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English Youth Ballet 2017-18


ArucariaBallerina

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So new EYB dates are out :) I'm so happy that one of them is near enough to me that I can audition!

 

P.S. Does anybody know what the auditions (particularly the senior auditions) entail? I know it is just a class, but 1h 45 mins is quite a long class. I can imagine it would be very busy!

 

P.P.S Out of interest, who does the part of Clara go to in the Nutcracker? 

 

http://www.englishyouthballet.co.uk/auditions1.html

 

RICKMANSWORTH
Audition date: Tuesday 14th November 2017
Audition Venue: Watersmeet
Ballet: Coppelia
Performance dates: Friday 2nd & Saturday 3rd March 2018

DARLINGTON
Audition date: Sunday 26th November 2017
Audition Venue: Civic Theatre
Ballet: Coppelia
Performance dates: Friday 13th & Saturday 14th April 2018

Auditions for 2018

NORWICH
Audition date: Tuesday 6th February 2018
Audition Venue: Sprowston Community School
Ballet: Cinderella in Hollywood (New Production)
Performance dates: Friday 25th & Saturday 26th May 2018

WIMBLEDON
Audition date: Wednesday 28th February 2018
Audition Venue: New Winbledon Theatre
Ballet: Swan Lake
Performance dates: Friday 24th & Saturday 25th August 2018

SHREWSBURY
Audition date: Tuesday 13th March 2018
Audition Venue: Theatresevern
Ballet: Cinderella in Hollywood (New Production)
Performance dates: Friday 22nd & Saturday 23rd June 2018

CARLISLE
Audition date: Sunday 15th April 2018
Audition Venue: Sands Cente Carlisle
Ballet: Ballet Etudes/Nutcracker Suite
Performance dates: Friday 21st & Saturday 22nd September 2018

NOTTINGHAM
Audition date: Tuesday 17th April 2018
Audition Venue: Nottingham Girls Academy
Ballet: Cinderella in Hollywood (New Production)
Performance dates: Friday 20th & Saturday 21st July 2018

BUXTON
Audition date: Tuesday 12th June 2018
Audition Venue: Buxton Opera House
Ballet: Sleeping Beauty 'Wedding/Ballet Etudes
Performance dates: Friday 19th & Saturday 20th October 2018

CRAWLEY
Audition date: Monday 2nd July 2018
Audition Venue: Hawth Theatre
Ballet: Cinderella in Hollywood (New Production)
Performance dates: Friday 9th & Saturday 10th November 2018

 

 

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They look good, Shrewsbury is about an hour from us so I’ll def ask DS if he is interested.

Any idea how much commitment is involved? Just asking as his own dance school show is a similar time, don’t want to overload him with choreography! 

Thanks, S x

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DD has just finished her 4th production with EYB. As always she has had an amazing time,learnt a lot and made great new friends. 

The commiment is 10 days of 6 hour rehearsals either over weekends ( Friday, Saturday, Sunday) or the holidays depending on when the performances are. Performance weekend is Thursday evening, Friday afternoon and evening and the same on Saturday. You are expected to attend all rehearsals and it’s is very much frowned up if you don’t, even if you are injured! It is intense, each rehearsal starts with a hour/hour and a half long class and then rehearsals. 

 

The audition is a class. You are in rows of 10 and each row performs the exercise to the panel, the exercises get hard and more complicated as the audition goes on.  There can be over 100 auditioning in both the seniors and juniors, so 50places for juniors and 50 for seniors. Towards the end a group will be selected for potential scholarships and the boys do some group work. You are told on the night. 

 

Clara is played by one of the younger girls not a senior. 

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How fabulous to see the Carlisle project. Every time my DD did EYB I asked if there was any possibility of a Cumbrian venue in the future but there never was and we always ended up travelling for at least 2 hours to our nearest venue. Too late to benefit us of course but I know a lot of the younger students at my DD's old school will be very excited!

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Am I correct in thinking that EYB base the decision on junior or senior audition slot on age at the time of the audition?  With anything between three and six months between audition dates and shows is there flexibility?  If based on audition date DD misses out on seniors by a matter of days and as she is already taller than her peers she says she wont audition as a junior even though she knows she would then have to audition with the more experienced dancers as she looks out of place.  Anyone been through this?  I have pretty much ruled out her auditioning next week but she just loves the ballet on offer and I can get the audition and rehearsal dates to work for us.

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It depends on what grade they are working at as well as age. I can't remember the exact wording but there's something on the audition paper work about younger students auditioning in the senior audition if they are above a certain grade. My DD was 11 the first time she did EYB and she did the senior audition at their request rather than ours.

That said, I don't think it makes a huge difference which audition they do, as as far as I saw, those who are on the border between the two auditions tend to get mixed together in the actual production anyway.

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If she is Grade 6 they will more than likely put her in the senior audition regardless of her age. 

When it comes to the production and casting they have various age groups. DD has only ever done senior auditions but has friends who have done both and they have all said the senior audition is harder, as you would expect. 

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1 hour ago, Newdancermum said:

Am I correct in thinking that EYB base the decision on junior or senior audition slot on age at the time of the audition?  With anything between three and six months between audition dates and shows is there flexibility?  If based on audition date DD misses out on seniors by a matter of days and as she is already taller than her peers she says she wont audition as a junior even though she knows she would then have to audition with the more experienced dancers as she looks out of place.  Anyone been through this?  I have pretty much ruled out her auditioning next week but she just loves the ballet on offer and I can get the audition and rehearsal dates to work for us.

My DD auditioned last year (2016).  She turned 12 in the June, auditioned a month later almost to the day.  I expected her to be put in with the Senior group, particularly as she was also at the end of her first year as an RBS MA but Miss Lewis put her in the Junior group.  One of the other girls from her MAs class auditioned, same year as my DD but birthday at the beginning of the academic year, and she was put in with Seniors.  Both girls were pulled out for the scholarship group although neither were awarded one.  I also felt that the parts were allocated on casting day irrespective of who won a scholarship or which group they auditioned in, as my DD got two lovely duet/feature parts in Sleeping Beauty and her MA friend got one of Aurora's friends.  But if you're still unsure, I'd suggest you include a letter to Miss Lewis with your concerns and see what she comes back with.

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Newdancermum, if your DD is worried about auditioning in the juniors because she thinks it will limit what part she might get, you can reassure her that that isn't likely to be the case. That's all decided on the casting day, and height is also taken into consideration. At the casting they will put groups of broadly similar level and height together and get them to try out different things until they decide which groups work best together.

And there are 3 levels for class that they do prior to splitting into their groups for rehearsal, the middle one of which tends to include both the older juniors and the younger seniors, so which audition she does won't affect that either.

I hope you manage to persuade her as she will almost certainly really enjoy it.

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Hi Pups_mum, Sorry had a slight laugh to myself when I read your note - we haven't even thought about parts - getting in at all would be great - her concern is looking out of place - she is really quite tall - the girls in her dance class, where she is one of the younger ones, only come up to her shoulder as she has a massive growth spurt over the summer. I am feeling reassured but it's her I have to persuade - wish me luck!

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4 hours ago, Newdancermum said:

Am I correct in thinking that EYB base the decision on junior or senior audition slot on age at the time of the audition?  With anything between three and six months between audition dates and shows is there flexibility?  If based on audition date DD misses out on seniors by a matter of days and as she is already taller than her peers she says she wont audition as a junior even though she knows she would then have to audition with the more experienced dancers as she looks out of place.  Anyone been through this?  I have pretty much ruled out her auditioning next week but she just loves the ballet on offer and I can get the audition and rehearsal dates to work for us.

The  first time my dd auditioned she was 11 and in grade 5 / InterFound. They gave her the senior audition and I even rang them to check that they hadn't made a mistake.

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26 minutes ago, ArucariaBallerina said:

Sorry to interrupt, but if a date clashed, would you be expected to miss a local or Associate ballet class for a rehearsals?

Miss Lewis and the team do expect you to be fully committed - absences should only be for really unavoidable things. There is an awful lot to learn in a very short time frame, and even missing one session can cause a dancer to fall behind. The days are pretty full on, and it obviously slows progress if a chunk of a session has to be spent going over what was learned last time for the benefit of someone who was absent. Plus it makes things more difficult for the rest of the group trying to learn their dance with people missing.

Obviously there are exceptions (my DD missed part of one session because she had an audition next day and we had to get the train to London) but it's generally expected that you will make EYB a priority for the relatively short period of time involved.

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1 hour ago, ArucariaBallerina said:

Sorry to interrupt, but if a date clashed, would you be expected to miss a local or Associate ballet class for a rehearsals?

As previously said only in exceptional circumstances are you allowed to miss any rehearsals. However Saturday rehearsals don’t normally start before 2pm but it is one of the conditions that you agree to when you accept your place. It is very intense and your absence can will have a knock on affect. 

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1 hour ago, SissonneDoublee said:

You have to be at all rehearsals without exception. Even illness is a bit frowned on, I gather!

Yes illness is frowned upon. DD turned up a while ago very ill, they eventually suggested she could leave but it was at the discretion of the staff and I am not sure Miss Lewis knew especially as I promised DDwould be back the next day. Even if you are injured you are expected to be at all the rehearsals, watching, unless your injury means you will not be able to do the performances. 

 

Basically you are treat as you would be in a professional company and you are expected to behave as if you were in one. Miss Lewis does not take passagers. 

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14 hours ago, taxi4ballet said:

The  first time my dd auditioned she was 11 and in grade 5 / InterFound. They gave her the senior audition and I even rang them to check that they hadn't made a mistake.

 

I have now contacted Miss Lewis but don't think I gave her enough details to respond with a helpful answer and don't want to go back again.  Probably the best thing is just to send in the application and see what they say about the group she is put in and reassure DD that regardless of the audition group if she is successful they will put her with dancers her own height. 

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Does anyone happen to know, how does it work if the performance is in the school holidays? Do they rehearse solidly for the two weeks beforehand? The one local to us will be school holidays, and I'm not clear about how they run those, from the thread, and would like to know if I'd be knocking out two full weeks, as we're going to need to fit in some serious 11+ prep, too. And I'd quite like a family holiday, though that's very much bottom of the list...

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47 minutes ago, Confuddled said:

Does anyone happen to know, how does it work if the performance is in the school holidays? Do they rehearse solidly for the two weeks beforehand? The one local to us will be school holidays, and I'm not clear about how they run those, from the thread, and would like to know if I'd be knocking out two full weeks, as we're going to need to fit in some serious 11+ prep, too. And I'd quite like a family holiday, though that's very much bottom of the list...

 

If you request an audition pack for the venue/ballet you are interested in they will send all of the details including rehearsal and performance dates.

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15 hours ago, Confuddled said:

Does anyone happen to know, how does it work if the performance is in the school holidays? Do they rehearse solidly for the two weeks beforehand? The one local to us will be school holidays, and I'm not clear about how they run those, from the thread, and would like to know if I'd be knocking out two full weeks, as we're going to need to fit in some serious 11+ prep, too. And I'd quite like a family holiday, though that's very much bottom of the list...

 

Hi there

 

My DD did the summer ballet last year and yes it's 2 full weeks of rehearsals and then the following weekend is the tech/dress and show weekend in theatre Thur-Sat.

 

Last year rehearsals were Wed-Sun but this years summer rehearsals are Mon-Fri.  So yes, you would be knocking two full weeks and then a long weekend out :-)

 

 

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