Neverdancedjustamum

Don’t worry too much about photos or what you put on the form. It’s hard to guess what they look for and it’s probably pointless doing so. Being their own associate doesn’t seem to give you any advantage either. My DD applied last year purely for fun and to see what happens and not expecting anything. She hates having photos taken so her photos were a mish mash of ones taken hurriedly after class at different times (using a phone and she was wearing different leotards!) so they weren’t even from the same day. I think this was also the form that asks how many hours you dance a week and which genres. In any case at the time she was only doing one ballet class within the week. So her total hours a week that we put on the form must have been very pitiful compared to others especially those who are in full time vocational school. By some miracle she was offered a place and not even from the waitlist. The week she went she was one of less than a handful from the U.K., the rest were international. To this day, we still don’t know how such a miracle happened, and it truly was given what was on her form and her photos.

I always thought the school had JKO in its name since it was established but I could be wrong. I don’t recall ABT School as being anything else but ABT JKO School.

Based on what I’ve read in another part of this forum and what I’ve seen on Instagram, I guess you meant one of the prize winners from ABT JKO School. In quite a unique move (I thought) I’ve never seen an AD of a well-known vocational school do, Stella Abrera posted on her Instagram and publicly acknowledged the candidate’s former school for the “wonderful training received prior….”.

I’m very curious who this is @Birdy! I just saw the list of winners and saw that, as in previous years, Princess Grace Academy did extremely well once again. All 3 students they sent went on to be finalists and I believe all 3 are prize winners too. I recently saw snippets of their exam and the students all seem to be stunning dancers. The school must be so confident of their students (and their teaching!) to livestream exams and sometimes, I’ve seen them stream classes too. I understand a good number of their current students are already prize winners from various competitions but then again, the same is the case for (some) other vocational schools.

Just had parents evening and had a good chat with the Head of Dance at her school who outlined what will be covered for each of the two years, from what I recall it’s as @Dance.Mum above posted. It was a lovely chat that got my DD excited but I must say that the HoD is one of maybe a handful of people in her school who knows DD does ballet and contemporary (or dances, full stop, as she keeps dance and school very separate - until next year I guess) and already seemed excited to work with her. In the end she thanked my DD for being part of a good number of her former students’ GCSE and A level choreo and performances…and made sure she’s said yes to another two who have asked her recently to be involved in their A levels. It was really lovely as I hadn’t known that my DD has helped out with so many of these for the last couple of years. I must say that dance, whilst perhaps not as prioritised as sports in her school, does get a lot of support with annual events and a fair number of GCSE students actually going on to dance sixth forms and colleges. For anyone else who might have been curious like me, yes they can take Dance GCSE and still have dance as one of their PE GCSE ‘sport/activity’. Both the dance and PE teachers actually said that this is very handy for those who like dance anyway and they can use their dance choreo for one of the PE requirements.

I would be interested in this too as my DD also plans to take Dance GCSE. She also wants to do PE and I know that dance can be one of the ‘sports/activities’ of the 3 required for PE (she is already in two school sports teams so that hopefully takes care of the 2 group ones and she can, if allowed, take dance as the individual for PE). I was therefore wondering if she can do Dance GCSE but also take dance as part of her PE GCSE at the same time. I know she’s been asked to help in several GCSE and A level dance projects over the last couple of years but still doesn’t know the details for when she actually takes them. I have parents evening this week so can ask the dance teacher. We also have options evening sometime soon so will try and find out and share any pertinent info. I’m not sure the content would differ for someone who dances a lot compared to someone who doesn’t. I would have thought the requirements at the end of the day would be the same in terms of what they need to produce/submit? My DD has danced since she was 6 but nowhere near as many hours as her peers do. Probably less than ‘hobby hours’ especially given the volume of school work she has now at year 9, there’s not much time left. For her it was natural to pick it as a GCSE option as she’ll pick what she thinks will be the best way for her to get a good set of GCSEs to go to Sixth Form and then to a good uni to do something in the sciences. So for her, I think it’s more the theory side that she wants to know more about.

There’s also a bus that goes from the stop right outside Richmond train/tube station (Stop E?) that stops right near St Margaret’s Drive. From that St M bus stop to Rambert is maybe a couple of minutes walk. I can’t remember the bus number but it’s fairly frequent, even on Sundays I think. Every 10 mins or so.

I have heard the same from acquaintances whose children attend/attended the school. Nothing but good words for him and his leadership. Very refreshing!

Lots of summer intensives are still open for applications, both here in the U.K. and overseas.

I’d say most of those who start Year 7 at WL were JAs. When my DD (who was never a JA) got finals for WL, she was one of the very few (probably less than a handful) in her group who wasn’t a JA. Most MAs would also have been JAs.

Just to say that some places might even still come up after the response deadline. They are quite understanding if you need a bit of extra time to confirm if you can take the place. My DD was also offered autumn intensive but at the time I was still unsure if we were going to be away during Oct half term and they were kind enough to let me respond a week after the deadline.

Those offered a place were given until Sunday 14th January to confirm if they will be attending.

I also use “alumni” for both genders. This was also how I was taught in school. Also a plural form so there’s lots of coverage there.

I might have missed/not spotted them but there have been extremely few British or British-trained participants in recent years at the Prix De Lausanne. Off the top of my head, I can only think of two female British participants in the last 3 or so years, and maybe one British national but trained elsewhere. I am not sure if this is due to very few British applicants or whether it’s very small numbers getting through to pre-selection. Having seen PdL performances and masterclasses, I think the panel do a great job of picking finalists because on the whole, I find the selected candidates strong on stage and in class. YAGP in its initial stages are more of a mixed bag and I think this is because anyone can apply and participate. Just my personal opinion. This year there seems to have been a spike in the number of British young dancers in the European YAGP competitions.

Results are out for the spring intensive.

How refreshing and very transparent of them. I’ve always liked this idea as they can get a good gauge of their own students against “externals”. I’ve always wondered why some schools/companies opt to audition their students separately from others.

Princesse Grace Academy posted a snippet of their December exams on their Instagram. Very refreshing to see a school that’s very transparent and proud of their students (and confident enough to show such long videos!). They also often stream their end of year performances to the public.

I noticed this too. My DD attended the RBS summer intensive last summer for the first time as she doesn’t normally apply (she applied once years ago when she was quite young and never applied again until I sent in an application last year without telling her). She hates having her photo taken so I just used a mishmash of photos quickly taken after classes (not professionally taken by a photog, and quite clearly taken at diff times as she was wearing diff leotards!) and so we were extremely surprised she got a place first time round. At most I thought she’d get waitlist, most probably a straight no, given the pitiful few hours she dances and the substandard photos. She said it was like a different world when she got there, especially for someone like her who doesn’t really dance many hours a week, just weekends. Out of about 28 or so girls in her group, only a handful I believe were from the U.K., with at least 2/3 full-time RBS students out of that 5 or so. The rest were international, including YAGP winners/finalists. We have never tried for Spring so not sure what it’s like, whether there are more U.K. students. She did say boarding at WL was good experience. She’s never boarded before and has only been in school residentials that are more like the survival/wilderness show kind, so she’s never been away for dancing. I was assured that she can actually survive 5 days without losing any of her stuff, or being expelled for being too messy or eating all the food in the place…

9-12 April 2024 for this coming year’s. It looks like both spring and summer intensives are open for applications. How quickly do they come back with decisions for intensives? My DD has never done a CSB intensive in the past. Would love some feedback from those who have attended. Is there a fee to apply?

Not sure many places would offer ballet ‘intensives’ to 6 year olds. If anything, they will most likely be half day (max) workshop type events with mixed dance genres or ballet mixed with performing some themed choreo or presentation. My DD’s first experience of something similar was when she was 7 and attended the Tring Park Junior Christmas Day of dance. It was a lovely festive day for her, not too intensive but they did have great ballet classes and they had a little show for the parents at the end. However, even that is from 7 years old. I do know that Masters of Ballet in London do a summer intensive for younger ones but I’m not sure what age from. My DD was again around 7/8 years old when she did this but because they’re very young, their group’s ‘intensive’ was only 2 hours a day for 5/6 days, culminating in a presentation show at Sadler’s Wells. I think at 7, she was in the “Foundation” group but they might have changed the name of their groups and levels now as this was a good few years ago.

Just to add they’re very good with comms normally. Emails usually come from a lady called Tamara.

My DD also started TPA on Saturdays when she was young - I think she was 7 - so this is going back a few years now. To this day, she has nothing but fond memories of it. Sadly, their Head of quite some time now had just left but hopefully the atmosphere and quality of it will stay the same. Although it’s called “associates”, it’s not like say RBS or CSB associates. I don’t think you have to audition until you’re 9 and even then I think the audition is more to gauge the level the child is in therefore finding out which classes would best suit. Most kids we knew back then took multiple classes on Saturdays, I’ve never seen a better timetable elsewhere - RAD and non-syllabus ballet, ISTD modern and tap, PBT, contemporary, jazz, street, pointe, etc, all in the lovely Park Studios with proper flooring, mirrors and barres. From age 7 for about 2-3 years, my DD spent many happy Saturdays there from around 9am until mid-afternoon. She made lots of new friends as they all hung around the waiting area in between classes. As a parent, it’s a lovely place to wait too. Tring has a great high street, not too busy like London but enough cafes, restos, (pubs) and little shops to keep you occupied for a few hours. There’s a free parking area within the school too so no stress about hunting for a parking space or paying lots to park. I think it changed a bit during the pandemic so I’m not sure if it has stayed the same in terms of kids and parents being able to hang around. We only left as my DD got an associates place on Saturdays otherwise we would have stayed. The quality of the classes are good, exams are regular, so kids do progress well. Class sizes aren’t too big or small either. Regular parent watching days at the end of each term. Very transparent and well run. Best of all, in all our time there, we never experienced or felt like there was competitiveness, or drama or favouritism which is quite often present in a lot of dance schools these days.

We noticed this too at another intensive recently (not RBS) but I guess it’s natural for them to stick together as they go to the same school (and live together during term time). It is also quite obvious that the focus are students from certain schools even when doing interviews and filming/photography for social media. Again, quite possibly normal but it is quite strange when advertising a summer intensive to focus on the school’s full time students attending their school’s summer intensive but perhaps that is the way marketing goes. Like @margarite ‘s DD, my DD found the RBS intensive fine but again this is probably because my DD was really just there for the experience and didn’t want it as an audition as such. But, however laid back and chill she was about the whole thing, she did notice it does have a competitive environment in some of the classes and we reckon this is because she was in a group that had mostly international students, a good number of whom were YAGP finalists, and full time vocational students. She said it was quite interesting to observe as she can tell most if not all treated it as an audition. My DD isn’t full time and doesn’t do a lot of hours of classes, training and all the extras so didn’t really know a lot of the other kids there. She’s not really in the usual circuit. Thankfully she got on really well with a couple of students from the US and so had a good time being away from home and eating lots of food. She’s experienced it now but as others here have said, there are other SIs that might be more suitable to other DCs. Certainly, of all the SIs my DD attended, it probably won’t be the first one that will come to mind if she were asked to recommend one to others. It’s undeniable that given RBS’s name, I guess it would always be a source of pride to go to their SI but equally, I’m sure DCs can have as much fun and fruitful experience elsewhere.

100% true. I am quite shocked at how much money and time is being spent these days by young dancers, whether or not they’re in full time school already. Often teachers and schools also prioritise those who have private lessons with them. I also find that in many occasions, associate places and/or scholarships for intensives go to those who are already in full time vocational schools anyway. These days also, just because someone goes to full time vocational school doesn’t mean all the additional privates and all sorts of extras end.

There are definitely places for those who haven’t been RBS associates before because MAs need to audition for SA places, it’s not a given. We have no experience of SAs but something to keep in mind is that class is often just 2 hrs 15 mins and you have to take this into consideration if you’re travelling from quite far away. You mention your DD is already in a couple of associates schemes and I’m sure you’ll find this is less hours than other schemes and if it’s like MA or JA, there are no separate classes timetabled as such. In our experience, in MA for example, the class didn’t do pointework every week and the duration of when they did varied from week to week. So it’s not like other schemes where there are clear classes timetabled (eg Pilates for an hour, pointe for an hour, an hour contemporary, 2 hours ballet). Class sizes also aren’t as small as I thought they would be. As Ruby Foo said, if your DD is looking for something extra and special, then a private with an established and qualified teacher would be more beneficial than another associates scheme. It is undeniable that the RBS name is very attractive but it very much depends on what you’re looking for. If the ultimate goal is full time RBS, do check the numbers of MA/SA who get offered places from associates to WL or upper school who aren’t full time students elsewhere already in other vocational schools. Also to add that MA students do sometimes leave the programme which means less from certain centres auditioning for SA places.