NJH

dispensibility is a culture that pervades the UK across all businesses / industries and Sectors - in Sports and the arts it's driven by there being an excess of supply combined with the encouragement of bullying anm lobbing by organisational practices. In other sectors it's bullying / mobbing that leads it , because being a bully as a Manager is often viewed as 'taking decisive action' and 'protecting the public ' this is further reinforced by shockingly poor 'Investigations' by regulators and a lack of meaningful routes to bring the bullies or other abuse perpetrators to account ....

that said plenty of Dancers dancing into their 40s as principals now (Pippa Moore was 44 or 45 when she retired as A premier Dancer with Northern , Hannah Bateman was 40 + when lockdown 1 cut her final season with Northern off ... ) then you've got the Player/Manager dancers like Tamara Rojo (ENB) and Rae Piper (Chantry) in their 40s and then those who continue ( or restart ) to guest later still e.g. Shannon Parker /Lilly ... but equally we've seen a number of the phenoms fade from view very quickly, often with suggestion that they could not / would not integrate into a company if they got a contract on the strength of competition results / 'fisnishing school' place at at Upper school ...

That's a good question I'm not aware of anyone specifically advertising classes as Balanchine there are classes out there that are rather more 'American' in their outlook e.g. Nina Thilas-Mohs at Pineapple on Friday evening / or at Central on a Sunday Afternoon - which is described as " Nina’s upbeat class emphasises placement, spatial expansion, speed and lyricism. Her style is informed by the Bernal Method and American syncopated musicality. Dancers and students alike are welcome to work on their technique, feel ‘up on their leg’, placed and ready to dance, whatever their background."

where's @sophie_rebecca when you need her !

at the pointe when the too early pointe journey had begun across ballet as a whole also the there is a wrld of difference between IF or inter pointe and variations etc

exactly also Inter foundation pointe centre is a few releves and echappes to pointe and some classical walks on flat, a number of the examples on you tube have the entirely of the pointe excrcises in about 5 minutes @sophie_rebecca could comment as someone i know has done IF ( as my decision to start working for an exam was relatively further into my ballet journey, hence the reason i'm working towards Inter after discussing it throughly with the teacher i see for exam work) looking at the resources it's a few basic rises, relevens echappes and static courus at the barre minutes at the barre and a couple of minutes in the centre to do the echappe + releve exercise, it's not dancing a variation and turns en pointe aren't assessed until Adv Foundation...

no 'only' about it , you did it

I find those 'Guidelines' to be some what less than ideal and frankly in any other clinical environment (even ones with a paucity of evidence and no time or effort being spent on them ) a number of them would be laughed out of the room , and I say that is as as someone with a Clinician background and experience in Governance. for clarity 1. given the discussion ref bone maturity elsewhere in the paper why 12 ? 2. total agreement, however where is the 'consider implementing a strength and conditioning programme' to address this if it's soft tissue rather than bony ) 3. why ? there needs to be evidence to justify this - it strikes me as the kind of statement that would be made by a vocational school to lock other teachers and students who did not get it at 11/12 out ( and given the attrition rates of full time vocational training ... ) 4. total agreement 5. total agreement 6. broadly in agreement 7. again a statement that seems to be designed to lock certain dancers out of pointe training and has significant legal implications that obviously have not be considered also makes a mockery of the chance to dance / spotted type stuff ) all in all some schoolgirl errors in sometimes purporting to be a clinical guideline to inform regulatory postions .

and the y6 age associates or just starting Inter foundation doing pointe will be doing rises , releves, echappes and couru at the Barre and progressing to echappers and releves in the centre ...

dancewear sizes are their own unique world of evil ! to the point where my Imperfect Pointes Leo is a bespoke , because of the combination of the girth and bust measurements means the standard XL is too small so it's a "1.5 XL long" ... the IP strategy on larger sizes than their 'dancer normal' standard size range has been a while in the making and onvce again it appears @sophie_rebecca and i have ended up as the larger sizes dancewear SMEs ...

welcome down the rabbit hole !

how do you determine the mass of a Red Hot Chilli pepper ? you give it a weigh , give it a weigh , give it a weight now ...

this is spades...

and teachers and other dancers in the class may have a different view of how that class went for you... a constant and repetitive theme is that dancers of whatever levle and experience are always hard on themselves

yes it is www.theballetretreat.com in my opinion as someone who has danced with TBR for over 4years , i'd say the first couple i did i was probably struggling to keep up with a lot of , but since I've find it really good and been able to push myself and be pushed by the team and the rest of the TBR family ... there's various things that the TBR family have suggested to Hannah but the past 2 years have messed that up somewhat .

due to the Loaded meaning of Intermediate in ballet, what other activties might call intermediate is Improvers in Ballet

intermediate or Intermediate? Intermediate is a VERY loaded term in the anglosphere of ballet while not the Inter syllabus , most Intermediate classes at Danceworks / Pineapple and Central need a similar levle of experience and sold core knowledge of technique and vocab https://www.agirlreconstructed.com/2019/02/capitalising-i.html

David's classes are PAYG - all the Central classes are PAYG ... there is no etiquette aobut attendance or not of of PAYG classes - yes they have their regulars , t yes that have peopel who do not attend every week, yess thy have people who drop in once in a blue moon because they are in the The Smoke ( as I have done with David's classes in the past - I do so far less now primarily because i think other teachers suit me and my place in my ballet journey better). Not sure of crash courses for beginners , although it has been something that has been suggested to Hannah B after a few TBR participants have struggled because of the l way in which the levle of daily class etc at TBR has crept upwards over the past 5 years ( becasue quite a few of the TBR regulars are the same regulars as 4 or 5 years ago )

some teachers do 'absolute beginner' classes also zoom can be harder especially if the teacher doesn't have a demonstrator you will suck in the centre for far longer than you suck at the barre in any given level of class ... if Ballet was easy we wouldn't be doing it !

absolutely and oddly enough plenty of 40+ year old adult dancers do wear leotard , tights and wrap or even SAB type skirts ... a brief look around the adult ballet world on instagram will show you that leotards ? at risk of being accused of spamming ( and i have NO financial link with them ) https://imperfectpointes.com/ are fab and will do bespoke - as due to my height / leotard girth measurement i need a long body and i'm an XL or slightly larger in their sizing anyway ( as it;s typical dancer sizes) if you do go for 'proper' ballet tights the capezio 1816/ 1916 come recommended by a number of larger / taller dancers including my self and @sophie_rebecca and it appears that Snag are now doing ' convertible ' ballet tights

WEAR WHAT MAKES YOU FEEL COMFORTABLE ! a lot of people start out in gym kit , the addiction to buying dancewear comes later ( as can be seen by many adult dancers instagram pages regardless of their size or level they dance at - remember that some of the adult dancers you see who are mixing it in Adv and Pro classes re peopel who started taking class as adults in their 30s or 40s - although often with good underlying fitness levles ) want a ballet body ? have a body , preferably your own , do ballet with it... ! light coloured legs help the teacher see how you use your muscles and engage your turn out ... there are some teachers who will tell you leggings better than skirt , but just leotard and tights is best of all - but that is purely from the point of view of looking at how you engage your muscles etc. which an open beginners class might not be a top priority ( depends on the teacher - those who have taken class with Hannah Frost or David Kierce will know how keen eyed they can be whether you wear a bra under yout leotard is combination of the cut and construction of the leotard and the volume of bosom you possess !

i started taking class at 39 , i was en pointe , at the barre in beginning pinte class at 41 ... i'm 44 now but we have had lockdowns etc in the way but just before lockdown 1 was doing some stuff in the centre and could do a passable pose turn en pointe ... getting back to that , but i asm glutton who averages aobut 5 or 6 hours of class a week (as well as a full time job)

significant numbers of people who take up ballet as adults or return to ballet having stopped as youngsters before going en pointe get en pointe in a relatively timely manner. Unfortunately as i understand it a lot of essex seems to be stuck heading into the smoke for class ...

Manchester ceertainly has plemnty of very good classes - KNT among others ...

where is the oversight ? in normal academic schools the answer would be board of governors and/or Ofsted ... but even then if they can turn on the charm ... sad to say i'm hearing a similar story about a London based teacher of adults and their own classes / classes where the building provider is less interested in their good name