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balletgremlin

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Everything posted by balletgremlin

  1. balletgremlin
    Sounds like I've got some work to do! RAD don't make soft blocks compulsory for IF but they are for my dance school - I'm going to have to wear them if I take any further vocational exams anyway and they'll help strengthen my feet so I don't mind so much. It's just an adjustment from dancing in my soft shoes.
  2. balletgremlin
    Congratulations, @The_Red_Shoes. I love watching other adults dancing ballet. I wish more people were aware how accessible ballet is to all ages and that it's not just flexible teenagers who can do well. My teacher's putting my in for my Intermediate Foundation exam in November. Was feeling okay about it until I had to start dancing in soft blocks. I also haven't done pointe properly since March and I need to do a lot of work to get that up to exam standard.
  3. balletgremlin
    Since no one on youtube seems to be uploading themselves dancing to this new syllabus, I thought I'd be the first out there with Level 3 Barre. Far from perfect but you can always watch the DVD for that.
  4. balletgremlin
    Is there a similar thread for narrow feet? I'm fine finding flats which work but I'm struggling with demi-pointe - Bloch A width are too wide.
  5. balletgremlin
    The school I dance at in Kettering has weekly boys' only ballet classes with a male ballet teacher on Friday afternoons. They're currently advertising it as one of the only boys-only classes in the country so I don't know how rare they really are. I know my teacher often gets frustrated when RAD course skip the boys dances for higher grades because none of the other teachers have any boys in their classes.
  6. balletgremlin
    Uniform isn't specific to age, but by grade, so for grade 3 the specification says: For females For males: So basically a plain leotard with tights & shoes.
  7. balletgremlin
    I did a presentation class for grade 7 as a teenager. I wasn't ready for the exam but my teacher knew I only had one year at school left and wanted me to have a go at grade 8 but also wanted me to have something to show for my hard work an effort I'd put in to learning the grade 7 syllabus even if I wasn't very good technique-wise. It's never nice knowing you're not great at something but I knew what level I was dancing at and well aware I'd feel better with a presentation class certificate than the possibility of failing if I took the exam. I thinking ballet should be available to everyone, regardless of their ability and teachers who don't let pupils who are "only" getting a pass take exams is more damaging to their confidence than taking the exam and getting a lower mark than their peers. In general, I think all pupils know how good they are in comparison to the rest of the class and I've never had a problem with results being posted publicly - we'd all ask each other for our mark breakdowns as well and compare how well we'd done in each section.
  8. balletgremlin
    Thank you so much everyone! As youngatheart has mentioned, I have put videos of me doing the entire grade 6 syllabus on youtube because I though it'd be nice for other adults to watch someone who wasn't a teenager doing all the dances and to show it's possible grown-ups can do exams too. I definitely want to continue taking exams. Grade 7 will probably be my next one. I am taking Intermediate classes too but my pointe work & double pirouettes need a lot more work before I'd be comfortable doing it in front of an examiner. My teacher is also getting ambitious and wants our advanced adult class to start doing the Advanced 2 barre, mainly because Advanced 1 plies and rond de jambes are boring us to tears. Doing repertoire too so definitely being kept busy. One downside of working towards exams is doing the same exercises on repeat so I'm enjoying the variety at the moment.
  9. balletgremlin
    @LinMM get your glassss out. Results are in and I got a high merit! I got my highest marks for performance and musicality rather than technique as expected. Very pleased as it's the best I've ever done on an exam and is more than 20 marks better than the last time I took grade 6 15 years ago!
  10. balletgremlin
    @LinMM - you might have to wait a while for that gin. New email says hopefully by the end of the week.
  11. balletgremlin
    Every teacher in the Midlands has apparently received an email from the RAD apologising for the delay in posting the results. They release results by region & we're still waiting.
  12. balletgremlin
    Sophie, my exam was 6 weeks ago too. Today was the date given to my teacher by the RAD, though last time they gave her a date, they came a week early.
  13. balletgremlin
    Exam results are supposed to come out today. I'm so impatient and keep checking my phone every 5 second for a message from my teacher. I've heard of results coming out early but never late before.
  14. balletgremlin
    Performed in my school's ballet production tonight with Wayne Sleep in the audience! I could have danced better and didn't manage my pirouette on pointe but I loved every second of it. I've done nothing but dance, eat and sleep since Thursday afternoon so now I've stopped, everything hurts. Not sure I'll be able to move tomorrow and it'll take at least a week for my feet to forgive me.
  15. balletgremlin
    Repertoire classes are officially starting for me on Thursday though we've tried several exercises in a couple of my adult classes.
  16. balletgremlin
    Thank you everyone. It went really well. Much better than I expected. I was a bit nervous during the barre but not too shaky. Got a bit out of time on the port de bras and pirouettes were dreadful, as expected, but pretty much everything else I danced as well as I could. Really happy with my dance (went with the classical 3/4 in the end).
  17. balletgremlin
    Grade 6 exam today. Feeling very prepared but it's not until 4 so a hoping the nerves don't build up and ruin it for me. Aim is to do better than when I did it as a teen and to just enjoy it.
  18. balletgremlin
    The RAD do a summer course in London in July, with various different levels for ability - https://www.rad.org.uk/events/adult-summer-course-1 Ballet for You (also London) have done summer courses in the past though they're not listed anything for this year yet - http://www.balletforyou.co.uk/home I went to a repertoire week a few years ago though I think last year was more technique based.
  19. balletgremlin
    Advanced foundation is the reason I'm persevering with intermediate. Intermediate feels like exercises designed to improve my technique and I find it quite boring whereas AF is just so pretty and much more enjoyable. I even like allegro 2 now. I still prefer grades 6-8 which are so dance-y and more my style. Plus I love the long skirts we get to wear.
  20. balletgremlin
    I've watched the level 3 DVD and I have to say I love that they've got adults dancing everything. It can be slightly discouraging to watch an 11 year old dance better than you and I think watching younger students dance everything effortlessly might have put off some dancers who wanted to try this new syllabus. The developmental exercises look very helpful for technique but also seem ridiculously boring and unnecessary. If a teacher wants to teach a new step (and I'm happy to say there are plenty of things I've never done before) then surely they can come up with their own. The RAD haven't been particularly inventive. I'd say a good 80% of the exercises are do it 3 times on one leg, run to the other side and repeat on the other leg.
  21. balletgremlin
    My exam's in a few weeks and I was wondering if any of you had any tips on performing? My teacher says I need to project to a larger audience and get rid of my concentration face - apparently when I dance I have one of two expressions - either I look like I'm having the time of my life or I want to kill everyone in the room.
  22. balletgremlin
    Has your daughter watched the movie Ballerina? There's a scene where the main character has to learn to jump in a puddle without making a splash and she watches a feather land softly so she learns to go through her feet to do the same. Video -
  23. balletgremlin
    Michelle - I've never danced any variations/rep before except for a couple of RAD workshops where we did a bit of corps works so I'm sorry I'm no help there. If you've got the money and the inclination, you can buy the DVDs/videos on the app for £25 per level which would have the full variations as they should be danced for this syllabus.
  24. balletgremlin
    Had a go at some of the level 3 stuff in class tonight. What we've done of the barre is very simple (even by grade 5 standard) and centre practice only required single pirouettes! We have been warned it gets trickier though.
  25. balletgremlin
    Each level is split into 3 units which all can be taken separately or together. You get a certificate for each unit & if you've done all 3 exams you get a qualification. There's no entry requirements and you can take any unit from any level in any order you wish. Unit 1 is barre & centre work and follows the same order as the voccational grades (port de bra, centre practice, adage + allegros). Unit 2 is the first variation and exercises to compliment it (e.g. if the variation has sissones in it, there will be a sissone exercise beforehand) and Unit 3 is the second variation. Boys & girls have different exercises for the variation units. Here's a link to the specification I've been getting all my info from - https://www.rad.org.uk/documents/exam-docs/RAD_DR_Specification_04_Dec_2017_ex.pdf Clip with the swan lake variation in this video - https://vimeo.com/245371527 Clip with some of the other female variations - https://www.radenterprises.co.uk/discovering-repertoire Also my teacher has caved and is getting level 2 for one of our other classes! Bring on March!
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