NJH

altough as Uk 7.5 to 8 ( and 7 or 7.5 in many pointe shoe brands) i wear a capezio 10 in the split sole soft shoes but i do like them to be close fitting and there is soem stretch i nthe canvas plus either bare feet or ballet tights not normal socks

i do like the capezio hamani split sole soft shoe - and i have a wide foot (xxxx grsihko pointes) sizing with soft shoes can be variable also depends on whether the seller converts the marked size to UK szies !

exactly this - not even sure if CDMT has any hold over some of the schools - i know they do over some of the 'lesser name' vocational providers

a certain teacher , who i'm increasingly less enamoured with due to attitude and outside the studio behaviour towards other adult dancers , does make a very good comment in 2 no one pays t owatch you from the side " In my private class with an entirely different teacher we ended up putting tape lines on the studio floor ( this teacher in the principal of her schools so absolutely no qualms aobut such - also if you look at the floor in may pro comoany studios there are tape lines all over to represent stage dimensions or fixed points in the choreo) when looking at some of the Centre work in RAD Intermediate to make best advantage of my 'safe' turn out

many people find that the satin of the toe box is far too slipery to feel secure on , there's three schools of thought Darning - which can also modify the platform properties to a degree - wider , adjust for being slightly off angle cut the sat off the platform suede tips

suede tips are not 'fit and forget' this was something i was taught fairly early in my pointe journey by a teacher , little brass bristled suede brush and a pocket knife are valuable items for your ballet bag to deal with slippery / stickjy patches of pointe shoe soles and tips or to dig gunk out of darned bits

oh god yes ! that was fabulous

never taken class with Adam I have been in London and taken class with Anna during school Holiday periods (pre pandemic when Anna's lunchtime class was at Danceworks - it's now at Pineapple - where iirc it began ) and quite a few very much under 18 dancers in those classes ( Anna's class can bew very eclectic in attendance , you can literally have a 12 year old followed by young freelancer pro performer , followed by 40+ year old recreational dancer followed by a Former Principal dancer along the same barre)

given WL is a MDS participant asuming you are a UK resident - and i think most or all of theor places for UK residents can be MDS'd ( i could check with ballet buddy of mine who is a current WL parent - bit of a walls have eirs momnent for some of the vocational school parents on here - peope many recognise you or people you mention )

Denzil's class on Tuesday (in the dungeons ! ) DPKs class on Wednesday and Nina;s this afternoon ( back in the Dungeons ) were all great, the new Central is fab...

I have a trip planned ot London next week and have a number of classes booked at central ( as well as others booked as Danceworks/ Pineapple /. Place/ Urdang-Finsbury) so will be able to see for myself

indeed the only indoor 'public' places i'm not wearing a face covering at present are the ballet studio at work within a certain parameters - bascially parts of the site are laid out now in such a way that if you are a workbench you don't need to be wearing a mask

Hannah Frost is wonderful - not quite on my 'fairy godmother list' but only because I don;t get to take class with her that often compared to 2 of the other names on that list

positive PCR = isolate regardless positive LFT = isolate until PCR

talking about Saturday Inter class at Dance works ... he seems quite responsive to tweets if you are on twitter as for bpace of Inter classes - I think some teachers can get a bit carried away ( I know Denzil Bailey has said as much at the end of his 'inter' classes boefre )

yep and DPK, Denzil Bailey, and Nina Thilas-Mohs as well plus other names from the previous Central Nights timetable who I haven't had the pleasure of taking class with https://www.centralschoolofballet.co.uk/classes-courses/adult-classes/#/events

i think the 'collect code' for Pharmacy supplied LFTs is part of the U turn on supply - although not sure whether that means they will be cuttign peopel off who don;t actually submit results ? or if it;s just to try and stop them being gizzits

travel - where PCR is required that has to be private LFTs still freely available from community pharmacies AFAIK and even when the ccollect code thing comes in no news on charges - and of course school / college / workplace LFT supply remains in place https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/testing/regular-rapid-coronavirus-tests-if-you-do-not-have-symptoms/

it's not the Covid tracker - the NHS app that gives you access to various things to do with your GP , if you have a reasonably modern smart phone i'd recommend it for things like getting your repeat prescriptions , any test results andother Correspondance that you might not have recieved your own copy of .. apparently GP practices do have a proforma for peopel who want / need paper proof of Covid vaccination if your GP practice has fully enabled it you might also be able to book appointments via the app ( as you can do with the systmone web page if your GP is one of the many who use Systmone)

always fun when Northern Dancers make an effort to see people they know ( i think you were present at one such occurence involving some other forum members and Kenny Tindall )

I think the motivation many dancers have is that their experience of dance is such that it provides the physical , mental and social stimulus they need... you cannot force yourself to like something, but trying to can damage your enjoyment overall and hamper developing if you try to one of the things about dance is that the path of progress is not a smooth learning curve it's steps of very steep learning followed by near flat periods of consolidation - which can be frustrating when those flat periods seem ever lasting to quote Mr B (Balanchine) “I don't want people who want to dance, I want people who have to dance. ” or as it's often paraphrased “I don't need people who want to dance, I want people who need to dance. ”

it is an individual choice if someone who doesn't have an absolute anatomical contraindication wishes to go en pointe and there is plenty to learn and do without doing pointe the challenges are what suck people down the rabbit hole and why there is a certain type of individual who is the adult ' recreational' dancer

Interestingly people often claim anatomical restrictions or weight are the reasons why adults should not start pointe work despite all the evidence otherwise, there are aproption of people whose bony anatomy is such that they will never get over their box / pass the 'pencil test' ... but to claim that anatomicla restrictions cannot bew worked upon is a brave step especially when you consider the gains that can be maide in terms of soft time limitations with a consistent application of the the techniques recommended in PBT and the like one might question the motives and motivations of those who keep trying to put adults off , and unsurprisingly the topic has ended up with aspertions being cast towards teachers some of whom are very well qualified, hold examiner awards and in some cases also had extensive professional experience.

this has been one of the problems for hospitality staff who went to work for other organisations have realised they can ear nthe same or more for more social hours etc... I know a chef who pre- covid all this went from Sous somewhere reasonable prestigious for ' the provinces' to being a chef at a large (100 + beds across 4 units on one site) -run by one of the more premium chains- Nursing home and they said - while they didn't get to do the 'fine dining' stuff , they still got to cook " british classics" with good produce and also do some fun pastry chef stuff ( as there were always cakes and snacks available for residents ) and had a much more sociable set of working hours ( as the Dinner Service was out by 1800hrs and even those on clean up were out the building by 1930 )

Unfortunately this line of discussion often ends up with people casting aspertions towards teachers and /or fitters or the application of standards used with youngsters towards adult dancers there is an often repeated , not by teachers who regulation teach ab-initio pointe to adults , set of criteria that fall down under actual analysis that seem t obe based on a requirement 'to earn' access to pointe training by suffering rather than objective physiological means and any time based requirement has to acknowledge the differences physiologically - as a good proprtion of young dancers are kept off pointe where their technique and strength might suggest it;s possible ot start or kept to very minimal and carefully controlled pointe work due to other physiological concern.