Angela Essex
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Posts posted by Angela Essex
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8 minutes ago, RHowarth said:
Congratulations on your result!
I've done the Leeds ballet retreat half a dozen times. It's great fun. You would be totally fine at IF/Grade 6 standard.
Thank you. I definitely don’t dance at IF level in an open class though. I forget combinations a lot and get the sides wrong and find myself turning en dehors instead of en dedans and vice versa 🤦♀️ It took me a long time (over a year) to learn the syllabus. If I was in an IF level open class and having to learn the exercises from scratch I’d not cope so I’m worried about booking one.
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20 hours ago, EverHopeful said:
Congratulations @Angela Essex, I’m so happy for you! Will you go on to do Intermediate now?
What exams are we all planning for this term? I’m resitting a previous one that I wasn’t happy with my result for at the time, and potentially attempting the Giselle unit too. But I find that one particularly difficult and allegro in general is not my strong point, so we’ll see how it goes!
Thank you 😊 My teacher has said I could do intermediate but it would take a long time and be gruelling or I could do grade 6 first and then go on to intermediate after that. I chose the latter since I’ve only been dancing 2.5years and I want to improve my technique, strength and flexibility before I do intermediate. Also IF was quite gruelling and I’m ready to do something a little less full on for a while. She’s said she’ll carry on with progressing my pointe work throughout grade 6 though.
What exam are you resitting? And what is the Giselle unit? @EverHopeful
@Colmanthanks! Good luck with the discovering repertoire - sounds lots of fun.
Side note - has anyone on here ever been on a ballet retreat? If so which one and what was it like and what grade / standard are the classes set at? I’d love to go to one but just not sure I could keep up.
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Oh my good lord I got a merit for my RAD intermediate foundation with 60 marks - I’m so happy - I can’t believe it 😁😁😁
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1 hour ago, Hadtopost said:
I have read the comments on this thread.
I have read the newspaper articles and watched the Panorama programme.
Not one thing that I have heard or read has contradicted the real-life experience that our daughter had in the world of vocational ballet training. It is a toxic environment, and one that unfortunately it is so hard to see as such whilst they are in it. One of the posters on here used the term ‘groomed’ and Luke Jennings referred to its cult like qualities, and I would say neither were far from the truth.
During training from the years of 11-16 there was the daily belittling, humiliating, bullying, coded comments such as needing to lengthen her lines, the not so coded comments, eat less biscuits (she didn’t eat biscuits anyway). While she was in training at upper school (RBS) she suffered with eating disorders, self harm, and suicidal thoughts. She made the decision to leave as she was so desperately unhappy, and hasn’t stepped into a ballet studio since.
Although she is out of that world now, and studying at a mainstream school, the internal wounds, as she calls them, are still there.
She didn’t watch the programme, but she read the article in the Times on Monday night. She called me at 11am yesterday morning from the toilet at school where she was having a panic attack. Reading it unearthed all the trauma that is still inside.
So it’s easy for people to comment, parents should know or protect their kids, well female dancers need to be light enough to be lifted in PDD, whatever whatever whatever (and by the by it wasn’t just the females in her boarding house who said they felt ‘fat’ after dinner so they needed to go and throw up, the disordered eating/eating disorders/body shame/self loathing ran across both sexes). But the wounds are still there for all these ex-dancers, no matter who it feels easier to blame.
I don’t have any more than that really to say on the subject.
When I spoke to my daughter yesterday after she had come home from school following the panic attack (she basically broke down having the trauma resurface and her school sent her home to recover), she said she still feels wrong, and damaged inside, and alone, and I thought how wonderful it would be if out of all of this something positive could happen. Something like a support group for survivors of this world, where they could talk and share their experiences and feelings and feel truly seen and understood by others who have been through this. I really don’t know how such a support group could be facilitated but if anyone has any ideas or thoughts and wants to DM me about this please feel free.
One thing both my partner and I thought after we watched that programme was that in fact she isn’t alone, none of them are alone, there are so many of them who have been damaged.
I am so sorry for what your daughter and your family went through. As a mother of teens/tweens myself I find this whole behaviour on the part of the schools involved utterly wrong. I hope they publicly own what has gone on and seek to change their ways instead of making BS statements about how the well-being of their students is paramount etc.
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I just watched the documentary. I only got through the first 6 pages of comments on here so can’t claim to have read them all, but in my opinion what has happened is absolutely disgusting. Those teachers that made the vile comments, and the schools should be bloody well ashamed of themselves. Feeling very sad for all those children and parents affected.
As a layperson with zero knowledge of vocational ballet training and selection of students I’m assuming they select a particular body type to begin with, but bodies change with growth and puberty, so I’m accepting that students may develop a body better suited to other forms of dance or other careers than classical ballet. Eg a boy that plays basketball but only ends up a little over 5ft isn’t going to be the next Michael Jordan, what I’m trying to say (badly) is that certain sports and careers have certain physical and mental attributes. At medical school if we didn’t make the cut academically you’d be asked to leave. I’m ok with that principle. Not everyone is going to develop an ideal body for classical ballet, despite rigorous training, and I get that.
What I find shocking is how, instead of having a frank conversation with the parents and kids about the child’s strengths and possible future career paths, these schools have just dished out abuse and mental torture via coded language on those kids to try and get them to comply to a particular body type and are now not even admitting it and apologising. Very very sick.
This raises the issue of why is there even a particular classical ballet body type? As an audience member I connect with personality more than how thin someone is.
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6 hours ago, capybara said:
This is another very interesting dimension which hadn't crossed my mind.
Thinking for a moment of Ms RBA, Ms RBB, Ms RBC and Ms RBD all of whom have over 100k followers on IG, in one case five times that number and all of whom are undoubted stars........
In my view, the social media content of A comes across as very balanced (even with the inevitable promotional material); B posts avidly on a daily basis, mostly ballet-related but with a few more personal images in the mix; C emphasises a life outside ballet, often using model-type photos, in contrast with D whose account is focused entirely on her performances and preparations for them.
Should any of that make a difference in relation to casting, first nights, cinema relays, streaming, ROH publicity etc? No. Does it, despite Kevin O'Hare's obvious attempts to 'share out the spoils', as it were? Possibly, yes - if the speed at which tickets sell for performances and the perceptions of critics are anything to go by. But individual social media accounts are surely only part of the picture.
[I wish that there were examples to use involving dancers from companies other than the RB but they seem to be less active on social media.]
Ooh now I am wondering who Misses RB A, B, C & D are and Mr RBY too this thread is killing me can somebody pm me pls & put me out of my misery 🤣
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5 minutes ago, Neverdancedjustamum said:
I think you found the dancer we were referring to 😊
Ooh I’m going to have a look at Mr RBXs insta right now and have a look 🤣
My 2 cents is that if my body was that of a toned and beautiful professional dancer instead of a middle aged wobbly inelegant mum I’d be posing myself all over social media without much on all the time.
I don’t find it offensive at all and I think it’s beautiful to celebrate the human body for its strength and for its capabilities in a non sexual way. It’s like saying look at this body I own it’s proof of all my hard work and the instrument with which I perform my work. I find it admirable and inspiring that someone is so dedicated to their work, health and fitness and I don’t see anything sexual or rude about it.
Even the ‘bulge’ shots I don’t find at all offensive or in any way erotic. Nothing wrong with showing the male anatomy, in my book if you’ve got it flaunt it, but then I am a medical professional so not much shocks me.
With respect to whether a dancer’s social media profile will alter my perception of them I don’t think it does. I follow the dancers I like to watch on stage and don’t bother following those whose performances don’t connect with me as much. If anything it makes me like them more as I feel I know more about them as a person.
Got to say I love Vadim’s posts with his family - he seems like such a genuinely nice guy and a really nice son to his parents. I feel like I’d like to just invite him over for a Sunday roast and a cuppa with a plate of chocolate hob nobs.
Also Marianela’s IG is just charming. It’s clear that she absolutely loves her work and that ballet is her life. She comes across as so humble despite her greatness.
And Matt Ball and Mayara how sweet are they. Ditto Lauren Cuthbertson’s posts about Peggy and Olivia Cowley’s about her pregnancy, new arrival and returning after mat leave.
I also love Hannah Martin’s you tube channel - if it wasn’t for that I wouldn’t have heard about her. Id love to see her dance too.
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How frustrating that the op was cancelled but pleased for you both that you’ve got another date. Fingers crossed for 6th Sept!
Thanks heaps for all the pointe info - love hearing the details of your journey. Your dedication and work ethic are inspiring Luckily Leanne of Straight to the Pointe can see me on 23rd Aug so I can start the new term in September with new shoes.
I ended up doing my exam in the dead shoes and the pointe section was a struggle, but I think that was just exhaustion by that stage of the exam rather than the shoes as the shanks are still fine it’s just the box being soft. It was literally taking a mammoth effort to hold myself up en pointe which I don’t usually find a big deal.
Yes I put the suede tips on the shoes (grishko stream pointe) as soon as I got them and they’ve lasted well. I got them in Sept 2022 and by November I was sinking as the box had softened. I saw Leanne who gave me a little insole for them and then they were good until Easter 2023 when my big toes started rubbing on the side of the box so I got some gel toe socks then the shoes were ok again until July 2023 just before the exam. So cannot grumble - I got 9 months out of them.
Not done pointe or regular class for the last month so think I’ve got a shock coming in September 🤣
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Tears of a Ballet Mum now sold.
Rest still available will accept £5 the lot plus postage.
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Hi All I am selling the following all items £5. All new in bags with tags on except the Bloch Mirella Leo which is preloved:
Capezio keyhole cycling short black Adult L
Capezio keyhole cycling short grey with black trim Adult L
Capezio high neck zip front crop top white Adult L
Capezio skirt with built in shorts Bright Red Adult XL
Capezio skirt with built in shorts Mid blue Adult XL
Bloch Mirella Camisole Leotard with mesh detail to back - dark turquoise.
Please PM for phots
Buyer pays postage.
Thank you x
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Hi All, I am selling the following excellent books:
Tears of a Ballet Mum, Hardback, Sabine Nagdhi £15David Hallberg Body of Work, paperback £5
The Royal Ballet 75 years, paperback, Zoe Anderson - £5
Watch Her Fall (Fiction), paperback, Erin Kelly - Free if purchasing the above.
Buyer pays postage.
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20 hours ago, Fonty said:
As I am not a Friend, the chances of my getting a standing ticket are nil. I think my viewing this year might be limited to the cinema relays. I am not going to pay over £100 for a seat when the chances are high that my view will be blocked by someone else. On that topic, why are the Ashton triple bills not being shown at the cinema?
There were some SCS when I went on general booking at 9.15am on Weds. I usually tend to find one or two SCS for most things on general booking but sometimes I do have to check back for returns and buy tickets on here.
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On 02/08/2023 at 13:39, Geoff said:
In answer to your question Alison, yes of course they have. Since we returned after lockdown I have been booking further and further away from where I would like to sit, in direct proportion to the rising prices. And I am sure I am booking fewer tickets as well.
However it may well be that ROH doesn’t care if this is how we behave, or even considers this a job well done. Remember the former ROH marketing boss (who must not be criticised here but departed after her cunning plan was leaked)? She announced that she wanted to drive regulars out of the ROH to make way for Arts Council-pleasing “new audiences”, who might also be less picky about ticket prices as they would be going for the “experience”. A policy aim which around the same time was echoed by the then Chairman of the ROH, so one can assume it had broad approval from the bosses.
So our changed behaviour - if indeed most of us are changing our behaviour - could be just what ROH wants, freeing up seats for people who will enjoy a special night out but probably never come back. How sad if that is so.
Gosh is that the game plan of the ROH? I’m shocked. If so I agree it is really very sad to deprive people that genuinely love the art form 😭
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Since I started watching ballet 2-3 years ago I’ve booked for at least one performance for everything on the main stage. Usually I’d go to see the Nutcracker multiple time (up to 4 or so) and the big classical ballets 2+ performances each plus one performance each of everything else. And all the class on stage sessions too. If I liked something I’d go and see it a few more times too and see all the cinema relays. I usually sit in cheaper balcony tickets, SCS or front side amphi.
Since front side amphi has increased in price and there seem to be less cheap balcony seats coming up (I know these are only released about a month out but I hardly ever seem to catch them nowadays) and I’m too tired to stand in an evening I have booked a LOT less for the upcoming season:
I have booked:
Don Q: 2 x side front amphi Osipova/Clark, 1 x SCS Nunez (which I will probably sell on here or return since thanks to the generosity of a forum member I have a front balcony ticket for Nunez)
Nut: 2 x SCS Buvoli
Nothing else as I’m only going to ballets I know I’ll like and not trying new things due to cost.
I’ve only seen RB so far but might investigate seeing more of other companies instead due to cost. Plus child seats for ENB are half the price of adult ones so if I ever take the whole family that will be a cheaper option (last year my husband and I took the 3 kids to see nut and it was £30 seat for front side Amphi - row A and view wasn’t great so for £150 we could’ve got better seats at Coli for all 5 of us). Tbh though we won’t be doing a ballet family outing for the foreseeable future 😭
I love watching ballet but I think I’ll just go to cinema relays and one or two performances a season with respect to RB now.
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20 minutes ago, alison said:
Like last season? And £10 less than that in a not-much-more-distant season. And even then we were complaining at the hefty increase from (well) under £20
It's totally ludicrous - those seats just aren't worth that sort of money.
I'm wondering if the ROH has got someone new in in Marketing - these ridiculous prices surely can't be simply trying to recover from Covid, surely? But if they're alienating their regular ticket purchasers, that's really not a good idea. The odd newbie who will come to the occasional performance only isn't going to replace them easily.
Yes I agree entirely. I’m getting fed up of my only options being fleeced to sit in the gods and not see as much as I’d of liked or having to stand and tire myself out. I used to be able to get a row C or D balcony loose seat for a decent price - about £30 but can’t seem to now, so I’ll be going to the ROH a lot less. Usually I book at least one ticket for everything on the main stage, but this time I’m seeing 2 Don Qs and 1 Nut and that’s it.
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Question: I would really like to see Marianela in Don Quixote and wanted to sit at front of grand tier ideally but no such seats are available for any of her performances. I have a gift certificate to use and this will be a one off as I’d never usually sit in the expensive seats. I have just seen there is a front, central balcony available for £125. Question is would I be best to buy this seat? or wait in the hope of a row A return for the grand tier - or just save the certificate for an expensive seat to see her at a later date? Decisions decisions. Any advice would be very gratefully received.
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1 hour ago, alison said:
Never before have I booked so few tickets for so much money: 6 tickets, 3 figures, even including several standing
Same here. The side front amphi tickets I bought for Don Quixote 19/11 Osipova/Clark B75 and 76 were £52 each - could’ve sworn they were about £35 in the not too distant past. All the other tickets I bought were SCS as it’s the only way I can get anywhere close to the stage on my budget. Tbh it is just going to mean I go a LOT less.
Biggest disappointment is that I received a gift certificate for my birthday that I wanted to spend on a front row of stalls circle, grand tier or balcony to see Marianela dance Don Quixote. I’ve been waiting for the last few years for the chance, but when I finally got through to the seat maps at about 9.15am they’d all gone in row A. So I ended up with a SCS for one of her performances instead. Feeling a bit sad.
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Returned to box office
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Returned to box office
It's totally ludicrous - those seats just aren't worth that sort of money.
Taking Ballet Exams as an adult
in Doing Dance
Posted
Aww thank you. It’s literally never too late - I started 2 years ago aged 45, but there are people in classes I’ve been to in their 60s and above who are new to dance. And no - no particular amount of flexibility is required to start. You will develop and improve that as you go along no matter your starting point.
Teachers of beginners or absolute beginners classes are very welcoming to all no matter what age, sex or physique. They are just glad you’ve turned up and are trying to learn.
What part of the country are you in if you don’t mind sharing? Forum members will most likely be able to recommend some local classes for you to try.
Definitely don’t wait until you retire though - why put off having such fun 😊