Peony

Even the government are at it with council tax...

People need to work abroad because government policy favours the recruitment of overseas dancers which reduces opportunity at home how so?

I thought £20 was a bargain, then realised that’s just for one cocktail🤣

Your post was asking for visa waivers though, I think many people would like to be able to work abroad more easily, and are currently facing reduced career prospects and opportunities. I’m with you on the issue about employing dancers from abroad. We pay for MDS and then we don’t employ those people. Crazy

Agree with Kate. many have lost so much. Is this worse for dancers than everyone else? Personally I’ve not only lost free movement for work but also the reciprocal recognition of my professional qualification (which is required to practice). This is what many people voted for

it depends what you mean by ‘test’ ?lateral flow tests are pretty poor at picking up positive cases and that’s if people do them properly (or at all). ‘NHS’ track and trace is nothing to do with the NHS is it! I know some people don’t have a suitable device but for the many who do can’t you just show the vaccine passport on the NHS app (the actual NHS app not t&t!) in real time and avoid the faff of printing and dates. Or is that not allowed?

Not being a morning person I think swim training would finish me off. Even at club level I know parents getting up at 4am to take kids to training and then they all go off and do a days work/school!

I got the first one wrong as I wasn’t quite sure what I was meant to be doing 🤣

yes officially it’s 8 weeks and that is what is on the protocol so staff have to stick to that. Unless there’s a prescriber at the session who can prescribe it according to their own recommendation. Most staff at the vacc centres have to work to the protocol regardless on what seems the most sensible option!

I think the problem is just the explosion in cases and relaxation of restrictions at the same time- it was always going to cause high numbers to have to isolate. Personal opinion, it would have made more sense to reduce interval between vaccinations, got the majority vaccinated and then got rid of restrictions and isolation for all fully vaccinated at the same time.

For arch height the general non ballet advice is to look at your footprints when your feet are wet and see how much of the ‘middle section’ of foot you can see. I have hypermobile ankles, I’d say yours are ‘normal’! Flexible ankles can be a bit of a curse if you’re not doing hours and hours of ballet as they are more unstable and make the actual dancing a bit more difficult.

if you’ve just been in the same venue you don’t have to self isolate the alert is “You recently visited a venue on the same day as others who have since tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19).” You’re only advised to self isolate by the app if the Bluetooth has been triggered by being in close contact with someone there. Perhaps people have assumed the advisory message above means that they have to self isolate?

They can change the settings of the app to make it slightly more or less sensitive but it’s somewhere around what you’ve quoted Fonty. as far as the app is concerned I believe it can send a message to say you should isolate because you’ve been in contact (set off by proximity with the bluetooth) and a more general message to warn you that you’ve been in the same area as someone and to be aware. I thought it was only the second that gave you the location but could be wrong. Potentially the positive case could have developed symptoms 48 hours after your contact and then taken a few days to get a test and get the results back hence the delays!

I think 5 hours is within the expected life for a traditional pointe shoe. Have you tried jet glue etc? What shank did you have? The dream pointe fits differently but may be ok, I follow Lianne on social media and I think she says it’s one of her most popular styles so must fit a variety of feet!

I think there have been problems with quick spread in other boarding schools which have then had to close down. Quite a different situation to normal day schools in terms of risk. Very disappointing for the graduate year though, are there any plans to shift the performance back or will it just be a case of cancelling it?

Duty is not due below £135 but VAT still Is. There’s no way the charges would be more than the items worth though as they are a percentage. It appears to say that orders below £135 the seller will pay the VAT so you shouldn’t pay anything on delivery (presumably they add this at checkout??) https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad/tax-and-duty

I think some of the organisations like RBS associates and some of the summer schools provide funding for those on low income so that may be worth looking into. I agree with the general view that whilst some things aren’t required to be a dance teacher they are desirable and can be a selling point: prior training by prestigious organisations (as associates/ summer schools as well as full time), performance experience, range of training/experience. I’d personally be looking for a teacher who has reached around the standard of a professional dancer and has some experience of performing and of ballet schools. Not to the same extent as a full time dancer but enough so that they have a good understanding of what is involved.

Blimey surely that’s a huge price hike, over £70 towards the back of the amphi. Whilst I appreciate that they need to increase revenue I also believe that after such an enormous injection from us tax payers they have a responsibility to remain accessible to the less well well off and families etc looks like I’ll be checking out the offering from ENB and BRB!

Personally, I wear my usual shoe size in most ballet shoes, including the so danca. Narrowish feet though which might make a difference

A lot of people like the so danca sd16. You can get them on Amazon with free returns if she’s struggling to get to a shop.

I would like to see some more variety from the RB at soloist level. Perhaps it’s my imagination but I always seem to see the same 2 or 3 dancers in those roles

Another vote for the previous ice creams, especially the stem ginger!

I’d go for a stretch canvas without drawstring. Grishko as above or Bloch do multiple widths. If she is near London the Bloch shop would be a good place to try as they have multiple styles and widths in stock that she could try on. Many ballet shops don’t stock all the widths

It was heaving last week but might have been the combination of school holidays and sunny weather! Very much busier than last summer, I was quite surprised.

So many girls auditioning, I think they can pick those with quality and quantity personally. I think you’d have to be providing around the same amount as a vocational school. Boys more flexibility maybe but at upper school they would be competing with international students as well. Ultimately I think you just have to go with what you both think is best, how keen your child is to go to a boarding school will be a big factor. The audition would be a good experience for her though as there will be many more in the future!