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Rad intermediate ballet exam


Prima_ballerina

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Hi, I may be taking my Royal Academy of Dance intermediate exam soon and I was wondering the difficulty and if there is any pointe work in it? Thank you.

A belated welcome to the forum, Prima_Ballerina. :-)

 

When you say you may be "taking" your Intermediate exam soon, do you mean actually taking the exam? Or beginning the syllabus. I only ask because the study required is often at least a year or even 18 months, which will give you plenty of time to understand the difficulty and level of pointework. As others have said, watching the dvd from the RAD is very useful and gives you a much better idea of what to expect.

 

Good luck! :-)

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A belated welcome to the forum, Prima_Ballerina. :-)

When you say you may be "taking" your Intermediate exam soon, do you mean actually taking the exam? Or beginning the syllabus. I only ask because the study required is often at least a year or even 18 months, which will give you plenty of time to understand the difficulty and level of pointework. As others have said, watching the dvd from the RAD is very useful and gives you a much better idea of what to expect.

Good luck! :-)

Hi! I mean I may be starting the syllabus soon, so I'm guessing the exam will be in at least another year!

Thank you for all your help!

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I just wanted to add that my DD is doing Int Foundation and we bought the DVD to help her get an idea of what's involved, but the DVD doesn't mention the free enchainement section, which she didn't know about until about a month ago (exam is on 2 Sept). As she likes to be well-prepared for everything, this is something she was not expecting and it's hard to practise unless teachers give you different combinations frequently. (I completely understand why they include it, but it was a bit of a nasty surprise when she found out about it!)

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Well done! I hope it was okay!

What was the pointe work like in it?

 

thank you i hope so too!!

 

there's only 5 pointe work exercises plus the reverence, they all went fine except the releve exercise in the center, definitely need to work on those!

the barre work is pretty easy, just rises in first, echappe releves to 4th, releve passes, pas de bourees and coupe foutte raccourci :) and then just temp lies and releves in the center, if you get enough practise at them you'll be absolutely fine once you get around to the exam.

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I just wanted to add that my DD is doing Int Foundation and we bought the DVD to help her get an idea of what's involved, but the DVD doesn't mention the free enchainement section, which she didn't know about until about a month ago (exam is on 2 Sept). As she likes to be well-prepared for everything, this is something she was not expecting and it's hard to practise unless teachers give you different combinations frequently. (I completely understand why they include it, but it was a bit of a nasty surprise when she found out about it!)

free work can be a nightmare in the exam if you don't get enough of them in class! my teacher is also one for springing surprises on us before the exam.... however in my experience in my inter foundation and intermediate exam the free enchainments i got were MUCH easier than i was expecting, we got given some really horrible ones in class so i guess that prepared me. if you can, get a list of all the focus steps so you can learn them all and get comfortable with different combos.

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In Intermediate I seem to remember the free enchainements being easier than the syllabus work - but in Adv 1 dd said they were pretty fiendish - luckily she has a bit of a photographic memory for sequences so was fine. I am sure it all depends on the examiner. :-)

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Just a question for nosiness (apologies). DD is at an ISTD school, so has had free enchainements set by the examiner from the very early grades (I don't know about Primary, but certainly from Grade 1 onwards). Within ISTD it seems to be a valued skill - for example the annual ISTD Senior Ballet Awards competition is simply a serious of free enchainements given by the person taking the on-stage 'class', which the competitors then have to perform. The only 'set work' in the competition is the set dance for that grade. As far as I know, free work continues all the way up - haven't got as far as Advanced yet!

 

Given the difference in approach between the RAD and ISTD, is it that the ability to pick up an unknown enchainement given verbally is actually not that important for a dancer, and that ability to perform set routines excellently is more important? I mean, ballet performances are obviously set choreography, learned and performed well?

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