Nicola H

On 08/12/2018 at 18:03, Picturesinthefirelight said:

 

So by that reckoning ds who started dance aged 13 would have gone straight into Grade 8. (He’s currently working on Grade 2 jazz & Grade 3 tap). 

other than the interleaving of grades and VGEs  ... 

traditionally the first exam that  older beginners could take was Gr 6  unless they snuck under the  upper age limit of  gr 5  ... 
 

39 minutes ago, balletgremlin said:

Starlight Dance in Kettering is a good dance school for boys. Though they do loads of different styles of dancing and the focus is on commercial dance/show teams, the principal is male and runs a weekly ballet class for boys and a yearly ballet productions where all the boys get at least a feature role. The female RAD teacher loves boys dances and everyone in the classes learn both the boys and girls syllabus.

 

There are several boys in the pointe class and last month I did my Intermediate Foundation exam with a girl who chose to do the male syllabus as she wanted to do the boys variation (she also wanted to do pointe rather than the boy's allegro but the RAD couldn't wrap their head around that one).

Spot on 

 i think  as it stands with the current RAD policy   she'd have to do  the exam twice  once  as a 'girl' and once as 'boy'  -  and unless  the  grades and VGEs  go modular like Discovering Repetoire  or there is a re write of  the exam spec that allows  a wider mix and  match   ...   do we have an RAD examiners  reading  ?   ( alternatively  @sophie_rebecca could you ask Lynne  R-C ? ) 

learning 'both'  syllabuses  makes for better dancers  IMO  and so it  seems  in the eyes of increasingly numbers of  Teachers and Pros ... 
 

16 minutes ago, taxi4ballet said:

It's not really anything to do with that, it is more to do with the fact that many teachers don't have much experience of teaching the boys syllabus because there are so few of them. What young lads need is to be taught by someone thoroughly experienced and ideally in a school with a number of other boys. 

 

Associate programmes are a really good idea too, as they will often have a boys-only class and when they are older, they will be able to start learning partner work with senior girls, which is a whole subject in itself.

looks like  it went right over your head  ... 

 the numbers game means that outside of  London and perhaps one or two other big cities the  numbers mean that  lads are going to need to  get that  training other than at their local school ...  ( and even  in the big cities it may just be there are more options  for lads classes on top of  local class  ) 

just because  it isn't  traditional  for  men to do pointe  what  harm exactly  is there a  boy  doing pointe along with  his  classmates  at IF/Ele and Int  level ?  if  nothing else for  strength and stamina and to understand  his future partners  better...  or  is this going to be back to the  cis-sexist ' it doesn;t matter if lads carry on doing  tap  class '   guff  we saw a while ago )

 in terms of 'local' schools  outside  London  the numbers game is  going to be against   boys

associates  is probably a good idea anyway if you are looking  at  y9/10   entry to lower  schools or attending an upper school 

and in terms of the local school, at the risk of  upsetting the traditionalists, why  not defy tradition ?

but  having heard another  sad tale  in the East Midlands  about  none traditional stuff and pointe   ... ( same tale from  two people  one femme presenting one masc presenting  about a dismissive attitude  shown by  retailer )  that may be an uphill battle.  (  and   although the RAD policy over  exams syllbuses and uniform  was  heralded as something to do with trans  dancers  -  there is nothing stopping any  dancer  doing  both versions of a VGE ) 

@Viv you are  this month's  if not 2018;s  Queen of understatement .  well done !

1 hour ago, thewinelake said:

There's an idea - a ballet based on Minecraft 😉

 that's up  there with Alien the ballet , a  discussion which  soon degenerates ...
 

5 minutes ago, Newbiemum said:

I didn’t realise sparkle was connected to aesthetics would that not come under the Artistry category!

bit of both  i think 

like so many things seperating  out  what exactly goes  where  is subjective ... 

is  'right dancer i nthe right role '  aesthetics , artistry  or both ?   assuming the dancers in question are equally  technically competent ?

I think the take away message  has to be do discuss  this with the teachers who  wrote it, 

I don;t teach dance ( because i  do not have the  experience , skills and knowledge to at this time)  although i do and have taught  other  subjects at  various levels and in various settings and in some  assessment structures it can be a nightmare trying to work out which criterias  are the best fit / the desired by the  system fit  to an area of work ... 

20 minutes ago, Newbiemum said:

Sorry I’m not sure what this means ?

 there's a  certain something  about  the line  some people have  , it can also cover 'sparkle' -  also  you could have someone who is  technically  very very good but  just lacks as  certain something .... 

as for  aesthetics,  excuse my being a Northern Fangirl again, but in the  triple bill  , specifically  in 'Shape of sound'  , despite the  lighting, costuming and starting positions  you will instantly spot  certain dancers (  e.g.  Hannah Bateman) in the first minute because of their  line and aesthetics ...    

On 29/11/2018 at 15:09, Picturesinthefirelight said:

Its very confusing.

 

There is Northern ballet Academy (linked to Northern Ballet who run part time CAT scheme and summer school classes.

 

Then there is Northern School of Contemporary Dance who are a vocational school also based in Leeds with a focus on Contemporary dance

 

Then there is Northern Ballet School in Manchester a full time college who run dance diplomas in Ballet or Jazz Theatre

Technically  the  'Academy of the Northern Ballet'   is called  that https://northernballet.com/academy

and  the AoNB 'brand' covers CAT,  NB Associates, NB Spotted ! and the Graduate Program  as well as the  community  classes, the one thing  AoNB doesn't have  is a 'upper school'  perhaps as it is felt that the market is such that this is not  something  where there is a gap in provision ,  in addition to any  sagas over  NBS   - Manchester  and it;s  name ...   

Northern the company also has  a long standing relationship  (  but not AFAIK  formally)  with Central ,   due otthe Legacy of Chris Gable;s involvement with both  NB and CSB , and  CSB graduates do seem to do well with  Northern   -   and i don't think that  will change with Kenny Tindall in his current role at Northern as  Kenny is a CSB  grad  and  committed to the narrative  ballet  tradition of  Northern / Gable ...  (shock Horror  Nicola  is fangirling over Kenny again -  he  really is a lovely  person  and has a rela passion for dance at all levels ) 

11 hours ago, Harwel said:

Thanks for all your suggestions.  Seems slim pickings in Lincoln.  

and to complicate  things both the  Beginner classes that Lady Bay Ballet run ( west bridgford / lady Bay  area of Nottingham ) are  day time  ( Monday  and Friday lunchtimes) ,  although Hype's Beginner class in Sheffield is  Thursday evening.  I 'd heartily recommend  both Lady bay and Hype  as i take class with both on a regular basis

http://www.ladybayballet.com/ 

https://www.hypedance.org.uk/

i cannot comment on  either location for Go Dance (Lincoln or Sleaford) as i haven;t taken class  at  either ... 

2 hours ago, Michelle_Richer said:

Although this is a long shot, you might try Kat Anderson-Hendy, I think now has dropped her former (Anderson) name, to Kat Hendy. Kat used to run Adult Ballet in Lincoln under the name “Classes with Kat”, that was around 2013/14, I used to attend them and for a short period after that used Kat as one-to-one at GoDance in Sleaford, as the venue was half way between each of us.

 

I see Kat is Owner and Teacher at Elev8 Dance Academy and Principal of Hykeham School at Stagecoach Performing Arts Schools.

Elev8 have a website and it does not appear  to offer adult classes  and  makes several  references to  3 -16 years old  ...  

Studio8   appears to have a full timetable of  fitness classes ... 

i've done  some pretty  extensive searching for classes  closer  than  Nottingham, Sheffield or  Sleaford ...   

with the  cessation of adult classes at Streetbeat  the only  adult class suitable for beginners  in Lincoln appears to be the pay per term  Thursday evening  class at Go ...   which i can't pass comment on  first hand ...

9 hours ago, MAK said:

It's tough on her that she got Finals two years in a row without ever getting to be part of an LCB Production but it just wasn't meant to be. She felt she did her best and had been excited to get the result but she'll move on quickly. It was opening night for her school production and her first pas de deux in public tonight so not much time to dwell on it!

Hope those that have places have a brilliant time 🙂

belated chookas!

fitting   should include advice on elastics - well a good fitter  will  ... 

as for duration of fitting  ...  again a factor ... 

51 minutes ago, All4dancers said:

I know Lilac Theatre do adult classes but not sure about ballet.  Might be worth looking on their website.

appears  just to be an adult jazz  class  (  and for  more advanced dancers possibly the   technique + pointe class that precedes it - but   looking at their website  that;s designed as an enrichment class for  their  higher  grades / VGE  students ) 

1 hour ago, Fiz said:

Really? My friend used to go there and there were two adult classes and a dedicated pointe class! What happened? 

yep 

marginal numbers ,  teacher availability , the usual sagas ...  plus  syllabus  changes in their   awarding body has seperated   the higher grades and VGEs   which compounded teacher availability  issues 

Picture in Lincoln does not look good  for adult classes at present , the only  explicit adult ballet class  i can see  is the pay  per (long) term one at Go . 

currently  travelling to Sheffield  (Hype)  or Nottingham ( Lady Bay)  for my  regular classes 

Streetbeat currently don't have the teaching hours to offer an adult ballet class ...

16 hours ago, Anna C said:

 

I’m not sure Motomum needs to worry about graduate employment if her son is still in Primary school. ☺️

 

Motomum, like MAK I have a daughter so can’t help wrt the boys’ training.  However, my daughter was a Central Prep and Pre-Senior from 11-16 and absolutely loved her 5 years there.  The assessment process was quite strict and there was a sizeable “cull” of girls between Prep 3 and Pre-Seniors but the teachers were excellent and we really liked the fact that Contemporary forms part of the training.  

 

The boys used to join the girls for Contemporary and Character but had ballet separately: I assume this hasn’t changed.

Central  has a particular  character, which  suits  those whose interests lay with  neo-classical and narrative ballet   you only need to look at the  way in which, despite ?no? formal arrangement  since the  Chris Gable Days  , CSB and Northern  have remained entwined ...  (  plenty of CSB grads in the company at Northern right the way up to  the principal tier  ( Hannah Bateman  and  Ashely Dixon are  CSB grads ) and  beyond  - with Kenny Tindall's  appointment as Director Digital and Resident Choreographer)

there's a continuum  between  Ballet  school and  contemporary  dance schools ...   -  the Rambert school likes to place itself bang in the middle and  promotes itself on that basis , head a chunk up in the ballet direction from that mid point and you'd meet Central ,  head a  bit  towards  contemporary fro m that mid point and you'd meet  LCDS ...  

 

Motomum how much do you know of Central and  it;s history /  where  past and  current graduates go ... 

9 minutes ago, Jan McNulty said:

Bluebird22 - absolutely relevant.  I had a blind gentleman on my team for a while.  He encouraged people to talk and be open about his blindness and their queries.  One day one of his colleagues said about a situation - "It's like the blind leading the blind".  There was a horrified silence from everyone except for the blind gentleman who couldn't stop laughing and said the he often used that expression himself.

 having worked with  people with spinal cord injuries for a number of  years, the use of various  comments and  turns of phrase  related to such things was common ... 

topped  off   by one of those individuals who remains  a friend commenting   ' it takes balls to do that'   when i came out as trans ... 

5 hours ago, Fiz said:

I used to watch the pupils at a dance school our daughters went to using a hammer on theirs or shutting them in a door hinge. They did it with new pointe shoes too. I used to watch in fascinated horror and think of their poor parents’ bank accounts.

the whole shutting them in the  door hinge  thing  is  something that people do because they've seen / heard the pros doing it -   usually  when they  need a pair of shoes show ready  quick smart  so don;t have  the time to  wear them in   in class or rehearsal 

3 hours ago, Picturesinthefirelight said:

You bring up a topic that has long been a bug bear of mine whenever anyone talks about increasing diversity in the performing arts. 

 

Having seen friends of my daughter have to give up ballet past the age of 7/8 and having noticed that despite living in an area with a significant population of people of Pakistani/Bangladeshi origin when I look at local dance schools and youth theatre companies none of these girls are represented. 

 

Other minority groups are talked about, initiatives put in place etc but in the general conversation on increasing BAME participation no-one seems to want to address this fundamental issue that traditional ballet uniform and perception of it prevents participation of Muslim girls past puberty & if adaptations to the uniform were made It would open the door for wider participation.  

 

 

I think colman is right that this is wrthy of topic in it;s own right 

 however when it comes ot  certai nSouth asian communities there;s a  load of stuff to unpack over participation  ( we've seen a lot of it in relation to Nursing  over  the past 20 -30 years ) 

8 hours ago, alison said:

It occurs to me to wonder what you've been doing for P.E. at school (they haven't eliminated that from the curriculum yet, have they?!), and whether this will be vastly different?

most  current PE  dress codes  allow  baggy kit  and/or base layers to cover arms  etc ... 

this  meme, plus a discussion with a dancer   / costumier friend  who has  got a seasonal contract  to  work with  a large living history museum in the UK   spurred a little bit of a conversation  / idea 

what about some 'ballet archaeology'   of   the 1940s and 1950s  -  a  catch it   while we can  project  while we still have dancers  who  were alive and dancing  at those times ... 

your presumptions about gender, faith and ethnicity  may not reflect  the class you  propose to attend 

dress code wise have you discussed this with  your teacher ?

29 minutes ago, RuthE said:

I was unusually free this Sunday morning, so went to David Kierce’s class and really enjoyed it. Having not stepped inside a ballet studio for a decade (and not many times before that) I was pleasantly surprised by the basics I did actually remember. I am sure I will be back.

 

And thanks for that new recommendation, Swanprincess - that time slot is one that would often work for me.

Glad you  enjoyed it  ...  David's classes are something special  

if you  enjoy  David's teaching style    think about  www.theballetretreat.com when you've got   back into the swing of things  -  numerous thread on here about  it and  several  TBR 'usual suspects' are regularish  posters  on the board  ( i have no commercial  link to TBR, just a  satisfied  customer   and  part of the 'TBR Family' )