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Thoughts from parents please!


drdance

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I've just seen a post over on the dreaded Facebook, from a teacher who is at a workshop at another dance school. This is what she says: " It's not a true [name of school] workshop unless [name of teacher] makes at least one child per day throw up during her military warm up! There's a reason her girls have so much stamina! Everybody is having such a great time as usual!"

 

This makes me so CROSS!!!! You can train dancers' fitness, strength and stamina effectively without anyone needing to throw up! Why is this not only acceptable but celebrated?

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Everybody is having a great time throwing up??? Seriously? If this doesn't contravene some code of practice then it should. Surely the whole point of teaching fitness is to teach safe and reasonable techniques?

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I think a lot of parents are conditioned to think this is normal. And teachers use the "this is how it is in the real world, I'm just preparing them" excuse all to often when parents "dare" to question it! Some of our students attended a workshop at another school and they were all told to remove their knickers before they went in for class- which our girls found really strange!

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Doesn't sound good to me, and i would not allow dd to attend a class like that.

 

I grew up going to a dance school where you didn't wear pants under your leotards so that doesn't seem odd to me, but you do have to have well fitting leotards!

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This is wrong, full stop. And probably dangerous. I dread to think what other dangerous practises are taking place in the name of 'stamina'. There are some schools which post pictures of other kids helping children into stretches that are definitely unsafe for a child to be doing on another child.

Ps I have a feeling I coukd hazard a guess as to the name of said school

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I've just seen a post over on the dreaded Facebook, from a teacher who is at a workshop at another dance school. This is what she says: " It's not a true [name of school] workshop unless [name of teacher] makes at least one child per day throw up during her military warm up! There's a reason her girls have so much stamina! Everybody is having such a great time as usual!"

 

This makes me so CROSS!!!! You can train dancers' fitness, strength and stamina effectively without anyone needing to throw up! Why is this not only acceptable but celebrated?

Attention seeking cr#p (sorry to be so blunt) No knickers under leotards doesn't worry me, but boasting about children throwing up during warm up really does. 

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I could have a good guess too. But DrDance & I have our views on this.

 

And bluebird a certain parent all 3 of us are aquatanced with often posts camel toe pictures on Facebook.

 

My dd has never not worn knickers under her leotard & would give short thrift to anyone who tried to make her not wear them.

 

As for stamina dh has known one instance of a senior student post 18 having to leave to be sick but this was during an actual agent casting session that was very high intensity.

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The school sounds horrific. How anyone can think that pushing a child so far that they vomit is  acceptable let alone beneficial. Sadly it doesnt surprise me, the no pain no gain attitude is in a lot of schools. The school that made the children remove underwear is very worrying. My daughter belonged to a very pushy and aggressive dance school and it really knocked her confidence. Quite a lot of the children behaved the same way as some of the teachers so it became a horrible environment to be in. If the children were not pushy and overly competative they were accuse of being "not dedicated"The sad thing is that a lot of the parents think this is normal and will sacrifice almost anything (including their children) because they think that their little darlings are destined for fame. 

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There should be very strict clear guidelines to protect children from schools like this, I would never have sent my daughter to someone like this. To make someone sick or cry is breaking them and that is a fine line leaning towards abuse.

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When did this not wearing knickers under leotards come into fashion then.

 

It's not very hygienic in my view

 

I can imagine being asked to do this ....possibly...if for a one off performance situation but at no other time can it be justified in a more routine sort of way.

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There should be very strict clear guidelines to protect children from schools like this, I would never have sent my daughter to someone like this. To make someone sick or cry is breaking them and that is a fine line leaning towards abuse.

 

I don't know - maybe if a parent or other adult saw the [alleged] incident take place then they could perhaps report them to the RAD or ISTD, or child protection?

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Drdance please PM me a link and I for one will happily phone RAD and ISTD as I'm sick to death of this bull**** no-pain-no-gain ethos.

 

My DD and friends used to do a stretch class and literally cry puddles of tears in pain seeing who could get the biggest puddle ... Not something I knew about for quite a while. All of this from an unqualified teacher's boot camp / military style workout.

 

Some of you will remember my 'smacking' thread and I'm still so cross at all of that period of time and its consequences.

 

I just had a massive rant on fb myself yesterday about some parent-bashing posters that are popular for dance teachers to share

 

Our kids work so hard, they really don't need this rubbish :(

 

[Edited by Mod - inserted ****]

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I teach martial arts, and there is a "street dance" group who train in the same building as I teach. Recently, one of the teenagers collapsed with heat exhaustion and an ambulance was called. I usually hear the teacher shouting at the group quite aggressively. I'm pretty sure that a similar "boot camp" regime is running there.

 

I have travelled to China to train with some of the best martial artists in the world, and none of them have a 'boot camp' attitude like that.

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The school sounds horrific. How anyone can think that pushing a child so far that they vomit is acceptable let alone beneficial. Sadly it doesnt surprise me, the no pain no gain attitude is in a lot of schools. The school that made the children remove underwear is very worrying. My daughter belonged to a very pushy and aggressive dance school and it really knocked her confidence. Quite a lot of the children behaved the same way as some of the teachers so it became a horrible environment to be in. If the children were not pushy and overly competative they were accuse of being "not dedicated"The sad thing is that a lot of the parents think this is normal and will sacrifice almost anything (including their children) because they think that their little darlings are destined for fame.

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I think that is it joy of dance, the parents and children have seen various celebrity dance school programmes and believe, misguidedly, that this sort of thing will result in their child becoming fa famous dancer in that mould. The dangerous stretching that appears to go on, along the lines of annalisey's post is also a serious worry, with potential long term damage being done to children's hips etc. The fact that there seems to be no legislation re safe training practices for children is a real concern. Is that the case as I don't know about the legal why's and where fores?

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Drdance please PM me a link and I for one will happily phone RAD and ISTD as I'm sick to death of this bullshit no-pain-no-gain ethos.

 

My DD and friends used to do a stretch class and literally cry puddles of tears in pain seeing who could get the biggest puddle ... Not something I knew about for quite a while. All of this from an unqualified teacher's boot camp / military style workout.

 

Some of you will remember my 'smacking' thread and I'm still so cross at all of that period of time and its consequences.

 

I just had a massive rant on fb myself yesterday about some parent-bashing posters that are popular for dance teachers to share

 

Our kids work so hard, they really don't need this rubbish :(

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I am aghast to hear about the puddle of tears Annalisey and I remember your posts about the smacking, I'm not surprised you are so upset and angry about it all, how awful for your dd. I'm so glad that she is no longer in such an abusive environment. As you say dance should never be about that sort of rubbish. X

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And its just not necessary to get results.

 

My daughter over the summer has bee attending an open stretch class run by Daniel Jones. She says its one of the best she's ever done and it's all about relaxing and opening up & that improves her flexibility more than anything painful

 

Yes, yes, yes! That is the safe and truly effective way to stretch. Forcing and pain are not safe.

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It's been a matter of concern to me for years as to how many dance teachers there are out there who aren't doing their CPD and keeping up with the latest thinking on what constitutes safe training and what doesn't.  After all, there are probably loads of teachers out there who still encourage their students to do grand plie in 4th, or to bounce when stretching ...  Practices change so frequently, and not everyone keeps up with them.

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