BalletEnthusiast

2 hours ago, Angela Essex said:

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 😊

Aww thanks ! Yes I've already seen a class advertised locally for adults and had been thinking about it. Would be complete beginner so all this talk of grade 5 and so on sounds like a long way off...I'll check on the timings to see if it could be fitted in...

Thanks for the encouragement! I'm planning things to do when I retire and thought ballet might be fun! Might keep the old brain cells going too! 

Having a distant connection to one of the schools discussed in the original Panorama programme, I have been reading through this thread with increasing dismay. Body-shaming and bullying...the TV programme and radio broadcast seems to be the tip of the iceberg judging by contributions on this thread. Body-shaming is in fact a form of bullying. Bullying by teachers has no place in any school, for any pupils, no matter if they are a minority of pupils. There is no excuse.

Thank you @Dr Alison Stuart for your contribution to the radio programme and to this forum. A truly independent investigation of these institutions does need to take place, like in British Gymnastics, as you said. Some of the schools mentioned are charities, some receive government MDS/ DADA funding, so asking for an investigation via change.org would seem to be a very relevant approach. It would be great if someone who knows how to frame such a request could put one together. I don't want these institutions to fail, but it seems they do need prompting to reflect on their practices. The Department for Education safeguarding leaflet 'Keeping Children Safe in Education' (which everyone working with children at these schools should have read) states that staff working with children are advised to maintain an attitude of  'it could happen here' (Para 51 of KCSIE 2023, sorry don't know how to post link to the document but it is publicly available). That should be the starting point for all the schools involved where such serious allegations have been made.

As an aside, I rang the public whistleblowing number for RBS which was staffed by independent experts. (It was mentioned on this thread somewhere). I was sounding them out before passing the number to a friend who might have wanted to use it. The whistleblowing person said that they were a private company. They would be collating complaints received and then passing them (anonymously) back to the school for them to deal with. They also said that their usual role with RBS was that they run this line for staff at the school to whistle-blow. The experts are indeed independent. But the people deciding what to do with the complaints are not. I decided not to bother passing the number onto my friend. Moderators, I have tried to be factual here. Please ask me to edit the post if necessary.

Congratulations to you @Angela Essex! Have been skimming though this thread as i've liked watching ballet for years but never thought (yet) about doing it. Lots of flexibility is required I guess. So at what age is it just too late to start?