Momapalooza

Sorry, this is my fault for maybe using the wrong phrase, I didn't mean to make it sound sinister. I do apologise. In reality it was more like a casual conversation that was along the lines of "oh, I think so and so will get in to X school, also so and so..." It is true though that it is quite worrying how some kids are very active on social media at such a young age although I suspect for some of them, the posters are the parent/s. The flipside to this is that I find it very freaky when a parent posts on a child's account but uses the first person voice, like they are the child actually writing the caption or comment.

Oh same here! We do love a good browse through posts. I think they can be equal parts inspiring and worrying. Social media has been brilliant for us though because it has showed us lots of other opportunities we would not have easily found if it were not for Instagram! Lots to even maybe put at the back of our minds for after a few years.

Exactly this, WrapsnBows. Just out of curiosity I tried to get quotations of how much privates/studio hire cost and was horrified. Makes me think I'm in the wrong job. Over lockdown I knew of kids who were constantly having classes/privates several times a day, every day, leading up to auditions. If you try and hazard a guess of the total spent every week, it boggles my mind how people can afford. However, at the same time, I do understand that perhaps if one can afford it then why not. As people say opportunities like this only come every so often so might as well give it your best shot. For us, it's just not possible with other expenses and other kids' hobbies. I would not feel it fair to inject so much financial support to one child's dream and not the others. I am sure for others this is very possible given their circumstances but for us, it isn't.

Oh I know, Springflower - it can be very entertaining these days though. People my age use it more to keep in touch with a wider range of friends and family but youngsters these days have to be monitored so carefully. I made sure my DCs only signed up when they were actually the minimum age, I told them there was no way I would let them open an account even if they offered to put "parent or mum monitored" on it. I remembered my youngest asking if s/he can have one too and I said the internet police will come knocking if anyone under the minimum age signs up for one 🤣 I am horrified how young ones these have lives that are so openly public in some cases. As I said in my previous post, about a month or so ago, just for fun because both me and my DC love ballet we thought we would try to guess who would get into a certain vocational school just based on posts we've seen of these kids auditioning (either posted my themselves or their schools) and what we have heard about them. The truly amazing yet worrying thing is that we correctly guessed 10 out of a potential 12/14. That is how small and predictable this world has become!

Thank you Jan! 🙂

Hi Anna, yes I completely agree with letting them try for the experience, and there are times I am tempted to just tell DC to go for it. Sadly, we are a family who cannot afford any extras, especially at the moment. We were just looking at the incoming intake for Year 7 of one of the big schools and I would say about 80% or so have been trained extensively. Not just based on what one can easily glean from social media but because my DC has encountered some of these in intensives and auditions. The ballet world is extremely small, even for these young ones who are just about to start their journey. It's funny actually because my DCs are very fascinated with politics and economics and current events (we are strange like this!) even from a young age and my DC mentioned that there is a noticeable north/south divide for one of the schools' incoming lower school intake. An overwhelming majority were from schools or associate centres from the south. This could of course be a coincidence and perhaps simply reflects the demographic of kids who actually audition. At the moment, the odds and stats seem very much against some kids but as you said, the experience could be worth it.

After months of reading threads on this forum, especially during the lockdown months, I thought it was time to sign up so I can join the conversations . My DC is considering going through the whole audition madness next year, with applications I assume starting later this year, and I have so many burning questions since starting reading the posts on here and being exposed to social media. My question is basically the title. With 3 young ones, we have a very social media savvy fam and my teenage DCs are all exposed to social media although they themselves aren't active on it and are loathe to post and hate having their photos taken for mum to post on hers despite my account being private. And so we have all seen Instagram posts of vocational schools acceptances over the last few weeks, mostly from the same DCs who actively post on their Instagram. I remember years ago, during my teen DCs time (year 10) vocational schools used to stress that they offer places mostly based on facility, physique and...potential. However, as I see the same kids offered places this year being posted by 2-3 different dance schools, by multiple private lesson teachers, and the same kids who post quite a lot about their training, I am really hesitant to even let DC try. So much so one can easily guess that some if not most of them probably train more hours that current full time students! I am also aware that some get training on the side and keeping it from their usual schools/teachers (god knows the sorts of trouble/drama this can get them into when teachers find out). By the time these kids go full time in September, they will probably be cutting down the hours they train compared to the hours they have been doing the last couple or so years. Obviously no disrespect to these determined, hardworking and beautiful kids who rightly deserve their places but I do wonder what chance a little boy or girl whose family cannot fund such extensive training pre-auditions but who has big dreams and dare I say it, massive potential, has? I know some associates have funding for talented kids who need it, but what if their families cannot afford multiple privates a week, or to train in more than one school, take classes every day, apply for various intensives? Back in my older DCs time, a lot of the kids who got in attended one associates and did maybe 2 graded classes a week, maybe a private a week the month leading up to auditions. Back then, I still believed that it was potential. These days, I think kids with simply potential can easily be overlooked when in a group with amazingly polished young dancers. It looks like there is a move slowly and surely to places being offered to kids who already look like they're the "finished product" - or as finished as someone can be at 10/11 years old. There is now an astounding choice of pre-vocational programmes/associates catering for this, the norm is now for a DC to attend 2, 3, even 4 associates. Looking at the years 4 and 5 there are already kids who are intensely preparing for associates and auditions with still a year or 2 to go. Where do they find the time to be kids? Whilst social media posts are taken as a snapshot in time, it would appear they spend a lot of time in photo shoots, being ambassadors and training so many hours which surely cannot be good for such young bodies in the long run? I am curious to see how this trend plays out and whether this will improve the statistics of kids completing all 5 years in a lower school, going on to upper schools and getting jobs in companies. How do these kids cope once they start full time? To keep up with their intensive training from before they start full time, and with the desire to stay there the whole way, I would say they would be tempted to still have private lessons on the side whenever they can despite vocational schools frowning on this. I personally think this defeats the purpose of going full time. Sorry for the long post but I guess it is just me typing away my thought of the last few weeks and trying to convince myself that it is okay to let my DC enter this whole thing, that it is ok for DC to try. In my heart I want to protect DC because we do not have the means to prepare nearly as much as DC would need to from the looks of it. I need to be convinced otherwise I think but seeing as me and my DCs managed to guess about 90% of a particular vocational school's offers of places this year based on social media posts alone, I think I may have a point in wanting to dissuade my DC from even trying to audition.