Ruby Foo

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.

56 minutes ago, EmDancer said:

Thank you very much for your reply leotardmum, glissade & Valentina, very much appreciated. You are right I guess it is all about the way we are all looking at it. My dd loves her dancing & is happy to try to audition, always ask me when is the next one lol. Just wondering if there are any other good ballet schools in & around Birmingham (not just Elmhurst & RBS) offering weekly associate classes worth trying to apply? Our local school (East Midlands) offers a limited number of ballet lessons - 1 or 2 a week. And if I could ask a very strange question - is it ok to smile when auditioning in ballet or is it more expected to look seriously? I know very silly question! 🙈😂. Thank you again!

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.

19 minutes ago, ExpatB said:

 

I have a good friend who’s a senior teacher at a well known, large American ballet school.

She does auditions and she told me that to the trained eye everything is quite obvious after 15 minutes, even in an audition group of 40! 

They either have it or they don’t. 

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.

2 hours ago, Balletmamatotwo said:

It definitely does seem as Motomum describes it. If I’m not mistaken, last year, 10 WL offers alone were given to JAs in the London centre. It does seem obvious that there is significantly higher percentage of JAs who gain entry into WL.  If your DCs dream school is WL, then most will apply for JAs every year until they get in. As mentioned before they get prepared for WL auditions, RBS would have very detailed files on them, they get checked by physios - things other DCs wouldn’t really have access to in the “RBS-way”, or at all.  I noticed for other schools it’s not as much of an issue but for WL it does help A LOT.  And this is probably the reason why students who get into WL without being JAs are treasured almost, as they give hope to those who want to get into WL without being in the JA system. Also the reason this thread year after year is always the longest and most active around this time of year. I did notice, however, that quite a lot of JAs we know also attend other associate schemes. So I think in terms of WL entry,probably a significant percentage have supplemental training via other schemes or numerous private lessons and classes and intensives, physio sessions etc etc.  I would be interested to hear stories of DCs who get into WL, doing just normal ballet classes, no privates, no JA, although this might be for another thread altogether...

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.

Just to be clear that purity of ‘line’ has absolutely nothing to do with overstretching and contorting ones body into unnatural, hideous   positions which may lead to both short term and long term injury. It is about balance and harmony from the core radiating through every part of the body, fingers, toes and beyond.

Agree with Anna C that working safely within your own physical facility is the most important element of training and key to success. Any improvement of your lines must be done within those boundaries.

9 minutes ago, LinMM said:

But for me it is precisely because of lines and aesthetics that I don't like the winged foot look ....it takes away from the beauty of the natural line 

Totally understand that LinnMM and when it is too exaggerated, I don’t like it either! I think it’s where the subtleties of ballet come in. Tiny degrees of detail that make a difference.

Just another thought, better to practice your arabesque line en l’ air. Hate to see students pressing and squashing their toes into ‘fish’ on the ground when the weight is supposed to be over the ball of supporting leg.

I understand completely where you’re coming from and if you’re teachers have told you that your lines need work then that’s something to be taken seriously. Aesthetic lines are so important in ballet. Anyone who has watched company class ( ENB, SAB, RBS etc) will appreciate that the lines they create are REAL and certainly not doctored by photography!! Made with bodies specially chosen for the job whose owners have slogged for many years to create! Most pros have sway backs (  plus all the negative issues that go alongside) and the beautiful feet that go with them but certainly not ALL dancers which proves it is possible to work on your lines without having that natural facility. I wouldn’t suggest that there are any safe exercises you can do though to change your physical makeup in the areas you’ve highlighted so please don’t try. Extra rotation in the ankle joint will only lead to problems and injuries because it becomes more difficult to align the knee over toe especially on landings. As will pushing back your knee into a ‘too straight ‘ position, which will damage your knee, also affect the placing of your weight.

What you can do is study pictures of how you want your lines to look and visualise this each time you do it, especially in front of a mirror. If you can be very focused, you will notice your legs become straighter and your ankle lines ‘finish’ the end of picture you are creating.It takes time and focus.  At the end of the day, whether it is fashion or not, this is where we are now, in 2019, how ballet adapts and changes and what company Directors want, which seems appropriate to take into account if you want to end up with a contract and working in Classical ballet ( maybe you don’t but you obviously care enough to note the importance of detail) Lines and aesthetics have been important since Balanchine brought them to the forefront and long before that!

51 minutes ago, sarahw said:

This is a guess but I suspect a higher proportion of dancers might be boarders?

Yes, definitely more MTs are day students than dancers but not sure how numbers of dancers compare to MT students overall.

About a third of pupils at Tring are day pupils but as sarahw points out, boarding places are in great demand as are mds’s. It is possible to be a weekly boarder. Classes on a Saturday start in yr 9. 

2 hours ago, AdageKitty said:

By "not too far" I meant we're not really that close either. It's about 20 miles and given how early they tend to start it will probably take a lot of adjustment at the beginning (also with regards to how I will juggle it with work!).

Truth be told, 20 miles is nothing in terms of how long it would take to get there (max 40 mins drive) vs for example WL which is only 12 miles but would take twice as long to get to!

But this is more to do with the question of how the MDS could be used and whether it can be offered for either (should there be beds available of course).

Same for Elmhurst or Hammond for example. Should DD be offered a place, we could move to Birmingham or Chester for the 1st year, and for Year 8 move back to London and let DD board - is that an option at all?

 

Yes, it’s definitely an option! You can change about with a mds at the end of a school year as long as you give plenty notice ( a term at least). My Dd had an mds and chose to be a day pupil. We were told that it was fine to change our mind. Tring is a great school to be a day pupil as there are around 65 or more day pupils ( dance and mt) so plenty of people to hang out with. Because there is such a large number of day pupils, they are catered for very well with their own house parent and changing facilities. Correspondence from the school always includes special circumstances for day pupils should it be appropriate ( eg timetable and pick ups) which is more than can be said for other vocational schools!! The downside is that day pupils are kept separate from boarders when they are not in classes ( academic or vocational) which can feel a bit weird. Everyone is different in what suits them but being able to talk to my child every night ( car journeys are great for this) and for them to unwind, have a quiet bath and offload in their own time (without the pressurised ‘phone call home’) was valuable, as was providing a nutritious diet! I guess travelling becomes more of an issue in yes 10 and 11 with the work involved in GCSE’s. 

Apologies balletbean. I misquoted you re assessments. Sincere apologies.

3 minutes ago, balletbean said:

Wrong shoes for the individual. Not just foot shape but also the demands of a dancer. 

Just like there are many girls that can’t wear Gaynors , Russian...., or, Grishko. 

I’m not singling our Freeds 

 

As ladies we all know when shopping for shoes on the high street, there are brands or styles that just don’t fit our feet and therefore shop elsewhere even though the shoe would be our size. Pointe Shoes are therefore no different.  

 

All students shoes are personalised by the fitters at WL, eg tucks taken in at the heel, vamps lengthened a minuscule, extra support in the shank etc. Much time and care is taken to make the students happy and comfortable with  makers adjusting them as needed. As an ex-teacher and whenever I’ve seen classes, I haven’t seen anyone wearing ill fitting shoes! To arrive at the conclusion that students may have been assessed out because they can only wear Freeds is frankly ridiculous. Students are assessed out in years 8 and 9 when pointe work is still a very small part of the assessment.

I agree that students will want to experiment with other shoes in time and I believe that is being introduced in yr 11 once the technique is fully established.