Aurora

Salt helps with cramp and you can also but tablets for it. I used to take them when I got bad leg cramps at night (think I grew out if it eventually). The ones I took were called Crampex I think though that was about 20 years ago! You don't have to take them every day, just on the days you do classes. Also agree that it may just be a lack of strength/practice and may take time. I got cramp in my calf in my intermediate exam!! I stayed up on Demi pointe as long as I could but it was too intense and I had to come down and rub my calf and flex my foot! The examiner realised what the matter was and gave me a minute to get rid of it!

But if you had a child at a private school who was struggling with one subject, despite the school's assistance, wouldn't you pay for a private tutor to help? For a while at least? I know I would, if I could afford it. Same with a vocational dance school.

They should have told you how to break them in at the shop if it involved a hair dryer!!

Oh I understand that Dancer Sugar Plum - my reply was just meant to say that whilst it may not be RAD it may also not be considered incorrect where others have implied it is. There are so many variations in technique!

I agree with what's been said but just wanted to query one thing. On the correction where you've been told to take the upper body back - is this like the efface position where there is an upward lift back and an opening of the chest? If so I can see how that might work. It's possible to stand in efface without the weight going back into the heels and indeed to do a backbend. I'm not saying its correct or 'RAD' and it's not how I do it, I'm just saying it may not be considered wrong.

I don't have any first hand experience but I do know it's an excellent programme and the standard is very high

Yes I experienced problems too. It said the connection wasn't good enough but it worked eventually!

The didn't articulate their feet much back then did they? Or is that a Russian thing generally?

RBS JAs do have crossed pinned plaits as you said, the ribbon would go where the plait begins but there's no harm in double checking! At dd's school the pre-primaries have 2 buns (bunches put in buns) - it looks very cute and is certainly easier than pinning plaits!

I've seen it on Facebook, it's clever how you can completely change the style of it!

Yes I should think some Pilates or floor barre would suffice as a warm up. I guess just increase the intensity of the stretch very gradually to ensure you're properly warm rather than dropping straight into splits or something!

I'll be aware of that and limit breaststroke then! Maybe I should try and learn butterfly or dolphin(!) from my daughter then, that would certainly entertain the other swimmers lol!

I don't think a wam up is really essential if you're doing floor barre as you start with the easiest exercises and there's no body weight on your joints or anything. I guess you could do things on the floor like ankle circles, hip rotations and should rolls.

I'm not sure really as I change strokes for each length but I do a lot of breast stroke so it's entirely possible! It just started really throbbing after a while!

I do that with a float sometimes, just for variety as I do quite a few lengths when I go. I'm not really a massive fan of swimming though so didn't mind missing out, it was just odd as I thought swimming would be the one thing that wouldn't cause pain!!

Oh dear, look over comfort in pointe shoes? Not for me!! As a student I wore Chacott shoes which fitted me PERFECTLY and my (also serviceable) feet looked pretty good in them. When I went back to classes a few years later I couldn't find anywhere that stocked them! I knew I could get them shipped but my feet had changed a lot in 10 years so that was no good. I ended up with Bloch which I really didn't like and they went soft more quickly than Chacott but they got me through my Advanced 1 exam and then I stuck them in a bag in a cupboard lol! I came across them a couple of weeks ago and tried one on, SOOOOO painful, I guess my feet have changed again! (Plus I'm out of practice, older and heavier I guess!!)

Well I've barely danced since September I have Achilles tendinopathy (tendonitis) which comes and goes but September was the worst it's ever been and I could barely walk for days! So I got straight to the Physio and I've followed his instructions very carefully (gentle calf and soleus stretches followed eventually by eccentric stretches plus of course ice, elevation, supportive shoes and I've been taped up etc). I've been so desperate to dance but every time I tested myself I knew it wasn't right, I could barely drive at one point with the back of my shoe digging in whenever I pressed the clutch - thought I was going to have to trade in for an automatic car but I just changed my shoes instead lol! So I've been really careful as the last thing I wanted was a rupture! In the last few weeks I've just started doing barre with no rises on my left leg plus some gentle centre exercises, definitely no allegro yet! Back to body balance and swimming (which strangely also aggravated it!) and it's OK, not perfect, I'm still aware of it but I'm getting there! I'm desperate to get back to Zumba but I think that would certainly be pushing it!! So no real point to my post, just a bit of a moan which it sounded like it was ok to do on this thread! But glad to be getting slowly back to normal now! Sorry to hear about your difficulties Mimi but sounds as though you're doing the right thing going back to basics for a while, nothing is worth risking your health or chronic injury for! I bought a membership for barre concept, it's one of the many popular barre workouts around. You can pay £9 to have access to their online workouts for a month and there are some floor ones in there. Don't think they would really help with technique but some exercises help with core strength and flexibility and for me it was just something different I could do while I was out of action and better than a class because I could pick and choose the bits that I knew I could manage! I also do Boris Kniaseff's floor barre sometimes, the style of it seems to suit me better than others I've come across though I'm sure they're all very good

Yes I imagine it is nice to see it properly done

Maybe they think you just want to see their foot in a dégagé so they put it there in a lazy way....?

I haven't watched all that yet but fully intend to. I really love the orchestrated music! I know a piano is traditional but a cd of piano music isn't exactly The new music adds so much more atmosphere and encourages a real sense of performance, plus it's educating the students and exposing them to much more variety

I don't think most of them are judging by the schools listed at the end, but they are all of an exceptionally high standard!

My daughter's flexibility increased a great deal when she started gymnastics - more so when she was moved into the 'non recreational' group and attending 3 times per week. She never came out in tears but I did see coaches using their body weight to push the children down in stretches (aged 7-8) which I found quite scary - they would 'sit' on the children, without using their full weight I presume! That was at the top club in the region! She eventually left there and had a year off, she recently started at another gym club where I do see some physical pressure but not nearly so much, though she is in a recreational group now. Dd's dance school does have specific stretching classes too but they're not as intense as gymnastics - much better for them I'm sure, but also not as effective!

The new grade 5 isn't being examined until January 2015, it's the old syllabus up to 31st December 2014

I have to say, the new syllabi look extremely challenging! I've downloaded grade 4 and 5 via the rad app and the choreography is really quite complicated. There seems so much detail to learn and remember and there are double pirouettes in grade 5! In parallel so that makes them a bit easier but still! The syllabi will certainly create more 'thinking' dancers which is one of the intentions I believe. They will also raise the standard overall and create some lovely dancers. I really do like the new work but it's at least a grade harder than previously! My daughter will be starting the new grade 4 after Easter - poor thing

I'm pretty sure applications are open for this years auditions. From now to the summer I think it's the first Sunday of each month so I guess that's probably what they aim for but it might get changed sometimes.