Motomum

I know that CBS are also moving to the Southbank from next September to purpose built premises. Good ballet training this side of the river is always a positive for us as we are not in London.

Thankyou for everyone’s responses, I appreciate any and all feedback. My son is not interested in a residential training program at the moment, and neither am I, so a good associates training is where we are looking. He is very keen on continuing down the RBS Associate path, he likes their training approach, it suits his personality and learning style. That said I would still like him to audition for and consider alternatives, especially as he enjoys contemporary and is showing a lot of potential for it. I don’t want him to keep all his eggs in one basket he is too young, he’s not 11 yet, so it is good to hear that those of you with children at Central are saying positives about the senior associates training. We are also going to look at ENBS, but he is too young at the moment.

My child’s JA teacher recently recommended Central Ballet School Associates as an excellent program offering both classical and contemporary ballet training. I asked for a recommendation because my son wants to broaden his ballet training, as he really enjoys Contemporary ballet as well. Does anyone’s son train with Central on their Associate program? Would love to hear a bit more about it. Thank you.

Thank you everyone. i shall make a list and get my son to see which one he likes the best.

My son 10 has a few pairs of ballet shoes and they all scrunch up under the ball of his feet as he tendus, or indeed makes any point. It looks ugly and he hates it now that he is more aware of the aesthetics of ballet. 😁 i have always bought online before or from his dance teacher, but now that he is in a few Associate schemes and taking things a little more seriously how do I go about finding a good fitting shoe. i am in Covent Garden with him in December and if I recall correctly there is a dance shop there. Would they help me find a good fit and shoe type that is right for his foot?

Hi, I’m going to go against the majority and say that it is of course possible that the dip in your child’s schoolwork is because of the increase in her dance hours. Not all children especially when younger can cope and consequently something suffers. I understand your concern, I would be too, your instinct or first thoughts are that it could be the extra hours. What does your daughter think about her school work dipping? Would she like to give up one of her dance classes, like street dance? what does her teacher think? How much down time does she have to relax, for her body and mind to rest and have fun, this is as important to our children’s emotional well-being as a tightly packed schedule. Balance is everything.

Hi, I am looking for a regular non-syllabus classical ballet class for my 10 year old son preferably taught by a male teacher with good training credentials. We live in the Portsmouth area so I am happy to drive but not more than an hour. Failing this are there any really good male ballet teachers in the Hampshire area that might offer individual tuition. Thank you.

Hello, Could anyone tell me on which day and the approximate time of the MA’s training in Covent Garden, morning or afternoon? Thank you.

We did what Dancing Unicorn has done this last year, we increased my son's regular dance classes. He also joined the Intermediate class, he is G4 RAD, which he loved. He is enjoying being challenged. Does English Youth Ballet audition and put on a ballet where you are or near to you? They were the catalyst to my son auditioning for RBS JA's for the first time this year, and stepping up his classes. Performing with a professional ballet company on stage in his local theatre lit a fire in him that is burning very brightly still.

My son 10, did a non-syllabus Boys 12 week ballet course this year taught by an RBS dancer. What became very apparent as the weeks went on was that they did the same thing over and over and over again. They did not progress past a certain point umless the point at which they were currently at was absolutely perfect. The teacher never felt they were good enough so they didn’t put the spin on the end of their pirouette prep. The teaching approach was slow, exacting, and strict. The main focus of every movement was posture, and then posture over and over again. i have watched the live feed RBS rehearsals from the ROH on YouTube. If you are interested in a taster of how the training would be with RBS they are well worth watching. The style of teaching that they use does not suit everyone, it would not suit me, and their approach to training is very different from other schools from what I can see. Their belief that it is better to master one move with absolute perfection, rather than a 100 mediocre moves says a lot about their overall philosophy. Some of the boys in my sons class were quickly bored, and confused by this approach as it is not how ballet exam classes are usually taught. My son to both our surprise was offered a JA place, his first ever audition outside EYB. Prior to the audition his dance teacher focused on posture, flexibility and strength work with him, not ballet. He found the audition nerve wracking because it had so little ballet in it. He showed me some of the flexibility work they did, it was very difficult indeed. To there credit the RBS did indicate in their taster class audition last November what format their auditions would follow. For a two hour dance class, that I watched, there was about 20 mins of basic ballet, the rest was foot placement, body alignment and posture. All of this was in the JA audition that my son took part in.

I hope so, this is his first audition for anything like this other than EYB. He is very excited and we are both surprised as he didn’t enjoy the audition as there wasn’t an awful lot of actual dancing in it.

His audition was May 29th at 2pm, London. I don’t know what group he was in sorry.

My son just got an Y6 offer of a place. 🤗

Hello i am very new to this too, my son has just turned 10. His arches are not perfect, but not completely flat. He has lovely feet when pointed, or prepping for pirouettes etc. He has JHS as well. I understand with girls feet there can be perhaps more issues because of pointe work etc Since wanting to take his ballet a bit more seriously, I figured feet would be a possible issue 😊, so I got him a dance trained Pilates coach and he has been doing strengthening and flexibility exercises for about six months. The exercises have made a huge improvement to his arch. More importantly though his ankle strength and his awareness to pull up through his ankles in order to improve the overall look and shape of his feet has been nothing short of amazing. I didn't know that toes could be so strong, flexible and beautiful. Going forward i have no idea if his not perfect ballet feet will matter if he is a beautiful little dancer, which he is. Will his musicality and grace be enough to carry him into the professional world of classical ballet, I don't know. What I know is I've never mentioned his feet to him or the possibility that they might not be 'good enough' in the eyes of some training companies/schools, because he is more than his arches, and he absolutely loves ballet. So for now I encourage him to continue with his strengthening exercises and enjoy learning his craft.

😁 we took the photos in our lounge. I had no idea, I still don't know about any of this stuff. My son was in a full on foul mood, never again!! Compared to his JA application photos, the SS ones were a car crash!! So I am more than happy with him being placed on the WL. I expected a 'no' there were butterflies in the background. 😂 Sorry your daughter got a no, I hope she's ok. X

My son 9 just got through his EYB Swan Lake audition this evening. He’s over the moon as it is his favourite ballet. Very proud of him, he has come on so much since his first audition last year.

First go at all this. My son 9 on waiting list for SS so very pleased. He also breezed through his EYB Swan Lake audition this evening so he’s a very happy boy. RBS JA audition next. 😁

Thankyou to everyone who has responded. The links made for a somewhat depressing read, but they were a few years ago now, and there is IME an ever increasing awareness and understanding of neurodevelopmental conditions. The reality for my son is that he will require adjustments to be made in the way he is taught, and I want that for him as he moves on with his dance training and development. As he gets older he will develop more of his own strategies to help him manage. He won’t always need support. He certainly doesn’t need support once he is on stage performing. If I don’t let the organisation know then they can’t support him. If they don’t want to support him by not choosing him then they will not be right for him going forward.

MrsMoo2 that is so encouraging to hear, thank you for that. He has special consideration in his exams with the RAD, and he has recently done some ballet master classes with them where they were really attentive to his needs and took very good care of him from afar in social downtime. In class as well. We have had some very negative experiences unfortunately with a particular dance company/school which makes me want to never let him out of the house again. I didn’t know if at the next level up, he would stand a chance especially with HFA. His diagnosis is also new to us and we have experienced both the positive and very negative ignorant responses to it. He has passion and then some for ballet and dance in general, but he identifies in his soul with classical ballet and the music that accompanies it. Always has done. I have my finger hovering over his RBS JA application, photos are being done this afternoon. this is all very new to me, it has taken me a little bit by surprise.

Thankyou meadowblythe, you answered my unspoken worry which is that I thought that perhaps because these schools are by definition centres of excellence that no students would have any additional needs.

Done. thankyou Alison

Is it possible to change my username as I didn’t realise when I registered that it would be visible to all. Stupid I know, but I would like a little bit of anonymity. i joined yesterday.

Hello all, This is my first post but I’ve been reading for a while. I have a budding ballet boy age 9, literally just starting Grade 4 RAD. He also has just started an extra grade above this class and some 1:1 non-syllabus work with his dance teacher. He is also doing a non-syllabus Boys ballet course with LCB taught by Erico Montes, which he is absolutely loving. All the above occurred because he auditioned for EYB last year and danced for them in Coppelia and he said I want to do this for the rest of my life. So I said ok then what to we do now and off we set. He is a beautiful little dancer, with wonderful musicality and a love of all things classical ballet. This I suspect is the beginning of our journey, so we are going to apply on the advice of his dance teacher for last year of RBS JA’s. So my dilemma is my son has high functioning autism and severe dyslexia which means for him that he has difficulty processing certain types of verbal information, initially transposes directional information and is slow to pick up routines. And most significantly of all he is still very socially vulnerable. However he is proof positive that with the right teacher you can still excel and overcome. We are not interested in WL or residential schools as he could not cope with these at the moment. I have lots of emotional conflict about all of this for him and my dilemma is whether or not to put his additional needs down on application forms or to let him audition without anyone knowing. I suppose I am worried that if I put his diagnoses down he may never be given a chance; and whilst I know he can’t be directly discriminated against how would I ever know. When he auditioned for EYB I didn’t put it down and as I got to watch the audition along with his dance teacher, I can say I was well and truly gobsmacked he was so good. I had completely underestimated his talent and capabilities despite his dance teacher telling me otherwise. Long post I know, but have been holding this stuff in my head for ages, and am just about to send RBS application off but.....