Pups_mum

I agree! My DD had seriously smelly feet in the past. Her ballet shoes really were horrendously stinky and we tried all kinds of foot and shoe deodorants to no avail. After advice on the old forum (probably from Anjuli!) we switched to canvas and the problem has almost completely disappeared. It might not be as effective for your DD given that she has problems in bare feet but I think it's worth a go if she is allowed. And at least you can wash canvas - not repeatedly it's true, but I find I can get away with one or two washes per pair before they shrink too much or fall apart. Sorry - you posted whilst I was typing and I see you are already using canvas. I'll leave my post though just in case it's of value to anyone else.

I love the look of the "exo" for modern dance. My DD has tried a variety of foot thongs but never found any that are really comfortable but those look brilliant.

Dvorak's New World Symphony?

I was also going to suggest Gerschwin - either Rhapsody in Blue or An American in Paris would be good for the older ones. Likewise a Fosse medley would work well for older dancers as would something to Taras theme from Gone With the Wind. For little ones, something along a wild west theme maybe, or how about something from the Wizard of Oz?

Me too! The newsletter fills in a lot of detail that you don't even know about when your child is participating. I had no idea that Julianne was injured at Newcastle for instance.She really gave it her all - what a star. The newsletter gives great insight into the trials and tribulations of the company, as well as giving praise where it's due and and celebrating the successes. Dominic tells it like it is and the newsletters are always a good read.

Reading these posts is giving me a great idea of an act for next year's Britains Got talent!

My DD on demi pointe can get things out of my top kitchen cupboards that I have to climb on a stool to get. I also noticed her switch off the light in the dining room with her foot the other day as she had both hands full of dirty crockery - that was quite impressive!

I think the whole relationship issue is one of the most stressful things about being the parent of a teenager. My husband is rapidly turning into a victorian father, getting uptight at the mere mention of the word "boy"!Heaven help anyone that DD ever does bring home It must be even more stressful for parents whose children are hundreds of miles away from home though and I sympathise greatly. But to look at it from another angle, boy/girlfriends met at vocational school will presumably have similar hopes and ambitions and will understand how important dance is to their loved one. The chances of meeting such a like minded boy/girlfriend in an average comprehensive are not high, particularly not of a dancing girl meeting a boy who shares (or even understands) her passion for dance. So maybe a boy/girlfriend from vocational school is at least less likely to distract a dancing teenager from their dance?

Just curious really... My DD does RAD ballet and ISTD tap and modern and one of her friends does IDTA exams at the school she goes to, but I was wondering how many other dance examining bodies there are in this country? For those of you whose children do exams, what syllabus are they following, or what others do you know of? No deep reason for the question, I'm just being nosey! One of my friends was talking about her daughter's dancing exams the other day and they sounded quite different to my daughter's so it set me off wondering how many different examining/organising bodies there are.

One of my DD's friends has just bought a leotard from capezio that has a proper bra built in (I think its called something like bra-tec). Prior to that she had to wear a sports bra under her leotard which I imagine made her feel quite self conscious, and was obviously no good for exams etc. When you consider how many different designs the big leotard manufacturers bring out every year - new colours, different straps, lacy inserts etc - you would think they would invest a bit more in making leotards to suit dancers of different shapes. Most professional ballet dancers might be boob-less but that doesn't mean most dancers are! I would imagine that quite a reasonable proportion of overall sales go to girls and women who do have boobs and would appreciate a bit of support. In particular, I wonder why Dans-ez who already make sports bras as well as leotards haven't addressed this issue.(Unless they have and I've missed it.) I may write to them....

I would like to be able to buy pointe shoe ribbon in bigger amounts than one pair of shoes worth but not a whole roll. Or maybe if you sell whole rolls send out free samples so people can see the quality before buying.I recently spent a ridiculous amount on a whole roll of ribbon from a reputable on line seller and it's rubbish so has been relegated to the arts and craft box.That has put me off buying a whole roll again but buying individual ribbons costs a lot over times, especially with postage. (I feel guilty when I read about Anjuli recycling her ribbons but I'm just not that good!) Same goes for invisible elastic. The amount that comes in a strip is too much for 2 of my DD's shoes but not enough for 3 so I'd like to be able to buy that by the metre or something. And I'd really love to be able to buy Grishko flat shoes. They seem really hard to come by here and they are my daughter's favourites. I can get her canvas ones for class but she needs some satin for a forthcoming exam and I can't find them anywhere in this country. But most of all, if you could just stock some magic hairpins that appear when you whistle for them and don't jam the hoover everytime they "accidentally" get left on the floor then I promise to never, ever shop anywhere else again! Good luck with the venture, I think it's a brilliant idea.

The very best of luck to your DDs afab.

oh, and there's also Understudy.

Or maybe, after reading some of these posts, U should be for Unconventional!

Well i started so i'll finish! U is for Urdang academy School for the performing arts in London. there - all done, we did it! Edited to add - great minds think alike Elfiesmum, we were posting at the same time!

P is for Pointe Shoes. Every little dancing girl 's dream, and the subject of many threads on the forum!

A couple more for I I is for ISTD and IDTA Two of the well known dance organisations/examining bodies. I is also for Intermediate Foundation and Intermediate The first two vocational or "major" exams in most examining bodies' schedules.

G is for Gaynor Minden. A dancewear company from the USA particularly noted for its pointe shoes which are made of synthetic materials rather than in the traditional way. People seem to either love them or hate them!

I thought this would be a fun thing to try on a cold miserable Bank Holiday and it might also be useful to newcomers. I remember when my DD first started and I heard people talking about the wider ballet world, they may as well have been speaking a foreign language. I thought RBS stood for the Royal Bank of Scotland back then, CATs were small furry animals and an MA was a masters degree!So i thought it would be fun to see if we could do an A-Z of commonly used terms and discussed topics on the forum. I'll start off with the first couple and hope that a few of you join in. Let's see if we can get all the way to Z! A is for associate programme Schemes run by a number of vocational schools and companies to provide additional training for promising children who are not in full time dance training .Examples include the Royal Ballet School Associates (junior, mid and senior associates often abbreviated to JAs, MAs and SAs), Elmhurst Associates and Northern Ballet Associates but there are many others. Entry to these schemes is by audition and classes can vary from once a month to once a week depending on the individual scheme and age of the child. Most schools and companies have websites were you can find out more about their associate programmes. B is for Bruce Bruce is the founder of the original ballet.co.uk website and the person that we have to thank for starting this great community.

Have a wonderful evening. It sounds as though it will be lovely. I'm sure as well as being a delight for you it will be a great inspiration for the pupils at their old schools and a real treat for their old teachers too.

Wow that's impressive! Unfortunately I think I may have difficulty keeping my DD's mind on her exams and virtually all her GCSE's will be dependent on only the final exams since the system changes for their year. I think ICT is the only one of her choices that has a coursework element. So I think I may have to be a mean mummy and say no if the timing isn't right. (Actually her headmaster will probably do that job for me!) But you never know, we might get lucky, so I'm thinking positive!

I quite agree with jellybeans. I had some fairly frank discussions on the subject with my DD when she was about 9 or 10. Maybe I did spoil her dreams at an early age (some people certainly told me I did) but it doesn't seem to have taken away her enthusiasm for dancing - she's still at the studio 6 days a week and she's 14 now. She loves to perform and dance is still at the centre of her life, including her social life. I totally agree that parents and teachers need to be realistic with children but I think they also need to stress the positives of continuing to dance even when a professional ballet career is not an option. There's more to dance than classical ballet and more to the danceworld than performing. Plus dance has so many benefits which will help numerous unrelated careers. I prefer to think that I helped change my DD's dreams rather than stopped them. Children who can't persue a classical career mustn't feel they are failures, which is why the discussions need to be done sensitively. Someone once asked me why i hadn't considered trying a different hobby for my DD since she had failed at ballet. I was furious. I will never see someone who brings so much pleasure to herself and other people through her dancing as a failure.

Thanks all. I think I'll book one of the RAH restaurants then. We're not going to have a huge amount of time between arriving in London and the concert so that seems the most straightforward solution.

Well I'm sure the stamina and general fitness that develops from a lot dancing contributed to my daughter's greatest athletic achievement to date. When she was in primary school they did a sponsored run for charity. The run was around the school field and sponsorship was per lap. We reckoned she'd probably do about 5, so my husband and I sponsored her £1 per lap each. We went a bit of a funny colour when at the end of the day she presented us with a little card that said. "Your child completed 37 laps of the field in today's sponsored run"! On the back was a note from the teacher saying "Sorry. I tried to get her to come in but she just wouldn't stop."

It does sound a bit insensitive. There's no getting away from the fact that physique is vital in ballet and that to a large degree that is determined by our genes. But this will be a difficult issue for some children, and indeed their parents, to come to terms with so I would think that trying to make a joke of it is a bit of a risky strategy. My DD is the wrong shape. Within the family we say that she has her dad to blame for her long body and me to blame for her short legs and she will jokily tell us off for passing on such lousy genes. I don't mind her doing that, it's just fun, but if someone else said it, without knowing how either she or we would react I wouldn't be impressed. The message does need to be got across, but teens and pre teens are sensitive about their bodies generally, and dancing children probably more than average, so I think the subject needs to be handled very carefully