The_Red_Shoes

Oh Lin, how rotten for you, just when your foot is getting better. Isn't it dreadful when you're an active oldie and then something happens and suddenly you can't do the things that are such a big part of our lives and of what is keeping us young? I managed my exam prep lesson today, just substituting 1st position for 5th and 3rd for 4th and at least I can work on everything else. I'm not taking any pain killers at all. If i remember not to make movements that I shouldn't then it doesn't hurt and if I do then it burns/aches for some minutes after the aaagh! moment but then quietens down again. I can manage 2nd position fine and even arabesque and I can lift and carry things and push them as long as they are no higher than a little over waist height. However my sleep is very disrupted as I just can't find a comfortable position and there's all kinds of odd things that are difficult (putting my hair up, getting my arm into a sleeve). I shall ask the physio tomorrow if I really should be seeing a doctor. And I'll need a doctor's certificate if I need to defer my exam : (

Has anyone had experience of a rotator cuff injury? I'm suffering at the moment. I didn't do it dancing - I fell in a rather humiliating way on ice - and although my lower back is now better my arm is definitely not. I don't think it's a big tear but it's uncomfortable enough and I can't sleep comfortably, lift things off a high shelf or fasten my bra. Anyway, I have a physio appointment tomorrow but I wanted to hear from anyone with a dance-specific experience. I can just about manage balletic ports de bras if I'm very careful and keep my arms on the low side but Free Movement (arms straight above head) and character (that Hungarian pose with hand to nape) are both out of the question. I have my Grade 7 exam in 10 weeks and I'm hoping it will be better in time.

Moderation is an integral part of all public examinations - I mean in education in general, not only in ballet. I'm sure that in order for RAD exams to be accredited by OFQUAL then they are obliged to have a system of moderation. Otherwise they couldn't guarantee fairness and consistency in marking.

Teachers only rarely mention private lessons on their websites but in my experience most teachers will do them. They are by arrangement and often you have to approach them and ask if it's possible. It's tricky when the teachers use hired space as you have to coordinate when you are free/when they are free/when the space is free. I think you're right about the labour of love aspect - I think few teachers are going to get rich. Generally the very popular classes (little kids ballet and adult non-ballet exercise classes) subsidise the others. I know my teacher is earning just £10 an hour in her private lessons as half of what she charges pays for the room. Private lessons are great for really working with your particular needs. I know that for beginners that need is often to understand what on earth is going on! As others have said, everyone experiences that sense of being confused and left behind, not just when beginning but every time you move on to a new challenge. I would also recommend getting a bit of theoretical knowledge under your belt, either from videos or books, so that even when you can't do it you have a clearer idea of what it is you are trying to do!

Alas,it takes about 6 weeks for the results to come through so weeks of uncertainty. The official results date for each exam session is on the RAD website. I came back to ballet three years ago after a 25 year break. I'm 66 and will be taking Grade 7 in March. I have taken Grade 6 and Inter in the last few years.

Well the RAD has said to wear outdoor shoes as long as they make the right sound. I suppose the various manufacturers will respond eventually, once there's enough of a demand.

I think the important thing is to look alive and not blank/total concentration/frightened rabbit. In the RAD summer intensive last year the teacher demonstrated a fondu exercise, beautifully but with an absolutely blank demeanour. And then he repeated it with attitude to show how it comes alive - he favoured a James Bond villainess vibe, but the important thing was to show who you are and to say something. Is Grade 5 the one with the Kitri dance? That needs a bit of sass - a red tutu feel!

Hi Farli, Welcome to the forum. I'm one of the other mature adult students here who take exams. About your question - well, you get marks for expression and communication, and smiling is definitely part of that. I think the important thing is that it should be natural and sincere, a genuine expression of your feeling for and about that movement. So if you love dancing and it makes you smile, show it! I agree with what Ballet Chick says above - appropriate to the style/music/feel of the exercise. So personally I always smile in tendus and allegros but would tend to look more serious and thoughtful for ports de bras.

I know that there are vegan ballet shoes around, but has anyone come across vegan character shoes? Specifically for a child doing RAD exams - so the usual shoes are canvas, not a problem, but have suede soles.

I've managed to find the music section and this is what it says: Metronome marks in our scores were added retrospectively, by listening to the recordings of the syllabus music and using this online metronome to calculate an average tempo for each track. Tempos for the recording were decided during the creation and piloting of the syllabus, working with several dancers in different schools. The speeds are thus a result of the process, they weren’t imposed on the dancers from outside. With that in mind, our metronome markings shouldn’t be viewed as the only ‘correct’ tempo for an exercise, but as a rough guide when you first learn the music, or when you have not had enough rehearsal with a group of dancers to work out a good tempo between yourselves.

Yes, I find having a real live pianist for class is always wonderful and just sweeps you along. I marvel at their skill and creativity in coming up with range of inspiring/exciting/amusing pieces and in collaborating with the teacher, not to mention when they play for repertoire. It would definitely help give a sense of occasion that would help with the performance aspect. I think it's going to depend on whether I can get a piano rehearsal or not. It would be wonderful to have a pianist who can play each exercise at the tempo that shows me to my best advantage - but I definitely wouldn't want any horrible surprises. (I forgot to say - I'm taking the exam alone so it can be tailored just to me.) In my inter exam at the Manchester RAV the pianist there played pretty much the same as the cd, except for the pirouettes en dehors which he took rather steadier, which I greatly preferred. But this pianist that I'll have for grade 7 apparently caused some discombobulation among my inter classmates who did the exam at our home studio. And he has played for lots of the vocational exams but has never played for any of the higher grades before. My teacher says that in an exam the examiner should do that, but if they don't then it's perfectly acceptable for you to request the examiner to tell the pianist to play faster/slower, but I think it would take a lot of courage to speak up like that! Incidentally, I did once check on the RAD website and it seems that the music tempo is not set in stone so it's not an actual requirement that you perform at the same tempo as on the cd. Obviously, an allegro can't be played as an adage or v.v. but as far as I recall it said that the metronome markings are not set. I can't check that as the music section is one of the sections of the old website that I can't find on the new version.

What do people think about whether it's better to have piano or recorded music for Grade 7 exams? I'm being offered a choice as there will be others taking IF the same day so my teacher will be hiring the pianist for that day anyway. However this pianist has never played for Grade 7 before. I love live piano music but I think the tempi in Grade 7 are very unforgiving. The classical dance played a smidge too fast would be panic-stricken and too slow would be horribly heavy. The character exercises taken any faster than the recorded music would be physically impossible - but a pianist could take them a fraction slower. It would be expensive paying for a piano rehearsal but I wouldn't want to try it without a run through and the chance to talk about it. I think a rehearsal would only be possible in any case if the IFs also want one.

Royal Ballet video "Ballet and the brain: the science of how dancers learn choreography": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjUregOtV_Q

Other really good books - available second hand as they are oldies but goodies: First Steps in Ballet: Basic Exercises at the Barre Paperback – 23 Jul 1994 by Thalia Mara (Author), Louise Holdgren (Illustrator) (The first of a series - If I remember correctly a series of four books with the last dealing with pointework, so basically covering everything.) Ballet Basics Paperback – 16 Sep 2003 by Sandra Noll Hammond (Author) Also an excellent second book Ballet: beyond the basics covering Intermediate level I love ballet books. In the 80s I was a regular customer of Ballet Books in Cecil Court just along from Freeds. I've recently been repurchasing copies of books second hand that I owned many years ago. I recently bought a copy of Karsavina's Classical Ballet: the flow of movement that I first bought in 1965 with my 12th birthday money!

When it comes to learning complicated sequences, I would never try to "catch up" by doing a step when it's already too late but if you're supposed to be, say, in 5th on count 4 try to be there even if you missed out what came immediately before. If you can, try to capture the general "shape" of the whole sequence and a few highlights and try to fit those in while fudging some other bits. I think picking up sequences is also a lot easier once you have some conceptual understanding of the steps.

I was just mentally composing a reply when youngatheart posted and said much of what I was thinking. You are doing very well in coping with what sounds like a class well ahead of where you are. Believe me, the confusion, the "which way should I be facing now?", "what comes next?" and state of brain fog still happens at all levels when doing unfamiliar work at the limit of our current capability or with a new teacher. There is so much to process simultaneously and it takes time and practice for your brain and body to arrive at the kind of automatic responses and muscle memory patterns that allow you to focus on one thing while the other processes carry on automatically. Does your teacher work on the same exercises over a number of classes, or is it new every week (which is a particular challenge)? You will gradually learn the set positions, the conventional arm movements for each step and also get to know the way in which your teacher's mind works. I would say definitely talk to your teacher, who may well set you a simplified exercise. I have always been a "theoretical" dancer and like to understand what I'm doing and also practise mentally as Sugar Plum above says and have always liked to have a ballet reference library at home (and there are also tutorials and explanatory videos on youtube). Many of the great books from the past seem to be out of print now, but the standard (weighty tome) currently available is Classical Ballet Technique by Gretchen Ward Warren.

How wonderful, Sophie. My eye is doing very well, thanks, and I'm looking forward to getting back into dancing. I'm already doing bits of adage in the kitchen and managing to restrain myself from pirouettes. Half term next week and I'll be back to my private lesson the week after where I can do a full lesson doing only those things that I am medically allowed to do. I'm thinking that I'll go back to one of my other classes where I've already paid a term's fee which otherwise would just be wasted and just do the bits I can.

Yes, the same here except that it wasn't even that I'd never danced on pointe before. I had danced on pointe till I was about 40 and thought taking it up again would be "just like riding a bicycle, you never forget." Well, how wrong can you be? I do think that it's largely a mental block. I got to be confident at the barre but every second in the centre was a struggle and I could never tell if I would manage to get up or not. It's as if there was an equal and opposite invisible force always pulling me back and I think that force was fear. I managed enough to just about limp through my Inter exam, with a failing mark for that section. It has prevented me from continuing with Advanced Foundation. I've stopped pointe again now, probably for ever, because I don't think it's any good for my bunyons, although I still get occasional urges. Sorry that I can't offer any tips on how to get over it.

Thanks Viv. I had eye surgery last week so I'm taking two weeks off and then concentrating on the barre, port de bras, adage and free movement for a few weeks as I'm not allowed to "exert myself". Well what is or isn't exertion kind of depends on what you usually do, doesn't it? Getting out of breath and full forward port de bras is definitely not allowed for six weeks as it raises pressure inside the eye. So I'm cutting out pirouettes for a couple of weeks and jumps for a few weeks longer than that and then should be back to normal by mid-November. My exam isn't until March so it's not a big problem.

Oh Viv, what unfortunate timing. Wishing you all the very best for your exam and hoping that you will still attain your longed-for mark. Which dances are you doing? I'm guessing from your description of hardly any jumps: Demi-caratere, Dramatique and Danse Russe.

First of all huge congratulations Sophie on recent achievements AND dancing in America again AND upcoming marriage.No wonder I haven't seen you around for a while - you've had/got/will have a lot going on. I really love all of Grade 7 with the possible exception of the character which I may come to like when I can actually do it properly. I like the look of the Hungarian style but, yes, two out of three exercises are murderously fast and I keep kicking myself while still not managing to get clear, audible heel clicks. I like the free movement, which I didn't at all in Grade 6, but I have bruised shins from all the kneeling (I think I'm either very thin skinned or I have strange ultra-bony shins). I wear doubled over leg warmers to try to preserve them. Of course, in the actual exam I will just have to put up with the pain. I'm doing the classical dance. I'm still building up the stamina for it, as it is a killer but my teacher thinks it really suits me. Yes, lots of running, in fact the whole exam has rather a lot of running. We're taking the time in my private lesson to really get all the use of space spot on. Things like the last phrase of the classical dance - cover the whole diagonal with élan (Bournonville is all about "joyous élan" ) but don't end up with finishing pose too far into downstage corner. I think the Danes are just different to most other companies in the things they do well. It's not that they are at all technically inferior, but the things they do are so very subtle and they can still do things that other people have forgotten even existed. If you watch the Bournonville classes, or the 50 Bournonville enchaînments - the batterie, the long technical adages, the sheer strength and the calm ease with which they do the most difficult things... I think this video of Johan Cobborg coaching Royal Ballet's Marcellino Sambé is very illuminating: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoXJPFqmOKA

How are you getting on with the character section? I think that Cabrioles and Quick Letjos will be the death of me! I saw your port de bras video. Looking good.

I'm preparing for Grade 7 too and I love that version of La Sylphide. You can identify all the parts of the set exercises that echo the choreography eg the adage at the barre quotes the big corps de ballet adage in Act II. I watch it about once a week, and also the Royal Danish Ballet videos of the Bournonville class and feel that they have really helped me to grasp the nuances of the style. It is a historical piece and the Danes have had it in continuously in their repertoire forever. The Danish style is very unflashy - but just look at the precision and their amazing allegro, notably the lightness of their jumps. The Danes are famous for their use of traditional balletic mime, which I think they carry off in a remarkably naturalistic way. When this was choreographed pointe work was brand new and the ballerina was showing off this new technique so the corps only get to do a few bourees whereas that one supported arabesque on pointe at the end of the big pas de deux would have been a show stopper at the time. I think the role of the corps de ballet is very similar to that in Giselle, of a similar period, although Giselle has been updated more over time or evolved along with balletic style while Sylphide is more of its time. James accepted the scarf because Madge said it would allow him to catch the sylph. She didn't tell him that it would kill her. I've never been entirely sure either why Effie marries Gurn so quickly. I've theorised (a) longer than a day has passed while James is in an enchanted state in the forest or (b)she was marrying James in an automatic way - marriage is what you did then at age 21 and ultimately Gurn would do just as well as James. Actually Gurn seems to me a generally nicer person than James. (I'm doing my family history at the moment and it's remarkable how many people remarried literally weeks after the death of a spouse - they must have arranged for the banns at the same time as the funeral!)

Another MUCH older dancer here. I agree with NeverTooOld that it's harder getting flexibility and stamina but I'm definitely stronger and have a clearer understanding of technique. I'm definitely more focused and determined than when I was younger. I think I've become a more confident performer too and know how to make the most of what I can do. I passed RAD Inter last year aged 65, RAD Grade 6 earlier this year and will take Grade 7 next spring somewhere around my 67th birthday. Go on, you can do it!

Actually, I don't like it as much as some others on Youtube. I think her arms are not so soft and her bourrées not so tight or smooth. I don't like that final pose at all with the back bend instead of the usual folding forward over the front leg. I don't find it so elegant or pathetic. But of course I'm also very much aware of how my own bourrées are considerably less tight and smooth!