BalletShoes5

That's great to hear that other studios are helping students/parents, we have been really open from the beginning with the dance school, so fingers crossed we will gain some support. It's such a difficult situation and being business owners ourselves we know this only too well. Thank you everyone for your messages and private messages. Some great advice and help both for dance but also our own business. Really is appreciated that you feel supported when we are all isolated. Thank you again.

7 minutes ago, Petruska said:

Apologies, it wasn’t really attended as a direct reply to your situation. I had summarised from all the responses. You should absolutely prioritise your family and each individual situation is unique. If your teacher is anything like ours, they will completely empathise and cancel your payments. If not, then you need to decide after all this is over, if it’s right for you and your family anyway. You can cancel a direct debit with the bank?  My message was really for everyone who is lucky enough to not lose their income totally and can stretch to help those they value. 

No worries - it's really hard because our child lives and breathes their dance. Such a tricky situation, we would love to be able to support the school and teachers, but we have

 just got to hanker down right now and prioritise. No offence taken. I know a lot of teachers go above and beyond it's just the presumption here which makes it difficult, we've a lot of friends in the same situation. Realistically you could end up with an elitist situation, if schools are going to favour those who can keep paying fees and potentially lose those with talent because of financial circumstances. I know the dance world is competitive but there has to be empathy on both sides? 

20 hours ago, Peony said:

Surely it would be very wrong morally to be charging parents full fees and to claim any assistance from the government? Maybe you could suggest paying a reduced amount of 1/3 fees or something for the summer term in April as a lump sum. They’d have just about the entire amount for the first month and then can claim assistance. It is tricky as nobody wants to see their valued teachers in a difficult financial position but many parents are struggling and paying a large amount for dance lessons which aren’t running is not going to be possible

We have suggested reduction in fees etc, as they won't be paying for room hire. We'd love to support the dance school, but we have to pay our mortgage and prioritise that first. We don't know what Government support will be available to our own business in 6 -18 months time when we will really need it. Such a hard situation for all. 

6 hours ago, Petruska said:

I don’t think it’s as easy for the self employed to access help as everyone assumes. Especially as they will feel obligated to help their staff who are usually freelance. I think it all depends on the dance school. If they have staff to pay and if they are still being expected to pay hall hire, insurances, memberships, rates or a mortgage on their premises. A monthly dd for April would likely have only included 2 weeks with the Easter holidays anyway so if online classes are being offered, you could consider this is payment for the hours spent creating content. Some schools are offering personal feedback if you send videos in. This I imagine will be far more time consuming for teachers. I think it all depends on how much you value your school, how much you value the people who invest so much time into your child and how much you want the school to be there for your child at the end of all this. In our dance school we recognise how much ‘extra’ our teacher gives Over and above what we are ‘paying’ for. Pastoral care, attending auditions with us, coming on first pointe shoes fittings, taking us on summer schools, advice, love, care and sometimes offering lifts here there and everywhere. Maybe it’s time to repay some of these ‘over and above’ things a dance teacher offers if you can afford it? We’re going to continue paying our fees whilst we can, make use of the classes being offered and personal feedback which so far has been in far more depth than in group lessons. My girls would be devastated if our school was gone at the end of this. How would yours feel? 
 

 

Petuska, we really do value our dance school, but I'm not sure if you read my post. We are going to really struggle to pay the fees. We have spoken to the school, who hire village halls to run their classes and they are still expecting fees to be paid or offer us a payment plan which we can't commit to right now. 

This is a bit of an elephant in the room...hate to ask this but was is everyone doing about their DD for dance? We are fully supportive of the school/teachers but we are really worried about our own finances at the moment as we run our own business and we are likely to be hit hard in 3 months to 18 months. Our dance school are continuing to take DD payments per month and have said they aim to do online classes/make up over the Summer. They haven't given anyone the choice to cancel.  I am a little sceptical that hours will be able to made up as we don't know how long this is going to continue for. Other activities  even gymnastics have advised us to cancel or freeze DD's so not sure why so different for dance? There is no reduction in fees either, even though halls will not be hired. It's the elephant in the room, as other parents at the same dance school have pm'ed the same but no one wants to bring up publicly or formally so no idea general feeling.  Don't want to cause problems for our child but wanted to find out consensus amongst other dance schools. I wondered if there could be pay by play dance class option - at least give parents an option given current situation. I am also a bit wary of the platforms used for these lessons in terms of safeguarding. 

8 minutes ago, Snowflake said:

Just to confuse people even more re the gymnastics/ballet debate  😊 my dd, who was a JA and now a Mid used to be a very successful  WAG gymnast on the BG NDP, county squad member every year plus she did her National Grade 4 in age on only 12 hours training a week, one of only 4 in her region (NW) her lovely coach loved her dancing too and she still comes to watch her in shows even now.  

 

She was very fortunate to be able to able to do both, but had to make a choice in year 7 - as she wasn’t doing enough ballet classes to keep up - only 2 hours a week outside Mids and not much pointework, she now dances nearly every night!

 

She is tall with extremely proportionaly long legs - not all gymnasts are built the same! They don’t select on body type really, more fast twitch muscle type, flexibility and strength and of course a complete dare devil streak 😊 

 

Good luck to you all, and if it’s a no, just don’t give up, things change X

Thank you, that's good to know. Sounds really similar to DD in regards to gymnastics. She's on the regional squad (3rd in overall region) and is aiming for compulsory 3 (in age) next year (currently comp 4/national 4). It may be that she swaps to national grades then to reduce hours -  I worry she's doing too many hours. She's got very long legs like her Daddy so not sure how long the gym will continue as hinders bar work. Great to hear that you can continue the two. She's got into Elmhurst so I see that as a positive, maybe she was just having an off day at RB audition - who knows (she did throw up that evening)!  Massive congrats to those who got into RB and big hugs to those who didn't.   x 

London refreshers! Have we taken your mind of it yet????? x

7 minutes ago, Waverley said:

 

Thanks that would be very much appreciated - and I meant to saw well done to your DD for getting Elmhurst, that's really fantastic!

Thank you. It has a lovely vibe there so think she will enjoy it. She's excited!  x 

Aww will be lovely to see you at Elmhurst. I was impressed by the girls I saw on the day of the audition in their tracksuits, they all looked really happy. It would be the logical thing to do - cutting down gym hours. But I was chatting to another squad mum the other day and in reality it's really hard to do. Where do the coaches put them? They stand out like a sore thumb in the  groups with less hours, and the squad coaches wouldn't let them stay in their existing squads if they won't do the hours. So it's a tricky one. Would be incredibly hard to go cold turkey with it! Regardless - I think Elmhurst will be an utterly lovely experience for them both.

3 minutes ago, Waverley said:

Interesting discussion re gymnastics training (and hopefully it's keeping people occupied slightly while you wait 😉) . My DD is too young for JA at the moment but she wants to audition next year. She currently does 8 hours of gymnastics as well as a fair amount of dance and I have the same concerns about the two and the way her body may be affected. I'm particularly worried about her back/posture. 

 

The dance school say she has a natural dancer's body (which I would agree with) and that she probably won't 'bulk up' too much from the gym but that at some point she will probably need to drop gym if she wants to dance seriously. 

 

I'd say she is naturally a better dancer than a gymnast (and would assume the gym club agrees given that she is going to be on regional pathway as opposed to moving 'up' to 16 hours of training and national/compulsory pathway, as one of her peers has done) but at the moment she is determined to do both and says she can't decide which she prefers. 

 

I've found your answers very helpful, it's something that's been in my thoughts and will be interesting to see how it pans out. 

 

Hope the refreshing of emails is over soon. I totally sympathise... I'm waiting to find out if DD has got into a specialist ballet class within her own dance school and I'm even nervous about that so goodness knows what I'll be like if and when we're dealing with eternal associates schemes etc...!

Good to know I am not alone! MY DD also more natural dance way and like you I'm worried about her shoulders, bulking up etc. I'll post or msg you if have any clearer insight in the next few months which may help you! xx 

1 minute ago, Meglorien said:

 

I sympathise with this feeling. When we have high exceptions of getting accepted, it is harder to accept a not yet. As other people have posted, there are lots of ways of getting the same result. The Royal Ballet Associates isn't the only way, and with so many dancers applying for just a few spots, there will be literally hundreds of brilliant dancers whose teachers are surprised they didn't get a yes. What you can do, however, is ask her main ballet teacher to phone them up for some feedback. We asked dd's teacher to do this last year, and some things they thought she had to improve we already knew, some things we didn't.

As for gymnastics, my impression is that doing some is beneficial (for core, strength and flexibility). If you and your dd feel it may be getting in the way, you could have a chat with her ballet teacher and express your concerns. From what you say, though, her teachers don't seem to be concerned and, as with everything, it's getting the balance right that is the key.

 

I hope she'll try again next year and enjoy her dancing in the meantime.

Thank you, exactly like you said, we knew how high the odds were, and were not in anyway arrogant thinking she would get it in, it was more the advice we were given. Her dance teacher has already phoned up but was told they see too many people to give out individual results. Wouldn't even contemplate asking for feedback as no it's not the norm, however, guidance re. if it is her gym possibly with her physique would help guide us. The top dance teacher/owner keeps telling her to give up the gymnastics! So confused. But hopefully Elmhurst will give us clearer insight and great opportunity for her. 

9 minutes ago, DanceMum83 said:

Hi, 

My daughter audition for Royal junior associates London last year for year 4 place. At that point sshe was doing 14 hours of gym a week. 4 days and the rest of the days of the week she did dance. My DD got offered a place at royal ballet and is enjoying it. So is possible to do both. It’s true gym will be detrimental to her ballet but I would say that starts to happen more around 11. I presume she does artistic gymnastics? Some other forms of gym like rhythmic which Encorporate dance can compliment but not artistic as it builds up wrong muscle groups for ballet. Posture an issue too. My DD Ahmad just given up gymnastics but not because she wanted to, but because her coaches left her gym and then it also meant her having to increase to 6 days a week which we couldn’t do alongside dance!  I’d say keep up it’s as long as you can if that’s what she would like to do. It didn’t affect my DD getting into royal ballet school, she does however have a very slim build with long limbs as oppose to a lot of gymnasts with shorter limbs. 

Hope that helped? 

Thank you much appreciated. Yes it's WA. She has two afternoons a school off a week for it, and can be anything between 16 and 20 hours depending on comp season. There has been movement of coaching  - so not sure that has helped!  She's got into Elmhurst so like you say maybe continue the two and see where it takes her. 

1 hour ago, Hazel said:

I’m not sure ‘what went wrong’ is the way to think about it....as many have said (and I am clinging to) you never know what they are looking for and clearly it isn’t just body shape as so many examples on here of girls of different heights/build being accepted. Combine that with the huge number of applicants to spaces and it becomes not that the ones who didn’t get in did something wrong, but that the ones who do get in were a bit more ‘right’ on the day.

 

As for hours of training- Probably only you and your daughter knows what is right. Is she already at Elmhurst or starting in sept? Maybe see how the first term goes doing both if Elmhurst is a new thing and you can see how you both feel then/get input from teachers? 

Gym coach is clearly trying to ‘push’ your daughter, maybe the technique would work if her heart was more in it but sounds like it might not be and it’s doing the opposite?

 

others will be able to help with effects of extended gym training in ballet bodies but strength and flexibility is a good thing...you might just need to find the right balance of the two activities for your daughter x

Thank you. Much appreciated. She starts at Elmhurst in September. I agree with the 'what went wrong' is probably wrong way to look at it. I think we have started thinking like that because her dance teachers were so confident in her and chance of getting in that we had gone with their thoughts on it all  but like you say she wasn't right on that particular day.

On 12/06/2018 at 10:59, Bluebird22 said:

I’m not sure I don’t know her personally, just something I saw on Facebook! 

xx

Hi, Ladies, a shout out to all those lovely London centre candidates waiting for their results...I wanted some advice (may take your mind off for those who are waiting). DD (aged 8 ) does around 16 hours of gymnastics a week (on the NDS pathway so compulsories/grades for those in the know) . She auditioned and got into Elmhurst but it was a no from Royal. Her heart seems to be in her ballet more and we actively ask her if she wants to give up her gymnastics. We worry about her over training but mainly about the effect it may have on her ballet wise IF this is what she wants to go with. Her coach is pretty harsh and I am not sure I want her in that environment (eg you've annoyed me, made me angry not running fast enough to vault etc), I am worried that the hours of gymnastics may have affected her Royal result, height etc. My husband is tall I am not (his mum was not tall but both him and his sister are tall), so not sure where DD will lie. I know it may seem like I am overthinking things, but in a way we do need to think this through now because of the hours of gym she does. She is in Year 3 (one of the oldest in her year) and auditioned for the year 4 class. In her audition there were lots of year 4's going into year 5's. I know it's really impossible to second guess what went wrong, but all her ballet teachers are surprised she didn't get in (two other girls got in for other years from her dance school), and her dance teacher took her to insight day where her teacher was positive they loved her. Not sure where it all went wrong? The other thing I can think I did remember seeing her in line up and thinking she looked particularly 'gymy' that day!!  I want to be able to support DD with her decision in either giving up gym or not if that is what she wants. So glad she is in Elmhurst as it seemed such a lovely positive environment for her. 

We've got a no. But we have Elmhurst place so will re-try for Royal next year  Hope little one is not too disappointed bless her. 

PS sorry he didn't get a place. x 

Oh my - on tenterhooks now! Actually have butterflies! Do you know which day for Birmingham first or second day? 

Someone said on here that the Birmingham result they had seen on Facebook was for a different centre. Not sure if this was the same person. 

Birmingham and London - The two '2 dayers' kind of makes sense, I was hoping today for Birmingham but I'm thinking end of the week now. What are we all like?!!  x

3 hours ago, Nala said:

Just had the email to say my DS has been accepted to Leeds. He is super excited and I'm just feeling relieved!

Great news! Well done to your DS x

Bluebird 22 - we've not heard either. Waiting for Birmingham (Day 2). I wonder as there were two days at Birmingham it is taking longer maybe? x 

Feeling a little bit silly - I’ve actually got butterflies... waiting for Bham to come in! X 

We we are near beg of alphabet and we’ve not heard. I agree with Flowerdew - all very random and well done on your results  xx

Thanks balletmum55 my daughter is in year 3 so just got to wait I guess!!  I know older auditions took place before younger ones so who knows!! X

BalletMum55 do you know which age group it was on FB who got the yes? We are also waiting for Birmingham eeek! X