Yaffa

Just saw a post about this from yesterday on the RBS website. The deadline for applications is tomorrow (13th June). From the RBS website: This innovative dance project is designed to link A Level and BTEC dance students and selected London Secondary Schools with young dancers of a similar age at The Royal Ballet School. The projects are creative collaborations for a group of pupils who will meet and work with Royal Ballet School students over a 15-week period. The project provides a creative insight to the art form of ballet and culminates in the creation and performance of a new dance piece by all the participants. No previous experience of ballet is required. http://www.royalballetschool.org.uk/2014/06/invite-schools-take-part-collaborative-dance-project/ Yaffa

And me too, yesterday (visiting near Manchester). Bigger than I've ever seen before.. Wish I could give more details, but I just ran! Yaffa

Interesting to see that RBS Upper School students will soon start to receive 'Life after dance'/ ballet career transition guidance within the formal RBS curriculum itself. http://www.royalballetschool.org.uk/2014/05/dancers-career-development/ "Students will be encouraged to consider a wider view of the world around them and to recognise the transferable skills they have developed through their training." Sounds wonderful to start this early... Yaffa

Or perhaps 'M' for the 'Madam' by which she was known? I've seen a couple of raised eyebrows when former RB people spoke to younger folks about 'what Madam would have said' about this or that... Yaffa

I often carry a large notebook saying 'WANTED: White Lodge Taxi share' on the tube or train to Richmond/Mortlake station and at the station itself. Apart from connecting with some lovely ballet folks, it's been possible to save more than the cost of a pair of pointe shoes by travelling together (around £2 per person) rather than alone (around £10 per person). When the weather's been good, we've walked together and saved even more. Shared rides/walks also work on the way back from WL, and there are usually people travelling past the station with cars. Last year, a kind and wise lady raised her voice a bit and said 'I'm travelling past Richmond station in 10 minutes with 3 spare places in my car. Does anyone want to come?' Then her friend added 'And I'll be leaving in around an hour and have a spare place.' These offers were really gratefully accepted by myself and other people who might have felt a bit uncomfortable approaching people and asking for rides. Of course arrangements like the above can be done with apps too (happy to help if there's interest). Yaffa

Gone - and remarkably fast again.... Yaffa

I have some more used tickets if anyone's interested.... Paris Opera Ballet School and RBS. No charge. Yaffa

I just read that Paul Russel, also from Australia (won the gold medal at the Genee in 2009 with Claudia Dean and also went on to RBS) - made the decision that life as a full-time ballet performer wasn't for him and is now closer to his family, doing and planning interesting combinations of dance and other activities:. http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/2318704/beyond-ballet-dancers-leap-of-faith/?cs=298 Wishing them both well, Yaffa

The December annual ballet school demonstrations are considerably cheaper than other Paris Opera performance, with the highest band tickets at 30 euros - about £25. So many people travelling from overseas have preferred to pay a few pounds extra to have a better view of the stage. (But costs can add up: the morning (lower division students) and afternoon (upper division students) sessions are charged as separate performances.) BTW, I understand that the annual Demonstrations are considered part of a school activity and children are not paid - but they do get paid to appear in Nutracker. Yaffa [edited for clarity]

The problem with group tickets is that some of the POB price banding is quite weird (at least to me), so requests like Stucha's recommendations might be tricky (though in practice, my requests for specific seating areas have always been honoured). NB: To know seating numbers for any Paris Opera performance before paying, it can be useful to look at the POB's official ticket exchange at http://boursechange.operadeparis.fr/ (with ballet tickets at: http://boursechange.operadeparis.fr/ballets-onp ). I've only had to use this once (via a French speaking ballet parent), and found it extremely efficient and fast. It's not just a meeting place for buyers and sellers but offers payment facilities and takes a cut of the proceeds. Tickets can't be offered above face value and the sellers know that even after the Paris Opera have take their commission, people won't pay more for tickets than on the main site. The exchange also has an interesting system for sellers e.g. an option for the price to drop/change gradually as the date of the performance approaches. Yaffa

Aileen, I've sent you a PM about the tickets - Briefly, my request for tickets will probably be approved in about two weeks, but booking will only be possible if/when I have a group of 8-10 people for each performance who have paid upfront. Currently, I have several people who are interested but most don't know their plans for December yet.. Nutracker is the Nureyev version, which I unfortunately haven't managed to see yet, so best that someone more knowledgeable than myself answers your questions about this and the two theatres... Yaffa

Overseas groups reservations (not bookings) started today for the 2014-2015 season. The Paris Opera has an elaborate groups system, not too well documented online, so the following might not be completely accurate: a) Groups submit an option request - which only includes the number and band of tickets they MAY want to buy. There's a minimum of 10 tickets (but they sometimes allow 8) per band, per performance. For performances at Palais Garnier, groups can book for Bands 1-4, but not the cheaper Bands 5 and 6. For Bastille, groups can book for Bands 1-6, but not the cheaper Band 7. The Groups department then acknowledges the application (pretty soon) then lets the Group know in around 2 weeks if their request (or parts of it) have been accepted. Groups are then given up to a certain date to pay for the tickets. If they don't want to accept all the dates/bands they have been allocated, that is fine. c) Groups send payment for the tickets (In previous years this had to be by fax or bank transfer - not online). Only then does seat allocation and ticketing take place. Groups can submit a request for a particular location within a Band but this will not necessarily be honoured - it depends on availability. d) TIckets are sent by post. In case of loss etc. they can be resent or reprinted (at least a day before) and picked up 40 minutes before the performance From my own experience over the last few years: The small minimum number of seats required for a group booking has made this a good way to get tickets well before public booking starts and therefore to take advantage of advance discounted travel. If you reserve and pay early, you're also likely to get good tickets in the price band of your choice even for heavily subscribed performances - though not being able to reserve specific seats is a problem. For me the biggest pain is that group tickets are all printed, not electronic. So last minute passing on of tickets if people can't come can be logistically tricky, though tickets can be reprinted if necessary. I've always been able to pass on unused ballet school tickets to POB parents (and the POB site has a facility for buying and selling tickets). Not sure of my own travel plans, but I put in requests for tickets for the ballet school Demonstrations and Nutcracker (7th-8th Dec and 20th-21st Dec) and ballet school performances and Swan Lake in April. If you know me and want to join my group purchases (I'd need the payment in advance - at cost of course) and/or if you are interested in setting up a separate group account and can use details of cheap accommodation and transport (bus, train, plane), just send me a PM. Last year I went on the £1 bus... Yaffa [edited for typos]

I actually don't yet have this officially, but understand from POB parents that it is just the upper grades who are taking part on the Demonstrations on the 20th. The other two days (7th and 21st) have both lower school students (mornng) and upper grades students (afternoon). Yaffa

In case folks with connections to the School are planning to visit London for the School Fair, I just saw that there's a Thanksgiving Service for Gailene Stock at noon the day before (Friday, June 13th). More on the RBS website: http://www.royalballetschool.org.uk/2014/05/thanksgiving-service-gailene-stock-cbe/ Yaffa

Julie, thanks for posting this. Does anyone know what system they'll be using this year to determine allocation of seats - particularly if the weather changes? It would be great if we could use one of the breaks for a balletco meetup, instead of standing in a queue for tickets.... Yaffa

I was just looking at the RBS website and saw postings for several new jobs including non-dancing ones, probably connected to the recent restructuring: http://www.royalballetschool.org.uk/information/work-with-us/current-vacancies/. There's also still a listing for volunteers at the WL museum, but the official closing date for applications was yesterday. Yaffa (with no connection or further info about any of the above - just passing on the info in case there are Forum members interesting in using their skills in a ballet environment) [edited for clarity]

Thanks, Pas de Quatre, for bringing up this subject. I've often wondered whether the British ballet world might have lost some great dancers because of the very different connotations of the term 'vocational,' and the reluctance of some parents to even consider sending their child to a 'vocational' school. When I was attending an 'academic' school in the 60s and 70s,our Headmistress was always quick to warn us that if we didn't master our Latin verbs or show proper respect for teachers, we might end up - heaven forbid - in a vocational school. I also vividly recall a lady being shocked when her daughter at the local grammar school announced that she wanted to go to a vocational school. ('Why would she do this to me? Where did I go wrong?') More recently, I spoke with a lady whose granddaughter was auditioning for WL. She said she had been told "that the school is a vocational school, but actually it isn't - The academic standard is very high." Yaffa

Generally the same pieces are performed on the Friday and Saturday afternoon, with some change of casts. The schedule for the Wed, Thurs and Sat eve (mostly upper school) is also usually the same. NB: There is one printed programme for all the Linbury performances. If you go to more than one performance you only have to buy the programme once and can ask the RBS students who sell the programmes for free cast sheets for the remaining performances. All the Linbury performances feature several pieces, including some interesting student choreography. Like Alison, I'd prefer to see fewer national/Morris dances and more ballet. Yaffa

Right now, there are tickets available on the ROH site for all but one of the Linbury performances, and for the 12th July main stage matinee. Yaffa

I think it's also a matter of priorities and focus (I'm thinking in particular of the wonderful free online activities of the Prix de Lausanne). I'm currently just a few hours bus ride from New York, and had been vaguely thinking of getting a standing ticket - they are only sold on the day of the performance. But the box office don't know if they will actually be selling any standing tickets and I have too much work to do, so I'm staying put. Oh well, it's Tuesday, which is Dance Moms day in the US...not that I'd watch that junk, of course :-) Yaffa

I'd personally prefer to see each event in a separate thread (with instructions to people to provide a clear subject line). That way, people casually browsing the forum can decide if the thread/message is worth opening, and there can be discussion within a particular thread about possible other ways of obtaining cheap tickets for the same event. (But I do appreciate the concern about keeping commercial threads to a minimum in what is primarily a community, not a commercial, forum - and of course any commercial affiliations to the organisers or ticket sellers should be disclosed by the poster.) Yaffa

And congrats also to RBS for now using social media to get news out quickly. Yaffa

Re envelope size, particularly when sending of results is staggered - I recall hearing a few years ago that this is sometimes determined simply by when a batch of office supplies arrives... Yaffa

Re the dates of the Ballet School Demonstrations they are checking it out and will hopefully know tomorrow. I'll post an update here. Yaffa

Weird -- the Ballet School Demonstrations in December (always sold out) are usually on three consecutive weeks in December, with younger grades in the morning and older grades in the afternoon, with only minor variations. That's not what's listed this year. I will check with people in Paris if there's a reason for this or a misprint... Relieved that the prices of the ballet school demonstrations (and I think the April ballet school performances) seem to be unchanged. Yaffa