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RBS publishes list of graduate contracts for 2019


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  • alison changed the title to RBS publishes list of graduate contracts for 2019
3 minutes ago, Springbourne3 said:

Thanks for posting this Lynette H - not one direct entry into the RB corps and unusual to see two graduates joining the cast of a musical but good luck to them all for the future.

I don’t think there has been a direct entry into the RB corps for a couple of years since the introduction of the Aud Jebsen programme.

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Looking at the piccies of the Grads I couldn't understand why Hanna Park wasn't there!! 

Then when I looked at my programme from last week I see she is only in the second year of the Upper School....she is the young dancer who did the main role in Paquita ....I am assuming she got through to the third year! 

But am not sure how graduation works at RBS.

If you have completed two years in the Upper School but don't get into the third year would you just join the third year graduates for the big day or deemed not to have fully graduated!!

And wouldn't you be 18 anyway after just two years so officially eligible to look for work in a Company....or do you have to do a third year somewhere else?

Do they all stay on for a third year who get chosen to? 

 

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4 minutes ago, LinMM said:

If you have completed two years in the Upper School but don't get into the third year would you just join the third year graduates for the big day or deemed not to have fully graduated!!

And wouldn't you be 18 anyway after just two years so officially eligible to look for work in a Company....or do you have to do a third year somewhere else?

Do they all stay on for a third year who get chosen to? 

 

 

Students who don't get into the third year are not considered to have graduated from the RBS upper school. They may seek a place at a different upper school for the third year or persue another avenue.

They would certainly be eligible to look for work in a company after 2 years at upper school but the RBS course is paced over 3 years so you wouldn't usually be considered company ready after just 2 years and for sure if someone is not being offered a third year they are unlikely to be successful at getting into a company given how much competition there is for contracts.

That said, there have been a couple of students in recent years who have got company contracts after just 2 years, but I'm assuming they would have been offered a third year of training.

Surely most students who are offered a third year, stay on. The only exceptions would be if they were offered a contract somewhere (rare), they wish to continue their training at a different school (again, quite unusual for students who are offered a third year) or they don't wish to continue in dance.

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It appears that the two students who are in a musical were also offered Ballet Company contracts.

There is only one student who doesn't seem to have a contract or not listed on the graduate list at any rate but this could be because they left the school earlier in the year or could be still trying to get a contract just not as yet....perhaps some longer term injury so not in a position to audition at the moment etc. 

I think there were a couple of graduating students who did get contracts but didn't take part in the show presumable because of injury or had to leave early to take up their contracts. 

There were twenty one students altogether in the third year. 

Some of the promising performances in the show both male and female were from students still only in the second year of the Upper School. 

 

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6 hours ago, Springbourne3 said:

...unusual to see two graduates joining the cast of a musical but good luck to them all for the future.

Several dancers from the company including Francesca Hayward and Stephen Mcrae are in the forthcoming Cats the Musical film so this isn't as unusual as it might first appear.

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21 hours ago, LinMM said:

Looking at the piccies of the Grads I couldn't understand why Hanna Park wasn't there!! 

Then when I looked at my programme from last week I see she is only in the second year of the Upper School....she is the young dancer who did the main role in Paquita ....I am assuming she got through to the third year! 

But am not sure how graduation works at RBS.

If you have completed two years in the Upper School but don't get into the third year would you just join the third year graduates for the big day or deemed not to have fully graduated!!

And wouldn't you be 18 anyway after just two years so officially eligible to look for work in a Company....or do you have to do a third year somewhere else?

Do they all stay on for a third year who get chosen to? 

 

Hanna Park was only 15 years old when she won a PDL scholarship (back in 2018 and came second behind gold medal winner, Shale Wagman)and joined the Upper RBS in the second year group (missed out the first year).  I think it’s highly likely that she will join the Graduate year next term - but that’s just me speculating!

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Ballet education is not like school curriculum...    Some dancers are far far more advanced then others at similar ages.  Particularly if trained in Japan or Korea.  Some (like the baby ballerinas of old!)  are ready to be professionals at 14 - others even up to the age of 21 or so...   Depends on many many factors, talent, facility (not the same thing), training, opportunities to perform, innate artistry and musicality, intelligence and maturity.  None of these are in fact age related :).  

So a 2nd year RBS student may be ready for a professional contract, whereas a 3rd year might not be...   

 

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Yes I know all that! But the Royal don't employ earlier do they so even if some students are ready by the end of second year they will still have to do a third year at the Upper School.

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I suspect a lot of it is to do with the changing school leaving age.  In the era of the baby ballerinas compulsory education stopped at 14 and the majority of people started full time jobs then.  Over the years it has changed, first to 15, then to 16 and now effectively to 18.  Anyone who organises performances for private dance schools will tell you what a nightmare it can be complying with legislation.   However, these rules don't apply to establishments that are deemed places of Education.  So rules governing the RBS students while they are still at the school, but under 18 will in fact be much less rigourous than those covering performers who are under 18 and employed, i.e. paid for their work.  Then there is the whole gamut of licensed, chaperones etc. which come into play.

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Well done to all the graduates.  

 

One thing I noticed when looking at the photos.  With the exception of the chap in the wonderful pink suit, who is towering over Darcey, many of the other boys don't look all that tall.  I realise they are still young, but I think some of them have quite a bit of growing to do!

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Personally it doesn't bother me if students even if ready so to speak have to wait another year ....am not a great fan of the baby ballerina scenario .....or children over studying and practising etc. 

It was just that with Hanna Park I assumed she was a current graduate but in fact is younger than I assumed. 

Im not sure what betterankles was trying to say in her post! ( sorry betterankles but your post did  seem to imply I knew nothing at all about ballet training and how it is in the World!) 

Im not an expert or professional or anything .......but I have been involved in doing ...following  and watching ballet for a very long time now! 

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1 hour ago, LinMM said:

 

Im not sure what betterankles was trying to say in her post! ( sorry betterankles but your post did  seem to imply I knew nothing at all about ballet training and how it is in the World!) 

Im not an expert or professional or anything .......but I have been involved in doing ...following  and watching ballet for a very long time now! 

 

 I just took it as a general post Lin that some students are readier for company life earlier than others.  Some years ago a dancer joined BRB after 2 years at US whereas a couple of his class-mates joined after 3 years.  I believe Tyrone Singleton joined BRB a year "early" too.

 

David Nixon said one of the reasons for starting a "pre-professional" course at the Northern Ballet Academy was that many of the graduating students he saw were not yet ready for company life.  I believe it is a big leap from student to company member and some students do not cope as well as others.

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2 hours ago, LinMM said:

Yes I know all that! But the Royal don't employ earlier do they so even if some students are ready by the end of second year they will still have to do a third year at the Upper School.

 

In recent years, if the Royal have been interested in a dancer they have waited until they have completed the 3rd year at Upper School and not recruited from the second year. There have been a couple of occasions where a student has decided to leave after the second year to take up a contract at a different company.

The third year of US was originally introduced to provide the students with valuable performance opportunites so they should be technically ready to perform after 2 years, and as you have seen, many of the young prize winners from the PDL look pretty much company ready at 15/16!

 

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6 minutes ago, Jan McNulty said:

David Nixon said one of the reasons for starting a "pre-professional" course at the Northern Ballet Academy was that many of the graduating students he saw were not yet ready for company life.  I believe it is a big leap from student to company member and some students do not cope as well as others.

 

I find it interesting that things have developed in this way. As mentioned above, Upper School courses used to be 2 years, then a third year was introduced as a way of giving students more performance experience. More recently, we have seen the introduction of several "pre-professional" courses, as students are graduating from the 3 years courses and still not being deemed ready to join companies.
 

In other countries (where students often graduate upper schools at a younger age than in the UK), we have seen a shift towards "junior companies" which new graduates join before being given contracts (or not) in the main company.

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47 minutes ago, invisiblecircus said:

More recently, we have seen the introduction of several "pre-professional" courses, as students are graduating from the 3 years courses and still not being deemed ready to join companies.

 

Sounds to me not unlike the situation at various UK universities, where some incoming students are deemed not yet to have the necessary writing/intellectual etc. skills for a degree course.

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At this rate people will be in their early 20s by the time they're deemed ready to be a full member of a company! Seems strange in the light of past generations, and tricky given how short most dancers' careers are. But I do understand the posts above about when young dancers may or may not be ready.

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At the risk of taking the thread off-topic, what do we understand to constitute "company-readiness"?  Is it the artistic standard, the stamina, the maturity (and if it's that, what kind of maturity?), or something else?  I find it difficult to believe that it's the standard, given that graduate year RBS students are routinely used to bump the corps and must therefore be considered not to be noticeably "not company ready". (Dancing as a member of a corps must be more exposing than dancing as a soloist, in this respect!)

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33 minutes ago, RuthE said:

At the risk of taking the thread off-topic, what do we understand to constitute "company-readiness"?  Is it the artistic standard, the stamina, the maturity (and if it's that, what kind of maturity?), or something else?  I find it difficult to believe that it's the standard, given that graduate year RBS students are routinely used to bump the corps and must therefore be considered not to be noticeably "not company ready". (Dancing as a member of a corps must be more exposing than dancing as a soloist, in this respect!)

Students from RBS, Elmhurst and ENBS are routinely used by the companies to bolster the corps, taking class with the company and accompanying them on tour. But come audition time are suddenly ‘perceived as not company ready’. Or as was cynically explained to us by an ex BRB principal - graduate schemes are a good money maker for the company and they can use the students within the company hence giving them ‘experience’ and bolstering numbers on stage. The following year the students are back in the audition pool as there are another years worth of students who will take their places filling the short fall in the companies. They are expensive and we’ve encountered some students who’ve completed more than one grad scheme. 

 

Well done to all those grads, RBS et al, who have contracts for the coming year. 

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In case others didn't notice, the original linkon this thread goes not only to a group photo but, if you scroll down, to a lot of others as well.

I think that it's OK to name names now that everyone in the pictures has graduated? Someone above mentioned the height of the young men. The three tallest ones are (to the left of the group) Leo Hepler (going to Dutch National Junior company), (in the middle) Braydon Gallucci (RB Aud Jebsen) and (on the right) Davi Ramos (also going to Amsterdam). All three were on the RB stage quite a lot during last season.

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Sorry if I've caused any problems here.

Originally was just commenting on the fact that a talented second year student I had thought was a  third year but was not!

i was not making a value judgement about this just a factual statement 

I understand fully that in other countries the training is different and the differences anyway between development in dancers.

Its a difficult career and am all for supporting younger dancers in Companies and giving them more time to adjust.

A career in Dance is more than just being a talented dancer....not everyone can take the pressures involved.

 

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