mum5678

Hi all, 

Just seeking some thoughts from fellow dance parents... 

DC has accepted a place at NBS and as a matter of courtesy wrote a couple of very nice, carefully written  "thanks very much, I'm honoured for the offer but I'm going to decline on this occasion" emails, which we felt kind of needed to be done in our particular circumstances (one school had offered to fund some of the course and from another school the head phoned us one day to ask why we'd turned it down! 😬)

Both schools responded with.... let's say 'snotty' at the very least (but actually unpleasant would be more accurate description) emails back. Obviously we won't respond further, but it got me firstly worrying that we'd done the wrong thing by being what seemed to be polite enough to reply to them, and then about any bridges that might have been burned by DC choosing a school that isn't theirs in terms of work later on (both schools are linked to companies). 

Anyone else had any experience of this? Surely all schools get offers declined?!  

Came through with a fairly big attachment and from a different email address 'applicantportal@ictheatre.ac.uk' so might be worth checking junk mail too! Xx

1 hour ago, Hairpinseverywhere said:

DD has a formal offer in her BIMM portal now. She hasn’t had an email saying it’s there yet so probably get one soon, exciting as feel like things are moving 😁 

DS got an email through just after 1am this morning so if yours doesn't come soon might be worth following up. It's also on portal... all very confusing re: saying they need a deposit within 28 days but not saying how much and where to pay etc. I think we are going to be the guinea pig year for the BIMM admin system!! 😉 

On 08/03/2022 at 12:19, Ballet-taxi said:

We have booked a room in New Medlock and managed to speak directly to Zobia. She was reassuring with booking. So ‘verbally’ it all sounded ok if you didn’t get funding.

There are terms and conditions if you don’t take up your space etc in writing but ‘verbally’ it sounded like you would get out ok! It also states that if they fill the room it’s ok.

Zobia at New Medlock was very good at confirming that as long as they book in a flat reserved for Northern Ballet Students only, they can guarantee only ‘under 18s’ will be put in flat. They have quite a few of NBS students and I got the feeling they were keen to have them as students! Think the 16 year old NBS students are well behaved and good residents!!! 🤣

So…we just took the chance and booked so just have to hope all works out!

We were really impressed with Zobia too…. She took us on a virtual tour which was really helpful and was very adamant about the NBS under 18s being in a flat all together so I feel quite confident that they’re “on it”! 

We’ve booked in for NMH - flat of 4 on the 7th floor (penthouse suite! 😂) and she mentioned another flat was full, so sounds like there’s a good little gang of them. 

All booked in for the Easter workshop too so hopefully they’ll all get to meet each other. 😊

1 hour ago, Dancers Dad said:

Zobia is still there and helpful (it was Eszter before that). They definitely do all they can but it's still worth keeping on top of it. A 20 y.o. uni student appeared in my daughter's planned flat of 4 - until I explained that this wasn't ok and wasn't what they'd said. They did change it.

Yes, we’ve been chatting with Zobia… she’s fab! 🙂

1 hour ago, Jo Jo said:

I have booked my daughter 16 years old in the flat reserved for 5 for first year students in artisan heights. So there are 4 rooms left. She would like to share with other first year students 

Thanks Jo Jo….. it looks amazing there and he’d absolutely love it, but it comes down to a bit of a cost issue for us unfortunately! But happy to share contact details if the DCs want to get in touch ahead of September so they can set up a little chat group for any newbies. DM me if she likes the idea of that. DS is a friendly little soul and won’t mind setting it up (even though I know I will get a “MUUUUUUMMMMM!” when he finds out I’ve said that!!😂) 

9 hours ago, Ballet-taxi said:

My DD has booked into New Medlock last week. She is booked into the New Medlock flat that they have kept for new NBS under age students. It was a flat of 5 but I think she was the only one in when I booked it. 

 

Just wondering…. Did they say where it was? We only booked towards the end last week too and wondering if they might be in the same one based on timings… I thought she said it was a flat of 4 or 5, but definitely said it was on the 7th floor. But did specifically say the other one was full and she’d started a new NBS flat. 🤔

 DS is only 16, so falls into the same age category, but I appreciate some girls might prefer to be in an all girls flat.
 

I share all the concerns about mixing them with uni students, can’t imagine the difference in timing of their timetables works awfully well! That’s actually my biggest worry about him going… ballet school looks great but I’m really not completely comfortable with them being in halls.

@Ballet-taxithe lady at NM mentioned one flat was flat was now full when I spoke to her so guess that’s your DDs, hence starting him off in a new one, but she did say it would be kept for NBS because of his age. 
 

1 hour ago, Mjdb said:

Yes eleventh hr would be us !!! Lol once we had the offer everything was sorted very quickly & in time for the 1st rent installment. 

We give dd £40 per week ...more than covers her weekly shop & washing/ drying, she also shops at Aldi near to the arndale centre. Every now & again she will pop to the Tesco express if she needs a top up on bread fruit etc. Train tickets have also come out if this money as any left over stays in the account each month so accumulates over time.

What we also do is when taking her back after half terms/ holidays we stock up on toiletries, cleaning products etc so a little more is spent by us also saves her having to carry extra shopping . 

We actually had the conversation about budgets etc some of the other students get anything from £25 - £50 per week it just depends on foods bought & if they do their own washing ...or take home at the weekends .

Mj

 

 

 

Thank you…. This is SO helpful! Just having this conversation this evening with our 2 boys (one 18 and off to uni, other 16 and heading to NBS) Really hard to know where to start so this is great insight. 

2 hours ago, Dancers Dad said:

Not sure if you saw earlier in the thread but my daughter will be in a flat of 7 next year for her second year, with two other second years. They're pretty quiet and lovely and on the lookout for any first years to join them who might appreciate being shown the ropes.

If they don’t mind having a boy with them he’d be delighted…. He’s pretty well house trained and doesn’t smell! (I have 3 boys…. It’s a thing!😂) He tends to get on really well with girls in general - I guess you kind of have to when you’re a male ballet dancer! 

On 17/02/2022 at 14:36, Jo Jo said:

No we didn’t as we very very impressed with artisan as it’s new and metlock house 15 years old 

Apparently New Medlock is being renovated over the summer…. If that helps at all! Does look like it needs it 🥴

On 17/02/2022 at 14:31, Ballet-taxi said:

@Jo Jo, that’s good to hear! I have been in discussion with New Medlock who also have a flat blocked off for NBS students. Did you visit New Medlock too? My husband noticed there was quite a price difference between the two!🤣

Apparently the first flat is now full at New Medlock and they’ve just started another one for my DS!

On 17/02/2022 at 17:51, Hairpinseverywhere said:

DD had an email earlier asking for her to sign up to the BIMM site (link in email) to receive the formal offer, potentially in peoples spam or they could be sending them in batches 🙂

We had a similar email - asked us to register on Bimm so that they could issue the formal offer from there (already had the initial letter through from NBS) but not had anything further through from the Bimm site yet. Guess they’re all getting used to the change in systems!

Woo hoo..... We just had good news from NBS! DS is completely over the moon - he absolutely loved it. (He's also probably about to get kicked out of school because he keeps texting me with how excited he is so a good job he got an offer! 😂) 

We've had a mixed bag...

Previous dance schools have asked us to pay for costumes, anything from £20-£50 (one let us keep them after, one was a hire) and then pay for tickets at around £12. The school we're currently with make a point of not charging pupils anything extra to do the shows (and have a stock of costumes) so that cost doesn't prohibit people from taking part. We do have to pay £12-15 for the ticket (performed in a professional theatre), but that doesn't feel unfair. DS has also performed in associate scheme shows, and again, we've never been asked to pay for the costumes but do pay around £15 for the ticket, also in a theatre. 

I wasn't sorry to leave the school that charged for the costumes behind as they really can add up and as has been mentioned above, we're pretty rubbish quality! 

On 28/01/2022 at 15:32, DancingShoes said:

My dd did a contemporary solo for her audition

On 29/01/2022 at 14:27, Silversparkle said:

Contemporary solo for my DD - they asked her why she chose that solo so go prepped with an answer

On 29/01/2022 at 00:23, Ballet-taxi said:

@mum5678, My DD did lyrical at her audition but there were people who did ballet too. I wouldn’t worry too much about which style but do the one he feels most confident with. Good luck with the audition. 

Thank you so much everyone - this is super-helpful!  Xx

On 28/01/2022 at 20:14, Mjdb said:

This is what my daughter has said 

 

"i’d say it doesn’t really matter what style of dance you do when auditioning but it should be what you think best shows you off whether that be ballet or jazz or contemporary and so on. do try to make it an interesting routine though e.g. express highlights and react to the music rather than just dancing through it (be dynamic) and the best tip of all is to perform it!"

My input would be...do what you enjoy & feel comfortable doing adding more stress is not a good idea 

Hope this helps.

Mj

Awesome, thank you! 

Ah, that's fab... thank you!  

4 minutes ago, Mjdb said:

Hi ,

My dd had to do her audition all by video....mad world at the time!

I will send your questions to her, she shares with a 1st year male so maybe get his input too.

Mj

Thank you so much, that's really helpful!  

On 25/01/2022 at 22:52, Encroix said:

DD is there. We have found the ballet teaching and faculty to be excellent and varied with regular performance opportunities too. She is very happy and enjoys the independence of living in Edinburgh ; she's adapted remarkably well considering she's only 16 and hundreds of miles from home. The school promotes a sense of belonging and Peter Schaufuss is actively involved. 

Thank you so much! It's definitely a firm favourite at the moment... we're currently in a predicament with the 6 week deadline to let them know but he'd really like to finish his auditions first, which of course overruns that by a week or two! We've asked if they'll consider an extension by a couple of weeks so 🤞

Really good to hear all the good 'feels' he experienced on the day are well founded. 

Xx

Hello all,

Can anyone give advice on what sort of thing auditionees tend to do for their solo for NBS? (Sorry I know NOTHING about all this!) We have an audition coming up soon and a few options but not sure what to choose.

DS had a ballet variation from his last exam that he LOVED and he'd quite like to do that, but not sure if that's a bit too safe or if they've seen them all before. He also has a contemporary ballet piece that he's considering, but given that the course splits into Jazz and ballet we weren't sure if this was appropriate... would anybody be happy to share what kind of thing their DC did? Or have any thoughts on what sort off thing he should shouldn't go for? I know lots of people use festival pieces but we've never really gone down that route so feeling a bit lost for options! 

Thank you! 

4 hours ago, Hairpinseverywhere said:

Oh Good Luck to your DS! DD didn’t sing at the audition, Dance solo only no song or monologue. There was a mix of contemporary, jazz and ballet solos on her audition day.

 

Hope this helps.

Thank you so much! That's really helpful (and good news!) 🙂

On 13/01/2022 at 00:58, Ballet-taxi said:

@Hairpinseverywhere my DD has also been offered a place and would be keen to be in accommodation with others. 
 

It would be good to get feedback from other dance  parents who have had their children at NBS and in the accommodation. 
 

Well done to your DD. 👏

@Ballet-taxi and @HairpinseverywhereCongratulations to your DDs - that's fantastic! Please could you advise us on what they needed to do in the audition? Or more specifically do they have to sing? DS would really like to audition there but rather intimidated by the mention of singing on the course as he is probably a candidate for the worst singer out there! 😂 Have told him I'll try to find out through the magic mum network as he's determined I shouldn't call the school and ask them in case that shatters his chances... and of course he's 16 so he knows best!

On 03/02/2021 at 17:04, Mummy twinkle toes said:

Dd1 has just been offered a full time place. The training looks great and I can see they were advertising in the Dancing Times. I just wondered if anyone has any other views or opinions? 

Hi there, 

Just wondering if your dd went to EFB in the end? DS has just been offered a full time place there and we're trying to make decisions so looking for updates on how people are finding it.