Raquelle

2 hours ago, Beezie said:

Great articles!  If anyone has an article on pre-class warm-up the is geared for younger children and follows the idea of dynamic stretching, I’d love some tips.  My daughter has some time to warm up before class on her own, and probably defaults to static stretches.  (Though she does a quick jog around the block first.)

 

Likewise for home stretching.  Or should home stretching really be replaced with home strengthening?

 

The act of getting into a split is still commonly seen as THE accomplishment by children.  And still taught with a lot of static stretches…though I think most studios have now moved these to the end of class.  But it doesn’t stop kids from wanting to practice these at home, where it is a lot harder to really warm up.

I don't really have much advice Beezie in terms of a pre class warm up..for Jas/in my dd school their warm up tends to be more skips, star jumps, marches with a few arm movements rather than stretches per se. In her new school they are very very careful with stretches and tell them not to do splits etc and certainly not oversplits....its a lot more about conditioning and strengthening and I think (hopefully) flexibility will come from dancing rather than lots of stretching....

9 hours ago, valentina said:

You can just apply to mids if you want. It won’t make any difference. They will offer her a place at White Lodge if they think she’s super suitable, EVEN IF YOU ONLY APPLIED FOR MIDS.  It’s a bit different if you apply to White Lodge. Because, if you are not offered a WL place from finals you also may not automatically get a mids place as some centres are very oversubscribed, such as London.

I'd go for both...we had already decided wl wasn't the right fit for our DD...she made finals (which was a fabulous experience in inself) and got offered a mids place. We were in two minds about vocational school and would have sent her to mids had she not gone to elmhurst. Valentina is right not everyone who makes finals gets mids, most either get mids or swl however sometimes they find a physical issue at finals which can rule them out...in terms of funding mds is available if they get a place. We have mds but it is still a huge financial sacrifice for our family. There are calculators online which are fairly accurate to give you an idea x 

57 minutes ago, sunrise81 said:

Mrs T is the best 💗💗💗💗💗

She is so lovely! 😍 

On 30/09/2021 at 13:55, Bettyballetboo said:

Feel a bit in over my head reading all of these very honest responses. So many things I hadn’t even considered.  Are the house parents very hands on ? How self sufficient do the children need to be ? Do they have chores etc ? How are they looked after if they become sick in the night ? Sorry so many questions ! 

Hello....my DD has only been at elmhurst for a few weeks (and spent 2 weeks at home due to covid!), however the house parents have been amazing so far. There are 2 house parents and they both seem so lovely. They said that they can knock on their door anytime of the day or at night if they are upset, or not feeling well. The children seem to adapt quite well to new routines but they get a lot of support in the early days. They don't expect them to be fully self sufficient...so for example they had a bun lesson on the first day! And they helped them understand the timetable. They have a set time to call home and elmhurst family time each evening.....I know its early days but so far I've felt they've been really nurturing and loving to my DD. My dd got upset one day and had a hug and a chat to the house parent. You are encouraged to call if you're ever worried about anything Xxx 

2 hours ago, Julsgalaxy said:

Oh that’s lovely that she’s happy so far xx

Aw she is...moments of home sickness bit generally loving it...feel free to pm me further down the process if you have any questions...Good luck with everything x 

Hello. My daughter is a year 7 newbie in Elmhurst. Such a good idea to ask for different perspectives..... It's probably a bit early to tell for us but so far our experiences have been very positive. At this point last year we weren't even sure whether to apply and she had only just started associates...in the end we applied just to keep options open and it was only during auditions when my dd saw the school that she decided she wanted to go. Even when we got results it took a good few weeks of mulling it all through before we made the hard decision to let her go...its not easy and we all miss her terribly but she seems happy and I can't believe all the experiences she has had already in just a few weeks! X  

On 20/09/2021 at 19:22, Dancemum100 said:

Thanks for this topic! My daughter wants to audition and I am completely clueless. I have tried searching topics but can only find old threads and am hoping for some help!

 

I know that RBS offers means testing fees to all students but what about the others? My daughter has her heart set on Tring but without financial help this won’t be possible- which she knows! Can anyone shed some light pls?

 

I know you can be invited to audition for awards, but what if you don’t get one? Is it then full fees regardless of income?

Hello. RbS and elmhurst have around 14 spaces for boys and girls which are all mds (means tested)...Hammond have a mixture of mds and fee paying places (less mds places than elmhurst/hammond). I think most get invited to finals and then the they offer mds to the top dancers then others are placed on a waiting list and if people give up their mds places they offer them to those on the list...I think some years they have a small number of bursaries? Tring also have mds but the least amount for all the schools (I've heard about 3 per year but not sure how accurate this is). They don't take many to finals. Those who aren't offered mds are normally placed on a waiting list for it.....we got an offer to Tring but not funding finals so we weren't able to accept. Moorland and Yda don't have mds but they do offer a small number of bursaries or awards I think? Good luck with the auditions...its a rollercoaster we went through it last year and Dd is happy at Elmhurst now. Hope this helps xx 

7 hours ago, Noideaaboutballet said:

Hi everyone. I can’t find the answer to this anywhere so I hope you can help! What do you do with the ribbon when it is a Y6 bun? Do you wrap it around the bun and tie a bow? If so is it at the top or the bottom? Any help would be appreciated as we are such novices at all of this! 🥴 Thank you! 

Seems like it varies by centre judging by some of the responses here...Our teacher in Bath was quite relaxed and we saw a mix of buns and ribbons! Some had it wrapped round and tied, sometimes the bow was at the top, some had it at the side and some at the bottom...I found the best way for us was to use a short piece of ribbon, then tie a small bow the size you want and use a kirby clip to stick it into the bun rather than wrap it round and tie it...xx 

Hello! We were in your position last year...what a rollercoaster! Dd off to elmhurst in Sept! We went on all the open days (all virtual so hard to really get a flavour of the schools). I was under the impression that all the schools seemed to do a similar amount of dance (around 4 hours daily as you say). We applied for the 4 doing mds although Moorland looks lovely and I know they do bursaries. YdA also seemed a lovely school with bursaries, however we live quite far and they don't have boarding houses so wasn't for us. Good luck with everything xxx 

10 hours ago, Lily Craggs said:

We’ll be in class JA3 with miss Gaines 

Everyone in Bath took mats...mostly the thin ones you could roll up and carry. X 

On 11/07/2021 at 03:11, Kanangra said:

Just looking at the timetable from my DD's dance school a couple of years ago,  Grade 1 kids would be doing 2 classes of ballet (RAD syllabus) a week (one was 45 mins and the other an hour), plus another hour of ballet which was a troupe for performance at eisteddfods/end of year concert etc and was based on age rather than grade level (eg 8U, 10U etc). There was also a 45 minute stretch and conditioning class. Most of these kids would have also been doing an hour of jazz, some would also have done an hour of tap, and a half hour private lesson. This is a school which includes recreational preschool classes right up to full time vocational level.

 

Good luck with it all! I wish I had known what I know now when my DD was 7.5!

 

My dd was doing 45 minutes of ballet that age plus 45 minutes jazz and tap. I followed her lead and at that age she wasn't ready for much more training....We increased her training this year heading into year 6 to give her a fighting chance for vocational school auditions so she started 2 associate schemes (8 hours a month total) and did an extra ballet class with her local school plus contemporary....as long as your DD is happy and enjoying dance at her age that's the main thing. There are some lovely associate schemes around and most are looking for potential at that age so don't worry too much about having to do loads of training ....also English youth ballet is lovely for performance experience too. As others have said it's quality over quantity and also enjoyment over anything else xxx 

My daughter will turn 11 on 9th July so she will just be old enough! She is currently grade 4 and 5...but hasn't started her intermediate exams yet though and isn't on pointe would you say she would be ok to try this class? Thanks! 

39 minutes ago, Noideaaboutballet said:

We are brand new to this. Feeling a bit terrified as we only entered on a bit of a “let’s just see” on the final day and got a yes for Y6 Eastleigh. I know nothing about ballet as my daughter is a gymnast really. Have we got in over our heads as she only does 45 mins of ballet a week and will she stick out like a sore thumb?! 🥴🥴🥴

Congratulations! It is a lovely scheme and they take them all back to basics so it isn't difficult. A lot about posture etc. So your daughter won't stand out...she obviously is showing a lot of potential which is what they are looking for. Best of luck xxx 

6 minutes ago, margarite said:

Congrats to all the yeses and SWL 🎉. I know SO many gorgeous dancers that are now at vocational school or with RBS Mids and Senior Associate places who never received a JA place - so if it was a no today - don’t give up 👍

Absolutely! We were a no year 4...swl year 6 but got in off that and off to elmhurst with a mids offer this year!  They change and improve so much when they are little. Congratulations all xxx 

12 hours ago, BalletBoysDad said:

Being a bit of a numbers geek, before my sons first audition for London, I looked at all the annual reports easily accessible online. You could see year on year a steady increase in the numbers applying. Equally you could see how more and more boys are applying. The older reports used to break down applications and spaces allocated by centre, so you could actually work out the percentage of male and female applicants that got places. In the early days, you might have (eg) 8 boys auditioning for 5 spaces at Eastleigh. They’ve stopped breaking it down by centre as you can easily work out how the ‘odds’ vary greatly from centre to centre. I worked out that if boys had a 1/10 chance in London they might have a 1/7 chance in Birmingham. But the other side of that argument is that if the child has what they’re looking for they have a 1/1 chance.  But for this year, it’s clear that if centres return to ‘normal capacity’ its a very favourable year to apply.

In terms of numbers they used to quote on their website that it is around a 10 to 15% chance I think of getting into JAs and as ballet boy says there will be regional variations. I was told that last year they only took a third of what they normally take due to the pandemic...hopefully with things resuming to normal there will be better odds for your DCs. Having spent the last month refreshing emails like a mad woman for vocational school results/mids results I know how you all feel! Xxx best of luck everyone xx 

1 hour ago, rowan said:

What do you mean by “enough training”? It’s the quality that matters more than the quantity. Mine did, I think, about 2 hours a day - I can’t really remember now - and quite a bit on Saturday. It gradually ramped up as she got older. She started off doing three classes a week at the start of secondary school and then more. She came home from school (maybe 35 mins away) ditched her school bag, got changed, went to ballet, and came home for tea and homework. There was enough spare time left over for seeing friends, etc, and other hobbies too. Mine did 13 GCSEs - in the days when students seemed to do more subjects than they do now. So it was perfectly possible. The only thing ballet affected was that she couldn’t do an extra twilight GCSE (taught after the normal school day) on offer by her school, because that meant she couldn’t get to ballet in time. However, as I say, it was made easier because we lived close by a dance school with good-quality classes. This is key, I think. If the only thing you’ve got available is one class of RAD grade 5 within a 30-minute drive, that is 

I totally agree quality over quantity...but there does need to be a certain amount to give a fighting chance...locally my dd does two 55 minute ballet classes per week with her dance school...even with associate classes it would definitely not be enough...I think it depends on what is available really...I so wish she could have access to the training locally but where we live its just not possible really....xxx 

6 minutes ago, Medora said:

I just don’t see how it’s possible to fit in enough ballet around secondary school. We want to try vocational upper school but honestly can’t see how we can ever manage to fit in enough training, with academic school taking up a lot of time particularly from year 9. Even two hours of ballet per day will be difficult.

 

how do you do it? 

Medora this is why our little Dd is off to vocation school this sept. We just couldn't get anywhere near that level of training locally and she would have spent every weekend travelling down round the country to access the associate schemes...maybe it depends where you live and if you have good training on your doorstep? It's such a hard decision to send them to boarding school but it was the only way we could give her the chance to train more seriously. I think in other parts of the country though it would be possible to stay home and train and have comparable training but I'd imagine it wouldn't be easy xxx 

3 minutes ago, Beezie said:

Any thoughts on the age to start auditions? And how to set expectations for younger children?

 

We have avoided schools and programs that require auditions.  I worry that there is a big genetic component that will be evaluated, which my daughter cannot control.  (Ie banana feet, hyper extension, flat turnout.) 

 

However, at 9-10, we are finding more and more programs that require auditions.  
 

How do you manage audition expectations with a young child?  I struggle to explain that there are physical characteristics that are part of the evaluation which she cannot control.  Every time I try this in my mind, it either seems like it has the potential to kill her motivation or lead to body issues.  However, it also seems a bit unfair to avoid this topic all together.  Any thoughts?

It is difficult...but they aren't expecting perfection at that age...they do look for certain attributes but they wouldn't expect a 9 or 10 year old to have all the qualities. Often it's more about potential at this age.  Our daughter had nos for her JA audition year 4 then another no year 5 for another scheme. She is now is off to vocational school! I think the nos helped make her more resilient and she worked on those areas that weren't so strong (for her it was turnout and flexibility). I suppose it depends what you want really, whether it's ballet for fun or whether your daughter wants to dance more seriously. There are some schemes which are very very competitive, and others where although you have to audition, it seems most get in. I don't really want to name names here 😀. If you want a bit of extra training i wouldn't let the audition process put you off...maybe chat to your dance teacher about potential and they can point you towards the right schemes to apply for, which might be right for your DD? When my daughter first applied I just said it is very competitive so let's just have a lovely day together...we made audition days fun one on one times together. Good luck to your DD xxx 

3 hours ago, MissEmily said:

Thank you so much everyone for your responses. That is so helpful. I’m putting together an information pack on the application process for my pupil’s parents, and that was the one piece of information I couldn’t find on the websites as of course applications for this year have closed. They need to know how much to put aside because, as you’re all saying, it adds up 😬 Fortunately for them, they seem to have family all over the place, so hopefully not too many hotel bills!

This is such a good idea! We had elmhurst on Tuesday in Birmingham, hammond Wednesday in chester, then royal ballet Friday eve in London...it meant for us paying for five days accommodation due to the times of auditions and where we live...fortunately due to the pandemic noone was travelling so hotel rates were reasonable...an amazing experience though x 

8 hours ago, MissEmily said:

Can anyone tell me what the application fees are for Year 7 entry to:

 

RBS

Elmhurst

Tring

Moorland

YDA

 

Do you have to pay to apply to all of them?

 

Thank you!

Hi Miss Emily. We applied to the big 4, rbs elmhurst tring and Hammond last year. I'm so sorry I can't remember exact amounts but yes you do have to pay to apply to all of them. Not sure about YdA and Moorland though as we didn't apply but presume there would be a fee there. From memory for Tring you have to pass a screening to apply (which was free I think) and I think originally this was the case with elmhurst too (although I think in the end everyone got a prelim audition for elmhurst). I don't remember having to pay anymore after the prelim application/audition (except for hammond) so I think once you paid, that if you got to finals this was included. It was the hotels, travel and food that cost the most in finals week. Best of luck with everything. Its a rollercoaster ride! 

11 minutes ago, PetitJeté said:

Thank you, that’s really helpful to know. I would have assumed by August it was a no go! 

We got a place on the JAs in August and our friend got a mids place the same day! So definitely not too late. We know of another JA place being offered in August too! 

1 hour ago, In at the deep end said:

That's actually already happening, as her local teacher is very much from the RB background, so a few positions/postures clash between her and the YD teacher. My DD accepts this and tries to remember whose class she's in 😂

I think it is definitely manageable. I suppose it depends what you want and how seriously your dd wants to dance...when my dd was in year 4 she was a bit apathetic towards dance so we didn't apply to any extra schemes as I wasn't going to pay all that money or travel if she wasn't that bothered! A year later she matured quite a bit and said she wanted go apply and we ended up doing 2 schemes in year 6 (1 every other week, 1 monthly). I would say if she wants to or is thinking of heading to vocational school the vast majority do at least 1 often 2 or 3....I am glad we ramped up her training so to speak in year 6 as it gave her a fighting chance when it came to vocational auditions, although I still think she does less than many! X 

13 minutes ago, BalletBoysDad said:

Thank you @Macy1that makes sense. If you were offered a place with the opportunity to audition for funding, I understand why someone would await the outcome of that funding audition before deciding to accept their offer. 

Basically if you're invited to finals for Tring or hammond you have a place, the finals are to decide who wins a funded place. Tring have less mds than other schools so from our experience less people get to funding finals there than perhaps other schools. This was the only school we didn't get funding finals for xx 

1 hour ago, Dancermom said:

I was wondering this too.. I think maybe it would be a couple of weeks until they have heard from everybody at all the centres whether they’re accepting a place or not. 

Deadline was the 17th May for acceptance of places. Good luck to you both xxx 

9 hours ago, Milzmam said:

I see Hammond have added some extra auditions for both lower school dance and theatre arts for Sept 2021 entry.  I wonder how many other schools/colleges look to increase their numbers now restrictions are hopefully starting to lift.  Good luck to anyone auditioning xx

Hello. Just wondered if there would be any mds spaces left do you think? It's for a friend. X