MamaFrosty

Similar for autistic children. My daughter has autism and dance has been the absolute best thing for her. She’s determined to make a career out of it and I worry how her autism will affect her chances but for now it makes her the happiest I’ve ever seen her so we take each day as it comes.

Didn’t want to read and run, I hope this half term sees them settle a bit more. I can only imagine how much of an adjustment it must be for everyone. Sending lots of love to you all! I guess the thing to remember is that there isn’t just one path to following a dream - they clearly have the talent to pursue dance if they want to, so if it all does become too much I think it’s important to see it as an option explored - they can always go to a different school, continue to work hard at their dancing and try again in a few years. I do hope they settle and find their feet though, sometimes it just takes the right person to say the right thing at the right time and I hope they find that x

We weren’t in a position to afford it either last year, plus we didn’t feel that 11 was the right age for our DD to go. She wanted to audition but ultimately understood our reasons (she was incredibly disappointed though!) She’s starting Central associates next month, having a weekly private lesson with her dance teacher and will do Easter/summer intensives. If she’s still keen in a few years we’ll revisit for year 10 when she’s had the chance to grow and develop. If it’s meant to be then it’ll happen, lots of successful dancers don’t go to vocational school at 11. You just have to do what is right for your family at the point of making the decision, everyone’s situation is different and there are so many different routes!

Also following as I have an 11 year old with small hands, long hair and a perfectionist streak!

My daughter had a private lesson with Camille and loved it. She’s also been offered a place on her associate course but she’s just accepted a place on the Central associates and financially we’re not able to do both. She chose CSB because she prefers in person but it wasn’t an easy choice!

I’d say go for it, my daughter was in a similar position, auditioned and got a place and absolutely loved it - it’s her favourite thing that she’s done. I don’t think it’s hugely competitive to be honest, and the audition video isn’t especially challenging. We heard pretty quickly after the deadline too so it’s not a long wait like JAs!

We were in your position last year and decided not to go down the vocational route at this point. Our circumstances are slightly different in that we’re starting to pursue an autism diagnosis for our DD (after many years of hitting a brick wall with school!) so we didn’t feel that it was the best time to be putting her through auditions etc. We also looked at the success rates of children who started at vocational school at 11 and decided that we’d stick with a combination of classes with her current dance school, associates and private lessons and we’ll look again for year 10 entry, when she’s gone through puberty and has the maturity to understand what choosing dance as a career entails. We discussed all this with her and she agreed that 11 is too young for her to be away from home when so many other things are changing!

My DD was 10 and did Malvern last summer for her first residential. I think Covid impacted what they were able to do in the evenings possibly (they weren’t allowed to go swimming for example) so she was at a bit of a loose end sometimes - if I’d thought, I’d have packed some games or something for her to do! Snacks were helpful as well. Then it was dance clothes, regular clothes, toiletries, towel and plasters for sore toes after all the dancing! She’s going to Moorland summer school this year and we’ve had a list of what to bring already so hopefully you’ll hear from MBS soon.

I haven’t needed to change centres but every time I’ve emailed they’ve been really responsive and helpful x

I think it’s 1 in 10 as an average around the country. I could be totally wrong, but I’d imagine that London and Birmingham (for example) would have a higher number of applicants than some of the other centres, meaning the chances of getting a place there are slightly lower - I guess they could offer second choice places to the kids they want though and it might not make that much of a difference! I think if I’ve learned anything from the last couple of years, it’s to try not to read too much into anything, try not to refresh emails too obsessively and to make sure our kids know that there’s not one single route to success, lots of people take different paths. Their happiness is what’s most important! I hope all the little ones auditioning have a great experience and it just fuels them to keep working at something they love doing.

We haven’t heard anything from wait list x

I’d be interested to know how many schools will take this up too, a lot of budgets are tight and spending money on school sports is often reserved for in person provision to free teachers up for planning time - if this is online then that won’t work and a lot of schools will feel that there are better things to spend the money on. I could be totally wrong though! Teachers (and TAs!) often buy resources out of their own money because budgets are so tight unfortunately.

We found the only thing that really helped during a run of performances was a hair mask for damaged hair and sleeping in a loose plait. Her hair is very fine so we have to do the same in summer when she’s swimming in the sea or in a chlorinated pool a lot. Now she uses an Aussie deep conditioner once a week for maintenance and we only use a small amount of gel for classes because she hates her ‘wispy bits’ (which she’s unfortunately inherited from me 😂)

They called me when I sent an initial enquiry, the dates didn’t work for us so we didn’t end up applying. The rehearsals are 3 days in May half term (the first Sunday and Monday, then the last Sunday), a catch up weekend in the middle of July, a week’s intensive at the beginning of August then final rehearsals and performances at the beginning of September. We’ve not had any experience of the company personally so can’t comment on that but they seemed very friendly on the phone!

Eek, ok. I’ve just checked and I definitely emailed several times to check they had her application with no response so hopefully it’s all fine (and keeping fingers crossed they’re lenient if not since I did my best to contact them!)