DVDfan

There are two disservices that the arts can do for people with mental disabilities. One is to portray them as clowns, to be laughed at, and the other is not to portray them at all. It doesn't seem to me that the Alain character in Fille is portrayed as a mere figure of fun. The first dance when he comes on is just as much poking fun at a man's classical variation as it is at the character Alain. His father's refusal to accept his son's limitations is a common parental reaction. The scenes at the harvest show what learning disabled people put up with from their peers - the teasing with the flute, the irritation and contempt. At the end his pain is treated with compassion by Lise and Colas, which is how we know they are decent people. And because Alain lives in the moment, he finishes the ballet happy, and so we do too. It's a lovely twist on stories where the rejected suitor limps away to a life of lonely misery.

Taxi4ballet is right. What the body needs has been known since WWII, when a lot of research was done with the aim of keeping the population healthy on rationed food. You and everyone else should follow those guidelines and obtain your nutrients (carbohydrates, fats, protein, vitamins and minerals) by eating as wide a range of foods as possible. Anyone who is in a labouring job, and ballet is certainly that, should increase their calorie consumption (bread, potatoes, puddings and so on) to fuel the activity. There is guidance available about how much more you should eat, I think.

The only thing you can do with school choices of any kind is to make a decision based on what you see and hear and then be prepared to change if it doesn't work out as you hope.

My father served in WWII, with the medical corps as a technician. His 'pal' was from a working class northern family. When he visited said family after the war, he found that they lived, as expected, in a brick terrace not far from the mill. The unexpected was that the tiny front room was fully occupied by a grand piano, with which the family made their own entertainment, and made it well. Their choice of music - Chopin, Beethoven and Bach. If Labour politicians pretend not to like anything classical, then they are joining in with the cultural attitudes that keep kids from working class backgrounds away from ballet, classical music, arts in general...ought they not to be shouting from the rooftops that such things are for everyone?

Over the years I've come to feel that teachers and establishments that say this ought to be called out for it. It's an excuse for abuse. A career in performing arts does involve a lot of rejection and a lot of criticism, both fair and unfair, and a young person needs to decide if that's something they want in their lives. I think the language used around this stigmatises the perfectly reasonable choice not to follow a career involving so many knock-backs. 'Lacking resilience'; 'don't want it enough' etc. Surely the time for this understanding and the decision is around 16 years of age, 14 at the earliest, and this is when training establishments should make their students aware of the reality of a dance career. Perhaps by talking both to professional dancers and former students who have made that choice to leave, or maybe through helpful films. But not by psychological abuse!

I find it absolutely astonishing that dance in all forms does not feature on an almost daily basis, since dance is a visual performance and TV is a visual medium. I fear that audiences are being deprived on the elitist basis that they won't be interested. In the past TV producers thought it was their job to show people why they should be interested. Especially people who would never be able to afford the ROH, but could manage a telly.

Grades are not everything, and nor are the number of A levels: check what knowledge you will be assumed to have when you start the course. I once came to grief on a maths course because it was assumed I would have a knowledge of set theory, which I did not. There was no time to catch up, whatever your work ethic is like, because it takes time to absorb and master knowledge. And don't forget that you also need a plan for your career after university, and that needs a plan B too. Oh, and good luck!

Just to emphasise the point that the problem of many qualifiers and few jobs isn't confined to ballet, 50 years ago I started on a course of study in science. Eight years later I was finally qualified - only to find that there were a handful of jobs available and at least fifty good applicants for each post. Whether you got a post was down to luck and contacts, neither of which I had. I didn't have a plan B...you don't expect to need one in science, unlike the arts. But besides a plan B (C and D) you do also need to realise that it isn't your fault, but down to circumstances, happenstance, Fate...or you can spend your life haunted by a sense of failure, and of 'what might/should have been'.

There was a lot more to Rudolf than STDs, obsession and death. He was a serious naturalist with several publications and a notable collection of minerals to his credit, though I appreciate it would be rather difficult to show that on stage.

I believe that originally what is happening at the 'engagement party' is actually the old Russian custom of a bride show (see Bride-show - Wikipedia) ie assembling the unmarried daughters of the nobles in a sort of beauty contest, so that the prince could select one as his bride. Surprisingly this seems to have led to many happy marriages, and so to a persistent trend for the Tsar to marry for love rather than political advantage, though there are exceptions. So in a medieval setting this makes perfect sense, but looks rather odd in the mid-nineteenth, where the prince would be more likely to meet suitable candidates one at a time. Siegfried is probably not upset by an engagement party in the modern sense, but by the order to marry when he doesn't feel ready. He might also be worried by the fact that Rothbart has presumably limited his choice of bride to princesses that will promote his, Rothbart's, interests.

What I had in mind was leaving the activity alone as a profession. Peanut:- mainstream schools providing mental health support, stuff happens - bereavements, illness etc - that can't be avoided and it's good if schools are a source of support and not, as in our experience, a major source of the ill health. When that happens it's time for the school to give itself a good hard look and make some changes. I agree that there is a fair degree of 'snowflaking' that wasn't present in our (sixties) generation. In our anxiety to remove the stigma around mental illness I think the impression is given to young people that anything unpleasant must result in a crisis of the mind. For example, a few years ago I had my car written off when a tractor reversed a disc harrow through my windscreen. I was driving at the time and everyone thinks I should have nightmares and flashbacks. In fact I just have a rush of adrenalin if I see a green tractor coming towards me - a normal, learned response to a single event. Unless the event is very severe what usually causes problems are repeats - if I couldn't go out without being run into by tractors I should soon be a mental wreck. And when things are wrong with these schools/academies/training schemes, I think it's either the repetition of comments, what kids used to call 'being picked on', or the experience of being sucked in, of becoming a dancer/footballer/whatever and then spat out, thus loosing your identity, your friends and your future.

I am horrified by the idea of kids being put into situations where it is thought necessary to provide routine mental health support. I'm certainly not saying that kids shouldn't dance or do serious sport, but these activities should always be life enhancing. When the pressure gets damaging, it's time to leave.

Having read this thread with interest since it started, I would never, ever go to a live performance...

Although it was nothing to do with Covid, my daughter had a very bad experience in an exam which left her having continual flashbacks during subsequent exams. It took a long time to heal, but it did heal and she was able to gain first class honours, eventually. It sounds as though the OPs DC is well on the way to recovery, but if need be, assure your child that it will improve given time.

Sadly, shedding kids the school thinks will bring down their exam results is far from unknown. Some years ago I knew of one lass, intelligent but with some learning difficulty, who was dumped from her (independent) school 5 weeks before A levels. It was difficult not to think that they'd left it that long so that they could keep her fees. It follows, alas, that one should be quite inquisitive about the methods a school (college, university) uses to reach the top of the league tables as there can be more to it than good teaching following a good admission process.

For myself, I feel it would be better if Odile did pique turns around Siegfried which to me would be a better symbol for the way she is ensnaring him. It was ages before I realised that that was what the fouettes were meant to represent. It would also focus attention away from the technical challenge and back onto the story.

Not sure if this is any use to a dedicated dancer, but in my experience athlete's foot loves warmth and damp, and hates fresh air. Creams won't shift it but going bare foot or in cotton sports socks (the kind that looks like towelling) will. Also, wear sandals instead of shoes whenever you can. Just a thought.

I've seen the Nureyev version on YouTube, and I was gobsmacked. It was the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen in a ballet context. I'm not sure that there is a good ending to Swan Lake - certainly not one that would meet with majority approval, but that was....in a class of its own.

Thank you for your kind words, Jan and Glowlight. I am writing again now - entirely for myself and with no thought of a readership, which is a very relaxing place to be. If the OPs granddaughter was getting pleasure from ballet, I hope one day she'll feel able to go back too. I agree with Anna that judging any kind of creative art or performance is partly subjective, but it isn't entirely. There are various technical issues that can be judged objectively - structure of the plot, quality of the dialogue in writing, presumably security on pointe etc in ballet. Sometimes a piece of criticism really gets under your skin, lodges itself in your mind like the sliver of ice in Andersen's story, and makes continuing with the activity impossible, at least for the present. This may not be the intention or even the fault of the critic - but nor is it a sign of moral weakness in yourself. The human mind is very complicated. I also think, having read the posts on here for many years, that it is high time ballet children and their parents voted with their feet in a number of situations. I don't think it is resilient to put up with bad behaviour from authority figures - this is not the same as being outclassed in competition or not picked for a role in a show.

I completely sympathise. About three years ago I submitted a novel to a scheme which offered appraisals. I did this because I felt there was something wrong with it, but wasn't sure quite what, and so I hoped for some useful feedback - I wasn't expecting fulsome praise. What I in fact got gave me writer's block for over two years and has put me off ever submitting work to anyone ever again. It wasn't the pointing out of faults, it was the tone of impatient contempt - the 'how dare this fool expect me to read this rubbish' breathed into every line. And this was something I had paid for, mark you, from a professional. When I protested to the writing scheme about the tone of the feedback, I was told that I would have to expect reams of criticism online and elsewhere if I wanted to publish my work. I'm sure you'll be told on here that any performing arts career is full of rejection. BUT...I had paid for help and advice, not contemptuous rejection, and the judge at the competition had been brought in to give an unbiased judgement based on what she saw that day. So not the same thing at all, and neither had any justification for what they did.

I've a rule of thumb about critic's reactions. If they all say it's good, it's alright and will be revived two or three times and then quietly drop out of the repertoire. If they all say it's bad, then it's dreadful and should sink without trace. But if half of them like it and half of them hate it - it's a keeper!

I think you are right: this is a real and troubling trend, and I think it is already well underway.

Reflecting the world today...let me see...dancing scientists chasing kids dressed as the virus with syringes? Or some victims of modern slavery freed by a brave undercover agent? I see her as female, having a romance with one of the slaves, and at the end going off to the immigration tribunal together. Or a brave girl and her teacher, trying for education in certain countries I won't name here? Come to think of it, how about a piece celebrating the advance of literacy in the world? More abstract that one, I think. Then there's the fall in neo-natal deaths over the last fifty years...or we could have a dance of nonagenarians, who are also a feature of the modern world. For something really light, how about a little tale of cruise ship staff returning to work? What I do think is important is that 'reflecting the modern world' is generally taken to mean grim, shocking and miserable. And it shouldn't be! Good things are as relevant and important as bad, and celebrating them keeps them keep coming. Focussing on the grim just demoralises us all. Besides, after what we've all been through, escapist entertainment is highly relevant, because it helps us all get through the day.

My husband has never smoked, because his scout leader did. The way that happened was that, in camp, the leader's coughing in the mornings sounded as though he was on the point of death, it was quite frightening. After a few minutes of this he would struggle out of his tent, still coughing, and say to the lads, 'Don't be like me and start smoking, it's a trap. I want to give up but I can't: I'm a slave to the stuff.' As they respected him they believed him, and none of them took up smoking, even when they came from families where the parents did smoke. Maybe more dancers and dance teachers who smoke could copy his example?

I long to see this forum once again buzzing with opinions and knowledgeable criticism of last night's performance... As an aside, I also long to be able to visit my in-laws - I don't actually want to see them, I just want the choice!