Peony

It depends at what point you start counting it I guess!

it takes much longer than 10 years to become a GP Ballet along with many, many other choices takes dedication, hard work, sacrifice, vocation, talent, commitment. The answer is not to denigrate other paths, all are very valid and useful to society. I expect some dancers do at some point decide they actively want a change (not just through necessity) and we shouldn’t see that as a failure. There’s nothing inherently better or worse about ballet or ‘Cyber’. Of course this was bad timing as we have the current situation that many dancers are unable to work despite having the talent and will to do so

Seen in the context that it was an old ad campaign that featured lots of different occupations I don’t think it’s offensive. If it’s been resurrected by the company recently then that is inappropriate. I’m not sure whether it’s been resurrected by the company or the press though?

Apparently there was a whole series of those ads featuring different jobs. It’s only offensive currently because of the current situation. I’ve spent many years training for my profession but I doubt I’ll be able to do it until a retirement age of 68. Same for many people I think. If no performing artists had been included I expect there would be criticism that it was because of the (incorrect) perception of a lack of academics.

No I’m not saying they are inferior at all. Just pointing out that some of the students being accepted by RBS from there have had significant amounts of additional input including RBS associates. So it’s not totally straightforward. It may be the case that pupils of other vocational schools also take additional lessons?

Upper school is separate so all from WL would have to audition alongside other UK students and lots of international students. So so chances are not all the year 11 WL would get a place because of the increased competition

I don’t think it’s unfair to say that perhaps some had also had quite a lot of additional input in the way of associates and regular private lessons as well as lessons at Tring. Could be more about hours of ballet rather than the standard of the lessons being inferior though

I think you’ll pay VAT plus a handling charge to the courier which varies but is around £10 I think. It’s cheaper if you can order from somewhere that will allow you to prepay the excise duty when they post it as you then avoid the extortionate handling charge

I thought they were Italian for some reason!

I don’t think there is an import tax from the EU (presuming you are in the UK). If you order from the US it’s very likely you would be charged duty plus a handling fee of around £10

The only problem with anything that isn’t a stock shoe at that age is that it’s quite likely they will have outgrown it before it’s received!

Grishko also do a ‘light’ shoe called novice for beginners. I think Anna is right, aim to book as many of the big shops (dancia, Bloch, freed, capezio) as possible on the one day as I think you’ll be pretty limited in each because of the size.

Maybe email a few shops to see what they have. A lot of brands don’t even make anything that small. It’s trickier finding narrow shoes in a 1.5 aswell I think they may have to special order!

Degas leotards are beautiful and come in lots of different colours and many of the styles are higher on the back so can be worn more easily with a bra. The largest size must be somewhere around a 16 if you’re short to average height. Black does hide the lumps and bumps and perspiration marks well though!

Taking dividends instead of earnings is a way of reducing your tax bill though. If they’re not declaring it as earnings for paye, then it’s fair it doesn’t count towards earnings for the furlough scheme either! I’ve heard some schools insist on their regular teachers working on a self employed basis (which I believe is contrary to employment law if they are to all intents and purposes ‘employed’ rather than just independently using the studio space). Presumably that has meant they couldn’t access the furlough scheme when really they should have been able to

My first thought was that they could have matched the pattern along the front seam a bit better for £45. Surely that’s why you go designer darling 😉 I think it’s fine, they have some beautiful items in the shop I’ve been wondering for some time who buys the adult peacock head dresses at £175 though! A few years ago they had some miniature ornamental replica tutus. I considered selling a kidney for one of those!

Can’t limited companies furlough staff though? the trouble with zoom is that it’s not what people have signed up for, in many cases it’s impractical because of lack of IT or suitable space, or internet connection, security concerns or kids just don’t like it. It’s quite restricted what you can do- turning and jumping on carpeted, concrete floors is a bit of a safety risk so often just missed out. For a few weeks I don’t think it’s unreasonable to suspend classes without any refund but when it’s months and months It’s tricky. Reduced cost with offer of some sort of online class seems to be a fair compromise. my degree was 30 hours a week, I thought of English when short contact hours were mentioned too🤣 It was still 12-14 hours a week In the first year at my uni . I know there’s onerous marking and feedback but yes I would feel short changed by 4 lectures and 1 tutorial. They’re obviously subsidising the courses like mine 😉

Tbh I think I had presumed that upper schools would be back to normal lessons and being taught in person. Is that not the case? School sixth forms are back in school so are Tring, Hammond, Elmhurst etc back as normal?

Are Upper schools getting less teaching? I think universities vary quite a bit depending on which one and what course. I certainly don’t think that online teaching Is as good as face to face for many things. Probably ok for lectures as there’s no interaction in those anyway but a poor substitute for many other things. I feel many of them probably haven’t been totally honest because they wanted to preserve their income...

Have you tried with normal padding instead of the perfect fit? Is there any of the moulded material over the little toe or is it one of your contact points? If you need a fitting dancique in Birmingham are great and very patient (with adults too! Some places don’t seem to be bothered with adults!) 10 to 15 minutes per session is normal for a beginner. It’s something you have to build up very slowly I think and as an adult most of us tend to be somewhat taller and heavier than an 11 or 12 year old so it is hard on the feet! I’d go get a fitting tbh

I suspect in closed institutions, like halls or some of the factory outbreaks PHE have advised mass testing to find out the scale of the problem. It won’t be a case of waiting until there are symptoms to test.

Many haven’t been allowed to defer and the a level palaver didn’t help with planning either I guess! it isn’t just uni students, numbers were increasing well before then across the country. However we do know that the conditions that students live in make them particularly susceptible to spread of diseases like meningitis. I’m not sure if Matt Hancock is planning some China-seque sealing of the doors?!

Given the choice I’m sure most people would choose to work from home at the moment. I feel incredibly sorry for these students who were encouraged to move into university accommodation even though they won’t be able to actually attend the university. And now we’re telling them not to go to pubs and not to go home for Christmas etc. Those rooms are pretty tiny, many have shared facilities and lets face it you don’t get to choose who you live with. Sounds absolutely awful to me. The universities have some sort of responsibility in this too.

If they were within touching distance without masks I think that’s unequivocally a breach of the guidelines, can you report them? Obviously there is an increased risk of transmission, but also it’s very unfair on all the studios who are complying and are operating at reduced profit as a result!

I thought the recommendation was to go singly from alternate corners to avoid being in the slipstream too. In some ways I think it works better than the traditional method as there’s less congestion at the end!