Height for girls in Year 11 - restricted?

[TwoLeftFeet]

1 hour ago, ArucariaBallerina said:

Just wanted to pop in here and say that one of my ballet teachers told me she was extremely extremely tiny at age 16 - smaller even than me - and then did not grow until she reached 18, and had another growth spurt when she was in her 20s! If that is comforting to anyone else  

I was offered a place at 2 schools, finals at another, so will be starting in September at my first choice vocational school  I've been told that i am finally growing but am staying well away from the tape measure because it would get me down if I hadn't!

 

Height is annoying! x

Congratulations ArucariaBallerina on your offers.  Thanks for posting regarding heights, it's encouraging to hear there still might be growing left to do

[Fiz]

Congratulations @ArucariaBallerina!

[Mummy twinkle toes]

4 hours ago, TwoLeftFeet said:

Hi there and thanks for asking.  DD auditioned for one UK school and was offered a place but has decided to train for a another year before auditioning again.  She will still be 16 in September 2020 so its all good.  Her height however, has remained the same and I'm not expecting that she'll grow any more... whatever will be will be I guess so we'll just ride the wave and see where it takes us.

Well done for getting a place. Good luck for next year 🤗

[Cara in NZ]

NZ's most successful male ballet dancer of the 1980s and 90s stays with us when he is guest teaching. He is about 5ft 10 and partnered all sorts of famous people while at ENB and Royal Danish Ballet. He also partnered Sylvie Guillem for a guest performance and she asked for him to dance with her again but he had to say no as he found her too tall to partner comfortably! He always says that corps de ballet just need 'matching pairs', so if they have a tall or short dancer, they need another one to complement the appearance of the corps on stage. One girl we know here was accepted for pre-professional training at NZ's national school and she is about 4ft 10 at age 18. The companies in Asian countries often have smaller dancers. The other thing is the length of the feet. My DD is 5ft 3 and when standing is the same height as her peers. But she has tiny feet so when they are en pointe, the peers rise above her, to her annoyance! I don't know if that's another consideration for company corps de ballet though!

[TwoLeftFeet]

6 hours ago, Cara in NZ said:

NZ's most successful male ballet dancer of the 1980s and 90s stays with us when he is guest teaching. He is about 5ft 10 and partnered all sorts of famous people while at ENB and Royal Danish Ballet. He also partnered Sylvie Guillem for a guest performance and she asked for him to dance with her again but he had to say no as he found her too tall to partner comfortably! He always says that corps de ballet just need 'matching pairs', so if they have a tall or short dancer, they need another one to complement the appearance of the corps on stage. One girl we know here was accepted for pre-professional training at NZ's national school and she is about 4ft 10 at age 18. The companies in Asian countries often have smaller dancers. The other thing is the length of the feet. My DD is 5ft 3 and when standing is the same height as her peers. But she has tiny feet so when they are en pointe, the peers rise above her, to her annoyance! I don't know if that's another consideration for company corps de ballet though!

Length of the feet is something we have also sighed deeply at... my daughter has insanely narrow feet and is street size 2.5.  Not only has she height to contend with, she also finds it extremely difficult to get pointe shoes in her size and box width (x) as they have to be ordered in for her and sometimes it can take 6-8 weeks!  Don't even get me started on street shoes lol 🙄

[Peanut68]

I feel your pain as I too am 2.5  narrow feet! Slippers are worst as at over 50 I do not want sparkly princess or Disney Character slippers 🤣🤣🤣

The demise of Gamba - who did a lovely shoe for my foot - & also of the original Porselli with the Nicolini super narrow shoe as worn by Pavlova - such a shame as these shoes were lovely & I bet would’ve been perfect for your DD!

I wonder what happened to the lasts these shoes were made on???? Could they ever be resurrected???

Edited June 13, 2019 by Peanut68
Typo

[balletbean]

Interesting thread. I know of two girls (albeit a few years back so now classes as ladies) entered yr7 at The Hammond & Elmhurst but sadly by yr11 only reached the heady heights of 4ft11/5ft on a good day. They are both now successful Principals of their own dance schools teaching ballet. Unable to enter the performing world didn’t stop them. They diversified. 

 

Another trained in MT. Upon graduation was able to fulfil some ‘child’ roles due to her height or rather lack of and her youthful appearance. As the years went on and she couldn’t qualify as a ‘child’ she reconsidered her career options. Another chapter to the book of life. 

 

At the other end of the scale, Non DS started a college course at 16yrs old,  5ft5 average height for his chosen career, graduated at 6ft and sadly had to reconsider his career pathway. 

 

Talent & skills are sometimes just not enough for one pathway but doesn’t mean to say there’s no other options. Ballet is therefore not sadly not unique or discriminatory.

Just feels like it when directly involved. 

 

And to think academic students still treat all these careers as the soft option. They truly don’t understand how ‘easy’ a Uni education is. 😉

Edited June 19, 2019 by balletbean