Peccopa

Balletbean, I know this post was ages ago, but you struck a serious nerve with me! The secondary school I went to here in Germany offers a bilingual (and an athletic, quite like the basketball program of one of this forum's non ds) 'approach' - for lack of a better word - alongside your standard school concept that you can go for when you first enter the school for year five which goes all the way up to year nine. After that our equivalent to the upper school starts. Now, I was neither sporty when I was ten years old, neither had I made very good experiences with English classes in my elementary school, so my Mum decided not to put me in either of the two classes, as they were called. At first that seemed to be the only decision we could have made without me ruining my grades, as I couldn't run two laps, or get good grades in English. Fast forward two years and I get nothing else but A's and A*'s in English until the day I graduate in year twelve. When I asked my head of year at the end of year 9 if there was a possibility to take the History and Geography class in English like the originally bilingual kids (most of them opted out, btw) I was told no because of the choice that my mother and I had made when I wasn't even technically enrolled at the school. But the thing is, I know how I was as a little child, if I had been faced with the amount of English then, I never would have gotten to the level I am now. I just had to grow into it in my own time. They told me that the bilingual kids had been learning English vocabulary for history and geo for several years nowand that I would be at a disadvantage, even with my English teacher backing me up. I was also known for my knack for languages, and that I picked them up crazy fast, as I also took French all the way from year six until the end and never had any problems. (I am being petty here, but I did know the vocabulary that was needed. And I was ready to prove it to them in a test but they wanted to hear none of it!) If they'd let me take those classes I could have a bilingual school diploma now, giving me better chances on the market. Oh well. Joke's on them, though, seeing as I am starting my first job come February - in America! (And I am considerably fitter than I was at ten years old, mostly thanks to ballet ) I guess what I'm trying to say here is, that even though your children might find out later on in their school career that they have this skill that they never knew about or that they're not as hopeless in that one subject as they thought, there will be ways to work things out in the end. Maybe not through their school, but with personal efforts and dedication. And that I am still annoyed by not getting to take these bilingual classes. That, too

Hello everybody, I was wondering if you can help me and/or share some of your own experiences? Later this month, I will be flying from Germany to the USA, with a stop in London in between. I have some shoes that I would like to prepare at the airport and on the plane to keep me busy for a while but I don't know if I would be allowed the neccessary things in my carry on. I sew and darn my shoes, so I'd need two different needles, do you think one - or both of them - might pose a problem during security checks? And what about a small pair of scissors to cut the threads/dental floss (yeah, I'm being that person and use floss for sewing)? I've heard about people taking travel sewing kits on a plane with them before, but I'm still unsure. Do any of you have experiences with this situation for the Heathrow airport in particular? (Edited because I accidentally posted before I was done typing. Whoops.)

If you have the spare time to do it, you could offer to help with the cleaning and/or filing at your dance school (provided, they allow it). I worked out an agreement with my school's director that I'll come to help with the cleaning twice a week and get a reduced price for the classes I take. Otherwise I couldn't afford to go even once per week, so it definitely worked out for me

Aww don't worry, Peppa has a nice ring to it, too And thanks for clearing that up!

Ballettaxi, is it within forum regulations to share the name of these online fitters? I'm in a similar situation (only two dance shops around with limited choices and one of them tried to sell me shoes two sizes too large!) so I would appreciate a fitter that is known to do a good job...

"Warning: Do not lick the hot exhaust pipe - Danger of severe burns" That was in the manual for a motor bike a friend bought once.

Hello everybody, I'm looking for this Plume leotard in size L: It is sold out on the german dancedirect website, so if any of you are willing to part with it and would ship to Germany, please contact me.

In order to not start a new topic i'll just ask here, if that's alright. Can any of you tell me how Plume's adult leotard sizes come up? As far as I know the brand is exclusive to dancedirect and because of that you can't go into a store to try them on before buying (I detest returning items). I have quite a few Capezios to compare them to, as well as a Grishko and a Mirella one. Any experiences?

Oh yes, that's a struggle! I'll never forget the time I woke up in the middle of the night because a hair pin was poking me in the neck a whole day after a class...

Moomin - I've found Lion bun nets to be pretty good! Not as big as the ones from Bunheads, they usually sell triple packs for almost nothing and the variety of colours is decent, too.

I just recently bought some of these, they're holding up great so far!! Treating a new pair of tights with a layer of hairspray helped me addtionally to avoid snags and rips. Spray them, go double over the areas with a seam and then let them dry a bit.

My teacher makes sure we're moving our heads with the rest of our bodies when dancing by reminding us that we shouldn't look like dead fish staring into the distance

Oh my, all of you are such a marvel! Thank you for these great tips and pointers, this is already so much more help than I expected! And all of your suggestions sound delicious, to boot. I'm not kidding. ALL of them. I've fried eggs before, taking it a little further and learning how to scramble them sounds very do-able. I live in Germany but we have Aldi and Lidl, too. We used to shop at the Aldi near where we live but they tore down the building and ever since there isn't one near us anymore. Then we switched to the other supermarket chain that's close to us but they have higher prices :/ Maybe if we got one of these bags that keep things cool, do you think that would keep everything fresh for 30+ minutes? Then we could probably manage switching back to Aldi or find a Lidl...

It's been a rather big problem for the past three years or so to actually get some good and healthy food in me regularly. Because of several reasons my family struggles with money and as a dance student I feel like my performance could improve by a diet that provides me with all the nutritients that I need. My Mum doesn't cook and I'm always busy with school and dance. Setting time aside to putter around in the kitchen is difficult and stressful most of the time. (I admit that I am also a tiny bit lazy and can't get a move on. The teenager does shine through...) I've seen plenty of people preparing food 'in bulk' that they divide into smaller portions that they can reheat over the course of the week, though. So with the proper motivation and tips that might be an option? But mainly, I wanted to ask you for tips and advice. Maybe you are in a similar situation and have found ways to work around this problem or alternatives that have worked for you to replace the unhealthier ingredients in meals. Maybe you have even found tasty replacements for a meal altogether? To put things in perspective, right now our kitchen is stocked mostly with bread and white rice, formula for mashed potatos, processed and frozen foods. There is powdered soup and in the fridge we have cheese, pudding and some smoothies. There's some fruit every now and then, except for apples that are always there. (And we have candy/sweets. Which I end up eating when I'm sick of all the other options - of course, not a very good choice.) Now, I'm not saying that everything needs to be a hundred percent organic or anything. Not even that I don't want anything that's just a little unhealthy around the flat. We all need to splurge sometimes. I'd just like to be able to have some food around that I can use to prepare/cook something more with so that I can have more of a variety or something that is better for me than chocolate and crisps when I want to snack a little. (Does that make sense? I feel like I can't find teh proper expression.) Mum thinks she's doing me a favour, even when I tell her I'd rather skip the pizzas or the candy for a while she tells me I have to eat *something*. In that aspect, she's right but then again, we can't afford to just go wild in the fruit and veggie aisle and she won't risk any experiments with groceries that we might end up throwing out. And I desperately need help in getting information about some foods and ingredients that are kind of 'universal', in a sense and that can be used for many meals instead of just in combination with that one thing or other. And honestly, before I danced this was mostly fine because I didn't eat as much, just like she still does. (A coffee in the morning, a few more while at work and then some bread or pudding when she gets home in the evening. I can't do that when I want to dance. And it's not very good, either.) I have continuously gained weight since starting classes because my body needs more food but all I can give it leaves me hungry again an hour later. And despite what I told myself in the beginning, not all of that is new muscle mass. Mum tells me to just watch what I eat and simply eat less, but it's difficult when you don't have many options (especially when you want a warm meal!). Even with the chance of sounding whiny or even ungrateful (I promise I am neither of both intentionally) I thought I could reach out here and ask for all the help you can give me.

The girl in the video is called Naomi and I've never seen her with a messy or bumpy bun in the entire time we've known/have been talking to each other. Her hair isn't very thick, but the way she flattens her ponytail down is so thorough, maybe it works with thick hair, too? I haven't tried it yet but I can't see why it wouldn't. Instead of gel she just uses a water spray bottle (and a lot of patience!) do get everything flat and to eliminate any flyaways. Only after that she uses hair spray to fixate everything. If that combination is enough to hold her hair down it certainly would get your DD around having to wash out her hair after every class, Snowflake. Maybe it can even work for Confuddled, together with the conditioner instead of hairspray? <-- It is a little bit lengthy but she's done with the ponytail around the nine minute mark. She also uses a lot of bobby pins that she hides under the bun in the end, that should help with smoothing out your DDs' hair, too. After that, she just does a two-strand cinnabun and puts in a hair net. So unless you want to watch someone else doing that kind of bun, you're not missing much.

I have to admit I'm guilty of this, too. Leaving for dance in fifteen minutes? Better pack the bag and do my hair, then. Sewing shoes is the worst, though - seems to be a quirk amongst dancers? It's not unherad of for me to start sewing on a school night around nine or ten pm

Thank you all for the insight, I really wouldn‘t have expected the WM ‘situation‘ to be quite this complicated! I‘ve never heard of differences of the sizing by the same brand like this (but after navigating the world of dancewear for a bit I‘m not too surprised, either). As chance would have it, size M already sold out today so if do I decide to dare and buy the leo, the decision on the sizing will have already been made for me. Quick and easy Pictures - I can definitely see how Elipse could be tricky to wear. What a shame. Hello Sheila, that‘s a great idea! Thanks for the offer, I really would have loved to call and dissect all things leotards. But I don‘t live in the UK and even just thinking about that phone bill makes me want to run far, far away...

Thank you, Anna!

I‘ll revive this thread to keep everything on the topic in one place, is that okay? I wanted to ask if you have any advice for me on the sizing on Wear Moi leotards; I‘ve read many dancers aren‘t over the moon with how they fit. I‘ve found a site that has a great reduced price for their Flora model and before I make the payment for it I really wanted to know which size would be right for me. Usually I‘m right between M and L so it depends on the brand which size I have to wear because I‘m relatively tall at 1,72m so the first problem is my girth. And then I‘m very pear shaped - pretty flat bust but in comparison my butt and thighs are bigger, which often results in a size M pinching in the crotch and at the leg line. In most Capezios I wear L because of my legs, but one from their Vintage Whisper line fits me in M, too (it‘s the tiniest bit short but not so much that anything digs in), in SiDans I have M and Mirella saved me with the ML. Our local dance shop had two leotards (Titania and Columbine) by Wear Moi when I popped in to tryand work out the sizing but I left really confused: Columbine fits me well in a size M but I couldn‘t pull Titania over my hips in the same size. It also flapped open over my chest in L (the getting-it-over-the-hips was still tricky, as well), to add onto things. Does Wera Moi have sizing differences between their individual models, even?? I am now left utterly confused and without an idea to work this out on my own that doesn‘t involve just ordering one or both sizes and sending one back again... (PS: After this entire post screamed Wear Moi whereever you looked, does someone have experiences wether Plume‘s leotards run big or small? Also, sorry this got so long, sometimes it's a little hard for me to get to the point in English!)

Another good tip for all dancers with thick and unruly hair (My own hair tends to push my bun pins right 'out' of the bun again, believe it or not :/ Such a hassle...) is to spray a little bit of hair spray on all your bobby pins/bun pins and then put them in as you normally would. I've found that, for me, it gives a little bit of extra hold!