FullContretemps

I'm staying with family outside London so will be commuting - only way I could afford to do something like that!

I'll be there too! Welcome

I have Gambas with narrow feet and tapered toes and also wear Gamba pointes. Got the actual soft blocks for exams from my local shop in York, otherwise I just use deshanked pointes.

Haha if I had the money taxi... at the moment it is all going on driving lessons and then of course I won't be able to afford a car when I can drive! Time to get a job closer to home...

I know. Alarm bells ring when you see those two words together, don't they? Now really I only dance for fun, what with being grown up, and not having the desired unnatural capacity for turnout and flexibility etc etc, so it shouldn't really matter that much but I do dance 5 out of 7 days a week and it is largely what keeps me sane in life. My question is this. I have to cycle a lot for work (I don't drive and I work in a village 4 miles away) and am developing the most enormous and unsightly thigh muscles! Does anybody have any experience either of cycling techniques that might help to minimise the growth of these beasties, or exercises that could help to stretch them out/tone them, or of techniques in ballet that would help me not to overuse them (I think I have a tendency to use them too much where I should be using the inner thigh muscles). Thanks!

Great - let us know how it goes. Maybe I'll run into you one day (my name's Jayne, by the way). Welcome to the forum, too

Hello fellow Yorkie! I live in Holgate so not too far away. I go to Kelly Clarey at the Patricia Veale School of Dance (http://pvealeschoolofdancerad.co.uk/) who is really good - only RAD teacher in York who goes up to advanced. She is quite ballet focussed but also does tap and modern (and jazz I think but not certain). On a Saturday I go to Danceworks (http://www.yorkdanceworks.co.uk/) and the teacher they have there (Sharon for intermediate; not sure if she does the younger ones) is really really good too, and I think they do more of the other stuff if you're looking for somewhere all-round. Neither of them mind me going to both though. Do ask if you have any more questions! Do you dance at all?!

I have the Bloch ones with toe bits - makes turning much easier if you have sticky toes like me! From Dance Direct but I'm sure they sell them other places too.

Thanks all! Plate it is!

They're to go on the skirt. I wouldn't really have thought about it either, except I overheard one of the mums the other day saying about how she had put them on the wrong way round one year and had to take them off and do it again! So now wondering which is the right way round... Didn't think to ask while I was there of course, but could do tomorrow if there's no consensus on which way up the plate should be! Thanks j & e

So here's for a really dull topic: local school show next weekend and I have been given sequins to add to our tutus. Somehow I've managed to get this far in life without having a proper tutu and thus need to check before attacking the thing! You would stick them on convex, rather than like a plate, yes? Or should it be like a plate as I guess they would stick better that way (we've been told to glue them rather than sew as there are a lot and very little time!)? Many thanks for your help!

Thanks LAB. It's OK - my deposit's already there! Looking forward to meeting some of you in person and beginning to get worried that I will be most ashamed and outshone by my fellow ballet.coers!

Try it with you on a step and the paper on the floor (Sorry I will stop hijacking the thread now...)

I'm in! Does anyone know if you have to pay the whole balance or just the deposit by March for the discount?

It's like the cereal box game. Or if you can do one you're probably good at the other. By some freak of nature I can squat all the way down with my back straight up and heels on the floor, which makes me the envy of all my cereal box game-playing friends! (Only way I do stretch, mind you) (Cereal box game being pick up a cereal box with your mouth off the floor without touching floor with anything except your feet. Cereal box gets shorter and shorter until it's a flat piece of cardboard)

Just sent mine - hope I'm in time to join the Ballet.co crew!

I emailed last night and didn't get a reply until half 2 this afternoon so you might hear tomorrow. Now I'm getting worried as I need to check I can take holiday and stay with my family during the week so can't pay the deposit until at least tomorrow night! Hope we get in!

It even looks affordable! This is getting better by the minute. I have never been on an intensive, being a late starter and strictly amateur, but have always wanted a taste of a professional dancer's life. A week with like-minded dancers, loads of tuition... my idea of heaven! Let's just hope there's enough space and I can get the holiday from work. Thank you for posting about this

I wish...

I know - I have watched it repeatedly and keep laughing myself silly! Sorry for the double post, but I know people in Doing Dance don't always venture out to the far reaches of the forum!

Thank you Lisa, and thank you to all the admins etc who do such a wonderful job. My Christmas gift:

Hilarious nativity video to brighten up your day: (edited for typo in those 8 words...)

Just replaced my very creaky Blochs on Monday as I have had them an inordinately long amount of time (my feet are so rubbish I never break shoes!). After a month or so of everyone laughing every time I rise up onto pointe!

Echo what Justballet said. I almost permanently have a little bruise under each of my big toenails but when I don't do pointe for a while it just grows out, occasionally with an extra bit of nail underneath. Panic not!

Buttons, ribbons and lace. Though I have trained myself to deal with ballet shoe ribbons, and though mostly I buy trousers where I don't have to undo the button, I can now deal with this but agree with the secret one next to your tummy! Wobbly ones are what really gets me. Makes me shudder like fingers on a blackboard. I don't mind looking at them mostly (unless they are pearly or wobbly) but please don't ask me to touch. Makes working with children (I'm a nanny) a little challenging at times... I am, however, resident spider-remover for my sister who really hates them. I'd rather not touch unless they're quite little, but don't mind them otherwise.