Nicola H

Excellent good to hear. I'm down in that There London for a business type meeting today. So caught up with the Very lovely David Kierce at his beginners class at Central last night. Currently on the train from where i'm staying back into the Centre as i managed to get a Ticker for the MacMillan triple header at the ROH tonight.

Chookas my dear. Hopefully the muscle memory will kick in.

Flora i don't think you DDs experience is particular to the dance world - That said it isn't acceptable in any setting and reflects poorly on teachers and their leaders / managers. There is a bit of a ego thing , one thing i've noticed is that Dancer biogs on company pages tend to make extensive reference to where they trained , not just their upper school / degree , but if they went to vocational lower school and/or the 'local' dance schools and associates/ CATs they attended... probably more so than professional / elite sports people ... the fact that such and such a premiership kickball player's first competitive matches were for Crinkley Bottom under 9s isn't seen as vital info , I've seen it in ordinary schools , iIve seen it in sports, I've seen it in work places both public and private sector, seen it massively in charities where anointed ones have rises to prominence that make some of the meteoric rises from new corps member to principal look positively lacksidaiscal. Classes is an interesting one, as an adult beginner , how short a time i'd been taking class was viewed with a bit of surprise by a well known name when i was at a intensive for grown ups ( of the 'i would have said you'd been taking class for longer than that' ), but equally i think the experience of someone whose weekly class is normally 4 -10 people and occasional bargain private/ semi private will be different to someone who is fighting for barre space in a weekly class of 20-30 students That said same well known name also seems to be able to provide personalised input to everyone in a 40 + person class over the 90 minutes.

there are various options with larger leos , also some of the physical shops may have stuff in bigger sizes or be able to order in . ( you only need compared the height graphs to understand why this is an issue for those of us with trans history as Mr 75% line height wise is Ms 96% - but at least i'm not off the top of the scale like a certain person ;-) ) that said , the Uk does seem to be matching the Dutch and Scandiwegans for growing young ladies of 6 feet in height who are by virtue of height are size 16 /18 at a healthy weight Dancing in the street have a number of their products available in larger sizes up to a 'dancewear 8 ' which seems to be 18 -20 in 'people' sizes , their RAD uniform leos go to a size '6' which is chest / hips ( inches) 38-40 40-42 XLarge Adult 14-16 http://www.dancinginthestreet.com/Header-Content-DITS/Size-Charts http://www.dancinginthestreet.com/Catalogue/Regulation-Uniform/Starlite-Regulation-Uniform/Starlite-Regulation-Caroline-Leotard where the freed branded ones appear to stop at '5' if you need to go larger still http://www.dancinginthestreet.com/Catalogue/Dancewear/Cotton-Lycra-Essential-Dancewear/Starlite-Cotton-Essential-Leotards/Starlite-Cotton-Lycra-Maryrose-Leotard-SDMAR

Given that some of the contemporary dance degrees require significant study of ballet pre-entry and ballet remains a big part of their practical syllabusses it's perhaps more about which purely classical upperschools/ degrees to avoid in favour of upper schools / degrees associated with companies that have a more neoclassical / unconventional rep.

@Kate_N it almost sounds as though your teacher is trying to pack too many students into the studio space available and/or doesn't have enough barre length available ( is there a rule of thumb for barre length especially is using 'long' barres rather than 'short' portables for 2 or 4 adults - 1 or 2 a side)... but regardless of space / numbers the right of way stuff is important as is trying to get an idea of everyone gettign their 'first' go before you snaeak a second go at a centre exercise interested at your longest legs last comment - surely the long legged cover more ground ?

don;t hide at the back is good advice . where you stand at the barre is always a thorny one , small classes not so important, really big classes not so important especially when you've multiple portable barres in the centre and numbers mean you have to have people facing both ways all the time ( where was the 'front' at Leeds TBR for the company/ technique classes ? the piano ? the barre DPK was stood near at the time he explained a point or gave a correction for group consumption ? ) however in those awkward medium sized classes the teacher may have ideas on whom they want where along each barre in use - in the middle of a barre ( assuming long barres in use ) is usually a 'safe' place , 'head ' and 'foot' of the barre may have to be 'earnt' in some places - although sometimes being at the foot of a long barre is worse as in the direction where you are the 'front' the teacher may not be visible where there are groups going early is good as you can sneak a 2nd chance attempt if the numbers are ok . If you are worried aobut sticking out try to be in a group with people of a similar height / similar ground covering ability ... ( and that's not a gender/sex thing if you are 5'10" with 32-34 in inside legs you will cover more ground whether boy, girl or anything else than someone who is 5'5" with 28in inside legs - yes testosterone posessing dancers will likely cover even more distance in grand jetes etc because moar powah arf arf arf ... but it doesnt change the fact a 6ft ballerina is a 6ft ballerina regardless of what she was assigned at birth ) don;t be afraid to ask , a teaching point is a teaching point , if you aren't sure someone else probably is , if you or someone else is getting placement or origin of movement wrong others likely will be or can benefit from it being checked and reinforced.

i'm surprised you hadn't picked up on #project B before , it;s been around for a good few months now and fairly heavily promotded on social media both by it;s official ambassadors and by others including myself and @sophie_rebecca

also corrections are made becasue your teacher(s) want you to be a better dancer !

if it;s easy it;s not ballet or you aren't working hard enough

Adults are bad at being beginners in anything, often because even if something is new in work or (other) passtimes it's something similar to what we have done before, dance and especially ballet is not like that. also ballet is hard and you have to reprogram your body - turnout is the classic example of that and it;s something which it may seem a shame to sacrifice centre time for in class to do turnout stuff , but it's worth it This is before we consider the differing approaches to to teaching something to adults that is also taught to children , some people want to knock some the pedagogy off and paint a coat of andragogy on the topic, others are prepared to knock all the pedagogy off the subject and build a complete andragogy approach ( Leeds seems to do that to people e.g. both David Kierce and Yoko Ichino have their own ideas on adult syllabuses - can't compare them as although I've taken class led by DPK at The Ballet retreat, I've not taken one using Ichino's methodology ). We see this expressed often most markedly in the arguments over whether adult dancers should be entered for vocational examinations with as little as 3 years of class and whether adult syllabuses should integrate aspects of pre-pointe exercises from the beginning or the first move to 'improvers' rather than the move to 'Intermediate' classes. "Don't over analyse" is a phrase that you will hear in adult ballet classes up and down the nation, you've seen it written down in this thread both by the contributors and by them quoting their regular teachers and teachers at other classes / workshops / events they have attended. also if you consider the 4 stage model of skills development , your mood may well drop as you move into stage 2 - also this happens multiple times overlapping with each other in ballet as we can consider each exercise or type of step to be separate iteration of theprocess stage 1 - the unconscious incompetent - you do not know what you do not know stage 2 - the conscious incompetent - you now realise how much you do not know stage 3 - the conscious competent, - you now know things and know how to do them , but it takes effort stage 4 - the unconscious competent - you know things and you can do them well without thinking paert of the problem for adult beginners is, as i said just above, the fact this happens multiple times - unlike learning to ride a 2 wheel bike when it happens once or learnign to swim where it happens half a dozen times ( learning to doggy paddle, learning each of the four/five formal strokes, learning 'racing' breathing and turns for the front strokes)

Premier Inn is often expensive in London there are also tricks with regard to thinking aobut accessibility by public transport - the Travelodges in Croydon (central) and walthamstow often throw up good prices ( if you were coming from Gatwick croydon might be an option)

sixthforms didn't used to be able to access that scheme on FE and HE colleges / unis

Some people will try to gold plate those rules - meaning it becomes ' no changing in the wings ' rather than 'no nudity in the wings' . sometimes this is out of prudery , other times it;s blindly parroting the rituals or a criticism of someone else which has grown legs of it's own . other times there are 'belief' based factors at play if the fact the rules are being gold plated is pointed out the person who points this out will find their life becoming uncomfortable or may even find that their services are no longer required for challenging the self appointed experts. seen this repeatedly with none professionals from education / youth work / social care challenging Health professionals who are trained/ educated to the same or 'higher' 'level' of safeguarding training

don;t forget that child protection stuff is prone to gold plating / misinterpretation by the prudish or those with political/ Political motivations ... anbd of course anyone who points out this is immediately labelled as a child abuser or facilitator by said prudes ( even though said prudes may well be neglecting or emotionally abusing those in their charge ) ... In the eyes of the law and those without an axe to grind there are four main types of child abuse, physical , emotional, neglect and sexual , in the eyes of those with an axeto grind physical and sexual are the only ones of consequence and often misinterpreted.

how many theatres outside the west end will be running anything other than panto or kiddies stuff in the 2 weeks before and 2 weeks after christmas ?

US article though and the US secondary school system is reportedly much more polarised , plus the US does seem to have a rather schizoid attitude towards sexuality matter in general.

hence the 'free' ... part of the title of the exercise ...

are you getting that much in added value though ?

65 gbp a pair ouch ... Uk people are spoiled Ok GMs are that kind of price as are custom makes from Freed or Suffolk ...

the theatre ( on the ground floor) can convert into a 30 * 15 m studio space if they push the stage 'in' and push the teired seating back into the wall ( it all folds down and then pushes in like bleachers ) it';s used in that format for NB's Company Classes and also for Company class and other full course bits when The Ballet Retreat ' takes over' for it;s ' intensives for grown ups '

that building has wow factor ... did they get to dance i nthe Stanley +Audrey Barton theatre in a studio configuration ( supposedly one of he biggest sprung floors in Europe) ? or just have to slum it in the 15 m * 15 m normal studios ?

Presumably it's based in the Quarry Hill building ? Which is absolutely fab as one would expect for recent purpose built home for Dance company (s) etc.

people get used to zig zag journeys on the tube , if the interchanges are cross platform or up/ down one flight of stairs / escalators it can still be quick as the speed of the tube train is considerably greater than that of a bus in traffic meaning the overall velocity / 'course made good' is competitive ...

as others have said if it's MDS then MDS might or the school might help given many LAs currently appear to refuse to pay for transport to Grammar if your child passes the 11+ (esp if there are comps just as close) or if want your child to be indoctrinated in a faith school ( both of which used to happen in various places) , i doubt you'll get much luck from the LA as they will either say - it;s MDS responsibility or take the attitude that if you are self funding you can afford transport , also is it only weekly boardign or is that a choice ? In the days of schools having control over admissions even if a school was GM or an Academy they supported heads of good comps who said ' no 11 + failures' even if they were in an area that had transport to the comp ... i had a friend at school who moved into a grammared area of the county from otuside the county and his parents did their home work becasue he was borderline to get into the grammar 11+ wise and instead opted for the nearest 'good' comp , the LA paid for his travel fro mthe further point on the standard school bus route to the comp becasue that was his allocated school but his folks still had to get him the 5 or so miles o the start of the bus route ...