all straightforward and sometimes you have to enter through the back door so to speak! The ones who get a ‘ yes’ first time don’t always go on to fulfil their potential and vice versa!

A lot has been said on this forum-about the RBS ‘type’ of physique ( including by myself) but in reality there is quite a bit of diversity both in associates and at White Lodge. Tall and short willowy physiques and some much more muscular/ sway backs and some with none/ all with flexible arched feet but not necessarily ‘ banana’ feet etc. Quite a variety.

Once the results are released they roll out very quickly indeed, one day after the other and sometimes 2 different centres on the same day. Good Luck to you all!

If a child is physically not what they’re looking for - not long enough legs for example, or too broad shoulders, then it won’t matter how flexible or hyper mobile they are. Some physical aspects just can’t be changed and that’s that. Hypermobility can also be a negative with regards to control of the joints and needs much careful training. There are different levels of hyper mobility and a very extreme case may prove too difficult.

Obviously, if the performer shows the joy that dance brings them through their whole body and face, then the audience will share in that joy. An audition is definitely a performance and so showing emotion in your face is important. When you are young, that will often show as a smile, although natural is preferable to forced, which would not be genuine. However, as you become older and more experienced, ‘ the smile’ will hopefully develop into more mature emotion.

It’s true that an expert eye can see the right physique very quickly but movement, elevation and musicality are all equally important and take slightly longer. I have seen at least one child with the perfect everything except she had such tight Achilles she couldn’t jump at all.

Don’t think height has much to do with the decision. There is a huge variety of heights at White Lodge in each year group. As others have already said, it’s about fitting a very specific look which RBS like and which will fit with their future training. However, there is some variation on that theme in JAs. I have seen more muscular JAs and some with flatter feet too! I guess some of it will be dependant on who is there on the day. A ‘no’ could mean you just don’t fit the RBS mould but there are plenty other routes for successful training.

If your Dd finds the auditions are good experience and is fairly robust at dealing with disappointment ( should that be the case) then why not try again. Dds RBs associate teacher described the student in an audition situation as a Rubik’s cube. Some students will have a nearly full red side for physique for example but only 4 yellow cubes for turn out or 7 green for feet but only 2 for for musicality and artistry. She made it clear that no one has the full finished cube and they make a decision on a balance of coloured squares. It was a good way of helping the kids to understand the balance. Obviously they are not going to choose a student who is not suitable for training but sometimes it just depends who else is auditioning!

As glissade has already pointed out, it’s really a question of physique and whether you have the RBS look. At JA level, there is still a fair variation in some physiques/ feet etc, but by mids, because there are far fewer places, it is a little narrower. Still plenty of openings for talented dancers without going down the RBS route.

Yes. I don’t know the exact numbers but they greatly reduce for mids and then again for senior associates, so you are left with very few who started from the beginning with JA’s. i think if you look in another mid associate thread, someone quoted the exact percentages but maybe I’m dreaming!

There are plenty mid associates who have never been JA’s ( mine included), but you need to be super confident at the audition as the JA’s will have already rehearsed ( to a degree) what they will be asked to do. It’s not a difficult audition though and my Dd had only been dancing less than 2 years.

Are you talking about being accepted for WL yr 7 or other years? They are very different things. To be accepted for yr 10 you would need to have been doing a significant amount of quality training both in ballet and body conditioning, which, as has been discussed in other threads, is very difficult ( but not completely impossible) to do in UK without being a vocational student. Hence the high proportion of international students being admitted higher up the school. At yr 7 they will still be looking for potential although admittedly, many students at age 10/11 already have had plenty training/ associates etc.