Yaffa

Thanks, any thoughts on how the research would translate into protocols for prevention when there are as yet no visible symptoms? For example, regarding bone health: - Should routine bone scans start at an earlier age than normal for former dancers? - If so, should this apply just to former professional dancers? Or also for dancers who gave up ballet in their teens? - Might scans of particular limbs give an inaccurate picture of general bone health in former dancers (e.g. wrist scans of men who have done a lot of lifting, or ankle scans of female dancers)? What about health of joints? And about the recent discovery of a structural change in the brains of professional dancers who've been doing pirouettes - What happens to this difference as they age? (I believe that at least some of the changes in taxi-drivers' brains are reversed when they stop working.) Are former dancers better or worse than the general population at avoiding falls and conditions related to dizziness? Does their training make it easier for them to adopt particular strategies for fall prevention? Yaffa [edited to correct typo]

Are there any specific health recommendations for symptom-free ballet students and/or retired ballet dancers? I don't mean the general recommendations which everyone should follow (good diet, sensible shoes, exercise etc) - but ones unique to the particular way that dancers have used their bodies? Yaffa

The French meetups and daily deals site (Groupon etc.) often have good ideas for less 'touristy' activities. Whether or not you are able to do the self-guided tour, the shop at Garnier is well worth a visit, with some beautifully illustrated (though mostly not cheap) books and videos in French and English for ballet folks who have already seen all the English materials. (Some can be bought online.) Yaffa

Unfortunately, yes. At http://www.ismeneb.com/Blog/Blog.html, she writes: ***TECH ALERT: I built this site on iWeb, and regrettably there may be display problems in Internet Explorer that do not appear in Mozilla, Chrome, Firefox and Safari browsers Yaffa

Ismene Brown reports on interesting developments in e-ticketing at the Bolshoi, which should hopefully make the system more transparent and easier for overseas visitors to navigate. See http://www.ismeneb.com/Blog/Entries/2014/9/13_E-tickets_and_Mrs_Urin_at_the_Bolshoi.html (best viewed in a browser other than Internet Explorer). Yaffa

The September competition for the 100 free rooms is today (17th September) between noon and 1 pm. If you pre-registered you should have received an email yesterday. (The one I received came from questions@qbichotels.com ... You might need to check your spam folder). They'll be sending out an additional message today at noon with the competition link. If you didn't pre-register, it's too late to take part in this month's competition but you can register on their site for future ones. Yaffa (with no connection to the company - just passing on the info).

I've often heard of girls being told to come class 'with their hair (already) up.' One teacher said her pupils must be 'warmed up and bunned up' 5 minutes before class. Yaffa

From the Airweave site http://www.airweave.com/, they really seem to be throwing their mattress toppers at the elite sports/arts. They also apparently supplied all the Brazilian football team with mattress toppers for their final...: http://demandware.edgesuite.net/aahc_prd/on/demandware.static/Sites-Airweave-Site/Sites-Airweave-Library/default/v1407256194831/airweave_Brazil_national_football_team.pdf: What type of mattresses do they use in the UK vocational schools? Yaffa

Actually I've also heard this quite a bit outside ballet circles, though mostly outside England and from older expats: hotel staff, police etc. who wear a uniform for their work and are constantly waiting to change back to "street clothes." I vaguely recall hearing it from a girl in London after her gym class, but might be mistaken. Yaffa

Nutracker booking opens tomorrow (15th Sept). In case anyone's interested in combining a Nutracker on 19th December with ballet school demonstrations on 20th and/or 21st, I will probably have a spare ticket. Yaffa

So it's all going to be available right away on Youtube (as well as the edited highlights)? I'd also love to see it all, and it'd be nice to see at least part of it live, but it definitely won't work in one stretch... Yaffa

Vouchers for afternoon teas sometimes appear in the daily deals (Groupon etc.) and as Experiences http://www.virginexperiencedays.co.uk/afternoon-tea-for-two). Often they work out more expensive than buying directly e.g. by bundling with something that you don't really want e.g. champagne, fancy certificate in a box. Heavily discounted vouchers often appear on ebay etc. though you do have to check that they are original, valid for transfer. Even with a voucher, some of the 'top' traditional places for afternoon tea require considerable advance booking. Reviews at Tripadvisor etc. can give useful ideas e.g whether there's a piano for playing 'Happy Birthday' .whether you can bring or they can provide your own birthday cake. Another interesting combination of tea and nostalgia: the tea room at the Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising in Notting Hill: http://www.museumofbrands.com "Featuring over 12,000 original items from the unique Robert Opie Collection, discover how well-loved brands evolved through their creative use of packaging and advertising - and how we evolved with them." The museum has free entry tomorrow, Sunday (11 a.m. to 5 p.m.) in the framework of Heritage Open Days taking place this weekend. http://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/directory/museum-of-brands , though I expect this isn't the best time to visit their small tea room. From their website: "We offer tea, coffee and biscuits in our small tea room. There are also cold drinks and retro style ice creams available for our visitors to enjoy on sunny days. While you relax you can watch a screening of some memorable television adverts from between 1955-1985." They also have a nice quiz about old ads/brands: http://www.museumofbrands.com/_assets/downloads/Quiz_for_Adult_Groups_2014.pdf Yaffa (with no connection to the above - just passing on the info)

Both Birmingham and Birmingham International are on Megatrain's routes. But not finding what you need is very common: Stagecoach, which runs Megatrain/Megabus, is a partner/owner of Virgin, South West and East Midlands, and is essentially running a separate 'bargain basement' to get rid of particular tickets. So inventory, routes and times are extremely limited and there's only a 6 week window for booking. My own use of Megatrain: It is usually the first site I search, even when I'm not sure whether I'll be travelling. This because prices are discounted so heavily and the conditions of sale are different from the main ticket sellers e.g. exchanges allowed until 24 hours before the journey for just £1, and no specific peak/off peak rate difference. I sometimes buy two or more tickets for the same day. (Ticket prices on Megatrain usually (but not always) rise as the travel date approaches and sometimes sell out.) When my travel plans are clearer, I select the one I want and change the other for a different journey. Even if I don't see the exact journey I need, it is often still worthwhile to use a Megatrain ticket for part of my journey and a separate one for the rest - sometimes even staying on the same train. (NB: With Megatrain, you're not allowed to get off early or break your journey.) I forgot to mention that there's a 50p booking fee (that's per booking, not per ticket). Also resale of Megatrain/Megabus tickets is forbidden. . Yaffa

Paris Opera Ballet School students share their secret... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4GhAMoHIK4 Yaffa

For Virgin routes, I always first check Megabus/Megatrain, which offers changeable (for just a £1 fee) tickets on exactly the same Virgin etc. trains for a fraction of the cost (but with limited inventory and times). From my post about this in another thread: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-train-tickets can be a good starting place for tricky train journeys, with pros and cons and many special offers of different networks, alternative routes etc. But not everything of relevance to ballet travel is spelled out. For example, ballet uncertainties (audition outcomes, cast changes etc.) can make it risky to buy most cheap advance tickets, which also usually have high penalties for changing and can't technically be transferred or sold. But Megabus/Megatrain (http://www.megabus.com) offer a limited number of tickets for Virgin, Southwest, East Midlands etc. trains and routes at a fraction of the regular cost - and they are also fully changeable for just a £1 fee! You do need to read the Megatrain terms of service carefully, and it only offers a 6 week booking window and a small number of routes and times (You can see a slightly out of date map of its train routes at: http://images.moneysavingexpert.com/images/megamap.gif?_ga=1.106902723.11961899.1409079758 ). But its Birmingham to London route, for example, can be great for auditions and for partial journeys between London and the North. Another Megatrain route for ballet folks in Manchester: the 11 p.m. Virgin train from London to Stockport, Macclesfield and Manchester Piccadilly, currently offered on many Mondays to Thursdays for £1 and £5. Unfortunately this route is just one way and does mean arriving at around 2 a.m. - but could be useful for people who want to return affordably from an evening performance in London. NB: The Megatrain/Megabus site combines bus and train searches, with ultra-cheap buses not just in England but also to Europe - I've travelled for £1/£5 for the Paris Opera Ballet School Demonstrations Yaffa (with no ties to any of the above resources - just passing on some of the info I've been collating)

Boy, I've had some bad booking experiences on the Paris Opera site but nothing quite like this. Drupal, Secutix errors and more - and that's after a waiting room. Then lots more error messages flying, shopping cart continually emptied, being constantly logged out... No idea yet if I've got tickets. Yaffa

In case anyone's interested in the Paris Ballet School demonstrations - public booking begins today (8th September) at 9 a.m. French time (8 a.m. UK time) at http://www.operadeparis.fr/en/saison-2014-2015/ballet/demonstrations-de-l-ecole-de-danse Yaffa

Just spoke with two dancers from the US and one from London. None had ever heard of 'underchanged." But they have all heard of "assessed out" being used in UK (though not American) vocational schools.. and of the small possibility for pupils in those schools to be "assessed (back) in" Yaffa.

Does anyone know why only the graduate year of RBS is said to be 'by invitation only' when the School decides which pupils in every year can and can't continue? Would the term 'assessed out' still be used for someone who didn't make it from 2nd to 3rd year at Upper School? And if a pupil was not allowed to progress to the next year because he/she had committed an offense - would the term 'assessed out' still be used? Yaffa

Well, I'm not usually a fan of PC terms, but can appreciate the use of 'assessed out' in the ballet world and doubt whether it would be used seriously in the RAF. There's already a traditional term for being asked to leave school: "expelled" - which implies a moral lapse (possibly because school is compulsory, so pupils are not normally thrown out unless they have offended). But the negative moral connotations are not usually relevant in ballet school assessing-out, which is much more common and so often happens following an annual appraisal because of factors that are completely outside the pupil's control (physique changes etc.) at the sensitive time of adolescence. Yaffa

Every so often I come across terms such as 'assessing out' which seem to be used almost exclusively in the ballet world, and wonder how widely they are used and whether there are equivalent/near equivalents in other languages. I just saw in the RBS auditions FAQ at: http://www.royalballetschool.org.uk/training/auditions/audition-faqs/: "You should come to the audition underchanged, (with your usual ballet clothes, under your street clothes)...." A quick Googling of 'underchange' gives few hits... Interested to know about the usage of this word. Yaffa

Sometimes Ryanair has promotions with less consideration of short-term costs as a marketing ploy. I believe it actually scrapped the Lisbon-Faro route; the current ultra-cheap Porto-Faro and Lisbon-Porto routes are seen as an attempt to woo those who would normally travel by train (see: http://portugalresident.com/ryanair-promotional-package-offers-flights-for-same-price-as-a-rail-ticket). Maybe Ryanair are hoping that some of these people may now be interested in Ryanair's new more expensive 'business plus' service (though there are some sniggers at the idea of Ryanair providing the kind of customer service that business travellers would want)... But Ryanair and the budget airlines do operate with much smaller costs, including faster turnaround times than 'typical' airlines (though of course a large proportion of their revenue is from extra 'optional' charges not included in the quoted fairs). Yaffa [edited to add last sentence]

I think RBS' new course in career transition, in cooperation with Dancers' Career Development (see: http://www.royalballetschool.org.uk/2014/05/dancers-career-development/) could play a very helpful role in preparing dancers to navigate this complex area. Yaffa

Another interesting article in Dance Magazine about what it takes to thrive in the corps: http://www.dancemagazine.com/issues/September-2005/The-Silent-Majority-Surviving-and-Thriving-in-the-Corps-de-Ballet Yaffa

Iohna Loots was very frank about life as a long-time corps member in the RB/RBS documentary "From Dreams to Reality" (Actually I believe the title of the documentary came from her words.) She described the harsh financial realities of not being able to afford a mortgage or to set money aside for the future. But she also made it clear that she was doing what she liked. As others have mentioned in this thread, she stressed how a dancer's progression through the ranks depends on whether the management believes and pushes a dancer. But she also said she had been so overjoyed to be in the RB, and had made such a huge effort to fit in, that perhaps she hadn't pushed herself forward at that crucial time, and now it was too late. She was adamant that a promotion at that late stage could never happen, yet with interesting timing, she was in fact promoted to Soloist. An article in Pointe Magazine http://www.pointemagazine.com/issues/december-10january-2011/corps-stars describes the positive side of life as a long-term corps member. Yaffa