Viv

I don’t actually disagree with this. I think assiduously avoiding a topic can be just as bad as constantly bringing it up. However, I would like to see a change in the conversation from weight to nutrition. The medical world is starting to realise that all this talk of the obesity epidemic has actually not done anything to fix anyone’s health, it’s just made people overly focused on weight as an indicator of health, which it’s actually not a very good indicator of. Afterall, if you only eat 2 chocolate bars a day, you’d be very skinny, but I can’t say you’d be too healthy. Assisting someone with good nutrition like in the books discussed above is very different from shaming a child for liking sweets. I’d actually like to see discussion of nutrition normalised and completely separated from discussion on weight. Not to mention that in the ballet world, there are so many more things to be dissatisfied with your body about than just your weight. Your height, feet, rotation, length of neck...are all things to start disliking your body for if this isn’t managed correctly. Some of these things can be changed and others can’t. For a lot of dancers, the only thing they feel they can control is their weight. I understand how hard it is to teach your child self acceptance when they can see the types of people getting into associates when they’re not. I’m actually not sure how to fully change the conversation. But I’d like to try! Maybe changing the focus from how your body looks to a focus on what it can do. Or countering negative comments about their body with a focus on things they’re good at such as jumping or artistry. The same way I think society is being encouraged to stop telling girls ‘you look so pretty’ as the first compliment they regularly get and start commenting their abilities, not their appearance. I know appearance is a huge factor in Ballet that can’t be locked down and never discussed, but there are ways and there are ways to discuss things. For both parents and companies and schools. Just because something is hard, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.

My physio says that for some exercises a wobble board is great, but for a lot of people they'd be better off just folding a pillow in half, putting it on the floor and standing on it. Surprisingly hard! Good for balance and ankle stability. So depending on what exercises your physio has set you, maybe consider other options before running out and buying a wobble board

I know I'm coming to this thread late but I just wanted to add an additional note to please be EXTREMELY careful how you discuss food and weight issues with your young dancers! They're staring at themselves in a mirror for hours every week, they see their friends and notice they look different, the last thing they need is any sort of indication from their parents that how they look is in some way 'wrong'. Obviously we all know not to say that someone looks fat or big or any words like that, but you'd be surprised what these kids take as a criticism of their body. Last year I had one girl in tears because a teacher told her not to grip with her thighs in a developpe because 'that's why your thighs are so big'. That same dancer still brings up her 'big' thighs a year later because one poorly phrased comment has stuck in her mind like a barb. Another girl in full time ballet training is absolutely tiny, slim build but has started to develop boobs. A simple, very normal comment about considering wearing a body stocking under her leotard led to a panic attack because 'no professional ballet dancer has to wear a body stocking under their leotard, my boobs are too big, I'll never be a ballet dancer with big boobs, maybe if I lose more weight my boobs will get smaller...' Today she told me 'I think I'm dancing better at the moment because I'm happy, and I'm happy because today I feel really skinny!' 😢 And finally, most tragically of all, one of the girls in my grade 8 class is currently in hospital on a 28 day psychiatric hold because she has developed anorexia... She has done so much damage to her heart from malnourishment that a few weeks ago she actually had a heart attack. She's 16. So this particular issue is particularly on my mind at the moment and I just want to stress to teachers and parents or anyone involved with a younger dancer. They know. Seriously. They know every part of their body that is different or bigger or 'not good enough' and they beat themselves up over it when you're not looking. For most of them, this will not develop into disordered eating, and I note that a full blown eating disorder is a mental illness that is about control more than about the food itself. Food is just a mechanism for control in their lives. I just worry what impression our comments, about our dancers and also about ourselves, are making. I know every time I express dissatisfaction with my body, I am modelling that behaviour for those girls. Every time we talk about diets or 'good' food vs 'bad' food, we are making a value judgment about what we are using to fuel our bodies. Actually, for anyone interested I would encourage you to check out Weigh Free May, an initiative here in Australia aiming to educate people on just these sorts of issues. All I know is, when I'm in the hospital tomorrow visiting my friend, I'm going to be thinking of all the things I did or didn't do that might have contributed to this awful situation...

Has anyone taken a DR exam yet? I haven't done a DR class since November last year but I'm still interested to hear how people who have stuck with this class to exam readiness have found the syllabus.

While I was in London in January, I took the opportunity to get fitted in the Freed store. The fitter took one look at my incredibly narrow, low profile feet and said straight away she wasn't sure if there would be anything suitable for me. We tried anyway but even in the narrowest width available, the second I went en pointe I slid straight down in the shoe and got terrible big toe pain. After only 20 minutes we basically had to give up because freed, without major alterations, would never fit my type of foot without pain. I then managed to try repetto while in Belgium and, though they are more limited in styles than other brands, they're a bit more tapered than freeds and work quite nicely on my feet. I haven't had too much time to work in them due to an ankle injury but if your DD has narrow or very tapered feet, repetto might be an option instead of the quite square, blocky freeds (if the school will allow of course)

I definitely agree with @The_Red_Shoes about PBT, it's not so much the various bands and balls and boards you can buy, it's about the exercises that you do with them. PBT gives well structured, age appropriate exercises that train core and turnout. For feet I recommend the Lisa Howell 'Perfect Pointe' pre-pointe program, it trains foot intrinsic muscles as well as various whole body exercises for calves, posture, hip alignment and control. With regards to PBT and 'age appropriate' level I definitely think that sometimes this can be hard to judge because the girls in the video are all vocational full time dancers with insane control! Even a lot of the juniors are in part time or extension ballet training. I went to a workshop with Marie Walton-Mahon who created PBT, which was very good, but the only indication given for the level was 15+. I am definitely 15+ but as an adult starter, I am not at the level that a full time, vocational level 15 year old is at! It was quite discouraging as only the full timers got any corrections or encouragement and I felt kind of like I was in the way...and was the only one cropped out of the video they put on instagram of the session 😂 But as part of the program they gave us short term access to the online portal, so I've been doing the 'senior' program instead of 'advanced' and it's been much more manageable, I've started seeing some good results too I would still recommend it for a ballet interested child looking to build up their strength and stamina.

Interesting that the top prize winner decided to stay at the same school she was already attending. There was some discussion at the prix about this, wondering what the goal was for attending a competition like this when you're already at a very good school and not yet ready for a professional contract. Any thoughts?

Can I just say wow!!! To have been accepted for something like this despite starting so late is really admirable. As for the social stuff, I am a 25 year old who dances with pre-professional 14-18 year olds (6 days a week last year). It can be awkward at first because you're getting to know them and they might find you a bit weird. I hid my age when I first started because the kids were all 12 and I felt like a total creep! They thought I was 15 until they saw me drive to class, and they still occasionally give me weird looks when I make certain comments, especially about movies and tv shows that are like, totes old omg. But now they know me and they're a little older, it's honestly fine. We have stuff in common, because we spend so much time together and we know so many of the same people, and we all love ballet! They see me as an older sister and come to me when they're having problems or need help sewing or want advice about life after high school. Plus being old enough to drive them to mcdonalds during rehearsals has been a big hit... You're actually fortunate because you're going into a program with mostly 16-20 years olds which really isn't that much younger than you. You are there for a common purpose with common goals, and with people who are often learning to be independent for the first time. I believe you'll end up having far more in common than you might think now and you'll end up having genuine friendships. Personality matters more than age for that, just give it some time and you'll find your people. When I started my first job I was 17 and my best friend was 33 with a 12 year old kid. We were in totally different places in our lives but we just clicked and we're still friends 9 years later (and now I'm friends with the kid, too). I think, don't make your age a thing. It's honestly such a small part of who you are. Don't try to hide it, like I did, just embrace it and within a couple of months you'll stop being 'the old dude' and just be 'oh yeah our mate NHenry'. Although I would remember to make time for people your own age because sometimes the teenage drama just makes you roll your eyes. I can't give you any advice about the finances or future career prospects or anything, but if you're concerned about being 'old' in a room full of kids, I can tell you that by the end of the first year it won't matter at all.

@Kate_N That's very interesting! When was it that you did your RAD work? They've changed the vocational syllabus names so many times over the years that I find it a bit hard to keep track of at times. I know that a few iterations ago, it used to be that what is now Intermediate was called Elementary and what is now Advanced 1 was called Intermediate. And Advanced 2 is what used to be Advanced. So I suppose it might be that what you were doing in 'Intermediate' would be new Advanced 1 standard, which would explain why some of it is now included in Advanced Foundation? Sorry if you already knew this, I can see you use Elementary in your latest post and I'm not sure if before you were just trying to use the modern terms for comparibility. Because the whole system has changed names and marking schemes 100 times I get easily confused!!! 😂🙈 I suppose it really just goes to show how arbitrary syllabi and exams and marks are in the end because in 50 years time it'll have changed 8 more times and a top mark will be a zebra sticker and a pass mark will be a raincloud or something... If a child (or an adult) is in a class that they enjoy and find challenging, and they're at an equivalent level with other people their age with similar aspirations, then RAD or Checchetti or ISTD or non-syllabus is completely irrelevant haha! 😊

I'm not sure that's really an accurate comment. Based on my discussions with various teachers, including an RAD examiner and teachers at the closest thing to a 'vocational' school we have here, the new RAD Advanced 1 and particularly Advanced 2 are much harder than they were previously and the examiners now expect a lot more from candidates. While there's no specific exercise requiring 16 fouettes en pointe (yikes!) the pointe work is now all included in longer, more exhausting enchainements that require a different kind of dance ability to be able to put them together and perform to a high enough standard. Teachers I know who used to skip the 'foundation' levels have now started adding them to their timetables because the jump between intermediate and advanced 1 is a nightmare! So I'm not sure they're spreading them out to 'dumb them down' or cater to people with less ability, I think it's more like they've built an extra floor on top of the building, so they've had to build more steps to get to the top of that building. As far as the difficulty of RAD vs Cecchetti is concerned, most serious ballet schools here in Aus do non-syllabus, RAD and Checchetti exams so their students can qualify for more competitions. At the advanced levels of both, the two syllabi are fairly comparable. From my understanding, Chechetti reaches a more advanced stage younger, but in the top levels they start to balance out. I think it's the same with pretty much all syllabi, and the aim of all ballet classes in the end - they're simply a different vehicle that you can use to get to pretty much the same end point, if you're willing to put in the work. Find the one that suits you as a dancer, with a teacher that inspires you. @Rein2019 Good luck with everything, it sounds like you made the right decision to move her! Even without all the red flags (and there were many in your posts), it sounds like you were overall not comfortable or happy with the training your daughter was receiving, and once you feel like you can no longer discuss this with her teacher, it is time to move on. At 15, if your daughter just wants to improve for the sake of the challenge and being the best she can be, don't worry about a particular syllabus or exams, just find a teacher that she gels with, that pushes her and makes her come out of class buzzing I wish her all the best!

Including the boy from my hometown! Very exciting, and so glad I get to be in Lausanne watching it all (even though I did have to wake up at 3.30am this morning in order to catch a plane from Munich in time for morning selections...) Tomorrow's final is going to be so good! Number 315, Beatriz Kuperus who trains at ENBS, has been an absolute standout for me all week. I watched her in class on the live stream and I have to say she shone even brighter in person, I couldn't take my eyes off her, even in the contemporary which normally isn't my favourite section. Does anyone else have someone who has consistently caught their eye this week?

Great job @balletgremlin! They normally mark the vocational levels more harshly than the grades as well so you should be really pleased with yourself

As far as 'does anyone not go', I would say financial circumstances would limit people as much as unforeseen circumstances do. I have a girl at my studio in Aus who is absolutely stunning. Despite coming to ballet quite late, she has well and truly blossomed this year, and after years of getting turned down for every single program she has applied for, this has been the year of yeses! On top of a number of other successes this year, she has now been accepted into Covent Garden SS. Unfortunately, coming from a single parent family on the other side of the world and with siblings that also must be considered, it may not be possible for her to take up her place. The application form discusses financial aid being available and encourages everyone to apply regardless of their circumstances, but I think some people might be relying on that financial aid when they make their application, and when it comes time to accept their place they realise that it's simply not possible. The girl at my studio is doing everything she can to fundraise currently, but she's also being very mature and has accepted that it just might not happen. She's very aware that her family circumstances might limit the opportunities she's able to take up. However, she is utterly thrilled just to have got a yes, finally. It's been a huge boost to her self-esteem and an acknowledgment that at least one big international school likes her. And if it doesn't work out for and she has to decline her place, then another talented dancer will get the opportunity of a lifetime

Hahaha I didn't mean to be understated, anyone who knows me in real life knows I'm usually the exact opposite of that! And I really am thrilled with Advanced Foundation and Grade 7. It's only Intermediate I was a bit disappointed with, I felt so comfortable coming out of the exam and while I got a distinction, it was only just a distinction (75) and I'd dropped several marks from Intermediate Foundation. Perhaps it's the same as @DeveloppeD, sometimes the things you're most comfortable with don't actually end up being your best section? I was happier with my lower mark in Advanced Foundation because it was above expectations, and a bit disappointed with Intermediate because I thought I could have done better. But, I've had a few days to reflect on the circumstances again and have decided to stop being silly and just appreciate what I've managed to achieve! Although the other day, after my teacher and I jumped for joy a bit, she said 'we'll need to work really hard over the next few levels if you're going to compete for solo seal' 😶😖😧 Where on earth she got that notion from I will never know!!!

The results are in! Pretty happy all around, distinctions for Grade 7 and Intermediate (Grade 7 was my highest mark ever!) and a decent merit for Advanced Foundation. Considering I did three exams in two days with a broken rib and an inflamed tendon and all the other things that have gone wrong this year, I am beyond thrilled. Could I have done better in advanced foundation if I'd worked on it for longer? I genuinely don't know... That exam took just about all I had to give. But I did better than my teacher predicted for that exam and it has inspired me to keep training and working and not give up on exams completely. I might do advanced 1, one day, but I'm not in any rush anymore! Which may be a good thing as my studio isn't running any advanced 1 classes next year I'm quite upset as I was really looking forward to doing it and I don't know what class I should be doing now...but I'm sure I'll find something. I'm not quite ready to pack it in just yet.

In addition to the articulation points, they're also trying to train centre balance and jumping in a slightly different shoe. Standing in canvas shoes is basically like wearing socks and takes no extra work to balance. Plus, you can jump with the worst technique and while you might land with a thud, the shoes won't add to that at all. Pointe is different! Pointe shoes have a slightly raised sole which causes the foot to rock a bit more on the ground and makes them much harder to balance in them - try adage in your pointe shoes sometime and you'll see what I mean! Soft pointe shoes (either de-shanked regular pointes or specially bought demi pointes) are supposed to mimic the feeling of dancing with your toes slightly compressed, balancing on a different sole when on flat, keeping a high demi-pointe and how to land softly through a shoe that has a box. I buy bloch split sole and they have been made so comfortable that I think it completely defeats the purpose of a demi-pointe, it has none of the benefits and just looks ugly...but that's another issue.

Coppelia en pointe was just about the death of me, because of the speed of those darn chaines turns! But then I learned it first in flat shoes and only tried the variation en pointe at the end of one lesson to see how it went. The giselle variation I have learned entirely en pointe, including some (but not all) of the development exercises and I find that one, while challenging, much more achievable. And fun! Of course, I'm also 6 months further down the road than I was the last time I did Coppelia so who knows, I might try it again en pointe soon and be pleasantly surprised Pointe is also not my forte due to weak, hypermobile (yet completely flat) feet and ankles, so another dancer may not struggle with that aspect of things.

That's alright, happy to help out the other 'ballet as a second language' students on here And yes, my teacher is a blessing!

1) You should be aiming to spot at eye level or maybe slightly above or below. If you spot too high, you are having to physically tilt your head back on your neck. If you do this your spine cannot be vertical, and your weight will be thrown back behind you. This is a habit of mine that we've worked really hard to break this year! I tend to look at the floor when I'm dancing and then spot the roof on turns...it's not attractive. I find that eyeline is something that is often missing in adult beginner pupils, because so much of it gets taught in the primary levels and by the time you get to higher grades (where most adults start) you're just expected to know where it goes...my teacher says 'just do what feels natural' and tends to forget that it only feels natural to her because she's been doing it since she was 5 years old! 2) My teacher is an RAD examiner and often comes to us with tidbits picked up from various examiners courses, sometimes just from discussion with other examiners and sometimes directly from the current artistic director of the RAD. She says the gospel is that you should spot an en dedans turn 'halfway between 1 and the corner', (1 being en face in the RADs style of counting walls and corners). She says if you spot to 1 and end up facing the corner, you tend to leave your arms and the side of your body behind you which ruins your landing. If you spot to the corner, many students put too much force into it and over rotate. But she also says that where you spot depends on the student and it's all about getting the best turn for you. Different body types, proportions, degree of rotation, shape of the spine...they all need to slightly change the turning position and the mechanics of the turn to suit them. She wants you to turn straight up and straight down with a sharp spotting action and both legs as rotated as you can make them (and she says she can tell from the first plies how much rotation you have and she therefore expects you to use...Maybe not so much in Grade 5 as I think much of the work until then is done in parallel) She makes us switch up where we're spotting every now and then to see what works best and said she would never mark down a student for spotting closer to the front or to the corner. She marks on the spotting action, the whip of the head and the focus of the eyes, not where you're looking at the time. Hope that helps! As for Advanced Foundation @The_Red_Shoes I have been doing my best to forget the enchainment ever existed... Though we started to get some better results from me when we pretended it was split into 4 different exercises. The pirouettes to the right, the diagonal to the right, the pirouettes to the left and the diagonal to the left. At the end of each 'exercise' I would take a second to pause, take a breath, reset and focus. Nothing that happened in the previous 'exercise' mattered, because we were on to a new one and I had to put my sole focus on that. All of that pausing and breathing and thinking happened in about half a second, but it stopped the frenzied, exhausted push at the end just to finish the damn thing!

I'm hopefully going this year! Just as a spectator. I happen to be in Europe at the time so why not? Have just booked my hotel in Lausanne and now need to keep an eagle eye out for finals tickets. Very excited though! Two boys from my hometown are competing as well so fingers crossed for them

@DD Driver I think this is a very important consideration! In fact I think it goes further than that in Australia. In the UK it appears that you need a certain number of high quality A Levels during high school, and if you don't achieve these then it becomes very difficult to complete them later on and access university education. In Australia I can think of at least 3 or 4 different ways to access university, both in and out of high school. The most common is to sit at least 4 ATAR subject exams and receive a ranking against every other child examined in the country. ATAR subjects are just as readily available to homeschool children as they are to mainstream school children.The higher your ranking, the more exclusive the course and university you can attend. But even if you do poorly in a particular ATAR subject, there are a number of bridging courses you can take to catch up before starting your actual course. And ATAR is entirely separate from graduating Year 12 and getting a school leaving certificate, because it is recognised that exams are not going to suit every individual. There is also portfolio-based entry into university, which admittedly is harder and more common in Arts courses, but is about showing the quality of your school work over the course of the year, rather than your abilities in one highly stressful exam. I have many friends from my high school days who were accepted into degree courses this way. If you choose not to apply for university at 17, which I personally feel should be more encouraged than it is, then upon reaching the truly ancient age of 20, you are considered a mature aged student and both your ATAR and your portfolio are completely discarded. There is a different sort of exam you have to take to prove your eligibility for uni education and most people do far better at this with a little bit more age and experience under their belt, and also because now they usually know what the goal is to study at uni, rather than applying because everyone else is and they don't know what else to do. Other people start their education at the vocational training college, TAFE, and through learning in a different environment to high school, become more confident in their own abilities, often achieve far better marks overall, and use these marks to get into university. In my own experience, I did not achieve the requisite ATAR to get into a law program, mostly because I was one of those people who didn't know what they wanted to do and so put as little effort as possible into my schooling. I was also beset with low confidence in my academic abilities (I thought I was dumb, and that if you were dumb that was set in stone, not that the 'smart' kids actually went to school and then also studied at home. Oops). I found that the self-directed learning at university level, and being able to specialise in a niche subject area (anthropology) really benefitted me, and I ended up scoring far better marks than many of the people I went to school with who had a higher ATAR. I was then able to get into a post-graduate law course where once again, I have managed to balance full time work, 14 hours of ballet training a week, caring for a sick parent and I have still maintained a higher average mark than people I know who were top of the class in high school. This is taking things super off topic, but I know a few people were curious about the Australian system versus the UK one. I think this is why Australian parents might seem almost lax about schooling compared to British ones. It's not that they don't value education. It's not that they don't care to set their kids up after ballet. It's not that they don't feel the need for a back up plan. It's not that they are psycho tiger parents (though I've met a few around). It's the child who has to want this career or they won't make it, no matter how much the parent pushes. It's always the incredibly hardworking, hungry students that succeed after about 13/14/15, often to the chagrin of their parents who aren't ready to send them off into the big wide world yet. An attitude I think many here can agree with... The difference is that, Australian parents prepare their kids by making sure they are achieving their best academic results, but the pressure is also slightly off because university is very easy (some might say too easy) for them to attend later on in life. We can justify sending our kids to ballet fulltime and doing school online part of the time, one because the distance education system is VERY good, but also because it's not the only road to Rome. They can dedicate their early adult years to dancing and know that university is waiting for them when they get back. I hope this sheds a bit more light on the situation down under. (PS. I sincerely hope that no one thinks I was calling any child lazy! That is the farthest thing from what I was trying to say. I also didn't mean that any one child is 'entitled', I was trying to apply a bit of a provocative word to a social attitude (anthropologist 😕), not an individuals attitude. And that attitude was more in relation to only looking at British options, because you have so many, and a sense of reluctance to pursue training in other countries. It has nothing to do with their work ethic. I certainly don't see how Christopher Powney can call the kids who make it into classical upper schools 'resting on their laurels'. Obviously each individual has worked exceedingly hard to get where they are! Maybe 'entitled' wasn't quite the right word, now I've had some time to sleep on it...)

That's where I agree that there is a problem with the attitude of the schools themselves. Perhaps it's something as simple as 'the grass is greener'. It's not that the people auditioning in other locales are more talented, or more deserving, or fit the RBS mould better. Maybe simply by coming from another country, they are increasing the RBS's reputation as being a school that is sought after and coveted above other schools. People come from all over the world to train there, they make amazing sacrifices, so clearly it must be because the school is worth it. Maybe the opinion of the RBS and others like it is that, if they were to take primarily their own compatriots, they would lose that international acclaim and reputation...Though clearly this hasn't hurt POB! Of the students I personally know who have failed to find work after it, it has usually been because their circumstances have changed, their passion has diminished, or their mental or physical health has been so impacted that a career in ballet is no longer viable I would say this is a problem that plagues dancers the world over. As far as visas are concerned, many of the students I know are actually dual citizens travelling on UK passports because they have more value than Australian ones! This will probably cease to be the case post-Brexit but we'll see what happens. As for the US, after a quick google search it appears that the visa requirements are exactly the same for Australians and Brits, so I'm not sure why students are told not to bother auditioning there? There's certainly a lot of companies to choose from over there and I know some students who have been encouraged to audition over there as they have a more American 'style' of dancing. I believe Australia might have slightly better luck gaining a visa to Asian Pacific countries like Indonesia, but mainland Asia I think odds are about the same. We certainly have no extra claims to a visa in the ballet hubs of Japan, China and Korea. While Australia loves to claim that it's part of 'Australasia' and all that, most of Asia want nothing to do with us. Pretty similar to Europe, at least as far as Eurovision is concerned. It's just us and New Zealand down here at the bottom of the world with a bunch of penguins. Australians certainly have more rights emigrating to New Zealand than any other country, so that's one thing! As far as difficulty moving to Europe is concerned, I know it's something that concerns a lot of aspiring dancers I speak to here. They know if they want success they have to get up and get out. I think the attitude has mostly been 'become absolutely amazing so some great school offers me a scholarship and then some company, any company, will want me badly enough to sponsor a visa'. There's not really much else they can do...

I'm going to really throw the cat in among the pigeons here...please try and read this in the completely neutral tone that is intended and know that I'm not trying to insult or diminish anyone. I was just wondering if perhaps the issue isn't with British students' level of talent, or ability to work hard, or their desire for a career in ballet. Perhaps the problem is a sense of...well, entitlement. "This is a British school and I deserve to be there, because I am British. And if I don't get in there, I'll apply for the next 5 schools on my list, that are all within the UK." I don't mean entitlement in a mean way, I mean it like...you are very privileged. You have the best schools and a number of amazing, world renowned companies in your country, and the relatively small geographic area means that many students are not so far away from high quality training that accessing it is impossible. Obviously non-geographic barriers also apply and I see a lot of parents on this board living in rural areas who are struggling to access enough high quality training for their dancers, I'm not trying to discount this at all. But because you have so much opportunity, new schools opening up every year, associates programs in every major city...I wonder if perhaps the drive to look abroad and compete internationally with 'the best', simply isn't there... In my hometown, which is not large, I can name multiple students who this year are moving to Houston, Melbourne, Sydney, London, St Petersburg, New York, Alberta, Paris and Stuttgart. This year alone and that's just the kids I personally know. How many on this board can say the same thing? How many British students even apply for YAGP, or Prix de Lausanne? Why would they if their dream is to go to RBS and the auditions are happening on their door step? There's literally no reason why a UK dancer wouldn't be talented enough to win the Prix and get the sort of support that these international competition winners have, because they would be an international competition winner! While some countries certainly push their children to do more, earlier, I would say Australia is actually a lot more similar in training to the UK than for example America. Some kids take it to another level, particularly over east, but they're the exception rather than the rule. I would not say that it is either the training or the talent of British students that might be standing in their way, it's the attitude that they don't need to look too far from home until they're trying to get a job. It's even an attitude I've seen a little bit of on this thread. Is it any easier for an Australian to get a visa in the US than a brit? No. But I guarantee a lot more Australians are heading to the New World because they have no other options. Is this fair? Not particularly. Obviously I have the outsider perspective here and while this post might cause offence to some, it's certainly not my intention! I am in no way discrediting or devaluing your children. I know how much they want this, I know the hours they put in, I see it in thread after thread here every day! I would love to be told that my opinion is wrong, that I've misrepresented things, and I'd like to hear responses to this because I know this will not be a very popular idea. I would like to be proved wrong. I just know that it cannot be that your students are less talented, less hardworking or get worse teaching than the rest of the planet. So there must be another reason...and I'm just brainstorming to figure out what that might be.

I think another side of the coin is, if schools stay limited to the population of the country they're based in, wouldn't this attitude also apply equally to British students? What about those talented Brits wanting to study in Monaco, New York, Paris, Stuttgart, Toronto, Melbourne, Moscow, Amsterdam, St Petersburg... The nature of ballet is that it's an international art, and schools and companies want to recruit from the best students around the world. This applies equally to British students. I know that some schools do tend to preference their own nationals above international students (particularly in France and Russia) but many schools have the same international focus that RBS and ENBS are showing now. And that benefits you just as much as the Australian and Japanese and whatever else students that aspire to train in those schools. And tax payers in those countries also help to offset the fees paid by your talented and hard working students. An Australian is no more deserving of a spot at ABS than anyone else just because they were born in Australia (though of course they may be more able to take up such a spot if one is offered). And this international recruiting all goes towards creating the multidimensional, diverse cast of dancers that make up the ballet companies we love to watch; diverse not just in nationality, but height and body type as discussed above. Just trying to give a different perspective...

I know you can turn pointe shoes tan using either a liquid or a powder foundation. Could you buy white foundation from a stage makeup store (used for turning people into ghosts etc) and pancake with that?