Nicola H

Harwel you sound like some of the People i know in health professions when their offspring decide they want to follow , despite the memories of the shift work, on -calls , missed concerts / assemblies etc etc ... ironically you may well have been a good teacher of dance precisely because you'd all ready spotted that there was something to avoid becoming becasue of your background ... insight and all that shizzle - it;s all about 'getting over yourself'

Excellent ! regular attendance at class really does help so keep it up ! if it's easy you are doing it wrong ! i.e. as you get better your teacher should be encouraging you to put more into it , to get more extension to get things that should be straight to be absolutely straight , keep the bits that should be still still and the bits that should be moving moving ... yes your legs will ache, turnout uses muscles in a way you don;t usually , as do some of the exercises where your working leg is keep 'up' off the ground ( e.g. developes, rond des jambes en l'air etc ) and if the ballet bug sticks perhaps we'll be seeing you at some the many and varied workshops and intensives for adult recreational dancers ...

Pupsmum + streetdancer looks like CBBC has a lot to answer for even before their Link-up with Northern Ballet for 3 little pigs / ugly duckling / hare and tortoise/ elves and the shoemaker

this is an interesting question and i;d love to see some more of the adult dancers answering. anyone wanting a trope tale of woe from me is going to be disappointed. apparently i did ask at young child, but was held off a bit with gymnastics and swimming classes, did a fair bit of MT in secondary school and a few modern / contemporary classes at uni ... then the dreaded shift work took over and a problematic relationship .... then in late 2016 , despite working in a shift work based job ( but more predictable than past ones ) I though ' this is an itch i have to scratch' and started looking for a class i could take ... ( the whole being trans thing was also working it;s way through my head as well ) ... so i started taking class in Lincoln and loved it ... found ballet co forum and joined it ... through a friend i also started chatting on social media with @sophie_rebecca heard about The Ballet Retreat on here and sent Hannah an email about the august 2017 one last february - it was already full but i was 2nd on the wating list ! carried on going to my usual class on a weekly basis, negotiated a few easements in a revised shift pattern at work to keep my monday evenings as free as i could ( at the cost of tuesdays and wednesdays) ... then i got an email from Hannah - ' would you like a place on August;s TBR ' ... so i jumped at the chance ... went to august;s TBR - presentign male still as i was still a little unsure of whether i 'needed' to transition ... my mind was at that point beign made up so i approached my GP in september about a referral to the GIC and started planning my 'social' transition ... Last October i had a business trip to London , and wa in London for the thursday night ... so brave step i went and took David Kierce;s Thursday night class at Central presenting as me ... thia nearly brings up to date , last weekend TBR - as me ! and tonight the final piece of the first page of my ballet journey - my regular class as me ! so what;s on page 2 ? carrying on and dancing through transition ...

i wonder if 'Sunday League' managers for kids teams are so dismissive if their players get into the academies for football or rugby ... given CAT schemes style themselves as ' same quality (and quantity) of teaching as going away to vocational school' ...

there's three ballet classes at Central on a friday evening have a look at the class descriptions for Nina T-M or Michael Branwell's (i'm sure the link the class descriptions page got posted as well as descriptions of DPK;s classes) - i suspect given your criteria Hannah Frost's will be too basic for what you want ... ( not taken any of them - last time i was in London on a friday evening i went to the ROH to see the 'shocking' version of the MacMillan triple bill ( gloria / judas tree/ elite sync) 7.00-8.30pm Ballet (Elementary/General)with Nina Thilas-Mohs 7.00-8.30pm Ballet Beginner with Hannah Frost 7.00-8.30pm Ballet (Elem/Inter)+Beginner Pointe - Michael Branwell

on that basis some of the 'plain' soloists in the 'touring companies' are punching well above their weight ( or are overdue promotion to First Soloist or even Leading )

exactly IIRC the defintions for lamb / hogatt / mutton are age at slaughter , Lamb <one year , Hoggatt <2 years, mutton over 2 years .,

Not been to one of his Sunday classes , I know David through TBR , although if his weeknight classes are anything to go by ( which i have been to when in that there London on Business) they are often busy and fill the studio , but i don;t think you'll need to fight for space necessarily ... you may ache after class but some of that ache will be you ribs from the laughter that pervades !

and while not 'cool tweens' this also sounds very much like the stuff that both TBR adults ( i hesitate to call us grown ups ) and bot hthe CAT and Renaissance scholars tweens and teens were wearign last weekend in the public spaces at Northern ...

they seem to be neither fish nor fowl - i.e. not a pancake tutu , but equally not a tulip or romantic one

warm up booties outside ? even from the car park ... crazy surely their point is to keep outdoor shoe muck and mess out of the studio ( i.e. outdoor shoes stay i nthe changing room / cloakroom )

you will enjoy David's classes . https://www.centralschoolofballet.co.uk/classdescriptions.php The Absolute Beginners class is for the absolute beginner ballet dancer and for adults returning to ballet after learning as a child. We start from the start; the correct posture, and the basic positions of the arms and legs. The class is about how your body moves naturally in everyday life and how that natural movement transfers to ballet. You learn how to identify the correct muscles needed to move the body in ballet technique; training and toning your muscles and changing the shape of your entire body. This class is also about learning about how to move in time and to the rhythm of the music. Absolute Beginners has a joyful and light-hearted atmosphere: newcomers are welcome at any time and fit in easily to the flow of the class. The suggested time in Absolute Beginners is between 6-12 months before moving up to beginner improvers. Beginner Improvers is for all beginners with a good basic ballet technique wanting to improve and move forward. It is the second level of the David Paul Kierce programme and a continuation of Absolute Beginners. The technique is based on how your body moves naturally in everyday life and how that natural movement translates directly into ballet. Beginner Improver ballet takes the basic ballet technique and adds to it. It increases the speed of the steps, adding arms, and increasing the difficulty. You learn the joining steps between movements and work on increasing co-ordination in the body. You spend less time at the barre and more time in the centre - eventually gaining the strength and body knowledge to learn pirouettes and more advanced jumps. We learn moving steps across the floor, and there is an emphasis on dancing and moving to the music, gaining a greater understanding of how the music helps the dancer as they dance. You can happily spend one or two years in this class gaining strength and knowledge before moving to Beginner Improver Plus. Beginner Improver Plus is the third level of the programme. This class is a continuation of Beginner Improver. The class is based on how your body moves naturally in everyday life and how that natural movement of the body transfers to ballet. The class will fill the final gaps in your ballet barre adding frappés, rond de jambe en l'air, and exercises on demi pointe. In the centre, you will add to your knowledge and technique;working on moving steps and more difficult combinations. You do combinations of jumps to move you in the air as well as across the floor. You build strength so that you can find your double pirouettes. You can happily spend one to two years in this class before you move on to a more advanced level.

Streetbeat does have adult pointe (Wednesday nights before adult 'intermediate / advanced' ballet ) beginners / improvers adult ballet is on Monday http://www.streetbeat.dance/dance_timetable.pdf Go Dance isn;t on the list because no one has contributed it based on actual experience - the listing is contributor generated - i know my contributions to it are based on actually going to class or knowing the teachers / having done other stuff with them ... ( also IIRC Go Dance is pay per term even for adult classes)

hoodie and 'knitted' leggings /warm up pants... ?

or when they start out as good and accurate , but lose their accuracy as new producers marginalise the role of the expert advisors ... the reason early Charlie Fairhead in Casualty is deemed so accurate is that Charlie is for the first 15 or so years of casualty a thinly disguised version of Peter Salt who was the original Nursing and A+E dept advisor to the series - and the original production team ( inc Geraint Morris ) spent months following Pete at work and then once they realised they needed to do research o n the ambulance stuff following Clive Hadrell ... while there aren;t the named Names to Link the Police advisors and LFB advisors to the The bill and London;s Buring respectively - again the respect they had within the relevant professional communities was because the producers listened to ' this is how we HAVE to do it becasue the of the law ' ...

In the Discovering repetoire thread Sophie posted a link to the full RAD specifications document in Int Foundation ( other CDET awarding bodies still call their equivalent certificate Elementary) Pointe barre - Rises, Echappés, relevés and courus Pointe centre - Echappés relevés and classical walks two at a time in Intermediate itself Pointe barre - Rises Relevés passés derrière OR devant (examiner choice) Posés and coupé fouetté raccourci Pointe centre Temps lié and courus Relevés échappés relevés pirouettes en pointe aren;t assessed in RAD until Advanced Foundation so a minimum of 'Intermediate' and 'strong' pointe skills would suggest that you;d be looking at having the Int content nailed and the adv F content well on the way ... ( IIRC adv foundation is relatively new (compared to other RAD awards ) and 'filled a gap' between a revised Interemediate and the Advanced awards

That is exactly what i mean, where an individual has concerns that an organisation is not folowing the law / putting people at risk and more importantly is not on top of adressing that .. what is the route to involve the regulator and trigger inspection / enforcement.

although not health related , having to sign up for a term a time can be a pain for adults , especially if working patterns mean you'll not be able to make every week ...

unfortunately the midlands is a little bare on Sophie's google maps overlay - but there is one thing to say aobut that overlay it;s all participant / teacher submitted rather than scraped from searches...

Anyone with evidence , students / parents / support staff / teachers / managers...

can you ' tip ofsted off' aobut isssues i nthe way you can with the CQC for health and social care ... ?

Speak to @sophie_rebecca about the mechanics of that as she has a overlay for adult classes - the easiesy way to fined that is go to the fabulous http://jelterps.blogspot.co.uk/ and click on the 'adult ballet classes' link in the top bar

I'd also be interested to know what the teachers background is ... i.e. were they themselves vocationally trained ( whether traditional vocational performer orientated route or via a HE qualification) even if they have never been a pro in a company ... ?

corrections and drop -in classes is possibly a function of how well the teacher knows you ... also size of class - first few times you go a large number of students drop-in class you aren't neceassarily going to get anything specific , unless the teacher asks you about your aims / experience / desire for correction ... My 'normal' class at home is officially a drop-in although there is a steady core of us who are there more weeks than we aren't ... I do';t get to London often but i know if I go to one of David Kierce's drop-in classes at Central I'll get corrected , but that's because i've done a couple of The Ballet Retreats now ( and again they have a steady core of attendees as do David;s drop in classes) so have spent several days being taught by David ( and the rest of the TBR team)