LCB or EYB

[Balletmum22]

Reading through different threads I have come across auditions for both London Children's Ballet and English Youth Ballet. Could someone please help me understand what the difference is between the two? 

[Jan McNulty]

Put simply they are different companies.  

 

English Youth Ballet website

 

London Children's Ballet website

 

English Youth Ballet has performances around the country and (I assume) London Children's Ballet perform in London.

[Pointetoes]

That is basically it. Best thing to do is look at their websites. Both are fantastic experiences and require commitment from both parents and DC 

[Nancy19]

Hi, my daughter has done both a couple of times. You have to pay for EYB, auditions are done in front of parents through one round. The whole rehearsals and show are over with within a month - 6 weeks. A nice experience, costumes are good and all the children enjoy it. LCB is based in London and is free of charge. The 1st audition is done, then if successful you are invited to

stay for call backs. You then receive an invite to finals if successful again, this happens a month later. If you are then lucky enough to get in you are invited back to casting. Whole experience from audition to show is from October - April. A wonderful experience, very professional. My daughter loved LCB and performing on the west end. 

Hope this helps. 

Nancy x 

 

[poodle]

LCB looks lovely.

 

Is it harder to get into than EYB, I would imagine so with 3 levels of audition and what with it being free.

 

Are rehearsals at weekends ?

 

 

[margarite]

My DD has auditioned for both, and I would say that LCB is harder to get in to. Mainly because it's free, so you get a huge amount of children going for relatively few places ( our experience was roughly 450-500 for 30 places in LCB and around 100 children going for 50 EYB places) My DD was accepted for EYB, only got to finals for LCB, but interestingly found the audition much more challenging for EYB. As far as I know, LCB rehearses at weekends. 

Hope that helps!

Edited June 22, 2017 by margarite

[Balletmum22]

Thank you all for the helpful replies! We live in Berkshire so it would mean quite some travel on the train. Also, my dd is a Tring Park Associate (Y4) and the classes are on Sundays so I am not sure that it would work for us at all...

[RobR]

I don't know about the EYB, but the LCB always involved a considerable time/travel commitment. As indicated above, following the first and second auditions there is a casting audition for those selected and then rehearsals involve compulsory Sunday attendance from January onwards followed by a week of daily rehearsals over the (generally) Easter holiday.

 

The actual performances previously required about three days off school, and you may need the school's permission to take that time out. The LCB is loath to accomodate any failure to attend rehearsals and children choosing to go on pre-booked Easter family holidays run the risk of being excluded.

 

As I said, it's a big commitment from both children and their families.

[poodle]

18 hours ago, margarite said:

My DD has auditioned for both, and I would say that LCB is harder to get in to. Mainly because it's free, so you get a huge amount of children going for relatively few places ( our experience was roughly 450-500 for 30 places in LCB and around 100 children going for 50 EYB places) My DD was accepted for EYB, only got to finals for LCB, but interestingly found the audition much more challenging for EYB. As far as I know, LCB rehearses at weekends. 

Hope that helps!

Thank you