ArucariaBallerina

Can 100000000000000000% recommend drdance. I'm just returning from a 2 hour private coaching session and it was incredible! She goes into so much detail with corrections, but with imagery that is fun and that you can understand. I've got a page full of corrections and physical exercises to help me with issues I really need and want to sort, but previously did not know how to. Honestly, one of the best, friendliest and most helpful teachers I have ever come across. I can't wait to come back again, hopefully, with a lot of hard work, my problem areas almost completely better! (Your muscles will work harder than you ever believed they could! But loved every minute.)

Received the results at 9:06 this morning! 95/100 for Grade 5 and 88/100 for Intermediate! Both Distinctions I'm glad that I passed, especially with distinction, but feel a bit bad about my Intermediate mark, as I know dancers from summer school etc who received 90 marks plus, even a 97! Is this still a good mark? Does it mean these dancers will become professionals and I won't stand a chance? Thanks!

Thank you so much everyone for your lovely contributions. I wore those Roch Valley satin split sole shoes and they were very nice! And thank you also for your advice on controlling the down part of the grand battement! My teachers have pointed it out in a good way! The exam went better than I thought, which is great! The examiner lady actually taught Samara Downs of BRB! She showed me a picture of her at the beginning of the Intermediate (after G5) and asked me whether I wanted to dance professionally (my reply was of course "more than anything!") because I reminded her of Samara Downs!!!! I was ecstatic!!! Probably not true, as I have a LOT to work on, but it stil gives me a bubble of happiness. I slipped a tad on my good side in pirouettes (fine on my bad side?) and went the wrong way on a temps levée in one of the free work enchainements she set but other than that I didn't make any giant mistakes (obviously I don't know everything and I'm sure there were others!) Does anybody know how long IDTA exam results take to come out? It has been 2 weeks and 4 days since the exam and every time I hear a phone, email, post at my dance studio I jump up!

I have no experience with Midlands associates but can confirm that both Shannon and Peter are some of the best ballet teachers I've ever had.

Hi could I also have photos of everything still available? Thank you x

Thank you everyone for your recommendations! I have never heard any bad reviews of Just Ballet so I will have a look.

Searching for a black practice tutu to fit me for as it is required for a summer school! To fit dress size 4 and waist 22" if possible. Height 146cm. Any information or tutus would be welcome! It's hard being a tiny dancer Thank you you all very much in advance!

Thank you everyone! It's in 3 days now 😱 I wanted to ask is there any way to make the satin ballet shoes less slippy? I have both full sole and split sole, of which the split sole is more comfy perhaps, but I keep slipping on any little runs and it makes the double pirouettes quite frightening (the studio floor is already a quite slippy wood!) I would put rosin on them but I'm just worried that that will make it not slippy enough... If you see what I mean! With the slippy shoes, I find it hard to hold my turnout too until I get very warm... My feet just slip back in even though I'm engaging my muscles! Finally, are there any suggestions for keeping the knot of the ribbons tucked under... They keep coming out 😂 I'm sorry about all this, just very nervous! X

I went to Ballet West at 13 after only a year of dancing (needless to say I was pretty bad at that point - a girl with no turnout and weird posture who couldn't stop smiling and jumping up and down!) but I can really recommend! The place is divine - like heaven! There is a piano in the front room, a trampoline, endless places for hide and seek etc! The teachers are incredible, lots of individual corrections (even for awful me compared to the stunning dancers there!) and small class sizes. It's a long day, with ballet, contemporary, repertoire, intense body conditioning, choreography, and Pointe or boys work. I recall some advanced students were tutored on their competition solos too (one girl was rehearsing for an IBC, another boy for his vocational school assessments) But it's great fun too! I still speak to friends I made there - after the lessons we had a BBQ one day, a walk the next where we shopped in Taynuilt, picking blackberries on the way there! I would not not hesitate to recommend, in fact the only con I could think of would be there were no snacks available and the breakfast/lunch was the same everyday. But this was a few years ago and I have heard that that is better now! Don't hesitate to PM if you want any other info.

Good luck @balletgremlin

Hi is Woodside dance retreat open to non-vocational students too? I will be auditioning for vocational schools next academic eye at and thought it would be a very good idea to keep up technique and stamina in the holidays (something other than practising at home!) and WDR looks beautiful.

I travel 2 hours on the train each month to get to Ballet West Associates and I would highly recommend it! I have made best friends for life there already, especially with the yearly classical ballet tour that Ballet West do around Scotland (in which each group perform a piece together - this year was Giselle ) I think that it has been invaluable in making me a more versatile dancer - I had never tried Commercial or Lyrical or Yoga before, especially not with famous guest teachers! The highlight for me is ballet though, which is very much treated as the most important class of the day. All classes are a high standard regardless, and the teachers both push your limits and are very kind and funny! i love the journey there too... My mum and I travel there the day before and stay in a hotel, and so we get to explore bits of beautiful Edinburgh together! The journey back is always sad though - I never want to leave (also usually with danced muscle soreness!)

Well done to all auditioners! I'm sure you were absolutely wonderful ❤️ And thank you so very much everybody for all your congratulations and well wishes.

Absolutely delighted, ecstatic, amazed to say that I have been offered a full scholarship for EYB! I'm so happy, especially with many disappointments over the last few months! Thank you everybody on here for all your support and encouragement and advice always xx

...... It was a no the lady on the phone said "well, if it makes you feel better we'll put her on the waiting list but don't hold out much hope." I don't expect to get in but ballet really is cruel sometimes. I've had 4 Nos and no Yeses yet this year 😓 Beginning to think that however hard I work and how much I love it I will never be successful. But at least I have Associates and my EYB audition this weekend . Thanks everyone. I am going to book a week at OPES and try to find another nice and small but good quality SS.

Aaah in the most dreadful situation! I have received both a no and a yes email simultaneously! My mum suggested just to send through the yes details! But she will ring Elmhurst tomorrow morning (it is torture!) please please please please cross your fingers and toes for a YES for me!

Thank you very much @Pixiewoo and your dd x Also another question (sorry!) I have to wear uniform full sole satin shoes for G5 but can wear any shoes as long as they have ribbons for Intermediate. I find the full sole (1st position) ones quite rigid, as I am used to split soles for class. I knew the Vaganova girls have really beautiful, flattering, comfortable looking shoes with ribbons. Any recommendations? I think they have to be a pink-ish colour 😊

Hello all, I am taking my IDTA Grade 5 and Intermediate ballet exams at the end of April and am just looking for any tips on how to impress the examiner (what they are looking for, high leg/low leg, smile etc) Also I am on my own in the Intermediate exam and so am a bit more scared because of that! If anybody knows the IDTA intermediate syllabus, it is very much 'exercise-y' rather than 'dance-y'! I have 2.5 hours in between the exams, and so am also looking for advice on what to do in the gap, so as to keep warm and flexible but not exhausted! I REALLY want to get Distinctions in these exams! Thank you!

I am an Associate there, and know quite a lot of the full time students well (as they also take class with us!) I absolutely love it, the training is very high quality, and lots of emphasis is placed on the basics (posture, turnout, foot articulation etc). They also give really meaningful corrections, and take time to explain anatomy and give anecdotes from their careers as ballet dancers. They often bring in guest teachers from Contemporary companies for example, to lead workshops, and the full time students get even more guest tuition, for example, ballet dancers from Nothern ballet, and a well known Spanish dance teacher. They also get taken to see ballets and have some opportunities to perform in the year. I know the full time students get a lot of hours in, but the teachers do talk about the importance of rest and good nutrition etc. They also work hard in their academic studies, and sixth formers can get teaching qualifications and/or A-levels. The school is fairly new, but Mr and Mrs Kidd have been teaching for longer and I gather that their students have been successful. One student from Moorland has just got a contract for Boston ballet after an apprenticeship wit a Russian company (she is amazingly talented!) and I have heard of 2 boys with jobs in European companies, one classical and one more contemporary based. There are others taught by the Kidds but not from Moorland itself. i don't have firsthand full time experience, but if it is anything like the Associates I could highly recommend! The classes are hard work but they are always fun as well!

I have a turnboard, and it does help with spotting and 'turning confidence' (I used to be almost scared of pirouetting!) but it doesn't enhance your technique or anything, and it is a very different feeling to performing a ballet pirouette. I found really, the best solution was just practising pirouettes over and over in class (with teacher supervision, so you are placed well and right). Try to maintain as good a placement and posture as you can (pull in and up especially through the tummy muscles) and spot, breathe out as you turn. Don't 'bounce' in your plié - only bend once, with purpose! I also found visualising somebody pushing my working leg (the leg in retiré) away helped with turnout and momentum. And remember to have your toe in the right spot on your knee (this will depend on different teaching styles - We are taught to have our toe just touching underneath the knee). Really useful advice for me, given by somebody on the forum, was to visualise yourself as a barber pole - straight and strong, balanced, and pushing down through your foot, rotating about the longitudinal axis. The most important thing, however, is to believe that you can do it and be positive! Nothing bad can happen! It's not the X of the world of it goes wrong. Enjoy the dancing! Sorry that was long winded! Combining every pirouette correction I have been given! I can do consistent triples and occasional quadruples in ballet now Just working on my Pointe pirouettes (it's hard seeing the pirouettes of Instagram where dancers my age can turn 12 times! But ballet is an art, not a competitive sport. We do it for quality, not quantity. We do it for love.)

I think good quality Associates/Scholars are really important. Regardless of how good local training or even private lessons may be, there is nothing like taking class with 100% all dedicated, aspiring dancers, and you push yourself above and beyond what you thought was hard! I love Associates Speaking from a young dancer's point of view, please don't drop our classes! We love them so much and the more we do, the more we learn! (P.S I understand that if a dancer is becoming really burned out, or can't keep up with schoolwork etc, then yes, it should be cut down on)

I love the little Northern Ballet productions 😊 I've only seen one, but the audience just adored it! I really need to go and see the 'mature' Northern Ballet!

London SA results out of that helps?

Hi all, I have a question about cleaning pointe shoes.... How do you get mud off them? 🙈 I was taking some outdoor pictures with them on and now have mud over the box etc! I'mleaving them to dry at the moment, but please please give advice, as I was hoping to wear them for exams in a few weeks time! Thanks!