balletgremlin

There was signal failure on train lines coming into Euston which would have prevented some people from being able to get into London yesterday. It also overran by an hour so I saw a lot of people leaving early, presumably so they can catch trains home.

Fumi, Vadim and Melissa were the dancers of the night for me. I'm never going to like Wayne McGregor's choreography no matter how talented the dancers who perform it. I'd have thought there'd be a bit more variety in the pas de deux - so much Petipa it got a bit same-y. Too many wild fouettés (insane tempo for some of them). It's a shame Osipova wasn't jumping instead. 

Happy to send photos/more details. Open to offers. Postage shouldn't be more than £3.

Backalast - old style, size A6 - £50

Dance Mat - Le Mark Floors 2m x 1m, with carry case - £50 (will probably need to be collection only as quite heavy)

Gaynor Minden pointe shoes - Supple Sleek Pink Bag (8 Med 3 Box Supple DV HH) UK 5.5 - worn once and then took the ribbons off as didn't suit me - £50

Warm Ups

Sansha Stiles stripy blue all-in-one size 5 (very large) - £10

Tendu purple stripy all-in-one size medium - £10

Gaynor Minden burgundy sweater tights size 5 - £5

Leotards - all camisole, £5 each

Bloch Royal Navy Blue leotard - size L

Bloch Black with brown floral mesh back - size L

Bloch Black Sunray - size L (NWT)

1st Position Black with mesh & skirted leotard - size L

Plume Burgundy/black leotard - size L

Wear Moi Burgundy with velvet bust - size L

ETA:

I also have several pairs of tights (used but washed and in good condition) that are available for free. I don't know what else to do with them

3 x black footed tights - size L

1 x Bloch pink footless tights - size L

1 x Dance Line tan footless tights - size L

Congratulations to everyone who's got a part. I was offered a dancing role but have turned it down. The rehearsal schedule was intense and speaking to several adults at the audition who've done a previous production with BRB, there's lots of waiting around and no guarantee you get to do your dances each session - they had days where they didn't dance or spent ten minutes dancing. As amazing as it would be to dance on the Hippodrome stage, I don't have that much free time to waste. It is a far bigger commitment than I realised (signed up for the audition before they put the rehearsal dates out and said you could miss a maximum of two of them!).

Best of luck to all of you. I hope I can get tickets to see the final performance.

I can recommend Sharon Morrison, former BRB physio. She's in Sutton Coldfield.

Mine did. Lots of sound hiccups and we got two lots of the sexy quails and no end to act 1.

Congratulation @The_Red_Shoes, Valse Printemps is a killer but grade 8 is a gorgeous grade and lovely to perform. Your examiner sounds nice too.  Good luck to everyone else doing exams this exam session.

@NeverTooOldThat's not the case now, I don't know if it was in the past. RAD allows resits and exams don't have to be taken in any order (except the vocationals with pre-requisites).  I think ISTD have a rule that adults can't go in with children during graded exams but they can still enter as a separate set.

@EverHopeful The RAD graded syllabus is progressive and the younger grades have been designed for children still developing their gross and fine motor skills. If you've done higher grades, you won't gain anything technique wise out of taking lower exams. Grade 1 has an exercise to check dancers can walk in time to the music while pointing their feet. It can be useful to learn the syllabus if you're interested in childhood physical and cognitive development, seeing how steps are first introduced and how they progress through the syllabus, starting very simply in parallel with no arms while children develop the strength and co-ordination. Children also learn through play which is why the dances have stories to them - snowball fights with friends, playing hide and seek etc. Looks very cute on a seven year old. Probably not as charming on a grown up.

7 hours ago, Meetmeatthebarre said:

 

Would you happen to have a link? All I can find online is Issue 2 from June, which doesn't appear to cover this. I'm looking to take Inter in the spring, so would very much like the reassurance (as well as not having to pay for new soft blocks and a tutu!) Thank you so much!

Of course, completely understand you'd want an official source.

Click through from the RAD page  - https://mailchi.mp/rad.org.uk/jul-2022-focus-exams-2543909

Direct link - https://online.fliphtml5.com/fznc/sqoz/#p=1

This is an old topic, but thought I'd share the good news. RAD have done away with requiring demi-pointe shoes or pianists for vocational exams, dancers may wear short skirts and for the graded syllabi dancers genders have been scrapped, anyone can do any exercise/dance. For vocational and repertoire exams, anyone can do either syllabus but has to stick to one gender per exam (i.e if you do pointe work you have to do the female variation and if you chose the additional allegro, you do the male one - this is as it is at the moment). Grade 6 and 7 can now be done as solo performance awards and it's candidates choice of sides in all exercises where examiners previously picked.

Taken from the most recent Focus on Exams.

Advanced Foundation is lovely. I was working towards taking my exam in November but ongoing hip issues means I've not been dancing for two months and not jumping or lifting my leg for several months before that.

7 & 8 are also really enjoyable. I took grade 7 in April (delayed from November 2019) and had to pull out of grade 8 because of my injury.

I'm always going to recommend doing as much dancing as possible, especially as I can't currently dance myself - I've got to live vicariously through others. I got used to dancing with teenagers young enough to be my daughters but do wish there were more classes for adults which focus on exams - I did some of the Discovering Repertoire syllabus with some 60+ year old women who all passed, some with merits. Felt very smug with my distinction.

I've got narrow feed (I've had Bloch "A" width shoes that are too wide before). I use So Danca SD120 - similar to SD16 but they have left and right shoes so they taper at the toes.

Best tip to get the bun to lie flat is to pin as you go. Don't wait until you're spiralled all the hair (especially if it's very long) or the middle will pop out. But as every else has said, it's just practice. The more she does it, the easier and quicker it will become.

Both our winter and spring sessions were during the last week of the tour and we got our results within two to three weeks - one lot came through the Monday before Christmas. I don't know if they have to wait for the full tour to be over to release them all in one go now.

Our school's exams are on the last day of the summer session - this Friday, so results won't be out for at least another two weeks. Now with the ipads and the electronic marking system results do come out a lot quicker than they used to.

Good luck to everyone waiting for results and to those still waiting to take their exams.

The DVDs just have students demonstrating the exercises, no breakdown of steps. The students are taught in close conjunction with those that created the syllabi so are as the RAD want them performed without a different teacher's take.

This youtube channel has a breakdown of the exercises, though I don't always agree with all her comments or how the dancers do everything - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhqHBynyloC-HQemgTSXodLTuT4RRAQPx

Sounds like a teacher issue, not an RAD one. They aren't required until next year. 

Administrative/format adaptations (valid until December 2022)

Soft-pointe shoes - Due to the ongoing international impact of COVID-19 on the preparation of students for examinations, the use of soft-pointe shoes will not be compulsory for relevant vocational graded examinations (Intermediate Foundation to Advanced 2). Soft ballet shoes may be worn with either ribbons or elastic. Pointe shoes are required for the pointe section.

3 hours ago, Kerfuffle said:

If you wear your soft blocks in for a considerable amount of time they won’t feel that different to soft shoes - they don’t have to be sparkly clean and new for the exam. 

I have several pairs broken down well enough to be very comfy like soft shoes. However, I have very narrow feet and due to the lack of options even the narrowest demi pointes I can find are too wide so my foot moves within the shoe rather than with the shoe.

1 hour ago, invisiblecircus said:

Pardon my ignorance but what is the connection between Covid and not wearing demi-pointes? 🙃

Apparently dancers couldn't get fitted in them while all the shops were shut so haven't had the practice time they usually would in them.

Thank you both for your replies. Intermediate was definitely much nicer in flat shoes and not having to worry about pianists changing the tempo of an exercise and having four counts intro to prepare yourself to do if differently to normal.

Another change they implemented was giving us a choice of sides in exercises that involve turns/leaps on a diagonal. This, alongside an injury which makes me favour my right side has made me very lopsided.

Thanks to COVID, the RAD got rid of the requirements for a pianist or having to wear demi-pointe shoes for vocational exams. This is supposed to end in December.

Does anyone know if there's any chance this could be a permanent change? My current options are doing Advanced Foundation in my studio in the winter session (with a CD and in flat shoes) or having to go to a RAV and dance with a pianist I don't know next Spring. November seems a bit soon so am crossing my fingers they won't bring back these requirements.

Apologises if you saw a similar post yesterday. I posted while the forum was being wonky and it disappeared.

I made a post about changes to RAD vocational exams which seems to have disappeared.

You're welcome. Let's hope it's the right stuff.

Can't find any grishko stuff, but haberdasheries stock something similar.

https://www.littlelegsfabrics.co.uk/products/prym-25mm-shirring-elastic-white

Also available on amazon: 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Prym-Gold-Zack-Shirring-Elastic-White/dp/B0052DHPPS/

7 hours ago, Mumofballetmaddaughter said:

Not sure if this helps but just in case it does, my daughter is a 4.5 and wears a 4.5 Bloch Serenade pointe shoe but 5.5 in

Bloch canvas soft shoes.

 

 

I'm the opposite. I'm a 4.5, wear 5.5x Bloch European Balance and Eurostretch pointe shoes and a 4.5 B in Bloch canvas and leather soft shoes.

Not DVDs, but here is a youtube playlist of the old grades - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRVptgC1MTIqdfOFbTzpSKK9oJ-6BpXVG

Best of luck Viv. I agree, it's lovely to have a focus or goal to work towards. And I can completely sympathise with injuries that flare up and get in the way of dancing!

Thank you Kate. I agree that overall improvement is far more important than what the examiner happened to see on the day and my technique is much stronger and I have more understanding of what I should be doing than I did when I took IF. Exam marks are only a number and at the end of the day won't change my love for dancing which I'll continue to do whatever happens.

Any adults on here still working towards exams? 

I took my Intermediate and Rep Level 2 Class Unit in November and got a Merit and Distinction (and improved 18 marks between the morning and afternoon!) Thanks to endless lockdowns and an ongoing hip injury that stopped me dancing for months (including the month leading up to my exam) I didn't do as well as I'd have liked. I am still proud of myself for doing so well in Intermediate despite being so injured and logically I know if it affected my stability and strength to the point where I didn't grand plie from November 2019 until the day before my exam I wouldn't be dancing at my full potential but I'm still wound up by the 5 for pointe. My pointe work has come on so much since IF and I was feeling like that and my barre were my strong sections. Teacher says I should focus on my 9's for music and performance which I'm thrilled with. 

Bragging over, I'm aiming to do grade 7 (put off from 2019 due to injury) and another rep unit in April, grade 8 in the summer and possibly (depending on if they change the rules on demi-pointe shoes) AF next Winter. Even if it doesn't all go to plan or my hip flares up again, I'm hoping I can do as much dancing as possible while training on the RAD CBTS course.