AmandaBallet

Thank you all. It sounds like I need to rethink our plans and make time for a few appointments after all!

Thank you all, that’s really helpful!

My dd has been told that she can start pointe work in the new year and as we’re visiting London over the holidays I thought it would be a good opportunity to get her fitted (we don’t have anywhere local to us for this). If we booked an appointment at e.g Bloch presumably she would only get to try out Bloch pointe shoes? (I have zero knowledge of how this all works!). So is there a recommended shop in central London where she could try a variety of brands? We don’t really have the time to do lots of different appointments at different stores unfortunately…Thanks!

Hi, interested in the green if still available please - what style is it? Do you have a photo? Thanks!

Hello, you've had a lot of great advice and insight from people and I would just like to add an additional thing to consider about how/why he has come to the conclusion after 7 weeks that his dream is no longer to dance as it presumably was previously. I'm sure you have already explored this with him but I know as a child I was hugely confidence-driven and when I went from the position of being one of the best at something on a relatively local level (not ballet I might add!) to being put in a position where I was now "average" amongst others I found it hugely difficult to deal with - my belief in my ability plummeted (and my enjoyment therefore followed). My natural instinct was to quit because I suddenly realised that I might not be as good as I thought I was and really found it hard to deal with not being "the best". Of course that wasn't what I articulated at the time - I too told people I just didn't want to do it any more... That may not be the case for your DS of course, just thought it was worth considering...

I'm so sorry to hear about this, anything like this must be extra difficult when your child is boarding. I just wanted to balance things slightly by saying that not being told how the situation is being dealt with in terms of what sanctions the bully is specifically being given may be standard in school now - my older dd experienced a nasty incident at her state school last year and the school were not able to inform us of what was being done specifically in regards to the other child. (I'm not 100% sure if this was because they were raising a safeguarding concern about the other child however because of the nature of the incident). In our case I have trust in the school built up over a few years and felt that they were as open and honest with us as they could be and we haven't had any further problems but it was of course much easier with dd at home for me to be assured of her welfare. I really feel for you because it's very difficult with any new school to have this trust of course. You may have to focus your approach on how your own child's welfare is being handled and what measures the school are taking generally rather than specifically what they have done to deal with this particular bully...

Thanks!

Thank you!

Thank you both.

Hello all, I think my DD would benefit from some classes like PBT but her dance school doesn't offer anything like this. I know you can sign up for the online PBT but I think my daughter needs a teacher to actually make sure she is doing things correctly. Does anyone know of any Zoom classes in PBT or similar that they would recommend?

Thank you all for your responses, all really helpful suggestions and info

Thank you for the reply, that's interesting to hear.

Thank you! So much info on here 🙂

Thank you, that's good to know.

Hello all, newbie here! My 11 year old has moved dance schools and we've suddenly become aware of the world of associates, vocational schools etc...She loves to dance and has said for a while that's what she'd like to do but with no dance background I had no idea until now of this whole world of extras (her previous dance school didn't seem to have any interest other than exams). Reading all the posts here it feels a little bit like we're already too late by not having been involved in anything other than regular lessons. Having totally missed the boat for lower school, my question is about whether it's possible/likely to get a place at dance school at 16+ just from regular lessons or what I should be looking for her to do to improve her prospects should that dance dream remain with her? It doesn't seem like there's a huge range of options locally (south Wales) aside from regular classes but would be prepared to travel potentially once a month if there were any recommendations of things she could do. I'll speak to her new teacher once she's been able to see her in person instead of just online (!) but wanted to get some ideas as it feels like I need to look into this more for her before more time ebbs away! Thanks for any help/guidance from anyone.