Bex

The shouting, the unpredictable class times, lack of focus on technique and seniors teaching classes would have me out of there. But I also understand that if your daughter loves it, has friends and enjoys the competitions, it is hard to contemplate moving her. Has she maybe watched Dance Moms and thinks that bullying teachers are the norm? I dithered about moving my daughter to a school with stronger ballet and more performance opportunities but she is quite shy socially and had found her feet at her existing school with a nice group of friends, so I left her there and she is pretty happy and is developing into a lovely dancer.

I haven't watched all the male dancers yet but I loved Ana Luisa, the Brazilian girl, and Sangwon Park's Giselle was gorgeous. So glad they were both recognised. Looking forwards to watching the boys now!

I second the vote for Wear Moi. I have a long torso and found Capezio were my best bet but never sufficiently snug. DD has similar body type to me and we've just got her very simple black Wear Moi leo and it is a gorgeous fit!

@KerfuffleShe does an associates class already which has made her up her game dancing alongside other keen and talented young dancers. She would love more performance experiences and I am keeping my eyes peeled to see if EYB come to our area (despite a not great audition experience years ago which I mentioned in another thread!) I've explored her taking extra classes at her regular dance school but it's not come to anything. @taxi4ballet We go through a similar thing every grade. She likes the challenge of trying to pick things up quickly but sometimes it is broken down and taught so slowly that even new work gets dull. Gar!

I wish there was more free work in DD's ballet classes. The RAD syllabus is used in every lesson. It means she gains muscle memory for certain combinations of steps rather learning a step in isolation that she can use in different contexts. Luckily in her other dance genres there is lots of free work so it is a workout for body and brain and means she is great a picking up and memorising routines quickly. Sadly she is losing her enthusiasm for ballet as the endless repetition is boring. They also tend to keep them put in a grade for ages to guarantee lots of distinctions when they finally do the exam. Very much teaching to the test.

Sounds like we were unlucky. It was definitely a case of not being able to pick up unknown steps with unknown terminology quickly enough, which is fair enough particularly if they have a hectic rehearsal schedule. She's got decent technique from good teaching, and is the sort of kid that comes alive on stage and draws the eye. Of course I am biased! 😊

When I say only a few were cut, it was literally a handful of girls. It would have felt okay if more were rejected.

@taxi4ballet yes it was live. She was one of the youngest girls and had just done her grade 1, I think. I did email in advance to check whether she was too young/ inexperienced, but was encouraged to go ahead. Very few girls were cut and they were all the little ones like her who were lovely dancers but inexperienced. Their numbers were called out they had to leave the stage one by one in confusion and shame in front of 100 plus people. Their feedback was not you are all a bit little for us and need a bit more experience. It was you are "uncoordinated". She danced beautifully as did the others who were cut but they were clearly out of their depth. She didn't know the terminology - tendu, degage, pas de chat - but did what she could and hazarded the rest. I would estimate what they were asked to do was around grade 3 to 4ish. It was actually quite traumatic and some of the other girls were sobbing. I have to say all other auditions she has ever done have been handled fantastically and the experience has been positive whether it's been a yes or a no, and she gets that sometimes she might not show her best on the day, she's not yet the right standard or they are after something different. Don't want to bad mouth the company as they clearly do a fabulous job and many kids have a wonderful time, but that was my experience from about four or so years ago.

Hi this is my first time posting. My DD got a no for EYB a few years back which I don't think was well handled. Since then she's had yeses and nos for various dance and acting related things and has been a junior ballet associate for the last two years, but that no was quite harsh and knocked her confidence. Having read other threads about EYB I don't think our experience was typical. Of course if it is an online submission you can manage how you deliver the results to her.