MamaFrosty

We were new to all of this in the Spring and I have to say that now I’m aware of other options, I can’t honestly say that we’ll pay £65 for another video application if that’s the route they take next year. We’ll just have to see how things are I guess! Fingers crossed to all of you still waiting, with any luck it’ll be Monday and you can all relax a bit!

I doubt they’d explicitly say there were no year 5 places because then they’d have to explain why. I think there’s been a mention of someone knowing someone whose year 5 was offered a place but it does look a bit like they’re prioritising the year 4s. I think we’re similar in that if it was face to face we’d give it another go next year, but for £65 I don’t think we’d pay to do another video submission. Plus we’re now more aware of the other associate programmes so she wants to try for those.

I think the kids (and we!) have to accept that this year could be more of a challenge due to COVID restrictions, and keep remembering that every experience will be helping them to develop not just as dancers but as lovely people who are able to accept rejection, pick themselves up and try again. My DD was terribly disappointed but is determined to keep trying and that, for me, is an incredible lesson to learn - particularly as she struggles with the social and emotional side of things. Huge congratulations to those who got a yes!!

Having seen all the children not being accepted on here, I had the same thought - they must have a limit as to how many children they can safely have in their studios and it’s almost certainly going to be a smaller number than previously! Certainly at my daughter’s dance school we had to book spaces on the classes we wanted because spaces were more limited. It’s a pity, but sadly it’s the world we live in at the moment!

No here too with the comment about auditioning for mids/white lodge - she’s year 5 this year. Congratulations to the ones who got a yes!

Ours was sent as three videos, I think they just wanted them to do it as one lesson rather than one part one day, one part the next day etc

I keep checking my junk folder, we’re group one 😣 it’s my daughter’s birthday on Friday, I was really hoping we’d know for sure before so she can get over the upset and enjoy her day - if it comes on Friday I think I’m going to have to wait until the weekend to tell her 😢

It looks incredible - she’s keen to do a residential there, do you have any experience of those?

I was until all of this! Tring Park have auditions later in the year (but I’d imagine those places are extremely limited since they’d have filled most in their summer) and I’m waiting to hear from my daughter’s dance teacher about others (but since she’s just had a beautiful baby I’m not pushing it!) I think we’ll end up applying for Tring, RB and ballet boost next year, and seeing how we get on 😊

My daughter’s the same - she’d have performed better with others to ‘bounce’ off. I think she found dancing alone more of a challenge because she was less inclined to perform it without others there to perform with, and because she felt very exposed when she inevitably made little mistakes which made her a bit flustered. We’re just taking it as a worthwhile first experience and she’d like to audition elsewhere this year if possible once we hear from them, and try again for JAs next year 😊

We’re group 1 and nothing here - also expecting a no but it’d be nice to know for sure! Can’t imagine how busy they must be though so I’m trying to be patient!

We sent ours via google drive so I don’t think we can see if/when they’ve been viewed. Just a waiting game now I guess, although if they’re staggering submission videos I’d hope they would let each centre know a few weeks after their final date rather than waiting til all centres were done (just wishful thinking though, and not sure how that’d work if anyone was offered their second choice centre so maybe not!)

I think a lot of people must’ve viewed it beforehand judging by the number of views (which are different for each video). They’ll be able to easily tell if a child has seen it before filming based on how they respond to the instructions etc. I don’t think there’s much harm in parents watching beforehand, because if a child has been coached based on the content of the videos it’ll be obvious.

I think if I’d peeked I’d have been tempted to at least encourage her to work on particular things - maybe just me but I didn’t want to risk it 😂

We didn’t peek, but I do wish I’d prepared my daughter to do the improvisation bit because it threw her. None of it is at all challenging, and it’s all explained really clearly, with the teacher demonstrating first and then dancing along with them. Hope it all goes well!

We filmed ours this afternoon, she enjoyed it but was totally thrown by the improvisation - it’s not something she ever does in class so she found that really hard and just froze (despite the fact that she dances rather than walks everywhere normally 😂). It was a really good experience for her though and hopefully next time she’ll feel more prepared ☺️ Good luck to everyone!

We got our email yesterday for group 1. There’s a link to three YouTube videos which we’ll watch and record my DD dancing to when we’re ready to. Good luck to everyone!

Thanks for all the really helpful information - well done to your daughter Raquelle! How long did it take for you to find out? My daughter will just wear her dance school uniform leotard, I’ll get her ready and set up and then just go for it! I assume they’ll be able to tell by their performance if they’ve rehearsed it beforehand, and I’d rather she just did it as she would’ve done in an ‘in person’ audition. It’s getting very exciting now!

My 9 year old is down for group 1, we also put Eastleigh as an option - it’s her first audition experience so we’re just looking forward to seeing what it’s all about!